I recently saw an article from PC Gamer that Fallout 3 had patched out Games for Windows Live on Steam. While not significant news for many, I would imagine many people these days don’t even know what Games for Windows Live was, it not only reminded me of the existence of Games for Windows Live but the many problems that its cursed legacy continues to produce in modern PC gaming.
I should first begin by explaining what Games for Windows Live was. Back in 2006, Microsoft launched a brand called “Games for Windows“, an initiative to regulate PC games more similarly to the console market and to increase accessibility. Examples of features that were included as part of this branding were easy installation, compatibility with 64-bit operating systems, supporting a wide variety of resolutions, support for Xbox controllers etc. Additionally, games that passed these criteria and were accepted into the program had Games for Windows branding across the top of their case in order to differentiate them from PC games that weren’t Games for Windows.
Soon after, in 2007, an online gaming service called Games for Windows Live was established with the release of Shadowrun. However, many PC gamers immediately resented this service. For one, a controversial choice on Microsoft’s part was to charge players a subscription to play online. As I mentioned before in my discussion on PC vs. consoles, consoles charge a subscription to be able to play games online and Microsoft, charging for Xbox Live and seeing healthy revenue generated by it, attempted to apply this model to their PC gaming service. However, as you might imagine, PC gamers were repulsed by the idea that something that they had access to for free since the 1990s was suddenly going to be charged for. By 2008, Microsoft had already realised the growing backlash generated by this and ended up removing subscription charges, making the service free to gamers.
However, that was not the end of their troubles. From save file corruptions to a limited number of countries where the service was available to various other issues, PC gamers continued to resent the service even as numerous high profile games such as Dawn of War II, Dark Souls, Street Fighter IV and more were released using Games for Windows Live. Eventually though, in 2013, Microsoft ended Games for Windows Live, stating that “the Xbox.com PC marketplace will be closed as of August 22, 2013.“
However, the end of Games for Windows Live was not the end of the problems that it caused. With Games for Windows Live now gone, many games that had previously used the service began transitioning to other services. Note that I said many and not all. Some games were slow to respond to the demise of Games for Windows Live and only ended up making changes when problems arose. A good example occurred last year when Grand Theft Auto IV was removed from sale on Steam with a later announcement stating that they had run out of game keys and could not generate new ones due to Games for Windows Live no longer being supported. Grand Theft Auto IV was later returned to Steam with the multiplayer elements stripped out. Additionally, numerous games that still make use of Games for Windows Live are notorious for technical issues with various workarounds having been developed in order to play these games.
Games for Windows Live is dead but it’s certainly not gone. Many games have yet to strip Games for Windows Live away which makes playing them in the modern day both a pain and a struggle. I’ll be curious to see what the next game will be that will get rid of Games for Windows Live and I’ll be even more interested in seeing the reason why they decided to do so so long after Games for Windows Live’s demise. Let me know your thoughts on Games for Windows Live and its cursed legacy, if you had any experience with Games for Windows Live when it was running, your thoughts on it then, if you’ve run into any problems with modern games still attached to the service and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.