Capcom has made a quiet but significant update to Lost Planet 2, removing support for Games for Windows Live (GFWL) and, in doing so, disabling online functionality and erasing previous player save data.
This change has taken many fans by surprise—especially those on the Lost Planet subreddit—given that Lost Planet 2 is fundamentally built around multiplayer gameplay. As noted 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 the loss of saved progress is frustrating enough, the removal of GFWL now leaves Lost Planet 2 without one of its foundational features: online cooperative play. As one player remarked on Reddit, “The whole selling point of the series is co-op.” Another added, “May as well have just deleted the game from Steam at that point,” while questioning how Capcom could disable the online component in a title designed for online co-op.
GFWL was Microsoft’s online gaming service, offering Xbox achievements, multiplayer matchmaking, and cross-platform compatibility. However, it has long been deprecated, leaving players with either slow logins or no access at all. Many had hoped Capcom would eventually replace GFWL with something more modern—like Steamworks—but given that *Lost Planet 2* is now 15 years old, such an update seems unlikely.On the bright side, this issue won’t affect new players—at least not directly. The game has been temporarily removed from sale on Steam, with Capcom posting a notice stating: “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 titles like Street Fighter x Tekken and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City have also been affected, with similar messages appearing on their Steam store pages. Some fans remain hopeful that this is a temporary situation; when Capcom removed GFWL from Resident Evil 5, it eventually replaced it with Steamworks-based multiplayer.
We’ve reached out to Capcom for comment and will provide updates as they become available.
Looking back, we thought Lost Planet 2 was “okay” at launch back in 2010—but clearly, a lot has changed since then.
