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What happens to GFWL when Xbox Live for 360 is retired

S

Seagoon

Member
I am a PC gamer with the majority of my titles tied up in the Steam eco-system. A number of those titles are GFWL games.

I think it's inevitable that Microsoft discontinue the GFWL service, it has garnered mostly ill-will from gamers, Microsoft have done little (nothing?) to improve the service and most new titles seem to use Steamworks, Origin or uPlay instead these days. In fact I don't think there any new titles scheduled to use GFWL.

So what happens when Microsoft flick the switch on GFWL? Will titles such as Bioshock 1 & 2, Batman Arkham Asylum & City etc. just stop working? Are publishers obliged to patch out the GFWL content or will we be left with a raft of titles that we have to use cracks on to make them work?

Am I alone on this or does this entirely hypothetical scenario concern anyone else? I figure it can only be a matter of time, especially with the pending Xbone version of Xbox Live looming.
 
B

Blackthorn

"hello?" "this is vagina"
They leave us to deal with their dead, unsupported system on the games that already use it. They never bother to patch it out.

All future (half-arsed) efforts with PC transfer to the Windows 8 Appstore.

PC gamers continue to use Steam happily.
 
O

Omikaru

Member
I suppose if Microsoft ends the service, we'll just have to deal with it and crack our games. When Microsoft decides something is obsolete, it's obsolete. See: OG Xbox. Nothing we can do about it except pick up the pieces as best we can. And thank goodness we can do that on PC.
 
P

Polk

Member
I think you can play games offline.
Plus isn't GFWL active in Windows 8 games? I know they have achievements, so they probably run on GFWL.

FACE said:
GFWL is a piece of shit and I can't play Dawn of War 2 because of it.
Click to expand...
Wasn't GFWL patched out from DoW2?
 
iNvid02

iNvid02

Member
odQ3w.gif
 
W

wizzbang

Banned
This is when you begin to accept that gaming, as we know it. The ability to play very old, classic games - under emulation or using original hardware, 10,20 and even 30 years later is literally a thing of the past.


I do not expect to re-play Okami HD in 10 or 15 years, without re-buying it and that's on a system with fairly low DRM. Let alone GFWL stuff or what will happen this new gen.
Retro gaming will die.
 
K

Kabuki Quantum Lover

Member
Unpatched games will probably stop working. The more popular titles will hopefully get unofficial patches through the community (I believe GTAiv has such a patch).
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
We have been speculating that GFWL is being phased out.

Microsoft isn't publishing GFWL games anymore, major publishers like Capcom and Warner have dropped it entirely, and Microsoft is actively pursuing an alternative solution for Halo 2.

Older games are getting Steamworks features such as Achievements patched in. Arkham Asylum and Bioshock 2 are two games that are going down this road.

Neither have gone live, but Bioshock 2 has been seeing constant updates the past two weeks.

Hopefully we will be seeing an announcement very soon.

A few exceptions.

Microsoft did publish a GFWL game recently, but the port has been ready for over a year so could be considered a special case.

This is the special case I was referring to

Stitch said:
Ms. Splosion Man used it.
Click to expand...
 
F

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
lockload said:
It doesnt matter you dont even need to connect to live to play the games (well gta4, fallout 3 at least)
Click to expand...
For Dawn of War 2, you do.

Solution: wait for the server emulator to pop up. A saving grace of PC gaming, no game will ever become truly defunct.
 
jediyoshi

jediyoshi

Member
phantomspiker said:
GFWL is already dead.

*edit* Didn't Bioshock 2 recently get Steam Achievements? Also, Bioshock isn't a GFWL title.
Click to expand...

He's asking from a technical perspective what happens to existing games that have their rights management tied to gfwl since that's in turn tied to 360's live.

Unlike the og xbox, I don't see 360's support going away anytime soon. By then most everyone will likely have moved on, and the stuff people do care about will've been updated as has already been the case for a lot of stuff.
 
P

phantomspiker

Member
jediyoshi said:
He's asking from a technical perspective what happens to existing games that have their rights management tied to gfwl since that's in turn tied to 360's live.

Unlike the og xbox, I don't see 360's support going away anytime soon. By then most everyone will likely have moved on, and the stuff people do care about will've been updated as has already been the case for a lot of stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Grief.exe did a a good job of explaining what could happen. Support for new platforms are probably going to be up to the individual publishers.

Most games are sadly going to just fall by the wayside.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
There's an offline mode, right? That could work even without the GFWL infrastructure in place.


Worst case scenario, there's always cracks to stop the game from trying to phone home.
 
T

the_prime_mover

Member
JoeTheBlow said:
GFWL cost me huge progress in Bulletstorm and the Batmen when it corrupted the save.
Want to play Dark Souls at 60fps, but no way would I trust the save of that game, of all games, to GFWL.
Click to expand...

Durante edition is the only way to play dark souls and he was gracious enough to code in a save state back up so don't worry about gfwl messing up you game. Get to playing that shit asap!
 
A

AcceptableGhost

Member
JoeTheBlow said:
GFWL cost me huge progress in Bulletstorm and the Batmen when it corrupted the save.
Want to play Dark Souls at 60fps, but no way would I trust the save of that game, of all games, to GFWL.
Click to expand...

Use GameSaveManager to "sync and link" your save file onto a Dropbox (which will symbolic link your saves to a folder in Dropbox). That way if it corrupts you can just roll back via Dropbox (I believe it retains all versions of a file for the last 30 days or so).

