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A Moment's Silence for [The Death of Games For Windows Live]
Suriko
AustraliaRegistered User regular
AustraliaRegistered User regular
Let us take a moment to mourn the passing of a service few liked, and nobody wanted. A service that filled some with dread at the mere mention of its name, and elicited sighs from those anticipating titles confirmed to have it.
I am, of course, referring to:
Yes, Games for Windows Live is going the way of the dodo in August 2014. The G4WL Marketplace will close in August 2013.
The casualty list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Games_for_Windows_–_Live_titles
But it's not all doom and gloom:
Titles confirmed to have patches incoming that will remove the G4WL integration from them:
Street Fighter IV
Dark Souls patch news faked, probably dead
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bioshock 2
Let's discuss this service, the games which will be affected by its closure, and how Microsoft may proceed in future after this move.
And to, obviously, give this service its proper send-off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js
I am, of course, referring to:
Yes, Games for Windows Live is going the way of the dodo in August 2014. The G4WL Marketplace will close in August 2013.
The casualty list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Games_for_Windows_–_Live_titles
But it's not all doom and gloom:
Titles confirmed to have patches incoming that will remove the G4WL integration from them:
Street Fighter IV
Dark Souls patch news faked, probably dead
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Bioshock 2
Let's discuss this service, the games which will be affected by its closure, and how Microsoft may proceed in future after this move.
And to, obviously, give this service its proper send-off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_JsI made a game! A Tithe in Blood, a dark yuri VN set in snowy Sapporo. Demo available on Steam!
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Suriko on
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Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
And then probably buy one of the console versions or something.
I have too many games on that list. Sad to know that, even though I don't play them regularly any more, I won't have the option ever again in the future.
The difference is that Valve actually gives a fuck. They have cultivated, managed, and most importantly supported and updated Steam all during its lifetime. In contrast, Microsoft hasn't given a fuck about GfWL and hasn't updated the platform in years. Oh but no, they still wanted to use it even if they don't care -- they compelled Double Fine to integrate GfWL into Iron Brigade, and when it turns out a fairly nasty bug (the "scrap stutter" issue) stemming between the interaction between the game and GfWL came to light, they refused assistance when Double Fine asked for help resolving it. Zero. Goddamn. Fucks. Given.
Not blindly trusting Valve is sane advice, but let's not even pretend Steam is anywhere near the same league as GfWL.
Bioshock 2 just patched.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Can we seriously not turn this into the "OH MY GOD DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION DOOM" thread? The list of differences between Valve's operation of Steam and MS' operation of GFWL is a mile long and the merits of one over the other are as clear as freshly baked bread vs. moldy bread. So stop this now, I implore everyone.
*ahem*
So this is kinda weird, I thought that MS would be trying to do some sort of "merge with the Windows 8 super-hive-mind" thing they've been doing with all their platforms / services lately. What's replacing GFWL, function-wise? I know the Windows 8 store is replacing the marketplace but what about all the other, uh, stuff?
Also kudos to devs immediately jumping up to patch the thing out before it goes unaddressed and just breaks a bunch of games.
But no, we got this.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Because when I dance on GFWL's grave, I want to make sure the body's actually there.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
As I posted in the Industry thread, the things that Microsoft does are counter to what they should be doing. The things they should stick with and refine are the things they abandon, and the things they don't abandon are the things they should.
If they would have actually given two shits for GfWL, it would be completely different. But, as Zxerol said, they haven't patched it in years. Again with the if's, but if they would have devoted resources to it, they could have made it a decent competitor to Steam. Shown EA and everyone else how to do it. But no, we get the drudgery that is GfWL.
I believe at one point they mentioned how they wanted it to be their PC counterpart to XBox Live. But while they did things (add ads) to XBL, they didn't follow through with anything on the PC at all.
I know I won't shed any tears or have any moments of silence for it. I just mourn the loss of some great games I own.
I bought Viva Pinata when it was on sale for like $1 a couple of years ago. I think I have all of 15 minutes in there because I had to quit, and the GfWL program and interface were just so awful.
Let's not forget it eating saves. And not recognizing CD Keys. Or DLC which was bought through Steam. Or general awfulness all around.
I can see Ubisoft's awful client following the same road, to be honest. It really reminds me of GfWL.
In a world of digital distribution there is no body.
<woo spooky ghost sounds here>
I guess now to hope Origin isn't as bad as people are making it out to be this many years after its introduction.
EDIT: I wonder if this has to do with Windows 8 and it's game ecosystem (and not having enough people to go around for PC). We knew it wasn't intended to coexist with GfWL, and it would have been great if they'd moved the games over to the other, but that's a missed opportunity I guess. Getting to download RE5 PC off the Store onto my Surface Pro would have been a nice way to expand my library, but it's steered towards at smaller, iTunes Store-style games.
every five years
I'll think of you
I won't
It might have helped if the first game with that feature wasn't a shooter. And then another shooter and an RTS. There was eventually a game with cross-platform multiplayer in a genre where PC doesn't have a huge advantage, Blazblue. It's just that it was released for PC shortly before the sequel came out for consoles.
EDIT: Oh right, because the store is closing in a few days and the whole service next year.
I hope Capcom updates more titles than just Street Fighter 4. Like Resident Evil 5.
I genuinely thought it was just a shitty form of DRM, because that's been my sole experience with it.
For some games, like Arkham Asylum and Viva Pinata, the save files created by the game were completely unusable unless you copied the GFWL profile as well. That was an unpleasant discovery after spending a weekend playing AA on a different PC, coming home and copying my save over and finding it didn't work.
I guess I'd better play through Bulletstorm soon.
Hopefully games like Dawn of War II and Iron Brigade get patches.
My Backloggery
Yeah things like this make me call bullshit on that.
But I'm really worried about this shut down just KILLING my games.
At least there's still an year for patches and workarounds to be developed... I hope games like Guerrilla get some sort of fix.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
It was MS being afraid of tablets that caused the jump to the Windows 8 store.
Anyone here remember when they got rid of Ensemble Studios?
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Fitting that it would screw people over one last time through the games that won't get patched, though.
Valve has said multiple times when asked that if their service was ever to be shut down they would release software that would allow people to play their games without having to authorize with Steam's servers.
Plus, Valve is the 800lb Gorilla in the PC digital distro space that has been pioneering new ways to get games from them to you for a decade, Microsoft was a company that saw some profit potential and tried to jump in to a market they had very little experience in with a half baked product. If anyone is worried about Valve (a three billion dollar company) shutting down the biggest moneymaker in PC gaming history my advice is to not worry.
Cross platform play was the only reason I was kinda excited for GFWL, being able to play multiplayer games between console and PC players was something you could do (and for Quake III and 4x4 Evolution, can still do) on the Dreamcast, so it was nice to see its return. Instead it ended up being like four games and precisely zero people really gave a shit.
I assume Bethesda is cool and will take care of whatever issues may arise for me, or that there are easily implemented workarounds that I can do myself?
GFWL is much worse, in many cases they encrypt saves and then tie it to stupid profiles that are hard to backup and restore. Plus it HAS to check the cdkey all the time. Offiline mode in GFWL means NO saves and NO DLC.
It's a huge, immense practical difference.