GFWL finally removed from Batman AA & AC

Both my retail copies of aa and ac don't work on steam.

I just picked both of these games up from the weekend Steam sale. So cheap and they are great games.

Nope, just Microsoft :(

That's odd. Those versions were some of the first to get transitioned to Steamworks. I'd keep trying every day or so. I know they've been having issues with certain acquisition methods.

I bought both games retail at release and both have 5*5 cd-keys. People who have the 5*5 retail cd-keys currently cant register their games with steam. Its an issue that they're looking into fixing.

Fantastic. I'm glad I, for some reason, didn't go through with Arkham City before - now I have the game and all its DLC, and none of the GFWL crap :D. Played it for twelve hours between today and yesterday.

...Not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that only Microsoft would be dealing with the PR nightmare of GFWL games ceasing to function after their servers shut down? Because that's absolutely not the case. The blame would fall on the publishers of the games. MS told them a full year ahead of time that GFWL was going away. And MS doesn't have the power to patch games they don't own/didn't publish.

you can get the whole package for like 62.50$ on GMG that include the pre-order Batman Origin with 25% voucher it 46.87$ but most of people will just get origin like this spring when DLC are half price lol since i think they plan to suck us like around 45$ OF DLC in 6 month time lapse so 50$ + 45$ = Profit

Yup. Exactly why I don't buy games on day one anymore, no matter how good the deal is, unless I really think that it has a shot at being among the greatest games of all time. I don't get any extra satisfaction out of being among the first to play a game. I get much more satisfaction out of buying a game a year late, with all the DLC, for half of what others paid.

@the_bi99man: I'm saying that MS seems to be the only that doesnt care about dealing with the bad PR. They made the service, they broke it, they made it unpopular and made sure not a single dev uses it anymore because they refuse to fix it. Of course they have a responsibility, saying it ahead of time doesnt cut it. Of course there is a responsibility for the devs as well but dont act like MS is free of any blame. They refuse to patch GFWL out of age of empires online. They dont care about bad PR with PC gamers, they lost all respect ages ago. And another thing: valve has stated that if they ever go down, they would make sure the games would that require steam, would work without it. So how is MS free of any responsibility? They should contact the devs and work with them to fix this, not simply announce ahead of time...

Now if only EA could remove gamespy from Generals and Tiberium Wars...

Got back my game saves for both AA and AC!! Very happy gamer here! Didn't get all my achievements back, but those don't really matter much to me.

@R4gn4r0k: Well yeah, MS deserves all the blame for having GFWL exist in the first place, and for making it the shitty service that is/was, but they don't even have the power to remove it from games that they don't own and didn't publish. That's on the publishers of those games. And I'm sure MS will patch it out of their own games, as well. They don't seem to care about the bad press that the service got them in the first place, but they're not going to let their games become unplayable because of it. That would just be stupid. I do expect they'll be the last ones to patch it out though. Their own games with GFWL will probably get their update patches on the same day that GFWL is shut down.

As for games from other publishers, who chose to use GFWL.. there's not really much else that MS can do about it. They announce a year ahead of time that the service is getting shut down, and from there, it's on those publishers to remove it from their games. It's not like they need Microsoft's help to do that. And if other publishers are slow about it, MS doesn't have the ability to step in and do it for them. They can't patch games they don't own.

@the_bi99man:

Ok, you are right about that. But what if some developers have moved on and don't feel the need to patch it out of their games ? Or have forgotten all about them ? Shouldn't microsoft get in contact with those in some way ?

About the Microsoft games using the service like Flight and Age of Empires Online. Flight was shut down because it wasn't profitable and Age of Empires Online will be shut down on July 4th. Live isn't an essential piece of that game. It would require some work but they could patch it out of their game and integrate it into steamworks. But they don't feel the need to do that because it wouldn't be profitable for them and it would cost them money. But I feel they have a responsibility towards all the people that spent money in that game. It wasn't the players fault the game failed and is going to be shut down.

There is also Fable III, Halo 2, Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Ms. Splosion Man, Iron Brigade, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and some others. Is there any word about Microsoft fixing those games ? I've heard nothing.

That's why I feel MS don't care about the bad publicity. And yeah: like you said: they already received a looooot of bad PR with GFWL: making it a paid service, refusing to fix it, refusing to improve it like the competition has, ...

Would be nice if MS would contact them, to remind them about the changes, but I bet they already have. And if other developers/publishers don't feel the need to take 5 minutes and patch it out of their games, and would rather let their games become unplayable, then they're horrible publishers who don't deserve to keep their customers, and should be boycotted. As for microsoft shutting down their own games, that's definitely on them. But I bet it doesn't have very much to do with GFWL. MS would shut down games' services that aren't making them money anyway, even if GFWL never existed. It sucks, but what can ya do? For their other games, I wouldn't worry too much. If the game is still popular enough to make them any money, MS won't let them just stop working because of GFWL. Like I said though, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Microsoft's own games are among the last to get fixed. Like, patches going live on the same day that GFWL shuts down.

Only thing I'm worried about is Dark Souls. I hope Fromsoft finds time while working on DS2 to get DS1 fixed up for the GFWL shutdown, and I hope it doesn't result in lost save games, like the Batman games allegedly did. Losing my saves in Batman and Bioshock 2 is no big deal, but I would be pretty devastated to lose my Dark Souls characters.

@the_bi99man:

Well, if they would ever make the switch to Steamworks with Dark Souls, than there is a big chance you'll lose your save game. But as many people have done, there is a way to convert from GFWL save file to Steam save file.

Microsofts (lack of) support for PC these past years has me pretty confident they won't bother fixing their games to work after GFWL has shut down. They are also way too focused on Xbox One at the moment.

@R4gn4r0k: Well if microsoft does that, they're even more clueless and worthless than anyone ever thought. Personally it won't effect me. I can't remember the last time I played a game that microsoft actually had anything to do with. And if they don't fix their own games, and just let them become unplayable when GFWL shuts down, I won't be buying another windows OS, either. I'll switch to Steam OS the next time I build a system.

@the_bi99man:

I sure hope they do fix those games. I'm trying to clear the backlog of GFWL games on my steam account just in case they don't.

I'm glad there are developments like SteamOS and Mantle. Perhaps in 5-10 years we won't be so dependent on MS anymore.