GfWL Shutting Down August 22nd
EDIT: FALSE ALARM. (About Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and possibly all GFWL Microsoft-published titles in general, being removed from Steam and other marketplaces)
We don't know WHY(new publisher, or Microsoft's wording simply meaning that these games will lose GFWL "features" and DRM), but the game's future on PC is safe.
Original post preserved for posterity:
So, Microsoft is shutting down the Games For Windows Live marketplace on August 22. This is a good thing.
HOWEVER.
This affects Fable III, Halo 2, Gears of War, and...
INSANELY TWISTED SHADOW PLANET
(oh also Iron Brigade, by the way, Double Fine fans)
After August 22nd, copies of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will no longer be available from any marketplace.
ITSP is one of the best games of 2011. It is gorgeous, with designs by the revered animator Michel Gagné, known for his work on animated films such as American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Iron Giant. It is insanely well-designed, a perfect Metroidvania, with a camera system that....it's a camera system that I find exciting. When was the last time you gave a shit about a camera system? This camera is amazing! It's cinematic, but in a way that is built into the gameplay, zooming in and out to provide the right view contextual to what you're doing, and it's fascinating to see it at work. It hangs behind when you pass over a point of interest, NATUALLY drawing your eye to the important aspects of a scene without having to shove anything in your face. The game is amazing, it's beautiful, it's smart, it's everything a great game SHOULD be and that it doesn't get the kind of recognition that a Bastion or a Super Meat Boy gets is criminal.
And now the PC audience is going to lose the ability to purchase it.
Please, for the love of all that is good, if you don't own Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, buy it now before you lose your shot. It's a beautiful game that people DESERVE to play and is the only title I own that I can safely say is worth dealing with the GFWL DRM sandwich.
EDIT: I have now sent an email to both Contact emails on the ITSP site, asking a DOZEN AND A HALF questions and probably coming off like a deranged crazy person in the process. HOPING FOR A REPLY, CROSSING FINGERS.
We don't know WHY(new publisher, or Microsoft's wording simply meaning that these games will lose GFWL "features" and DRM), but the game's future on PC is safe.
Original post preserved for posterity:
So, Microsoft is shutting down the Games For Windows Live marketplace on August 22. This is a good thing.
HOWEVER.
-SourceShutdown FAQ wrote:Will I be able to purchase Games for Windows Live games in other marketplaces now that Games for Windows Live titles are no longer available on Xbox.com?
Games for Windows Live titles published by Microsoft are no longer available for purchase from any marketplace. For other titles, please check directly with the title’s publishers.
This affects Fable III, Halo 2, Gears of War, and...
INSANELY TWISTED SHADOW PLANET
(oh also Iron Brigade, by the way, Double Fine fans)
After August 22nd, copies of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will no longer be available from any marketplace.
ITSP is one of the best games of 2011. It is gorgeous, with designs by the revered animator Michel Gagné, known for his work on animated films such as American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Iron Giant. It is insanely well-designed, a perfect Metroidvania, with a camera system that....it's a camera system that I find exciting. When was the last time you gave a shit about a camera system? This camera is amazing! It's cinematic, but in a way that is built into the gameplay, zooming in and out to provide the right view contextual to what you're doing, and it's fascinating to see it at work. It hangs behind when you pass over a point of interest, NATUALLY drawing your eye to the important aspects of a scene without having to shove anything in your face. The game is amazing, it's beautiful, it's smart, it's everything a great game SHOULD be and that it doesn't get the kind of recognition that a Bastion or a Super Meat Boy gets is criminal.
And now the PC audience is going to lose the ability to purchase it.
Please, for the love of all that is good, if you don't own Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, buy it now before you lose your shot. It's a beautiful game that people DESERVE to play and is the only title I own that I can safely say is worth dealing with the GFWL DRM sandwich.
EDIT: I have now sent an email to both Contact emails on the ITSP site, asking a DOZEN AND A HALF questions and probably coming off like a deranged crazy person in the process. HOPING FOR A REPLY, CROSSING FINGERS.
