• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Can't launch games from Xbox App (Windows 10, Gaming Services on Microsoft store)

A.Romero

Member
So I work full time and go to school for a second degree. I pretty much only get to game on Saturdays evening and Sundays. Today I finished early because the semester is over and decided to take a look at Halo's campaign. Launched Gamepass clicked on play and... the Microsoft store opens showing me the page for the Gaming Services app.

I thought it was maybe because I haven't restarted my machine in a while (I'm sitting here like 75% of the time I'm awake)... So I proceed to restart and no luck. OK, must be some weird update issue. Run updates for everything in Windows and every single app in the microsoft store that could be related (like the Xbox console companion). It doesn't work.

Fine, google time. Discover it's a common enough issue to have presence in several forums for almost 2 years. Start trying solutions:

Update, repair, delete, reinstall... Nothing works.

OK. Find some powershell commands. Decide to run them as I'm comfortable doing stuff like that, I work IT for a living. It doesn't work.

So out of the very limited time I got for gaming I just had to spend almost 40 minutes troubleshooting Microsoft's ass for a store.

Fuck that. I thought it was supposed to be greatly improved recently but no, it's plagued with the same issues we have had since always.

I can count with one hand the times I've had issues running software from Steam, EA, UPlay and GOG. How is it possible that one of the biggest software companies in the world has this sorry excuse of a software for one of their flagship products?

Seriously, I really like working Microsoft tech. They are second to none in the enterprise environment but this is just frustrating as hell.

Anyway, wanted to vent. Gamepass is a great deal but Microsoft needs to get their shit together in regards to their store. It was working fine a few days ago. Now I'll do some thinking to decide if this is enough to cancel gamepass for a while (I'm not sure I want to format my PC nor download all the games again).
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
By some chance are you on some insider build? Because for Xbox app that caused me nothing but trouble.

If you haven't done I would restart services which is for the Xbox app, sometimes it's just so happened that they not start.
 

A.Romero

Member
By some chance are you on some insider build? Because for Xbox app that caused me nothing but trouble.

If you haven't done I would restart services which is for the Xbox app, sometimes it's just so happened that they not start.

No insider program at all. Since the pandmic started I work from my desktop computer instead of my work laptop so I need a stable environment in general.

Funnily enough all the rest of the games work, including first party games like Horizon. I just uninstalled Halo Infinite. It was the first Halo I played since Halo 2.
 

01011001

Banned
this fuckin bug is annoying and many get it. i have it as well currently... last time I had it I completely reinstalled Windows to fix it. but apparently you can also just wait a few days -_-
your store basically doesn't detect that there has been an update for the Game Services app, and without the newest version your game doesn't start

the microsoft store still needs a shitload of work
 
Last edited:

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
No insider program at all. Since the pandmic started I work from my desktop computer instead of my work laptop so I need a stable environment in general.

Funnily enough all the rest of the games work, including first party games like Horizon. I just uninstalled Halo Infinite. It was the first Halo I played since Halo 2.
Oh in that case something else is fucked. I though that it throws some stupid error or something. In that case, I am not qualified to help sadly...
 

winjer

Gold Member
Problems with the Windows store, Xbox app and the like, it's a dime a dozen.

Have you tried running this on powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
 

tusharngf

Member
i think microsoft offers live chat support and they fix problem using some remote tool of theirs. I got my key changed once when i changed my motherboard. They gave me new key without any extra cost.

Type in search bar " Get help" in windows
 
Last edited:

A.Romero

Member
this fuckin bug is annoying and many get it. i have it as well currently... last time I had it I completely reinstalled Windows to fix it. but apparently you can also just wait a few days -_-
your store basically doesn't detect that there has been an update for the Game Services app, and without the newest version your game doesn't start

the microsoft store still needs a shitload of work
Fuck it, I can live without playing Halo. I might try again in the future. There are too many games around.
Oh in that case something else is fucked. I though that it throws some stupid error or something. In that case, I am not qualified to help sadly...
Thanks for the suggestions, man.

Problems with the Windows store, Xbox app and the like, it's a dime a dozen.

Have you tried running this on powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
Didn't try this but I already uninstalled Halo so can't test it. The rest of the games seem to work fine.

i think microsoft offers live chat support and they fix problem using some remote tool of theirs. I got my key changed once when i changed my motherboard. They gave me new key without any extra cost.

Type in search bar " Get help" in windows
Didn't know this. Will keep in mind for the next time. I uninstalled Halo for now.
 

