Thanks guys I appreciate it.

Jul 2, 2009 -- 4:37PM, Reizo wrote:

I mean GTA4 uses GFWL and it doesn't have install limits, several reviews mention so.

You asked for GTA4, here's some GTA4.

And here's a Relic developer being surprised at limited activations being present in Dawn of War 2.

And here's an interview with a GFWL dev, talking about the removal of said limited activations in the next version.

Satisfied?

It's more snark than hostility. Typing "gfwl activation limit" into Google isn't all that difficult, after all.

Jul 2, 2009 -- 5:30PM, Reizo wrote:

I did, several times, but I guess Yahoo searches differently from google :(

I never really liked yahoo.  And Google is a bad concerning privacy issues.  Bing seems to be pretty good for me.  I binged "gfwl activation limit" and it came up with appropiate results.  I also like their daily picture.

Jul 7, 2009 -- 12:15AM, Jeremy wrote:

Jul 2, 2009 -- 3:15PM, Sven wrote:

Jul 2, 2009 -- 1:22PM, Tom wrote:

Do you have to activate the game to see if it works?
I'm asking because I have a laptop that may or may not run it well, and I don't want to waste an activation on it if it doesn't work.

No... but you won't be able to play online or save a game (unlock anything) without it being activated.

Actually you are slightly wrong, not alot but jsut a little. A user can go and create an offline profile and that will allow them to save their games and such. But obviously this profile won't be allowed to go online at all by gfwl.

Basically all you do is when it asks you to sign into a profile you create a new one, and have it be an offline profile. Done, problem solved. That will let you have a version on your nonprimary machines, without using an install. Assumign you are not planning on playing it online on those machines.

This also lets the game save to your drive so that you can unlock characters, colors, etc.

It's all dandy but if the game needs to be patched bugs/ect and you ran out of the GFWL activation then your screwed.

[Below this is not toward to the respond to the OP]

The only reason I found out about the activation limit is because when I ran my Fallout 3, a game that is GFWL told me that my GFWL key was invalid. I did not reinstall my game nor my O/S but I did delete a file in my windows because I had a virus or should I say a spyware that wouldn't get off no matter what so I went deleted all the files that was modified and I accidentally deleted a important windows file. I did delete the malware but my windows thought I had a pirated version of windows but since mine was a OEM and I knew how to re-authenticate it by console but in the end it did use up one of my GFWL activation.

Granted Fallout 3 has a manual patches (and it's only my 2nd activation) so it's not a big deal (unless you wanted gamer points) but all the other GFWL don't have the luxury of manual patches which is a bummer.

I was at the store yesterday and I was thinking about getting SF IV for the PC and I checked on the back to see if it had SecuRom activation (only one game tells you flat out that I've seen was Burnout Paradise) and it didn't but I wanted to make sure so I didn't buy it. Later today I saw a post on Kotaku on Resident Evil 5 PC benchmark I grabbed it and while it downloaded I loaded up Fallout 3 and that's when GFWL happened, the removel of the malware happened a month ago and I haven't touched Fallout 3 since. That's when I looked on the internet about GFWL and I was friggn shocked.

I'm now glad the only GFWL I've boughten was Fallout 3 and I didn't get SF IV on a impulse. DMC4 was only GFW so that doesn't really matter (I still hate the fact you can't use dinput controller with vibration and your basically have to use XB360 controller on GFWL and GFW games).

From the state of PC gaming this past year so far, if PC gaming is ending up with more restriction and underhanded way of business I hope for a fast death on PC gaming because it's getting harder and harder for me to justify to even buy a PC game anymore without thinking twice on what kind of hidden catch does this game have on the end user.

I love PC gaming and I also own multiple consoles but usually I rather have the PC version because I am a gamer who actually play older games. Almost every PC game can be ran on future Widows O/S while the console is up to the maker. Time and time shown that PC gamers keep a good game alive by community support either by a fan made patch so it can be played on the current O/S and or mods to keep the longevity for replayability. I can see now that I can no longer count on PC platform to allow me to play the game I paid for years from now.

It's already bad that of DLC that I've paid for on the console may be obsolete and unsupported in the next iteration of that console assuming it's even backward compatible but I thought PC gaming would save me from that fear but I guess not.

I know publishers don't like 2nd hand sales but I know more people selling console games than I do on PC but yet I see more punishment for the PC gamers than I do with consoles. Don't even bother telling me it's PC piracy because consoles have their fair share too and I know it's quite a lot from my years of gaming on BOTH platform. One thing that actually gets me puzzled is that Gamestop or any other store like it makes a special deal with the game publisher for a exclusive special edition or DLC and yet they complain about 2nd hand sales all the time.

I'm glad that Capcom is taking PC gaming more seriously and not porting it over to a lesser company and do a good job but you know Capcom should've done that from the start long time ago.

Now the only problem I have is that GFWL limitation (and how dinput controllers don't fully work anymore and have to use XB360 controller) so I have to say I'm not going to buy any of your products on PC if it has GFWL unless they no longer restrict the activation (and I don't care about if theres a revok tool in the future since we all know something usually goes wrong before you have the chance to revok it) or SecuRom activation (since no devs released it with deauthorize tool at launch and the last time I had a game using SecuRom activation when I updated my gfx driver it had to re-authorize it and used up one of the activation).

I only hope that PC RE5 don't have either one of those but somehow I highly doubt it. I actually hate (GFW) GFWL even before I knew about activation limit because It would create a cancer in PC gaming.

Edit: I read the update on GFWL that MS is working on to fix the GFWL activation limit [www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/Community/...] but I still don't trust them for personal reason from my experience from them when I use to use XBL and none of my DLC worked offline with my console after I sent it in and had no solution. Yes I know theirs a DRM transfer now but it took them over a year to sort that out and yes I still own a 360, the same one and I haven't bought anything for it since that ordeal (heck I didn't even get my 1 month free XBL card even though they said they'll send me another one). The reason for my worries is that the new update with GFWL that they planned let the publisher have the ability to change the limitation on current games that is out now?

Also the way they worded in the update that it'll be tied to a windows live account makes me worried also since I have a multiple live account (that is because I've boughten some games I had on my original live account on XBL after the incident explained above so I can play it offline FYI no they didn't give me MS points like so many people said they would if I ended up with refurbished when I got it fixed <- some of you will know what I'm talking about) that I ended up using so that will hurt me and other gamers that have multiple users and more likely you have to be online at all times to work and that brings back too many bad memories (XB360). If that happens I'll really hate GFWL, not only it'll be only useable to that account only you can't even transfer it to your other account. Sure It'll act like Valve's Steam but the thing with Steam is that we know and willingly buy the game that is available in retail to be used on one account only and some games we don't mind that but if GFWL is going to end up like Steam where it ties to one account only even though you buy it in retail without even giving us the option not to associate it to a account robs us even more rights as PC gamers.