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Microsoft PC Games (Games) Windows XBox (Games)

Microsoft Closes Xbox.com PC Marketplace 158

SmartAboutThings writes "Microsoft is definitely changing things in its gaming department: it has now announced in a support note on the Xbox site that it will be shutting down the Xbox.com PC Marketplace on August 22nd. This comes shortly after news that Microsoft hired former Steam boss Jason Holtman, whose mission at Redmond is to 'make Windows great for gaming.' The Microsoft Points system will be retired on August 22nd as well. The Games for Windows Live client software will not be affected, at least initially, letting you play previously purchased games."
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Microsoft Closes Xbox.com PC Marketplace

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:40AM (#44584087)
    Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I feel so special, so lucky! Thank you so much again for letting me continue to play my previously purchased games!
    • by josephtd ( 817237 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:42AM (#44584103)
      I believe the summary misspelled rented.
      • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:44AM (#44584127)
        And people wonder why I don't get rid of my movie collection in favor of netflix or some other streaming service...
        • The two are not the same.
          Netflix you are renting X files for the next 30 days. You know this. No expectations that you can stop playing the £Y and movies will still magic onto your tellybox.

          "Buy" a game from Steam/Xbox/Origin/what evs and you pay just the once and expect it to continue working.

          One you are getting a service, the other you are getting a product.

          • by Zemran ( 3101 )

            I bought a Nokia N95 and bought some games for it several years ago (about 6 years ago). The phone was still working fine when they closed nGage store and after having to reboot my phone to factory setting I could not play those games, that I had bought, ever again. I will never be that stupid again. I want to make sure that I own what I buy. I am happy to buy a .iso on line and download it but I want that installer. I do not buy from iTunes or Android stores.

          • by TWX ( 665546 )

            Netflix you are renting X files for the next 30 days.

            No I'm not! I already said, I have a collection, including many of Chris Carter's TV shows!

          • Yeees.  But it doesn't work that way, does it?   That's kinda the poster's point, I think.
    • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      Think yourself lucky that they let you do so. I almost lost GTA4 when I discovered I'd forgotten the GFWL login after not playing it for a couple of years. Others on the Steam forums have said they lost their GFWL account completely after not logging in for a long time.

      Not that it would have been a big loss given how bad GTA4 is, but the experience was bad enough that I've never bought another GFWL game since.

      • You wouldn't have lost access to GTA 4, just your save games. All of which can be avoided if you make a LOCAL PROFILE on GFWL.
        • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

          You wouldn't have lost access to GTA 4, just your save games. All of which can be avoided if you make a LOCAL PROFILE on GFWL.

          You can't play GTA4 without logging into GFWL.

          Well, you can, but it runs in some kind of demo mode that won't let you save.

          • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

            local mode has you logged in... in the no save gfwl mode you're not logged in as local, if you are logged in then the saves do work in gfwl.

            it's sort of tricky to get it to that mode, some.. ehm.. unauthorized games copied from the net need you to run through some hoops to install older gfwl client. but it works and then you can make local saves.

            that's to say that it's a pretty shitty drm in the end.

            one of the problems of ms is that they keep changing this shit around every fucking 12 months. but why have a

          • You can make and log in with LOCAL PROFILEs in GFWL, that never ever go out to the internet. All my GFWL games log in with 'player 1'
    • First step in all Fallout 3 installation and tweak guides is to download the Games For Windows Live disabler. This essentially pretends to be GFWL so that the game is unaware that it's missing. And absolutely nothing of any value is lost by not having GFWL in the game, you just don't see achievements which are a joke anyway.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Now, please shut down GFWL and we can all celebrate.

    Hopefully the ex-Steam guy can do an Elop on Microsoft, to make them Valve's biatch.

    • That was my first thought as well.

      The problem with Games on Windows is that Microsoft keeps redeciding that Windows gaming is "second class" to Xbox gaming. The only keep it alive because certain PC games just don't work in a console setup yet. Steam does everything better and isn't "demon spawn incarnate". The founders are all ex-microsofties and the company on the beginning was run just like a "baby Microsoft".

