About
Gears of War is the 2007 PC port of Epic Games' 2006 Xbox 360 shooter, built on Unreal Engine 3. It popularized the cover-based 'stop and pop' third-person shooter formula and was a major critical and commercial success. The PC edition added five extra campaign chapters, new multiplayer maps, and a map editor. It was delisted around 2010 after its Games for Windows Live digital certificate expired, which blocks launch on unpatched copies.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- WarGame-G4WLive.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
⚙ Setup notes
Game: 2007 Epic Games PC port (UE3) of the Xbox 360 shooter, delisted around 2010 — supply your own copy. Built on Games for Windows Live (now dead).
Not on Steam: This 2007 PC port shipped only on the Games for Windows Marketplace / retail disc — it was never on Steam, so there is no ProtonDB page (tier left blank). It's run via Lutris or a manually-added non-Steam shortcut under GE-Proton. (Don't confuse it with the 2025 Steam remaster *Gears of War: Reloaded*, app 2523720 — a different game.)
Proton: Use GE-Proton (community reports confirm it runs, e.g. GE-Proton7-15 and newer); proton_experimental also works once GFWL is neutralized.
DRM: Apply Title Update 3 in order — GearsOfWar_TitleUpdate.exe, then GearsTU.exe, then GearsPC_TU3_Microsoft.exe — to fix the expired digital-signature error ('cannot run the game with modified executable code').
GFWL: Remove the GFWL dependency with a community launcher bypass plus an xlive stub (Xliveless / xlivelessness). The bypass drops the stub and edits AppData/Roaming/Microsoft Games/Gears of War/CurrentSite/default.htm so the launcher no longer blocks startup. A maintained helper that skips startup.exe and launches WarGame-G4WLive.exe directly is shayaantx/Sera on GitHub.
Fix: Kill any lingering GFWL/LIVE process if launch hangs.
Install: Single-player + save work after the bypass; GFWL online is dead.
Controller: Native Xbox 360 / XInput pad support works out of the box, so the Deck's built-in controls are detected with no extra config — other pads can route through Steam Input as an Xbox 360 controller.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Delisted — configuration only, no links.
DRM: NOT plug-and-play — requires Title Update 3 (applied in order) to fix the expired-certificate launch block, PLUS the community GFWL Launcher Bypass (Xliveless stub + default.htm edit) so the dead Games for Windows Live no longer blocks startup.
Fix: Kill the LIVE process if launch hangs.
Install: Single-player and saves work post-bypass; GFWL online is gone.
Controller: Native Xbox 360/XInput support — Deck controls detected with no extra setup.
Proton: Use GE-Proton. Never on Steam (GFWL-only), so no ProtonDB tier exists — tier left blank.
Binary: Main game exe is WarGame-G4WLive.exe in Binaries/ (full path Microsoft Games/Gears of War/Binaries/WarGame-G4WLive.exe). startup.exe is the GFWL launcher you bypass.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.