Microsoft: Games for Windows Live service ending July 2014

Games for Windows Live services will be discontinued on July 1, 2014, according to a since-deleted support update from Microsoft. The closure will have a major impact on at least one Windows PC title, Age of Empires Online, which will end its service on the same day, according to the statement.

Microsoft posted the following update on the Age of Empires Online support page on Xbox.com earlier today, but later removed it.



Last week, the company said it will shut down the Games for Windows Marketplace on Aug. 22. When Microsoft posted the marketplace shutdown notice, it said Games for Windows Live would continue to operate as usual.

Developers and publishers that have traditionally used Games for Windows Live for multiplayer, leaderboards and other features have started to move away from Microsoft's services. Capcom, which tapped Games for Windows Live for Street Fighter 4, Dead Rising 2, Resident Evil 5 and more, said it will not use the service for Ultra Street Fighter 4. When reached for comment about the status of already-released Games for Windows Live PC titles, a Capcom representative said "We do not have details to share yet."

Polygon has reached out to Microsoft and other publishers who have released Games for Windows Live titles and will update with new information when it becomes available.

Finally, this poor system is going to be shut down soon. GFWL had gave me nothing but trouble for the past few years.

- Forcing me to have GFWL accounts in different regions due to poorly documented registration and strange region locks.
- Killing many competitive multiplayer games with poor netcode and slow patching approval.
- Save files are either non transferable or corrupted for no reason. Lost my Dirt 2 100% profile due to corruption. And my Arkham Asylum profile too. Seriously, why do you need to encrypt save files? To protect your useless gamer points? It is even more useless than some random internet points.
- Unnecessarily region locking games because many countries are unsupported to the point people have to depend on sellers or use VPN. At the same time, developers has lower revenue due to region locking from customers in many countries.
- The client is awful in almost every way. The interface, the VOIP, the laggy netcode, even login in takes an eternity. On top of the fact that Microsoft rarely updates this piece of crap.

I am glad that this shit is finally dead. Definitely a good thing for everyone and hopefully Microsoft will come out with a better and more useful system.

No No No. They should stop creating any system at all.

No No No. They should stop creating any system at all.

PC SSF4 use steam?

PC SSF4 use steam?

I think if M$ wanna win PC gamers back they should release Win9 and all XBox games is supported in Win9?

Then i'll gladly get Win9.

I think if M$ wanna win PC gamers back they should release Win9 and all XBox games is supported in Win9?

Then i'll gladly get Win9.

If they want to, they can if they get their heads out of their butts and think properly. They just recently hired someone from Valve to rejuvenate PC gaming on Windows. Not to forget that there are some strange entries like Halo 1, 2 and 3 on the Steam database, alongside with Rise of Nations Gold. That was the leak that the latest King of Fighters and AoE2 HD on Steam appeared and eventually they revealed to be an actual game on Steam so there is a chance that RoN and Halo Trilogy might be true too.

I do want Halo 3 on PC and to be honest, I think PC gaming can coexist with Xbox One. You can keep all the more niche games like Flight Simulator and Age of Empires on PC or even bring your old back catalog like GoW2 or Forza 4 to PC, then, have Xbox One for all the latest shooters and racing games. At the end, PC gamers are happy with new versions of AoE and Flight Simulator while Xbox fans can continue to play Halo on Xbox One. Thats if Microsoft has a brain left.

We definitely need a competitor to Steam. Origin is still trying to catch up.

i kind of wish you are right. so i can play GoW 2 on my pc. but that comes with a heavy price tho - i cant make fun of master chief being lame anymore 

I think from business standard point, it makes sense as Microsoft still have a strong foothold on PC while games on console are usually obsolete when the new one comes out, so since Microsoft owns older iteration of Gears of War, Halo or Forza, why not bring it to PC considering even Japanese publishers like Atlus, Sega and even bloody Konami are throwing everything they have to PC? It makes no sense that Microsoft doesnt want to port their older games to PC due to their idiotic pride or some nonsense. Those old games are either hard to find or nobody plays anymore on console so whats the point of keeping it there whien porting to windows are getting easier. Alan Wake managed to recoup back their 6 months investments in a few days, even the shitty Dark Souls port managed to wake up FROM to put more effort in Dark Souls 2. On top of that, there is no secondhand market with high cuts from each sale, Microsoft is dumb for not putting their back catalog games on PC.

Throw their idiotic pride away and toss their old games up on Steam or make another DD on PC that isnt half assed like GFWL, PC gamers will still buy and play them for years to come. You get PC gamers less butthurt about console exclusives while Microsoft still makes money from older games. Win Win for everyone.

porting games from xbox/x360 to pc is not just copy and paste (at least for this generation console). Both are on different platforms and some games are totally not designed to run on PC, typically japanese developed games. I m not saying those games cant be ported, all games can be ported to PC, if the developers and publishers are willing to spend the additional resources to rebuild the game, on top of all the testing and renewed assets required (for new hardware ID)

From business standpoint, if the cost of creating a port is greater than sales, its not worth the investment. Thats why most developers will ignore any attempts to do a conversion/port of older games unless its heavily petition by fans.

Some recent horrible port, silent hill HD remastered.

heck, even some famous xbox games could not even port to x360 original (lost assets/lost original staff) and some games could not even run properly on the newer hardware.

snubs zombie without pulse
crimson skies
mechassault

I am not saying that porting games is as easy as pressing a button but the thing is there is always a demand for console exclusives on PC. At the same time, if the porting efforts isnt worth it, why did Konami literally bringing all their upcoming games to PC after Dark Souls PC? Or how Sega is so focused on PC now? Or more and more console indie devs from Spelunky, Alan Wake, Castle Crashers and the list goes on are porting their games to PC? At the same time, Microsoft games are made on Windows and I doubt that porting Xbox games to Windows is gonna be prohibitively expensive for Microsoft to handle. The is the question of whether Microsoft to port their old games while wanting to keep their so called pride.

Porting costs money but as far as I can see, it is worth doing so as porting allows your game to sell on a different audience. There will always be horrible ports, regardless its indie or AAA but developers can see that it is worth bringing their stuff to PC.  On top of that, the publishing deal that Humble gives are said to be attractive to devs as Humble only takes 10% as opposed to 30% on Steam or any DD.