GFWL is to be discontinued

czc

czc

Thread Killer Mk VIII
Yep, it's happening. GFWL is closing down. Announcement on the AoEO page:
“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. 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.”
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So where does that leave all the other games that require GFWL like Dirt and GTA 4, and many others I guess. Are people that bought these games about to be royalty screwed?

Info sourced from RPS
 
czc said:
Yep, it's happening. GFWL is closing down. Announcement on the AoEO page:


So where does that leave all the other games that require GFWL like Dirt and GTA 4, and many others I guess. Are people that bought these games about to be royalty screwed?

Info sourced from RPS
Click to expand...

Good riddance to bad rubbish. I just hope they offer a solution for existing games that already use it, or that the developers patch it out themselves, otherwise that's going to be a huge hassle.
 
I seriously doubt that there is a single human being on planet earth who is upset about GFWL being cancelled. How often have we had to struggle to play the games that we paid for just because their service is buggy, full of nonsense or just flat out doesn't work.
Say what you want about origin and uPlay but at least you can play the games you own the day you get them
 
This is probably the best news I've heard in a long, long time. What they could do is add the serial numbers for the games you own to the STEAM database, and then you can just install your game using Steam. For example, both GTA IV and Batman Arkham Asylum are GFWL, but you cannot add them as products to STEAM. All they would need to do is add those serials to the STEAM DB :)
 
Eugene said:
Good riddance to bad rubbish. I just hope they offer a solution for existing games that already use it, or that the developers patch it out themselves, otherwise that's going to be a huge hassle.
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yeah, some games like GTA IV and Batman Arkham City still use this... will this be replaced by XBOX Live?
 
Snare said:
I seriously doubt that there is a single human being on planet earth who is upset about GFWL being cancelled. How often have we had to struggle to play the games that we paid for just because their service is buggy, full of nonsense or just flat out doesn't work.
Say what you want about origin and uPlay but at least you can play the games you own the day you get them
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I am... somewhat. Mainly because I'm worried about my existing GFWL games becoming useless. Other than that, I don't really care. I think I hate steam more.

Steam has a huge variety of games, but a crappy, clunky, frustrating interface that needs to be updated all the time.

I love how they "sell" it to you by telling you it's only a 1MB download. Then you realize you got screwed
when the 100MB update gets applied.
 
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HavocXphere said:
ViperGTI said:
+1 to all the above. I just hope Microsoft never attempts something like this again.
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Windows 8 App center
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HavocXphere said:
Windows 8 App center
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If it is more like Steam that serves as a launching platform, I'd be ok with it but this and that junk from Rockstar is a no-go. You start the game up and then this piece of garbage comes up, taking ages to sign in and then forces you to do an update and restart the game.
 
The only game I ever bought that used GFWL was Fallout 3 GOTY. I had avoided the service like the plague after hearing time and time again how rotten it was, but just had to get that game.
 
ViperGTI said:
.
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Oh I hear hear you. Ubisoft bundled a similarly nasty launcher with Anno 2707. grrr

Personally I dread a future of multiple online stores...each rolling their own proprietary software. Steam rocks, Origin represents the competition. After that I'm starting to think....wtf another download platform to install.

McT said:
/spits
/hurls

Nothing good about that. Good point HX.
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Thanks. I'm really starting to think that this app movement is not for me. Steam rocks. Origin I can deal with if push comes to shove. But this thing about some $1 app requesting access to ALL your info just rubs me the wrong way. Win 8 App store seems to bring that to the desktop.

*rant*
Here is the crazy part...I feel comfortable downloading software from say piriform. $0 and being a PC app has implicit access to everything. Thats cool with me. Yet somehow that $1 app on my cellphone's app store requesting access still freaks me out. Apps...no way of knowing wtf they are doing, no way of enforcing limits and they invariably have some ulterior motive going (advertising or worse).
 
Totempole said:
I am... somewhat. Mainly because I'm worried about my existing GFWL games becoming useless. Other than that, I don't really care. I think I hate steam more.

Steam has a huge variety of games, but a crappy, clunky, frustrating interface that needs to be updated all the time.

I love how they "sell" it to you by telling you it's only a 1MB download. Then you realize you got screwed
when the 100MB update gets applied.
Click to expand...

I dislike Steam as well but it's still light-years ahead of GFWL. Well I highly doubt your games will become useless. But if worst comes to worst there's always cracks. :D
 
czc said:
Yep, it's happening. GFWL is closing down. Announcement on the AoEO page:


So where does that leave all the other games that require GFWL like Dirt and GTA 4, and many others I guess. Are people that bought these games about to be royalty screwed?

Info sourced from RPS
Click to expand...

You can still play these games with offline profiles, which should be unaffected by the server shutting down for the online services. I think.
 
I've never had to have the displeasure of having to work with or using GFWL for legitimate purposes, but I'm not sad to see it go either.
Never heard any good things coming of it.
 
to0kenZA said:
You can still play these games with offline profiles, which should be unaffected by the server shutting down for the online services. I think.
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So no more multiplayer for the games as well. when I saw crusader post this I just smiled big and started laughing and though finally the piece of junk is going to be gone.
 
I'm worrying about the exact same thing. I actually spent a bit of money on Age of Empires Online, so I wonder if they're simply going to shut down the game entirely or find some other way to ensure players don't lose their DLC because of this. As much as I hate GFWL, it's tied to some brilliant games that rely on it.

Hopefully Microsoft clarifies the whole thing soon.
 
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