Capcom has made a quiet but significant update to Lost Planet 2, removing support for Games for Windows Live (GFWL), which has effectively disabled online functionality and wiped out previous save data.

This change has come as a surprise to many fans, especially considering that Lost Planet 2 is inherently a multiplayer-focused game. As we 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 disappointing enough, the now-ironic observation from our review — “it’s basically unplayable as a single-player game” — resonates even more today. With GFWL removed, a core component of the game’s design has been stripped away.

As one player said on the Lost Planet subreddit: “The whole selling point of the series is co-op. May as well have just deleted the game from Steam at that point.” Another fan asked in disbelief: “…they got rid of the online functionality in a game that is intended to be played in online co-op?”

For context, GFWL was Microsoft’s online gaming service that enabled features like Xbox achievements, online play, and cross-platform multiplayer. However, it has long been deprecated, leaving players of games reliant on it with either extended login times or the hope of a developer update — a scenario that seems unlikely given Lost Planet 2’s age of 15 years.

On the bright side, this issue won’t impact new players, as Capcom has already pulled Lost Planet 2 from sale on Steam. A message on the game’s storefront reads: “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, including Street Fighter x Tekken and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, have also been affected, with similar notices appearing on their respective Steam pages. Still, some fans hope this is only a temporary setback — especially since Capcom previously managed to transition Resident Evil titles off GFWL by implementing Steamworks-based multiplayer.

We’ve reached out to Capcom for comment and will provide updates as they become available.

Back in 2010, we thought Lost Planet 2 was 'okay' when it released — but clearly, a lot has changed since then.