GFWL 15 activations limit question...

chaparral · 23 Jan 2010 at 22:18

Does the GFWL 15 activations limit on GFWL games reset every month/year etc or is it only 15 activations forever ???

malachi · 23 Jan 2010 at 23:15

Its down to the game you are activating not GFWL itself.

chaparral · 24 Jan 2010 at 01:48

malachi said:
Its down to the game you are activating not GFWL itself.

No....GFWL games have limited activations
GFWL games have 15 activations

This is done by microsoft and not the game..all GFWL games have the same 15 activation limit..

MeMeMeMe · 24 Jan 2010 at 01:55

I believe (I hope!) that means each game can be activated 15 times, not that you have a total of 15 activations divided between your games.

It doesn't get reset ever, unless you call their phoneline and ask for new activations.

chaparral · 24 Jan 2010 at 02:05

MeMeMeMe said:
unless you call their phoneline and ask for new activations.

I read that they will only reset the game activations one time by phoning them and no more..

malachi · 24 Jan 2010 at 02:33

chaparral said:
No....GFWL games have limited activations
GFWL games have 15 activations

This is done by microsoft and not the game..all GFWL games have the same 15 activation limit..

This is new to me, Ive activated my SF4 plenty of times on different computers due to formats/multiple computers and never been hit with a activation limit :confused:

Only one Ive come across is Scared 2 but thats due to SecureRom and its also a stand GFW not GFWL.

ninja2000 · 24 Jan 2010 at 07:59

I ran out of activations on my DOW2

Good luck to anyone trying to phone M$ for another key. There is no dedicated GFWL number or email so you have to phone xbox live and they know nothing about GFWL. 3 40min conversations and still no joy. In the end it was easier to buy it again (as it was on offer at 4.99).

I wont be buying GFWL games again if I can help it.

malachi · 24 Jan 2010 at 10:57

ninja2000 said:
I ran out of activations on my DOW2
Good luck to anyone trying to phone M$ for another key. There is no dedicated GFWL number or email so you have to phone xbox live and they know nothing about GFWL. 3 40min conversations and still no joy. In the end it was easier to buy it again (as it was on offer at 4.99).

I wont be buying GFWL games again if I can help it.

Couldnt you have contacted Steam instead?

chaparral · 24 Jan 2010 at 12:33

malachi said:
Couldnt you have contacted Steam instead?

No..steam can't do anything but tell you to phone GFWL..

ic1male · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:27

So it's 15 different computers this limit? Or 15 installs regardless of which computer? :confused:

Evilsod · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:40

Theres more chance of finding proof of alien existence using GFWL than there is of finding any information about install/machine limits.

Theres a good chance the folks at Valve know as little about GFWL as we do, hell by the sounds of it, the ones on GFWL Support know less about GFWL than we do.

Matteysan · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:42

chaparral said:
No..steam can't do anything but tell you to phone GFWL..

But what happens if you buy it through steam? Surely it is down to them to offer support as it is their platform you brought the game on?

If my Dawn Of War 2 ever does this I'll be annoyed :/

ic1male · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:43

Goddamn it. Valve doing their best with offering a great service to PC users and then Microsoft undermine the whole affair with this friggin GfWL rubbish. Who gives a poop about achievements for goodness sake.

Evilsod · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:44

Mattey1 said:
But what happens if you buy it through steam? Surely it is down to them to offer support as it is their platform you brought the game on?

If my Dawn Of War 2 ever does this I'll be annoyed :/

No its upto Steam to offer support for there own service, just as its upto MS to offer support for there service. Once Steam support finds out its a GFWL problem its clearly upto MS to sort it out, not them. The only problem is getting support for GFWL is futile by the sounds of it.

Its not the achievements that are the issue, its penis size.... sorry gamerscore. Steam Achievements do just fine without it.

ic1male · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:47

This is the number given on the MS website. Whether it's to Xbox customer support, I have no idea...

United Kingdom
Assistance by phone:
0800 587 1102
or +44 20 7365 9792 from a mobile phone
Hours of operation:
Monday-Friday: 09:00-22:00
Saturday: 09:00-20:00
Sunday: 09:00-17:00

chaparral · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:55

ic1male said:
So it's 15 different computers this limit? Or 15 installs regardless of which computer?

I have no idea which one it is....

But If it only 15 installs that is very worrying...As i have 3 computers in my house (bedroom,lounge,HTPC) which i install my steam games on...
So that would 3 installs already used up..

ic1male · 24 Jan 2010 at 13:59

I can only see talk on other forums about it being installs on some games. So if you installed to a PC, format it and reinstall to the same PC, that's 2 activations. But on other games it's machine installs. So in the above scenario it would only be 1 activation.

It seems to be if a game has a high number limit of activations (such as 15 for BioShock 2), then each install counts be it on a different PC or the same as previous. On a low limit (such as 5 for GTA:IV), it's each separate computer.

Evilsod · 24 Jan 2010 at 14:12

chaparral said:
I have no idea which one it is....

But If it only 15 installs that is very worrying...As i have 3 computers in my house (bedroom,lounge,HTPC) which i install my steam games on...
So that would 3 installs already used up..

Theres cause for concern whichever it is. Its been shown many times that GFWL is clearly a system Microsoft have no intention of doing properly. Steam supports almost 10x as many countries, newer, similar systems, all support more countries than GFWL. Judging by what i've read, MS haven't added a new country in over 2 years. It really doesn't seem as though they have any interest in the system, never mind in supporting problems with it.