14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft announces that it plans to pull the plug on Games for Windows Live on July 1 of next year. The company says that the shutdown will affect Age of Empires Online, although the game is being offered via the Steam digital distribution service.
According to NeoGAF, the official support page states that, “You can continue to enjoy all the features of Age of Empires Online as the service will remain 100% operational until July 1, 2014 when the server will shut down.”
It’s unclear whether after that date the game will continue to be playable but with a reduced number of features or if the series is being canceled for a second time.
Games for Windows Live has long been criticized by players and a limited number of titles are currently using it.
Presumably, all of them will make the move to the Steamworks suite of tools from Valve before the day when the Microsoft service is taken offline.