Vista - Troubles with logging into games

Hello,

I've been playing games with a friend often (I always start the requests)
and lately he installed the version 8.5 in English language and he's having a
lot of troubles logging into the messenger and he doesn't have any game
listed. Even when I try to send him the requests, it doesn't work. The
service is not available since a while now. I was wondering if it had to do
with where he lives (Saudi Arabia) or some other factor. I'm asking this
question for him because he's not really a computer geek. :P Thanks for any
info/suggestion. We'd love being able to play more soon.