Fans think Capcom could be gearing up to re-release Lost Planet 2 on PC thanks to a new update – which just so happened to also delete everyone's saves and break the online.
Games For Windows Live is a name that will send shivers down the spine of PC gamers who were around in the early 2010s. Microsoft's attempt to get Xbox Live into PC gaming resulted in some of the most poorly done PC ports of the era, like the early version of Dark Souls. If you think the Epic Games Store is rough, you did not suffer through GFWL.
For whatever reason Capcom was one of the publishers who loved using GFWL, with the likes of Dead Rising 2, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter 4 using the service. While some games still have access to it, Microsoft has moved over to the (somewhat) superior Windows Store, and most games have removed it, such as the aforementioned Dead Rising 2 and Resident Evil 5 – which now use Valve's Steamworks.
In 2021, Capcom removed games from Steam to presumably update them to work without the GFWL DRM integration, these being both Lost Planet 1 and 2, Street Fighter 4, Street Fighter X Tekken, and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. But players have noticed that all of these games, barring Street Fighter 4 (which has the Ultra Street Fighter 4 edition available on Steam right now), have been updated to remove Games For Windows Live. This has led players to assume these games will finally be coming back to Steam.
Now, Lost Planet 1 is rough, and Street Fighter x Tekken and Operation Raccoon City are among the worst games in their respective series, but Lost Planet 2 is a banger. When Capcom really wanted Monster Hunter to take off outside of Japan, Lost Planet 2 felt like a shooter version of its marquee series. However, Lost Planet 2 has been hit with another layer in this update, as it has also removed online play and deleted the saves of players who owned it on PC already (via IGN).
If Capcom brings back Lost Planet 2 without the co-op multiplayer that made that game so great, it'll be a huge bummer. But as a member of the Reddit thread about this noted, Resident Evil 5 now uses Steamworks, so hopefully if and when it eventually comes back, we can experience one of Capcom's best co-op games without issue.