Looks like GFWL is being axed too. Will be discontinued July 1st, 2014

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
They put the support page up temporarily, then took it back off. Managed to grab a screenshot of it though.

q513wVZ.jpg


Link to page: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/games/pc-games/age-of-empires-online-info

On the question of whether or not your GFWL games will still function properly or not: It will be the developer's responsibility to patch the game.

Since they took the info down though, who knows, it might not be set in stone yet.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Good they're getting rid of it, horrible if the developer's don't patch it.
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
I read it earlier and as much as I was surprised, I wasn't.

So some games that have only been out 1-2 years will be killed if they aren't patched as well as all the other games that use the service and MS gives less than a year warning. This is really bad because a lot of these games wont even allow you to play them without logging into the service first.

I'm glad it is dying, it has been nothing but a joke in the gaming community.

I've seen some stuff that some devs have been already working on removing GFWL from their games for little bit now. Both the Batman games and Bioshock 2 are both implementing Steamworks.


On a slightly off topic but not unrelated note, good thing MS pulled a shit load of 180's on their new Xbox One. One of the many complaints about their previous policies was the fact you would be SOL when MS decides to pull the plug on the platform which we all know too well they would and they are showing it again here.
 

Barfo

Lifer
Jan 4, 2005
27,554
212
106
On the question of whether or not your GFWL games will still function properly or not: It will be the developer's responsibility to patch the game.
Well shit. I guess it's my fault for supporting shitty Microsoft.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
They will patch it out or someone will hack it out of games. Otherwise, the backlash will be epic and serve as a warning to everyone who pays money for games to company who want "always online" DRM.
 
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Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
Well, that's frustrating. I got a lot of Age of Empires Online stuff and have barely gotten started. There's no excuse for them to shut games down we buy like that.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
Age of Empires Online is the next chapter in the best-selling Age of Empires computer game franchise. The game features some of the greatest ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Celts, with more being introduced all the time.

Guess more will be added real soon now.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
This is exactly why people went apeshit over the Xbone's DRM policies. :/ Thing isn't even on the market yet and the customer was proven right.

Age of Empires Online is the next chapter in the best-selling Age of Empires computer game franchise. The game features some of the greatest ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Celts, with more being introduced all the time.

Also, nobody considers that crap as a chapter in the AoE series.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
This is exactly why people went apeshit over the Xbone's DRM policies. :/ Thing isn't even on the market yet and the customer was proven right.



Also, nobody considers that crap as a chapter in the AoE series.

Yeap. And there are STILL freaking boneheads that are all over that MS knob, crying about 'lost features' and 'it wouldn't affect me'. Please. That crap would've doomed the Xbone to an early grave and that would be the end of XBL/etc. How would that have helped the Xbox fans?
 

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
1
76
Thank god! GFWL is beyond horrible. I just heard that they stopped developing new content for AOE:Online but I didn't think they'd shut it down that soon. I think I'll remember AOE:Online as, not just the worst AOE game ever, but the worst money I've ever spent on a game. And I say that with a Steam library full of games I've never even played.

On a related note, Microsoft's paper thin commitment to their services just goes to show why I have no intention of ever buying anything from their new Windows Store, even if I had a Windows 8 PC. Stuff like this only bolsters my love for DRM free software and fuels my hate for SaaS (Software as a Service).
 

JoetheLion

Senior member
Nov 8, 2012
392
2
81
This is why I hate these systems, not just because they force me to use their crappy services, but also because the games I bought won't be functional if the developers won't patch. I will be really angry, if they won't. On another note, what will happen to some saved games?
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
Microsoft won't care if you're angry regardless. GFWL was a win-win scenario for them. If it took off they could force OS "upgrades" to play old games you already owned simply by obsoleting old versions of the GFWL DRM software. Instead it was rejected, but on the way out it gets to poison the well of the PC Gaming market, a market that deep down Microsoft despises because it is a competitor to their beloved Xbox. The only winning move with GFWL was to avoid anything and everything that used it and hope that the damage from the second option was limited. Now some games that were infected with it may have the cancer cut out of them and survive, others might be lost to time if the developers or publishers are defunct or uninterested. But Microsoft will be back with a new assault, a new branding a initiative, new marketing campaign. They don't feel pain, or pity, or remorse. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until PC Gaming is dead.
 

clok1966

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2004
1,395
13
76
Wait till Origin throws the towel in too.. wee......

damn.. warhammer II was GFWL wasn't it? I like that game.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
Wait till Origin throws the towel in too.. wee......

damn.. warhammer II was GFWL wasn't it? I like that game.

Unlike GFWL, Origin has extremely popular games. It's also quite good as a piece of software.

I'm not saying I like any of those systems, hell I even hate Steam being on my system. Why can't we have Steam/Origin managed solely as a cloud webservice, and not have to install anything other than a little stub locally? It seems like every piece of software in the universe believes that it deserves to run on your system at bootup and ever after. I disable absolutely everything that I can, but poor saps that don't know any better are so sad to see.

"Hey, my i7 is running slow, and I have 16GB of ram!"

Well let's see, you have 73 things starting up every time you start your pc!

h3E8F03BC
 

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
Crap, Id have to look, but i have i think 3 or 4 games that are GFWL,
Fallout 3, Batman Arkham Asylum, DoW II and GTA4(i think it got removed already)
I wonder if the offline profiles would still work on those games