Microsoft needs to stop forcing console-like restrictions on Windows Store PC games

[steven36]

With the upcoming Quantum Break a Windows Store exclusive, users are up in arms.

 

 

With the news that Remedy Entertainment's upcoming Xbox One and PC exclusive Quantum Break would only be available for Windows 10 via the Windows Store, and only run under DirectX 12, there's been something of an uproar in the PC gaming community. Along with lamenting the cessation of support for the likes of Windows 7, of course—a sadly inevitable decision given Microsoft's aggressive push of its latest OS—there are also some incredibly steep recommended system requirements, which call for a Core i5, Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 390, and 16GB of system memory.

 

But the biggest problem stems from Microsoft's distribution method of choice: the Windows Store. The Windows Store is Microsoft's own platform for selling apps and games directly to consumers, which some may remember Valve's Gabe Newell calling "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space" when it debuted with Windows 8 back in 2012. Steam OS arrived just a year later. Games and apps sold through the Windows Store differ from those sold on the likes of Steam and GOG in that they're built as a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, rather than as a standard desktop app.

 

That's fine for downloading the likes of Candy Crush, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, and Dropbox—even if the latter has some issues—but UWP apps have some limitations that dramatically affect top-tier PC games. Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider recently debuted on PC both on Steam and on the Windows Store. Those that forked over for the Windows Store version were disappointed to find a host of limitations, including not being able to turn v-sync off, no SLI or Crossfire support, and no .exe file that can be loaded into Steam for use with its overlays or Big Picture mode.

 

The latter also means that players aren't able to override the game's v-sync or SLI/Crossfire settings using the Nvidia Control Panel or Catalyst Control Centre. Other issues include locked game files (which limits modding), being forced to play in borderless full-screen mode, FPS overlays like Fraps refusing to work, and mouse software that creates custom binds for each game not working. The Steam version of the game, which costs the same, supports nearly all of those features.

 

The Source

 

[CODYQX4]

This is how Microsoft kills off the other one of their two strongest customers.

 

They already screwed over Enterprise with Windows 10's massive security flaws and loss of control, less management capability built in, etc.

 

Now, they're screwing the game developers and gamers, who use Windows because all the PC games are Windows and any other OS gets much worse than red-headed stepchild treatment by developers because the masses are on Windows.

[oliverjia]

Inevitable pathway for all big corporations. Too much ego, too little considerateness. 

[vibranium]

Another anti-monopoly action on the cards?

[steven36]

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Epic co-founder: Microsoft is plotting to monopolize game making on Windows 10

A war is brewing between Gears of War creator Epic Games and Microsoft, once strong allies in the business of making video games, and the battlefield is your Windows computer.

 

This morning, Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney penned an opinion piece that ran in the U.K. newspaper The Guardian. In it, he accuses Microsoft of trying to use a new program standard built into Windows 10 to turn the operating system into a monopolistic walled garden with the help of the Windows Store.

 

He writes that the relatively new Universal Windows Platform, which allows developers to create a single program that can run on a variety of Windows devices from tablets and phones to computers and virtual reality headsets, is in essence a "closed platform-within-a-platform."

 

We've reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update this story when they respond.

 

The Guardian letter, Sweeney told Polygon in a follow-up interview, came after months of secret talks between Sweeney and highly-placed executives at Microsoft, including Xbox head Phil Spencer. Sweeney said the company was always willing to listen but never acted on his concerns. He decided to write the letter, he said, because he sees Microsoft ramping up its efforts to market the Windows Store more aggressively.

 

"Very recently, in this last week, they launched a bunch of games on Windows Store and had a major marketing event around it promoting the store and the integration of the Xbox Live service with Windows available through UWP and putatively only through UWP," Sweeney said. "This indicates they're starting to now give UWP programs advantages over regular Windows programs and drive people more and more into this ecosystem.

 

Now is the time

 

"So now is the time."

 

While Sweeney said he is greatly concerned about some of the implications of the current policies surrounding UWP, he does believe that UWP applications should eventually replace the current standard which is easily misused to inject viruses and other malware into computers. His issue, he said, isn't with UWP, but rather the way Microsoft is using it.

 

"I see there could be a bright future ahead [for UWP] if Microsoft could just stop this silly thing," he said.

 

Any program created with UWP essentially has to be installed through the Windows Store (enabling a UWP app to be installed without the store requires making technical changes in the computer's buried registry). That requirement, he argues, gives the Windows Store an unfair marketplace advantage.

 

And using the store means agreeing to pay Microsoft 30 percent of the sales and also gives the company the ability to be the gatekeeper for content, something they could use to, for instance, block competing online marketplaces from being installed on Windows.

