Games for Windows Live (GFWL) was one of Microsoft’s earliest attempts to bring Xbox to PC, however, the service was discontinued in 2014 as it simply proved itself to be more of a hindrance due to multiple issues such as a buggy storefront, Xbox Live Gold subscription fee to play online and pure negligence on Microsoft’s part.
While GFWL didn’t have too many titles under its belt, only less than half of their games (BioShock, Batman: Arkham, etc.) migrated to Steamworks after its closure, even though most of these games were already available to purchase on Steam. Even Rockstar had to shift Grand Theft Auto IV and its expansion, Episodes from Liberty City to Steamworks last year as they were unable to generate more keys for the platform, forcing them to patch GFWL out of the game entirely, which also resulted in the game’s multiplayer mode being unplayable.
And now Bethesda has done the same by removing GFWL from Fallout 3, which seems a bit ironic given that the company is now owned by Microsoft. Fallout 3’s patch notes for the 1.7.0.4 update states that the game “ no longer installs Games for Windows Live dependencies. If Fallout 3 was previously installed on Steam, we suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the title. The title no longer requires Games for Windows Live and will now launch.”
This comes as a great surprise as Fallout 3 is now officially playable on Linux through Proton, without modifying the game’s files.
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