Games for Windows Live Closing Next Year: Rumor

[Andy Chalk]

Games for Windows Live Closing Next Year: Rumor

Microsoft has let slip that Games for Windows Live will close down for good in July 2014.

It's not entirely surprising, given that Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that the Games for Windows marketplace is support update [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126910-Games-for-Windows-PC-Marketplace-Closes-This-Month], Games for Windows Live will cease to exist next summer.

"Games for Windows Live will be discontinued on July 1, 2014. Although it is available through Steam, Age of Empires Online requires features of the Games for Windows Live service," the update said. "You can continue to enjoy all the features of Age of Empires Online as the service will remain 100% operational until July 1, 2014 when the server will shut down."

That message has since been deleted, but its existence was fortunately immortalized as a screen cap by Twitter user @announcement [https://twitter.com/retroremakes] that "the Games for Windows Live service will continue to operate as usual," although I suppose you could fairly argue that Microsoft didn't specify how long the GfWL service would continue to operate.

In any event, unless this turns out to be some bizarre mega-typo, it now appears certain that Games for Windows Live's days are numbered. How this will impact games reliant on the service isn't yet clear - Microsoft hasn't confirmed that the shutdown is actually happening at all - but I think it's fair to say that when the day finally arrives, few tears will be shed.

Source: Twitter (@retroremakes) [https://twitter.com/retroremakes/status/369568935793799168/photo/1]

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[Louzerman102]

"You can continue to enjoy all the features of Age of Empires Online as the service will remain 100% operational until July 1, 2014 when the server will shut down."

This would seem to imply that Dark Souls Prepare to Die mulitplayer will end on July 1, 2014 as it also uses GFWL.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Either a complete reboot or giving up the PC market entirely.

Either way its an vast improvement over GFWL in it current form.

 

[Doom972]

I guess that there was never much hope for this platform to begin with.
I would like to know more about the effect this would have on individual games. I have a few games that use GFWL.

 

[WWmelb]

"You can continue to enjoy all the features of Age of Empires Online as the service will remain 100% operational until July 1, 2014 when the server will shut down."

This would seem to imply that Dark Souls Prepare to Die mulitplayer will end on July 1, 2014 as it also uses GFWL.

This was my only reaction to this story also.

 

[Granfaloon]

Wow, that would suck. I don't like the service but I have more than a few games that rely on GFWL for saves and what not. Am I no longer going to be able to play GTAIV, Fallout 3/New Vegas, Dark Souls? I haven't completed the latter yet and since I am a full time student and worker I don't anticipate on doing so anytime soon. I guess I'll have to pirate a copy for local saves and do without multiplayer. The first death of the digital only age.

 

[Robeltu]

Oh my god finally. I've never been able to play anything multiplayer over GFWL as the servers are absolute crap. But what will happen to the games with GFWL they often have stupid save restrictions if you aren't signed in.

 

[fix-the-spade]

We all know how this goes, GFWL will die, like Microsoft media store (or whatever it wascalled) and we will all get to 'keep' our games, as long as we never need to update, re-install or re-activate them for any reason. Just like their MP3 service.

Guess that means Dawn of War 2 is going to get bricked as well, joy of joys! Are there many single players games beside Halo 2 and Gears of war that need GFWL to function? That's going to be an interesting day.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I guess that there was never much hope for this platform to begin with.
I would like to know more about the effect this would have on individual games. I have a few games that use GFWL.

Same here, I have both of the Arkham games through Steam and I'd hate to lose them or their DLC simply because I can't login to GFWL. Granted I got them cheap on steam sales and have the physical console copies. (it's a long story about not wanting to find space for consoles in my tiny dorm room so PC was a better option)

If anything is to be done about games that rely on the service to actually boot up I suppose it will have to be handled on a dev by dev basis of possibly patching the requirement out of the games.

 

[SmokePants]

Nobody likes GFWL, but if it brings down games with it, there will be a riot. It's not just multiplayer that would go offline -- in many cases, the save files are keyed to your Live account. If you can't log in, you can't save and you can't load your previous saves.

This is not going to happen. They're probably retiring the service, but keeping the light on for dozens of games is the responsibility they took on when they duped developers into using their half-baked service. Even if they are planning on shutting servers down, I'm sure the internet will easily bully them into reversing course.

 

[Sofus]

Three cheers and free beer for the person who pulls the plug on Global Failure Went Live.

 

[Rad Party God]

Am I no longer going to be able to play GTAIV, Fallout 3/New Vegas...

New Vegas doesn't even use GFWL :/

But I totally agree, I have a few GFWL games that I still play from time to time, like FO3, Dirt 2, Dawn of War 2 and most importantly, Dark Souls. Does this mean only the multiplayer will die?*, how could we access those games when the service goes kaput?. I know there'll be some cracks and whatnot, but I still want to know what are they going to do about it.

[small]*Fun fact, Halo 2 PC still has many players on MP.[/small]

 

[Granfaloon]

Am I no longer going to be able to play GTAIV, Fallout 3/New Vegas...

New Vegas doesn't even use GFWL :/

But I totally agree, I have a few GFWL games that I still play from time to time, like FO3, Dirt 2, Dawn of War 2 and most importantly, Dark Souls. Does this mean only the multiplayer will die?*, how could we access those games when the service goes kaput?. I know there'll be some cracks and whatnot, but I still want to know what are they going to do about it.

[small]*Fun fact, Halo 2 PC still has many players on MP.[/small]

My mistake, I thought it did because FO3 had it, haven't played NV for awhile. I am going to be sad though if I can't get my Dark Souls saves stored locally, it's a game I've been wanting to play through for a while now, just have barely had any free time.

 

[elvis-66]

Let it die, migrate everything to a platform that works (steam?)and not a single tear will be shed.

As usual, Microsoft see something succesful, try to copy it, miss everything that makes the successful platform popular and then wonder why their dogshit offering doesnt make them sackfulls of money.

 

[Doom972]

I guess that there was never much hope for this platform to begin with.
I would like to know more about the effect this would have on individual games. I have a few games that use GFWL.

Same here, I have both of the Arkham games through Steam and I'd hate to lose them or their DLC simply because I can't login to GFWL. Granted I got them cheap on steam sales and have the physical console copies. (it's a long story about not wanting to find space for consoles in my tiny dorm room so PC was a better option)

If anything is to be done about games that rely on the service to actually boot up I suppose it will have to be handled on a dev by dev basis of possibly patching the requirement out of the games.

That's the option that worries me. I suspect some developers would just leave their games unplayable. In the worst case scenario we'll have to download cracks for out legally-bought games and hope not to get a trojan.

 

[Alcaste]

Hm... I was under the impression that certain games wouldn't even *save* if you weren't signed into GFWL. If they pull the plug without an update to all their games that bypasses this limitation, then they're going to prove to everybody that this sort of DRM is unacceptable.

 

[romanator0]

Shouldn't the title be "Rumor: GFWL closing" rather than the way it is with "rumor" coming last?

Sucks for the people that need to actually use the piece of crap to play the games they like but hopefully Microsoft can make something that isn't complete and total crap now that they have one of the head honchos who worked on Steam.

 

[mad825]

As far as I'm aware, everything is being shifted over to Xbox live...I've never had an 360 in my life but I still have an account with 3810 achievement points.