Hey-Ho, The Witch Isn't Dead: GFWL Not Going Anywhere

As if the recent Dark Souls news wasn't enough, we've now got another sobering report putting a nail in the coffin of GFWL's coffin. See, there was - if only briefly - a thin ray of hope. Well, sort of. Windows 8 is bringing full Xbox Live functionality along for the ride, so you'd think Microsoft might at least retire its creaky PC gaming backend and put its full efforts behind a hopefully (and that's a long shot) less tiresome interface. No such luck, however. GFWL, says Microsoft, will live on until long after our pitiful species is dethroned by apes, aliens, zombies, and Mayan ghosts - all at once.

So the software monolith said in response to a query from NeoGamr, ostensibly the web's biggest fan of gams.

"Answer is no, Microsoft continues to support the Games for Windows platform, but we are making new investments in Metro style games. For the core PC gamer we launched Age of Empires Online last year and Microsoft Flight on February 29."

Windows 8's take on XBL, on the other hand, will focus more on lighter Metro-based fare like Hydro Thunder Hurricane and Pinball FX2. Meanwhile, Games for Windows - which doesn't even have its own separate website anymore - will apparently keep doing its own thing against all odds.

And honestly, I'd be happy about that continued separation if Microsoft would actually fashion GFWL into something that doesn't feel like a cursed relic retrieved from an ancient 2003 burial ground. At this point, though, the lazily mumbled lip service (as opposed to, you know, real service) feels like a bigger slap in the face than full-on XBL integration. If you're gonna differentiate between platforms (as you should), at least pretend like you actually care.