Capcom has quietly updated Lost Planet 2 to remove Games for Windows Live (GFWL), essentially eliminating online functionality and previous save data.
It's come as quite a shock to Lost Planet fans on the subreddit, not least because Lost Planet 2 is a multiplayer game. As we wrote in our 2010 review: "At its core it's a potentially great action game and it's very good-looking, but it explains itself so incredibly poorly and has such an awkward structure and poor checkpointing that a lot of the fun is ruined by interminable frustration — not to mention the fact that it's basically unplayable as a single-player game. It has a few genuine standout moments, especially on the rare occasions that everything works in co-op, but they don't balance out the faults."
While losing save data is bad enough, it's that bit at the end — "it's basically unplayable as a single-player game" — that's particularly interesting here, as without GFWL, Lost Planet 2 has lost an essential part of its gameplay.
"The whole selling point of the series is co-op," said one player. "May as well have just deleted the game from Steam at that point," while another asked incredulously: "…they got rid of the online functionality in a game that is intended to be played in online coop?"
GFWL was an online gaming service provided by Microsoft. It integrated features like Xbox achievements, online play, and cross-platform multiplayer, but it's now deprecated, which means players of games that use it either have to make peace with enlongated login times, or wait for the developer to update — which is what gamers are hoping will happen here, although it's hard to say that'll be the case given Lost Planet 2 is 15 years old now.
On the plus side, this shouldn't affect any new players — Lost Planet 2 has been withdrawn from sale, with Capcom leaving a message on the Steam storefront page, saying: "We are aware of an issue that some customers may be experiencing during game installation which is related to Games for Windows LIVE. We are temporarily disabling the purchase option on Steam while we investigate the matter further. We will keep you informed of the progress of the investigation. Thank you for your patience."
Other Capcom games like Street Fighter x Tekken and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City have also been impacted, with similar messages also displaying on their Steam pages. However, some fans hope this'll be a temporary issue; when Capcom similarly removed GFWL from Resident Evil, the team was reportedly able to implement Steamworks multiplayer as a replacement.
We've asked Capcom for comment and will let you know as/when we hear back.
We thought Lost Planet 2 was 'okay' when it released way back in 2010.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