M16

Member
Run updates for everything in Windows
Tell the truth, did you ever have at anytime disabled windows updates, or tried to do some unsanctioned regedits like disable telemetry,etc..?
 

ManaByte

Member
Tell the truth, did you ever have at anytime disabled windows updates, or tried to do some unsanctioned regedits like disable telemetry,etc..?

You won't believe the number of people who do that and then wonder why things don't work.
 

A.Romero

Member
Tell the truth, did you ever have at anytime disabled windows updates, or tried to do some unsanctioned regedits like disable telemetry,etc..?
No, I've been using this computer for work for almost 2 years now so I try to keep it up to date for security reasons. Not concerned about tracking stuff so the OS is as it comes.

You won't believe the number of people who do that and then wonder why things don't work.
Not my case but even if it was, just a few days ago I played Halo's tutorial and some of the shooting range challenges. It worked OK. It stopped working after the campaign was installed.
 

01011001

Banned
Tell the truth, did you ever have at anytime disabled windows updates, or tried to do some unsanctioned regedits like disable telemetry,etc..?

You won't believe the number of people who do that and then wonder why things don't work.

none of this happened here, this bug is a well known one. just go on the store page of the Game Services app and look through the reviews. thousands of people having the same bug. and actually, look on twitter currently, I have seen hundreds of reports with the same issue in the recent tweets when searching "windows store"

this is an issue on their DRM server/service that doesn't updated properly and just throws you to the store
 
Last edited:

M16

Member
none of this happened here, this bug is a well known one. just go on the store page of the Game Services app and look through the reviews. thousands of people having the same bug. and actually, look on twitter currently, I have seen hundreds of reports with the same issue in the recent tweets when searching "windows store"

this is an issue on their DRM server/service that doesn't updated properly and just throws you to the store
its possible its a bug, but in my experience, most of the people i see having problems are the "trust me bro, im tech savvy" crowd who use unsanctioned os tweaking utilities and end up messing up their system. the store uses the exact same mechanism xbox has been using forever. even on windows phones for years, no such issues with the store.
 

01011001

Banned
its possible its a bug, but in my experience, most of the people i see having problems are the "trust me bro, im tech savvy" crowd who use unsanctioned os tweaking utilities and end up messing up their system. the store uses the exact same mechanism xbox has been using forever. even on windows phones for years, no such issues with the store.

I literally have a fresh windows install that I reinstalled BECAUSE I HAD THIS BUG... now after 2 weeks I have it again. so this is a 100% purely a bug with the store and their DRM system
 

A.Romero

Member
its possible its a bug, but in my experience, most of the people i see having problems are the "trust me bro, im tech savvy" crowd who use unsanctioned os tweaking utilities and end up messing up their system. the store uses the exact same mechanism xbox has been using forever. even on windows phones for years, no such issues with the store.

There are many issues with the store itself.

However, you are right. A lot of people mess up their installation with BS tools.

Not the case with this particular bug.
 
I had this very same issue trying to play Halo Infinite yesterday you need to uninstall game services using the windows powershell (running in admin mode very important) copy a few commands from a tutorial nothing too difficult, reboot, start the gamepass app and then it will ask you to reinstall game services .

Also for Halo Infinite for some damn reason I had to uncheck the HD texture pack for it to work.

It's annoying as hell
 
Last edited:

A.Romero

Member
I had this very same issue trying to play Halo Infinite yesterday you need to uninstall game services using the windows powershell (running in admin mode very important) copy a few commands from a tutorial nothing too difficult, reboot, start the gamepass app and then it will ask you to reinstall game services .

Also for Halo Infinite for some damn reason I had to uncheck the HD texture pack for it to work.

It's annoying as hell
The only thing I didn't try is disabling the texture pack.

Thanks for the tip.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
UkiHArm.png
 

Droxcy

Member
I had an issue where I was trying to install a game to a different hard drive other than the one that’s usually used. When you first install a game from the store it creates two unique folders and if you don’t install new games to that same drive it’ll give you an error and won’t let you download them until you place it in the correct drive.
 

A.Romero

Member
I had an issue where I was trying to install a game to a different hard drive other than the one that’s usually used. When you first install a game from the store it creates two unique folders and if you don’t install new games to that same drive it’ll give you an error and won’t let you download them until you place it in the correct drive.
So basically limiting the installation to a single drive.

Sounds like poorly designed DRM.
 
Top Bottom