Dirt 3 finally leaves Games for Windows Live in the dirt

Remember when Codemasters announced plans to remove Games for Windows Live from Dirt 3 and transition it to Steamworks instead? That was in 2013. I don't imagine anyone took them too seriously three months ago when they said they were still working on it, but today the studio announced that the magic moment has finally arrived.

"First up I want to say sorry for just how long it has taken to move DiRT 3 to Steamworks and I would also like to thank you all for keeping up the pressure on us to move it over. Every day I have over a hundred notifications on my Steam account, there are threads thousands of comments deep about it and countless Tweets and Facebook messages - while you’d think it would be the kind of thing that would bug the hell out of me, you’d be wrong," Community Manager Lee Williams wrote on Steam. "It just goes to show that you guys love DiRT and care about it a lot."

Interestingly, it appears that instead of actually changing Dirt 3, Codemasters is simply giving everyone who owns it a free copy of Dirt 3 Complete Edition, which includes all of the DLC and uses Steamworks instead of GFWL. "Those who originally purchased the game via Steam will notice that the now old GFWL version of DiRT 3 will still be in your library," Williams wrote. "You will still be able to play this version but it will still include Games for Windows Live and you won’t have access to the Complete Edition content—nothing will have changed with that older version."

Unfortunately, because of differences in the two versions, saves are not compatible, so veteran Dirt-ers will have to start over from scratch. On the upside, owners of the boxed or GFWL versions can activate those keys on Steam to get the Dirt 3 Complete Edition at no charge. A few users, myself included, have reported that the game hasn't appeared in their library yet; Williams suggested that anyone encountering a delay log out of Steam and then reconnect.