Dark Souls is ditching Games for Windows Live in favor of Steam next month

[Scorpus]

Games for Windows Live (GFWL), Microsoft's much maligned PC gaming service, is dying a slow death. Several games have already made the jump from the sinking ship, with Bandai Namco's Dark Souls looking to do the same in November 2014.

Starting next month, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition owners will be able to transition to Steam through the use of a GFWL token, giving access to the game on Valve's platform for no cost. During the month Bandai Namco will also be giving Dark Souls gamers an opportunity to transfer their save data and achievements, although there only be a short window to do so.

With this announcement, Dark Souls joins the company of the Batman Arkham games, BioShock 2, Fallout 3, Dead Rising 2 and others who have transitioned away from GFWL to Steam. Several other games, like DiRT 3, Red Faction Guerrilla and F1 2011 are expected to move away from GFWL in the near future.

Despite GFWL's shutdown and widespread issues with games that continue to use the service, some publishers are not planning on switching to Steam or another platform. Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Gears of War are some of the games that remain in limbo (for now at least).

If you are a Dark Souls player wanting to migrate your save games and continue to play in the future, watch out for an announcement from Bandai Namco as to when the transfer period will begin.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/58516-dark-souls-ditching-gfwl-steam.html

 

[Alpha Gamer]

Great news, the best game ever will ditch the worst DRM ever. I wonder how multiplayer will be handled, though. As DS has no servers and all multiplayer happened via p2p connections managed by GFWL.

 

[DDG4005]

Games for Windows Live is still up and running (I've reinstalled all of the titles that use it without issue). For some games you're still required to use GfWL even though they are now on Steam.

 

[Lionvibez]

Great news, the best game ever will ditch the worst DRM ever. I wonder how multiplayer will be handled, though. As DS has no servers and all multiplayer happened via p2p connections managed by GFWL.

Lets hope better than street fighter. When this game made the switch from GFWL to steam the mulitplayer has almost been unplayable with all the lag which was not there on GFWL.

Its better now and still a work in progress but they had to spend months patching it.

 

[Guest]

I really wish the likes of Steam, Origin and GFWL would all die a horrible, painful death. DRM in general actually. I really, REALLY don't like that I have to have a third party application just so I can play my games. Everyone sings praises upon Steam, but I just cant bring myself to like it. Always feels like I'm logging into the equivalent of Amazon (If it had a desktop application), what with them always punting some new deal in my face, so it just feels like its less about the games, and more about what else they can sell to you. I love playing games, just like the next person, but if I want to read up about new games, and new deals then I will come to sites like Techspot, at least that way it may turn out less biased. I don't know, maybe I'm just grumbling...

 

[amstech]

I really wish the likes of Steam, Origin and GFWL would all die a horrible, painful death. DRM in general actually. I really, REALLY don't like that I have to have a third party application just so I can play my games. Everyone sings praises upon Steam, but I just cant bring myself to like it. Always feels like I'm logging into the equivalent of Amazon (If it had a desktop application), what with them always punting some new deal in my face, so it just feels like its less about the games, and more about what else they can sell to you. I love playing games, just like the next person, but if I want to read up about new games, and new deals then I will come to sites like Techspot, at least that way it may turn out less biased. I don't know, maybe I'm just grumbling...

Gotta tell ya man I've been PC gaming since the Voodoo days (Voodoo Banshee 16MB PCi FTW) and your sideways on this. Steam isn't some evil service charging you cash all the time, I pay ABSOLUTELY NOTHING... EVER.
Only when I buy a game and when I do they are cheap as hell. Many of them are cloud based so I can continue my game on my HTPC and laptop if I want to. The Steam client is reliable, fast and user friendly and all my games are on this nice list I can pull up anytime. No looking through cereal sized boxes for a scratched installation disc or worrying about compatibility. I have everything from the original Unreal and Kingpin to Crysis and they all work and run flawlessly.

Anyone remember Toms Clancy's Rainbow Six and mplayer.com? Yikes!
And BTW I am an old school dirthound who loves a physical collection in my hands but Steam's issues have been 'steamed out' ; its one of the best gaming services I have ever used with deals/sales that make affording newer games much easier.

 

[EClyde]

I avoided Steam for years. It's the way to go and I have no beefs with it at all

 

[LNCPapa]

There's no need to try to convince those who are adamantly against Steam to like Steam... there's something about the fundamental structure or design that they just don't like. I believe Steam performs almost exactly as intended so unless there is a major overhaul of the system those people will continue to dislike Steam. I used to be one of those guys several years ago. I came over and ended up falling madly in love with Steam and now I usually won't purchase something if it's not on Steam. Can't force someone to like something just because you or even most people like it.

 

[DDG4005]

I really wish the likes of Steam, Origin and GFWL would all die a horrible, painful death. DRM in general actually. I really, REALLY don't like that I have to have a third party application just so I can play my games. Everyone sings praises upon Steam, but I just cant bring myself to like it. Always feels like I'm logging into the equivalent of Amazon (If it had a desktop application), what with them always punting some new deal in my face, so it just feels like its less about the games, and more about what else they can sell to you. I love playing games, just like the next person, but if I want to read up about new games, and new deals then I will come to sites like Techspot, at least that way it may turn out less biased. I don't know, maybe I'm just grumbling...

It's not just you; I feel the same way. I've really come to respect and appreciate Good Old Games more and more these days.

 

[Chris Barry]

I really wish the likes of Steam, Origin and GFWL would all die a horrible, painful death. DRM in general actually. I really, REALLY don't like that I have to have a third party application just so I can play my games. Everyone sings praises upon Steam, but I just cant bring myself to like it. Always feels like I'm logging into the equivalent of Amazon (If it had a desktop application), what with them always punting some new deal in my face, so it just feels like its less about the games, and more about what else they can sell to you. I love playing games, just like the next person, but if I want to read up about new games, and new deals then I will come to sites like Techspot, at least that way it may turn out less biased. I don't know, maybe I'm just grumbling...

You my friend are NOT a gamer... Good day!