The list of Games for Windows Live games grows ever-smaller, which is a good thing, as if their brief (and subsequently deleted) support update last year was correct it'll be closing in July. Capcom had previously revealed plans to transition Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and, for the preposterously initialled SSFIVAE at least, have now announced when that switch will take place.

"As Ultra Street Fighter IV is coming out soon for Steam, we are looking to transition our current GFWL users over to Steamworks in order to provide the optimal level of support across the board for PC Street Fighter fans," writes Capcom community manager Peter "ComboFiend" Rosas. "We ve been working behind the scenes to ensure that this change will be as seamless as possible, but for users who still wish to continue using GFWL, the game will still function as normal for the foreseeable future."

For users who don't still wish to continue using the service, you'll be able to transition to Steamworks from this Friday, 30 May. If you own SSFIVAE through Steam, you'll be prompted to transition from that date, with the client automatically transferring save files. Those with a retail copy of the game will be able to activate their CD Key through Steam. Unfortunately for the latter group, any DLC they'd bought through GFW Live will be lost. "Both paid and free DLC for the GFWL version will not be transferred over in this process," writes Rosas, "but Steam should not be affected."

As for Capcom's other GfW Live games, including Dead Rising 2 and Resident Evil 5, Capcom gave us the following statement: "While we do not have any information regarding changes to the GFWL service, all of our applicable titles continue to support the features and will function normally."

That does call into question exactly what will happen on the expected GfW Live shut-off date. We'll continue to pester Microsoft for a statement on the fate of the service.

Capcom have released a new trailer for Hyper Mega Giga Ultra Street Fighter IV. As well as rounding up the four already-announced playable characters set to make an SF4 entrance through this upcoming upgraded edition, it also reveals the fifth, entirely new fighter: Decapre. She's a brainwashed member of creepy-ol' Bison's all-girl Dolls squad, and, as is traditional for the Street Fighter universe, is proficient at the punching.

As well as the new characters, Ultra Street Fighter 4 will re-jig the battle system slightly, and, perhaps more importantly, will K.O. Games for Windows Live in favour of Steamworks. Capcom also recently announced an edition select feature, letting players fight as pre-balance tweaked versions of each character.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 will be available for PC in August, both as a standalone game, and as an upgrade for the current Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition.

RIP Games for Windows Live, we hardly knew ye. On second thoughts, we knew ye pretty well, and we hated your malodorous guts - good riddance. Of course, with Microsoft's hated games service going the way of the passenger pigeon (I was going to say dodo, but a load of animals have sadly been made extinct since then), there's the little matter of what's going to happen to all the games infested with GFWL. Will they be playable after July 1st, when the service is being taken out to the woodshed to be shot in the head? It's still unclear, but it doesn't seem likely - unless developers take it upon themselves to patch their games.

So far, only Fallout 3, Bioshock 2, the Arkham games, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and Toy Soldiers have extracted the service, leaving a few dozen games with the sword of DRMacles hanging over their heads. Thanks to Joystiq, we now at least know which developers and games are aiming to follow suit.

There's good news and bad news. Mostly bad, I'm afraid. The good news is that Super Street Fighter IV / SSFIV Arcade Edition, DiRT 3, F1 2010, F1 2011, Red Faction Guerrilla and Ms. Explosion Man will all replace GFWL with Steamworks (or in the case of RF:G, perhaps a DRM solution of its own), their respective developers have confirmed to Joystiq.

The sorta-good news is that Namco Bandai are "exploring options" to removing GFWL from Dark Souls and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. If they don't remove it from the former at least, I imagine there'd be one hell of a stink come July 1st.

The bad news is that the Dead Rising and Lost Planet games, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter X Tekken, Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising and Red River, Iron Brigade, Fable 3, Gears of War, Halo 2, Blacklight: Tango Down and quite a lot of other games currently have "no plans" to remove GFWL. See my 'one hell of a stink' comment from earlier and insert the word 'massive' in there somewhere.

Joystiq are "still awaiting response" about GTAIV, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2, Bulletstorm and a few other games. You can read the full list of games here. Thanks, Joystiq!

With BioShock 2 and the Arkham games abandoning the quickly sinking Games for Windows Live ship for the SS Steamworks, players are asking publishers a common question: “Will I be able to play my games after Games for Windows Live is gone?” Capcom started getting the brunt of the attention last week, though it appears the company’s still mapping its escape route.

About a week ago, someone from the Steam forums said they emailed someone at Capcom about how the company will support its games that run on Games for Windows Live. According to the poster, a representative wrote back saying we'd still be able to play games after the service shut down, but didn’t go into specifics on how that’d happen.

I tried to confirm this information with Capcom, and was given the company’s official response:

“We are looking into what options are available to take care of users that purchased on GFWL, but will announce what will happen once we have something 100% confirmed."

Microsoft isn’t pulling the plug on GFWL until July 1, 2014, so Capcom still has some time to hash out a plan.