We last mentioned the closure of the Games for Windows Live (G4WL) service back in October when we heard about BioShock 2 being updated and the main game and all its DLC being made available upon Steam so it could continue to be enjoyed.
As a reminder, it was written previously in a Microsoft support article, for Age of Empires Online (article now removed), that G4WL will be discontinued on 1st July 2014. However there has been no further official announcement by Microsoft about the status of the service. As things stand some developers have removed G4WL code from their games and others are in the process or plan to do so. Unfortunately some developers have no such plans or have even suffered from closure or dissolution in the meantime.
Trying to keep up with the G4WL service closure situation; which games have had the G4WL removed so far, which games are going to (probably) get G4WL removed and which games are going to be basically abandoned – Joystiq's Steven Wong has compiled a list of what is known about these plans right now. The list is colour coded – but thoughtfully there is a colour-blind person enhanced version here.
Here I'll concentrate on the good news within the list – which is that BioShock 2, Fallout 3, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Toy Soldiers, Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY, Batman: Arkham City GOTY and Gotham City Impostors have all had G4WL shackles removed (all replaced by Steam leg-irons). Meanwhile games which are scheduled to have G4WL removed in the coming months include; Super Street Fighter IV / Arcade Edition, DiRT 3, F1 2010, F1 2011, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Ms. Splosion Man.
Notably, a lot of Microsoft games are marked as having "no plans" for the removal of G4WL and these include; Fable 3, Gears of War, Halo 2, Microsoft Flight, Shadowrun, Tinker and Viva Piñata. (Capcom also has lots of games that it has no intention of fixing to work with other digital distribution methods.)
There are also some companies yet to respond to Joystiq's further info requests, let's hope these news stories spur Microsoft into revealing what exactly is going to happen to G4WL this summer.