      If this guy had business sense at all he'd just close down Microsoft's pitiful attempt and move

      • The only keep it alive because certain PC games just don't work in a console setup yet. Steam does everything better

        On the other hand, certain console games just don't work in a PC setup yet. For a fighting game or a cooperative platformer, sure you can plug four Xbox 360 controllers or HID joysticks into a USB hub, but it's hard to gather four people around one desktop or laptop monitor. Steam's Big Picture Mode is a step toward that, but Valve doesn't yet have an affordable, attractive, pre-made box designed to sit next to a TV. Come December, it'll be Xbox One, Steam box zero.

  • by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:42AM (#44584097) Homepage Journal

    "and let's see if we can whip of a decent clone of Space Invaders."

    Really, to make Windows more game friendly kick all that cruft out of it which pre-loads into memory just in case I want to fire up Excel, which I don't have installed and foolishness like that. To be game friendly it needs to be lean, not bloated.

    • by lgw ( 121541 )

      I've just never had that problem on my gaming rig - and it even runs the consumer OS (currently Win7) and not Server (which I prefer for real work). If you install Office, and don't turn off the "quick start" thingy that's a pig, but why would you do that? I have the "Excel reader" on my gaming box, since there's sometimes interesting stuff about a game that someone has put in a spreadsheet, but other than that I don't have Office or anything else really on my gaming rig other than games.

      People still comp

    • As far as your games are concerned, that memory is empty; Windows lets apps that need memory simply march right over the cache as though it wasn't there. Same in every other OS worth a damn.

  • "letting us play" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Qzukk ( 229616 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:46AM (#44584157) Journal

    I'm thankful I'm being permitted to play the game I bought. Fortunately I only bought one game with that "windows live" abomination strapped onto it.

    Joys of DRM.

    • Re:"letting us play" (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dins ( 2538550 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:56AM (#44584273)
      Simple. Just buy the game you want, then download a cracked version of it and play to your heart's content.
      • Re:"letting us play" (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @11:38AM (#44584785) Journal

        That only rewards their wacky DRM schemes. Pirate it and play it, or don't play it at all. Just don't pay for DRM. Ever.

      • I do exactly that with DRMed games, except I skip the buy part.

      • Some of them make it a bit harder than that. Ie, you need GFWL just to install the game in the first place. Or if GFWL is disabled there are stability issues. Ie, Bioshock 2 apparently has save game corruption problems without GFWL.

    • by 0123456 ( 636235 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @11:00AM (#44584307)

      I'm thankful I'm being permitted to play the game I bought. Fortunately I only bought one game with that "windows live" abomination strapped onto it.

      I heard they're going to rename it 'GamesForSure'.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The submitter / slashdot editors intentionally worded the summary that way to get a rise out of you. Don't rise to the troll bait.

      The article itself is worded differently and implies that you of course have access to your previously purchased content which was obviously never in question. The summary here however is worded inflammatorily as "at least for now" and "letting you".

      Don't make it so easy for people to treat you as a monkey.

      • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

        The summary here however is worded inflammatorily as "at least for now" and "letting you".

        You really think that Microsoft -- a company with a proven history of pushing DRM schemes and then turning them off -- are going to keep GFWL running forever when it's so universally reviled that few, if any, new games are using it?

  • See, The Xbox PC marketplace, the once or twice I used it, was never really a desirable means of doing anything. Every time I tried something, it would only be available on Xbox...because apparently hiding things that can't be used on a PC was an insurmountable task. It didn't seem to do cool things like let you play PC versions of Xbox games you own or save my game of Batman Arkham Asylum that was a GFWL title such that I could pick up where I left off after a format...

    It surprises me that Microsoft has traditionally done such a piss poor job of integrating ANYTHING involving gaming or software purchasing into the OS. Maybe now with Win8 they'll take it a bit more seriously, but I'm still shocked they didn't partner with EA years ago and make a windows-integrated service that precluded the necessity of Origin in the first place.

    • Microsoft's various divisions were pitched against each other as internal competitors; all of the gaming talent was in the Xbox console division, but internal politics likely meant that the Windows team could never, ever ask them for help.

      • by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

        Which is essential really.

