Fallout 3 is receiving a surprise update, whose patch notes contain only two new features: improved performance and stability, and Games for Windows Live are no longer available. Both can be seen in a causal relationship.
Windows Live games have been discontinued
With the new version 1.7.0.4, it is now possible to start the game without installing Games for Windows Live. Creating an offline account is cumbersome, because creating a typical Microsoft offline account is no longer necessary, as are the possible causes of crashes and error sources. Since the service was discontinued in 2014, the role-playing game can now be played again without any workarounds. Fallout 3 is the last of the big “GfWL” titles to expand the customer base. Recently, Rockstar removed the remnants of GTA IV because no more activation keys could be generated after the downtime.
Ironically, Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda removed a Microsoft service from the game. However, the move does not seem illogical at all. On the one hand, Microsoft keeps the classic games fresh and thus enhances the GamePass offering, and on the other hand, a sign of a major failure, which served as a red cloth for gamers, has been erased. So, in principle, it is about developing a double image, since the service is now completely abandoned into oblivion. Anyway, only Steam and Microsoft Store draw the level, because GOG has been without the service for so long.
Failed from the start
Windows Live Games should connect Xbox 360 and PC in 2007, but at the same time create a paid live service on PC. Windows Vista as a requirement and annual fee of $50 – which was quickly dropped – was and still is hard to charge on a PC. There was no manipulation, no high-profile presentation or strategy followed conclusively. On the contrary, Games for Windows Live was seen as a nuisance, which was expressed, among other things, in petitions for games like Dark Souls, which still use it.
