RIP Games for Windows Live

Mixtilplix_sl said:

I never purchased a game that required whatever its called but why was it so heinous?

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It was basically a completely unnecessary service from the start, Microsoft originally tried to charge PC players to use it ala Xbox Live on the 360, so if you bought a GFWL game on Steam or any other service, you'd start the game, in that service, then you'd have to get your code and put it into GFWL to activate the game. So basically it was like having Steam plus a crappy version of steam on every GFWL title. GFWL servers are shit, by the way, so games like Dark Souls, whatever Bioshock 2's multiplayer, whatever, all had to use GFWL rather than integrating Steamworks and Steams' multiplayer server infrastructure. And GFWL is easily hacked and has never had any support from Microsoft to police or ban hackers in any way. GFWL was a service Microsoft started thinking they could suck a subscription fee out of PC gamers to have, when they rebelled against it, Microsoft left it running and went out and recruited games to sell on the service and to utilize the service, but gave it zero support in any way from then on.

Then you have as mentioned above that game saves would be deleted by it (never happened to me but happened to lots of others) and now the fact that the service will be shut down completely, which will probably mean Dark Souls on my Steam account is no longer playable online after next year, you know, a shit load of people bought games through that service because, for instance, Grand Theft Auto 4 was GFWL integrated, so that impacts them as well.

On the topic of GTA 4, if you bought it on Steam, and then bought Episodes from Liberty City on Steam, you could never run them through the same client, because you couldn't activate EFLC on GFWL properly in GTA 4, rather you had to use an entirely separate install, its still that way today.

GFWL was absolutely shit in every way, the only problem with it shutting down is that its been up so long if you play PC games you probably have some titles on that service and now you're fucked out of those games.

This conclusion to this saga was foretold the moment GFWL was announced.

What's funniest about this is that a couple weeks ago, they announced they would be closing the GFWL storefront, but that you would still be able to play games on their servers, you'd still be able to download your old content. Their exact words were something along the lines of "We continue to support the games already on the system"

Turns out, they only meant until April of next year.

Typical Microsoft.

Here's some original reporting for proof

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1486186/ga...-of-its-misery

UPDATE: Games for Windows Live DRM and its related servers will be terminated on July 1, 2014.

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The digital storefront known as GFWL is having its plug permanately pulled soon, and the related DRM is being patched out in a number of games :
Quote:
As part of the upcoming Xbox 360 system update, Microsoft Points will be retired, and the Xbox.com PC marketplace will be closed as of August 22, 2013. We encourage you to spend your Microsoft Points balance prior to this change. Although you will not be able to purchase new games, you can continue to enjoy previously purchased content by downloading them through the Games for Windows LIVE client software as usual. More information is available here.

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hodj_sl said:

What's funniest about this is that a couple weeks ago, they announced they would be closing the GFWL storefront, but that you would still be able to play games on their servers, you'd still be able to download your old content. Their exact words were something along the lines of "We continue to support the games already on the system"

Turns out, they only meant until April of next year.

Typical Microsoft.

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Ah right I thought I remembered reading that on reddit but then it was tagged as False Info or whatever because it was just the storefront going down and not the entire thing. But I guess in the end it was. Good thing, even though I guess none of the GFWL games will work after?

Ah right but I know some games required GFWL for like cloud saving or just for the multiplayer, I guess all that shit is dying then, and they're just going to fix the issues where you can't even play the game at all.

It looks like whether a game gets the DRM patched out or not is on the company that made the game, not Microsoft.

So you can expect most of the games to never get the DRM patched out. Dark Souls I would think would definitely be one that won't be patched such that it will be remotely playable as intended after the death of GFWL.