        If MS did integrate a gaming marketplace into Windows that took noticable marketshare from Steam, Origin, etc. they would get sued, just like for IE, WMP, Messenger...

        • Which is essential really.

          If MS did integrate a gaming marketplace into Windows that took noticable marketshare from Steam, Origin, etc. they would get sued, just like for IE, WMP, Messenger...

          I'm not completely convinced of that, depending on how they actually went about it. If they did some sort of exclusivity situation where Xbox Marketplace games couldn't be released on Steam as well, THEN that would be an issue. If Microsoft prohibited Steam from being installed, or using DirectX APIs, THEN there would be solid ground for a lawsuit.

          Microsoft simply having a competing product isn't grounds for a lawsuit, even if it's integrated - so far, no lawsuits for Windows Defender or Zip Folders, despit

        • I don't think so. Integrating is fine, as long as it's optional and non-default.

          The IE bundling thing was a big deal because every Windows user had it installed prominently by default, and there was no way of removing it without breaking core functionality. If Microsoft had released a digital marketplace (like Steam), but made it not installed by default, not a dependency for any core Windows functionality, and not a requirement for playing games on an XBox, I don't think they would have had any trouble.

          Whe

        • I don't just mean they operated independently, I mean they actively undermined each other's work. There's no legal impediment to the Windows and Office divisions having the same relationship as Libreoffice and Linux, but they had the kind of relationship Holmes and Moriarty had instead.

    • by mjr167 ( 2477430 )
      Microsoft partnering with EA would be like Bubba partnering with Ray Ray to chase you down in the woods.
      • Microsoft partnering with EA would be like Bubba partnering with Ray Ray to chase you down in the woods.

        Exactly why I'm surprised it never happened.

    • It surprises me that Microsoft has traditionally done such a piss poor job of integrating ANYTHING involving gaming or software purchasing into the OS. Maybe now with Win8 they'll take it a bit more seriously, but I'm still shocked they didn't partner with EA years ago and make a windows-integrated service that precluded the necessity of Origin in the first place.

      Why does that surprise you? Their history is full of examples of how products that are not traditional Windows or Office are poorly done. For example, Windows Mobile came out years before the iPhone. I was issued one for work, and it was buggy as hell. All the employees just had to deal with the daily and random resets. Some employees purchased their own phones (mostly Blackberries until the iPhone came out) just so they could do email.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @10:57AM (#44584281)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • That was me when I found out TF2 was free to play for Linux. It takes a lot to pull me away from more important things like baking bread and playing guitar to go play a game, but as an old TFC player, I couldn't pass up the chance to try out a game that had interested me since I first heard about it (though not enough to deal with Microsoft).

      • The only shooter that I have fun with every single time I play it. Hell...maybe the only video game altogether that is like that. I do get distracted by new shininess more and more lately though...haven't been playing it much.
        • I mostly haven't been playing lately because I'm almost exclusively on a laptop at home, which means everything gets really chunky as soon as the map gets even remotely crowded.

  • Don't worry... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16, 2013 @11:01AM (#44584321)

    I'm sure they won't do this to the Windows 8 Marketplace.

    • by ackthpt ( 218170 )

      I'm sure they won't do this to the Windows 8 Marketplace.

      That's like telling a cat to stay away from the curtains and expecting it to listen.

    • I'm sure they won't do this to the Windows 8 Marketplace.

      Wow. Good point.

      Lessee... The first thing that would go would be the RT marketplace. Followed a year later by abandonment of the metro api.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft has ZERO internal commitment to gaming on the PC (which obviously doesn't impact third-party games sales), but every few years some optimistic loser manages to persuade the higher management to allow him/her to 'push' PC gaming from an official Microsoft position once again. This frequently coincides with the new console launch, when the PC may get one or two titles that Microsoft is also publishing on said console.

    Of course, third party game companies that make PC games are FAR FAR FAR better of

    • They get sued by EA, Valve, GOG, Apogee and others for app store lock in.

    • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      As for Live in its existing PC game activation form, please stop the FUD- that's going nowhere.

      As for PlaysForSure in its existing form, please stop the FUD - that's going nowhere.

