Ultra Street Fighter 4 PC to use Steamworks over GFWL

Thank god. It's kind sad that that MS has basically given up on PC gaming in the last few years, but I am so happy to see Steam picking up the slack. 

I hope GFWL dies a quick death. Does Steam warn you of games that use GFWL DRM?

I hope GFWL dies a quick death. Does Steam warn you of games that use GFWL DRM?

Steam entries will list "3rd-party DRM: Microsoft" (or similar) but only when that is the only DRM; Grand Theft Auto IV has SecuROM plus GfWL so only lists SecuROM on the store sidebar. You can also check The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam for details on the specific form of each DRM used by a game.

 

Remember that GfWL supports making a local profile for single player modes. Local profiles don't talk to the server so are unaffected by server connectivity issues; as long as the Games for Windows Live client software is installed and you've done the activation required by the game's form of GfWL DRM you're all set. There are even a couple of games where you can skip GfWL completely by running an alternate executable included with the game (I think Fallout 3 is like that).

I remember Fallout 3 has this quirk that if you play with an online profile, you just cannot switch this back into an offline one, it's a pain in the arse.

Yes, you can upgrade a local profile into an online profile but not the other way around; this is part of GfWL's design and not specific to Fallout 3.

 

There's really no reason to use an online profile unless you want to use multiplayer modes or really care about achievements. Games and DLC need to be activated on an online profile but it doesn't have to be the profile you use for single player; you can log into an online profile, activate the game/DLC, then log out and log back into the local profile you are going to use for actually playing that content.

 

Windows 8/RT store apps use a completely new Xbox Live implementation unrelated to GfWL. It will be interesting to see whether this is made available for desktop games at some point.

Awesome! Now all I want is GTA IV (and V) to get a proper port without GFWL, maybe with OS X (And Linux :P) support?