Fans reached out to Microsoft to save a 2000s-era FPS from the brink, and it paid off: 'it actually kinda works better'

pcgamer.com:

I just found out that Shadowrun, Dungeons & Dragons' cyberpunk cousin, had a Counter-Strike style FPS game. I also just found out that you can still play it, thanks to some determined fans and an active Discord community. 

A recent thread on the ResetEra forums by user wwm0nkey has revealed that the game's matchmaking has been patched up after a plea to Microsoft after a recent server update accidentally broke what was left of its matchmaking. Shadowrun's multiplayer had been presumed dead in the ground for years after its dedicated servers shut down, but it was eventually discovered that it still worked via some peer-to-peer backend wizardry. This led to an explosion of activity within a Discord community of dedicated fans named «This is Shadowrun». 

This group of ride-or-die fans got a small community up and running, though things grew dire when a surprise update threatened to knock it all down. «A few days ago Microsoft updated some [Xbox 360] matchmaking services, which fixed Call of Duty games on the platform, but actually ended up nuking the Shadowrun Matchmaking service,» Wwm0nkey wrote.

«Well a few people (myself included) reached out and Microsoft actually ended up fixing it … it actually kinda works better.»

Now it looks like it's pretty much painless to hop back in and run-and-gun around Santos on the Xbox. Meanwhile on the PC version, that same Discord server has set up an install guide for the long-discontinued game, and are handing out keys they've saved up from goodness-knows-where to keep Shadowrun's heart beating.

If you can't get a CD key from the community, there's another clever way to dodge its ancient Games for Windows Live key validation: grab one of the few GFWL keys still being sold on Steam and