    • > PC gamers became fully clued in as to Microsoft's true agenda. Microsoft itself has formally PROMISED to prevent its own AAA Xbox One games from appearing as PC versions,

      This doesn't make (financial) sense. Why wouldn't Microsoft want to sell to _more_ customers?

      • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

        This doesn't make (financial) sense. Why wouldn't Microsoft want to sell to _more_ customers?

        It makes perfect financial sense to the Xbox division.

        You're assuming that anyone is checking whether the decisions make financial sense to the company as a whole. If they worried about little things like that, they'd never have released a console when gaming is one of the few remaining reasons to buy a Windows PC.

  • Always complainers (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ravaldy ( 2621787 )

    The way I see it, MS could write everybody on /. a $10 000 cheque and slashdotters would turn around and say it wasn't done right. Just cause it's MS.

    • There is that. But really, any large corp that offers you a service with an implied "oh, your stuff is safe with us" and then shuts down the service is begging for redicule, if an indictment. To big to fail, to big to follow the law, I guess. Yeah, I'm complaining.
    • No, we would say it wasn't done right because because the check would be drawn on the Windows Xbox Developers Kinect Connection Development Bank and made out for $10.00 in Windows 8 Xbox Windows Gamerscore points, which would only be redeemable through the "Windows RT Xbox Games Bing Banking -- Live app" that is easy to to use once you find it on your Windows RT Pro Home Edition that no one bought even at below-cost prices. Because that's what Microsoft does. It has some serious fragmentation and naming co
    • by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Friday August 16, 2013 @12:59PM (#44585607) Journal

      The way I see it, MS could write everybody on /. a $10 000 cheque and slashdotters would turn around and say it wasn't done right. Just cause it's MS.

      You must be new, oh yes, I can see by your 2.6 Million UID that you are. Let me give you a clue. MS has been making products and dropping support for those products for quite awhile. See, MS had ADHD. They can't pay attention, so they miss the trends until they are already happening. Then they try to play catch up, but since they can't focus worth shit, they lose interest again.

      You know how many times they have had a PC Gaming Initiative? About every 5 years. How long do they last? One set of games being released, if that. And even that is to promote something else. Halo & Shadowrun? Remember those? Had to have Vista to run them because they required Direct X 10? MS was pushing Vista & Direct X 10, telling peeps they were there for PC gaming. And yet those 2 games, with a small hack, could run just fine on XP because they didn't use DX 10, they used DX 9.

      I'm not even going to into the features that MS always promises for new OS's that never make it. Or how they will focus to take over a market, then let it sit (Web Browsers is a good example of this. They fought tooth and nail to beat Netscape, then once they did, sat on IE6 for years without updates.

      No, I don't like MS. They have a history of being twats and most of us know it.

    • The way I see it, MS could write everybody on /. a $10 000 cheque and slashdotters would turn around and say it wasn't done right. Just cause it's MS.

      I dunno, $10K would be just about right.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Actually, nearly anything beats Steam, that would include uPlay and Origin. Seriously, all 3 clients are superior. Steam is the only one not playing ball by not letting you integrate all your friends lists (though MS is partially at fault for this, PSN friends should be available too).

    Unless you really think achievements are the one and only consideration resulting in "good" (and MS is still beating Steam's implementation of those) Steam has the absolute worst client on the market.

    Steam doesn't even have

  • I always thought games relying on Games for Windows Live was stupid, because it is unavoidable that Microsoft will abandon that like all products and services that they create, and then what will happen with all the games that use that? They will no longer work.

    • by Nyder ( 754090 )

      I always thought games relying on Games for Windows Live was stupid, because it is unavoidable that Microsoft will abandon that like all products and services that they create, and then what will happen with all the games that use that? They will no longer work.

      Then thank your god(s) for the pirate scene, preserving games for the long haul.

       

    • They don't care because only irrelevant people like slashdotters would ever want to play a game that is more than a month old.

  • If this is the game portal used by Windows 8, then MicroSquishy really hasn't got a clue. That was the one feature of WIndows 8 that my folks liked.

  • Windows is already great for gaming in fact better then great so what are they really trying to do?
  • Shut it down with no replacement... stupid microsoft.
  • Microsoft did games on Windows? And people played them? And they were popular? No, thought not.

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