 

Sweeney told Polygon that his bigger concern is that by pushing developers into using the Windows Store and enticing customers to use the store by tying new features on Windows 10 to the marketplace, it will eventually become the standard.

 

There is not proof of an evil plan to do this, but just the fear

 

"That's my concern," he said. "Microsoft is a black box. I know a lot of people there who are really awesome, smart people who want to do the right thing, but then there are other people there who appear not to be because some of the bad decisions they're making on Windows 10. There is not proof of an evil plan to do this, but just the fear.

 

"We want to fight for our rights as independent software developers to make PC software without Microsoft's permission. My tendency is to fight this really early on as they're starting to do this."

If and when UWP was to become a standard, he said, Microsoft could stop supporting the current Win32 standard and essentially cut competing online stores like GOG, Origin, Battle.net, Steam and Epic's own game launcher completely out of the picture.

 

"There is a story that ... if you try to throw a frog into boiling water it will jump right out, but if you put a frog into cold water and then slowly turn the temperature up, you can boil him, and it will never notice that the temperature of the water got too hot," Sweeney said. "The hope here is that we avoid boiling the frog by starting to think about this problem and deal with the problem very early on before it becomes so pervasive that Microsoft with its hundreds of billions of dollars of market value can't just steamroll everybody."

 

Make sure you listen to the full interview on the Newsworthy podcast, embedded below, to hear where Sweeney's concerns stem from, why he sees it as something that could have an impact on things beyond games and how he believes the problem can be fixed. There's a lot of nuance in his argument and it's hard to summarize aptly.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/4/11159584/tim-sweeney-windows-10-monopoly-interview

 

[vibranium]

1 hour ago, steven36 said:

Sweeney said the company was always willing to listen but never acted on his concerns.

 

That sounds really familiar.

[steven36]

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In response to Sweeney’s allegations, Kevin Gallo, corporate vice president of Windows at Microsoft, told the Guardian: “The Universal Windows Platform is a fully open ecosystem, available to every developer, that can be supported by any store. We continue to make improvements for developers; for example, in the Windows 10 November Update, we enabled people to easily side-load apps by default, with no UX required.

“We want to make Windows the best development platform regardless of technologies used, and offer tools to help developers with existing code bases of HTML/JavaScript, .NET and Win32, C+ + and Objective-C bring their code to Windows, and integrate UWP capabilities. With Xamarin, UWP developers can not only reach all Windows 10 devices, but they can now use a large percentage of their C# code to deliver a fully native mobile app experiences for iOS and Android. We also posted a blog on our development tools recently.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/gears-of-war-developer-epic-games-tim-sweeney-games-industry-fight-microsoft

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Only it isn't supported right now - and if more devs start airing their grievances Microsoft might be forced to rethink the whole idea.

http://www.stuff.tv/news/microsofts-epic-fail-unreal-creator-slates-windows-10-features

Microsoft's big plain  is to control the Game industry  to embark  on Windows 10 Continuum for phones  .. The only reason Microsoft wants Windows 10 for PCs to succeed is so there Phone O/ S will succeed  and they can compete against Apple IOS   the real # 2 O/S ans Android the real #3 O/S . Microsoft already holds the spot for #1 O/S for all platforms   with windows 7  . Next after they mess up games they will start messing with legacy software vendors  and  Windows 10 has the ability  to remove software and games from you're PC.    Microsoft dont care about its desktop O/S  really yore just a number to help there phone O/S to succeed .

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Windows 10 Updates Are Deleting Some Apps Without Notifying Users

If you’ve applied a major update to Windows 10 recently, you might notice that a couple of your apps have gone missing. It’s not a bug. Windows 10 is removing apps it considers incompatible or outdated.

As tech site the How-To Geek points out, critical Windows 10 updates (like the big November update) sometimes remove apps from users computers. On my own machine, I found that system information tool Speccy was no longer on my computer. Other users are reporting that apps including CCleaner, HWMonitor, and CPU-Z are also missing after an update.

It’s unclear why Windows is doing this right now. While the primary theory is that the upgrade is removing outdated apps and drivers, Microsoft hasn’t officially commented on the reasoning behind it. For now, if you want your apps back, you’ll have to reinstall them manually. Check out the How-To Geek’s post for more details on how to potentially recover your files as well.

 

Windows 10 May Delete Your Programs Without Asking

 

http://lifehacker.com/windows-10-updates-are-deleting-some-apps-without-notif-1762347989

 

 

 

 

[vibranium]

Deleting apps and programs without informing the user? Damn you, Microsoft.