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[nenjin]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/20/it-liiiiiiiiives-gfwl-perma-closing-next-july/#more-165238

On July 1st, 2014, the bane of MP gaming, the unnecessary 4th wheel of DRM, Games for Windows Live will discontinue service.

While we've all been waiting for it to shut down, so good games don't end up trapped with it as their only viable MP service....this does present some complications for games already using it.

(Dark Souls, Resident Evil 5 immediately come to mind, I think also Arkham City?)

Alongside those, Age of Empires will also apparently cease to work at the same time. The wording of the announcement doesn't leave a lot of room for offline play. But maybe it will still be possible.

Despite some games I'm still enjoying probably suffering as a result of this, it's nigh time that GFWL went away. The longer it existed, the more games (a fraction of) would end up using it, further increasing the pain when it finally did close. GFWL has had as many chances for resurrection and to not suck as any other service out there, and it's time is finally up.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

While I despise GFWL with every fibre of my being I'm fairly certain this isn't the last we've seen of awful microsoft multiplayer DRM. I very much doubt that microsoft would be willing to turn around and use a third party systems such as Steamworks. If anything I think that we'll just see GFWL rise again under a different name with slight differences, perhaps as a marketing move for Xbox One's likely planned cross platform compatibility.
It also begs the question what's going to happen to the games that currently use the service. I got a feeling some of the older games are just going to have their multiplayer switched off completely.

[nenjin]

At least Steamworks:

A) Isn't weighted down with a bunch of bloated, animated windows.

And 

B) Has actual features you want to use.

It's pretty unreasonable these days to expect a company like MS to not use some form of DRM. It's really about what kind of DRM and what value-adds, if any, it offers.

[Krevsin]

Steam works well because it isn't obtrusive and doesn't annoy me unlike most other DRM platforms. Yes, waiting for games to update is annoying, but- oh, hey! A sale! Oooh! nifty indie games! Only one buck! what's that? a big game I've always been trying to get for just 3€? GIMME! Oh, and what's this? My internet is down? No worries, I can launch my games in offline mode with minimum bother! Oh, is someone annoying me? BLOCK THEM.

Steam works well because it is a service, not bullshit.

[Anvilfolk]

Red Faction: Guerrilla might not work...

[itisnotlogical]

I have all due confidence that Microsoft is cooking up something much worse deep in the bowels of their R&D division.

[Mech#4]

I wonder if closing Games for Windows Live is being done to consolidate that functionality into the X-Box Live system.

[Werdna]

Here's to hoping Origin kicks the bucket next.  Maybe with these two inbreds removed from the system, we'll see some real competitors to Steam. 

[timferius]

You realize this is just paving the way for a new service to coincide with the launch of Xbox One, right?
"Now announcing Windows ONE, now with biometric game locking! Note: Required retinal scanner sold seperatly, MSRP $69.99"

[Jopax]

This dying is both meh and good. It's good if some of the games get adapted to work properly with Steam or something else, bad if they don't.
My biggest hope is to see Chaos Rising get fixed, might finally play the multiplayer if that's the case.

[nenjin]

"Now announcing Windows ONE, now with biometric game locking! Note: Required retinal rectal scanner sold separately, MSRP $69.99"

FTFY.

[SeaBee]

Jason Holtman (Valve's Steam hardware/management guy) joined Microsoft last week. I think we're going to see a GFWL reboot/rebrand coming up in the near future, hopefully one that's nothing like GFWL. Or a deal with Valve (heh, I know).

[Krevsin]

"Now announcing Windows ONE, now with biometric game locking! Note: Required retinal rectal scanner sold separately, MSRP $69.99"

FTFY.

"Smaller rectal probe sold separately"

[Mrhappyface]

Darn it, I want to play Universe at War now! I can't even play it even though I own it on Steam.

[werty892]

Wooooooooooooooooo!

"Now announcing Windows ONE, now with biometric game locking! Note: Required retinal rectal scanner sold separately, MSRP $69.99"

FTFY.

"Smaller rectal probe sold separately"

"For only 199.99$ we can attach it to origin! Now you can have twice the frustration, because people don't want to play our games, right?"