Rockstar explains why incredible metacritic GTA4 game removed that deffo better than Saints Row 3

Rockstar has said they were forced to remove GTA4 specifically down to Games For Windows Live.

Something, this billion-dollar company, couldn't be bothered removing but happily sold for years knowing full well it caused nothing but trouble (especially after being deactivated) to the consumer.

It's Microsoft fault they purposefully chose to use a service everyone hated and never removed because they would get nothing out of it.

That's completely ignoring the fact it was one of the worst PC ports ever, which dumbo critics decided was still worth lapping praise upon, so people could run it at a crippling 10-25 fps at release.

Rockstar explains Grand Theft Auto 4's sudden delisting from Steam

Late last week, sharp-eyed internet surveyors noticed that Grand Theft Auto 4 had suddenly, without warning, been delisted from Steam. With no official explanation, fans were left to speculate on the reason for the move, but now Rockstar has spoken, pointing the blame finger squarely in the direction of Microsoft's now-defunct Games for Windows Live.

In a statement provided to USgamer, Rockstar explained it was forced to suspend sales of GTA4 on Steam simply because it's now "no longer possible to generate the additional keys needed to continue selling the current version of the game", given that Microsoft has officially ended support for the Games for Windows Live platform baked into the title.

Although this means Grand Theft Auto 4 is unavailable for purchase on Steam at present (standalone expansion Episodes from Liberty City is unaffected), Rockstar says it's "looking at other options for distributing

One likely solution would be to remove Games for Windows Live integration completely - a step that some publishers took soon after Microsoft's decision to close the service in 2013, migrating the notable likes of Dark Souls, Street Fighter 4 and BioShock 2 over to Steamworks. Presumably a revised version of GTA4 would also find its way to Rockstar's own recently released PC games launcher, where it has been notably absent so far.

Whatever the outcome of its investigations, Rockstar says it hopes to share additional information on GTA 4 PC "as soon as we can".

So they knew about games for windows live closing and sat around and did nothing for 5yrs to fix the situation and yet its somehow not they're fault its MS lol.

Glad I don't support R* as their games are average and they're lazy as ****.

GTA4 sucked anyway and I can’t see too many people clamouring to play such a terrible old game.

I won't miss the game. Though, it's still shitty that R* didn't bother to find a solution, prior to this being delisted.

Keep fighting the good fight, but hermits sold out eons ago and so they have to put up with shit like this.

Console gamers are slowly following their fatter PC cousins down that road, as EB Games here in Australia are closing 19 stores and more will follow.

Its madness because here in Australia Physical media is in most cases 20% cheaper and sometimes even more than Digital, and you never have to worry about the game being taken down from the store.

Goodbye GTA4, you won't be miss at all.

I love you so much Captain Marvel😍

I wish Brie's backside was as good as her front.

Nice to know you didn't bother reading the article.

I love GTA4 even though the PC version has more issues then a after school special. I still have my PC original retail version and it works. Hopefully Rockstar will remove GFWL for good and put it back on Steam.

I think I'm done with Rockstar.

They can't even be bothered to fix a simple audio bug that prevents my Arctis 7 headset, a very popular headset I might add, from working with RDR 2.

I've always thought Rockstars games were buggy and ill-performing and overrated. Still a bit of fun, but if I am being honest the last great GTA games was San Andreas.

Physical media goes out of print after far less time than most digital titles take to get delisted.

That's one way to get rid of GFWL

Ah GTA IV - the most overrated game of all time and the worst GTA ever made.

I love GTA 4. But it's a game I played a lot back in the day and I have no desire to return to it currently. Still, this needs to be resolved as I'm sure there are a lot of people that would like to be able to play a game they paid money for.

My money is on them re-releasing it on the Epic store and you'll never see it on steam ever again.