<p>Last August, Microsoft shut down its Games for Windows Live Marketplace. The biggest implication of this was that those who had unspent Microsoft Points in the system needed to spend them before the Marketplace shut down on Aug. 22. The GFWL client would remain operational, and the Marketplace function wasn't likely to be missed given how it was dwarfed by the catalogs of other digital distribution services like Steam or EA's Origin.</p><p>Fast forward a few months and it seems that the Games for Windows Live story isn't quite over ... but it looks like it will be soon. A support article for Age of Empires Online (which has since been deleted) mentioned that the entire Games for Windows Live service would be shutting down on July 1, 2014. This isn't overly surprising, as no new games were being added to the service and the service itself is unpopular among gamers. There is one problem, though: what happens to the games that rely on the service for authentication?</p><p>What does this mean for the games?There are over 70 games that use the Games for Windows Live service, though many of these are slightly older games. A number of publishers who used the service at one point made the switch to Steam or other forms of digital distribution with successive releases, as seen most recently in Time Warner's Warner Bros. releasing Batman: Arkham Origins using Steamworks for authentication and achievements after the previous "Arkham" games used Games for Windows Live.</p><p>The problem, of course, is that games that still rely on the service for authentication will not function properly -- if at all -- without being able to connect to Games for Windows Live servers. Unless the games are updated so that they no longer require the service for authentication, they may simply become unplayable if and when the service shuts down.</p><p><a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/02/04/games-for-windows-live-shutdown-forces-industry-to/">Keep reading...</a></p>