GFWL Client broken again

The 'Failed to retrieve purchase history' error is back. I'm formally requesting a replacement steam version of my games, as I don't trust GFWL.

:)

 

GFWL Client

houmouncoulous - GFWL was shut down a while ago.

 

Age of Empires III from GfWL

I purchased Age of Empires III several years ago on the Games for Windows Live marketplace. The downloads from the GfWL client have been broken for years. Did Microsoft ever provide a new way to download the games purchased on GfWL, or alternately, provide
Steam keys for those games?

 

Well steam keys and GFWL keys don't appear to be compatible. That being said, will this issue ever be resolved? Or is Microsoft going to keep ignoring us?

 

So is Microsoft just going to bury this or are those of us who bought games directly from GFWL going to get some assistance?

 

I'm having a problem with the Games For Windows Client too. I have the games installed fine, but when I run a game it asks for an activation key, but when trying to get the key from the client all I get is...

Game Activation Key:

Retrieving key

for a minute or so followed by

Game Activation Key:

An unknown error has occurred.

Not useful.

Looks to me like whatever server they used to store and issue keys is down/gone. If I'm right I'd suggest the best course of action would be to give everyone who bought from them Steam keys or similar, then they can turn the servers off for good.

 

Update: I've had an official response from Microsoft.

Apparently it's not their problem. If you want your Games For Windows Marketplace games, just contact the publishers and hope for the best.

"You seem to be telling me that the games I purchased from Microsoft are no longer Microsoft's problem and I have to contact the publisher of each game I own from the Games For Windows Live Marketplace and hope they'll give me alternative access to the games
and believe me when I tell them I already own them. Is this correct?"

<name removed>.: at 18:18:30

Yes, I totally understand. You were asking about how to prove them that you own the games and there it was, it should be on your purchase history. And yes, you have to contact the game publishers and see if they have alternatives for this. I've seen a couple
of steps via Steam that even the publishers themselves posted for non-working GfWL games and it works flawlessly. But then again, knowing that GfWL has been discontinued, the chances are slim but it's better to know for certain.

 

Of course this is up to the publishers. When you bought the game it was for GFWL. Not for other platforms. You buy something on Origin, it doesn't mean it'll unlock on Steam. It should if the companies cared,

Some publishers have gone above and beyond to help their customers transition away from GFWL (e.g. Batman games - you enter a GFWL code on Steam and I believe it works). Some publishers have made a conversion process for their games (e.g. Dark Souls). Other
publishers have left their games to rot.

It sucks, it's frustrating and it ticks me off.

Lets go even further. You bought a GFWL game on Steam. You need the GFWL key in order to play the game. Only way to get that key is through the Steam client itself. Guess what? Some of them don't even have the key available for you to see.

The whole thing is a gong show.

At least we never had a game released on Steam that required you to use uPlay to play a GFWL game?