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Comments
Yes the game is great! but features like that make me not recommend it to anyone. Ever.
Still this might be the opportunity for all those games to drop the G4WL requirement. Completely.
However, I think this would work mainly and only for non-Microsoft published titles(Street Figther, Fallout 3, Batman games). Because Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is published by Microsoft, my guess is that game is fucked after the 22nd.
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
(I mean what other game could me and my best friend play that we can exclusively dick around in!
The games most affected, the ones that as far as I can tell are being pulled from having any PC support at all, are games published by Microsoft Game Studios. MS didn't win so they're taking their toys with them.
They could start by selling it in my country on Steam.:mad:
I don't think Microsoft is actually capable of making a smart and logical business decision anymore.
Its embarrassing if anything,-_-
Well, if you believe the rumors, the Arkham games are slowly being transitioned over to Steamworks.
Edit: Plus, Games for Windows Live isn't being shut down, just the storefront. Even the client will remain open.
Yes. This. Who in their right mind used the G4WL store anyway?
Is there anything in this support faq that states you will no longer be able to purchase these games elsewhere?
Because whenever I reinstall a G4WL game I have to re-register my CD-key to my G4WL account again. How would they sort out which game has been purchased before or after the shutdown?
Edit: Wait it is in the OP. They will be removed from any market place. This would include Steam for example. God why? Microsoft is basically fucking over game creators they lured into their gingerbread house with nice promises.
Oh, well, that's good, cause I do own the Steam versions.
(GFWL savegames are tied to your account, and there is the possibility of it goofing up so the save doesn't appear. So you have to copy/paste a certain block of data from a working save to the "missing" file in order for it to show up again.)
MS doesn't know what they're saying, the FAQ is simply wrong
MS made a blanket statement that should have only applied to things like Halo 2, Gears of War, and Fable III, the titles they thought people would "care about"
MS meant that you will no longer get the "features" of GFWL in the future, as GFWL is being shut down as a service and all games will revert to some other form of DRM.
ITSP is getting a new publisher or self-publishing on Steam in the future without GFWL.
UNIVERSAL GOOD.
Now I have no criticisms for the game! I haven't been able to play much of it, truth be told; but it's goddamn gorgeous!
It got taken down pretty quick, but that was an actual support update for AoEOnline.
If this is actually true, a good number of games are going to be rather screwed. I'm not entirely sure how things like Arkham Asylum or Bioshock will work, but it's a serious concern and definitely to sort of thing that a lot of people were afraid might happen to digital services.
Awww crap. That's actually a good game.
I will not be sorry to see Fable III get screwed over.
On the other hand, there's a good chance that I only think I care but I really don't care all that much.
That's why I suspect some games will just be hung out to dry, sadly.
Well, other than maybe Iron Brigade. That game may just be fucked.
Still, most offline GfWL games can be run without having a connection to the Live servers. Shadowrun would be screwed without an update, but Fallout 3 would probably be fine.
Iron Brigade, well... that's kind of a "Microsoft won't let Double Fine fix the game" problem.
They wanted that the moment they released Office 2007. Everything since then has been a complete disaster.
I have a retail copy of BioShock 2, and I'm kind of wondering what's going to happen with that. As of now, the key is only redeemable through GFWL. I may have to send a message to 2K's support and find out if they intend to make retail keys redeemable on Steam, or if they have some other solution in mind.
I tried doing that yesterday, and Steam won't accept my retail key, so if they're going to make the retail version Steam-redeemable, they haven't done it yet.
I've submitted a ticket to 2K asking about it. I'll wait for their response.
Then again they never cared for their PC audience anyway.
"We've got a solution in the works for BioShock 2 that will make gamers happy. More on that soon!
Best Regards,
Raul G"
I wonder what their solution could be...
Well, I'm guessing that since Minerva's Den was recently spotted in the Steam registry, it's going to be released through Steam.