THQ has decided to use Steamworks instead of Microsoft's Games For Window Live (GFWL) technology for its forthcoming Warhammer 40,000 titles.
THQ is one of the largest publishers who used to integrate Microsoft's Games For Window Live technology in its games in spite of widespread complaints about the platform's troublesomeness and invasiveness.
Dawn of War II players in particular were frustrated with the game's inclusion of GFWL due to the fact that it also required a Steam account, thus requiring 2 logins to play.
"This new back end will allow players to invite friends into matches from their Steam friends lists," explained THQ in a statement, "and take advantage of the full set of Steam community features including groups, achievements, and Steam overlay chat channels."
"We are also going to include an all new matchmaking and ranking set up, built specifically for Dawn of War II - Retribution."
"The move to Steamworks will also allow us to provide features like guest passes, free multiplayer weekends, pre-loading and the ability to provide fast turn-around on future patches and updates."
