Games for Windows Live: dead, then alive, then left to rot
Games for Windows Live marketplace closed, leaving purchased PC games at risk
The market's verdict: +4.5% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
Microsoft closed the Games for Windows Live marketplace on August 22, 2013, and around the same time an Age of Empires Online support note revealed the whole service was slated to die on July 1, 2014. When the date made the rounds, Microsoft walked it back, saying in June 2014 that GFWL was no longer closing after all, leaving customers holding a service that was neither maintained nor dead. Games built on its DRM broke or teetered: Fallout 3 was left inoperable for stretches, GTA IV disappeared from Steam for years over dead key servers, and publishers spent most of a decade patching GFWL out of games they had already sold. Buying a PC game from Microsoft in that era was a coin flip with extra steps.
This one is officially acknowledged.
Links
↳ caused by GFWL marketplace closure (August 2013)
Timeline
- Aug 22, 2013 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.