In regards to the topic think a fair amount of games can run on offline profile only without checking in. Also some efforts were made to remove GFWL entirely from Fallout 3 (its a mod on the fo3 nexus). I think eventually it will stop working but I bet people will find a way around it for all/most games.
 
D

dani_dc

Member
This is something I'm curious about.
With the whole Xbox One PR issues Microsoft would be wise not to do something like killing people access to their PC games anytime soon, it would send an awful message to their consumers at this point.

Still I do think they're going to kill the service eventually, and the fact that some publishers have been preparing to update some of their titles to use Steamworks seems to indicate as much.
I wouldn't be surprised to see games stopping to work, at the very least I expect that new purcahses won't be able to be activated.


JoeTheBlow said:
GFWL cost me huge progress in Bulletstorm and the Batmen when it corrupted the save.
Want to play Dark Souls at 60fps, but no way would I trust the save of that game, of all games, to GFWL.
Click to expand...

Thankfully Durante's DSfix offers an option to backup your saves so that you don't have to worry about that.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
This thread makes me wonder whether Halo 4 was an allegory for a service that has been active for too long.

"Game services are only made to work for seven years, Chief... I've been in service for eight"

Its a fine question though, and worthy of being asked and answered as we head into next gen and are asked yet again to invest in new services.
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
Yeah, most games can have an offline save file. But I could have sworn there were some Codemaster games that gave you a warning that things wouldn't be saved in offline mode. Maybe not.

Ironically enough, the infamous DX11 Codemaster crash bug was GFWL related. If you ran without logging into GFWL, it would never crash (and this is from someone who crashed hundreds of times with it running). An inexcusable piece of trash.
 
K

kortez320

Member
If it does happen you can always crack your games. Nice thing about PC is there is usually a way around everything because I can imagine once GFWL is officially done MS is going to drop it like a hot potato.
 
F

Fresh Face

Banned
If they'd integrate it into Windows 8 and make it worth using, then yes I'd go for it. Since it would be intergrated, it probably wouldn't have all that horrible Origin drm. Haven't used it a whole lot, but I believe GFWL is bearable. IDK


As for origin:

42600-kill-it-with-fire-gif--scorpio-iZRK.gif
 
S

Seagoon

Member
Grief.exe said:
We have been speculating that GFWL is being phased out.

Microsoft isn't publishing GFWL games anymore, major publishers like Capcom and Warner have dropped it entirely, and Microsoft is actively pursuing an alternative solution for Halo 2.

Older games are getting Steamworks features such as Achievements patched in. Arkham Asylum and Bioshock 2 are two games that are going down this road.

Neither have gone live, but Bioshock 2 has been seeing constant updates the past two weeks.

Hopefully we will be seeing an announcement very soon.

A few exceptions.

Microsoft did publish a GFWL game recently, but the port has been ready for over a year so could be considered a special case.

This is the special case I was referring to
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.Would be nice to see Steamworks as the migration path for a lot of these games.
 
N

Nif

Member
You can make offline profiles for GFWL and not have to connect to any servers. Multiplayer is a different story.
 
A

Awful Falafel

Banned
Grief.exe said:
We have been speculating that GFWL is being phased out.

Microsoft isn't publishing GFWL games anymore, major publishers like Capcom and Warner have dropped it entirely, and Microsoft is actively pursuing an alternative solution for Halo 2.

Older games are getting Steamworks features such as Achievements patched in. Arkham Asylum and Bioshock 2 are two games that are going down this road.

Neither have gone live, but Bioshock 2 has been seeing constant updates the past two weeks.

Hopefully we will be seeing an announcement very soon.

A few exceptions.

Microsoft did publish a GFWL game recently, but the port has been ready for over a year so could be considered a special case.

This is the special case I was referring to
Click to expand...

This is fantastic megaton news to me. Maybe I'll finally get to buy Minerva's Den on Steam too.
 
F

Fresh Face

Banned
Grief.exe said:
We have been speculating that GFWL is being phased out.

Microsoft isn't publishing GFWL games anymore, major publishers like Capcom and Warner have dropped it entirely, and Microsoft is actively pursuing an alternative solution for Halo 2.

Older games are getting Steamworks features such as Achievements patched in. Arkham Asylum and Bioshock 2 are two games that are going down this road.

Neither have gone live, but Bioshock 2 has been seeing constant updates the past two weeks.

Hopefully we will be seeing an announcement very soon.

A few exceptions.

Microsoft did publish a GFWL game recently, but the port has been ready for over a year so could be considered a special case.

This is the special case I was referring to
Click to expand...

What Halo 2 solution? Are you referring to the steam rumors? I know you've said you believe they're the real deal.
I believe them too kinda
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Fresh Face said:
What Halo 2 solution? Are you referring to the steam rumors? I know you've said you believe they're the real deal.
I believe them too kinda
Click to expand...

Halo 2 support was set to be shut down in January.

kWEepGX.png


Arkham Asylum, BioShock 2, Halo 2. Something is happening this month with the service.
 
R

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Which reminds me, recently I started a new Fallout 3 character but still started him while logged into GFWL. Is there any way to untie those save files from GFWL?
 
B

bro1

Banned
Just did a reformat and tried to launch it and it won't connect. I have never had a probelm with it befor and now nothing. I can't install Batman without it. fuck this noise
 
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