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[aeolist]

clearly this time it'll work out, considering that the store is part of windows!

although the windows phone OSs have had app stores built into them for years. they languished with poor support while microsoft built better apps for android and iOS than they did for their own platform, and now windows phone/mobile is basically a dead platform.

so again, maybe not.

 

[Costia]

What has Microsoft done that's positive for PC gaming in recent years?

DirectX 10,11,12
Windows 7,8,10
The full version of visual studio 2013 for free
Basically a lot of infrastructure for gaming and game devs.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

clearly this time it'll work out, considering that the store is part of windows!

although the windows phone OSs have had app stores built into them for years. they languished with poor support while microsoft built better apps for android and iOS than they did for their own platform, and now windows phone/mobile is basically a dead platform.

so again, maybe not.

So what goes through your head when making this post... you're obviously a smart guy so you know in your head beforehand that "hey the obvious and easy reply to my post will be that 'Windows Phone OS had a negative eleventybillion marketshare and is not at all comparable to Windows on PC'"... so why make this post when you know I'm gonna reply with such an easy rebuttal?

DirectX 10,11,12
Windows 7,8,10
The full version of visual studio 2013 for free
Basically a lot of infrastructure for gaming and game devs.

There! Infrastructure! It's not flashy but it lays the foundation

 

[Htown]

Nothing!

But you didn't address my point. The likelihood of that happening again is tiny...it is BUILT into Windows 10, not a separate client. The whole of Windows would have to collapse to have us lose our games again.

The very fact that you're saying this as if it's some kind of reason to trust Microsoft this time is insane. Microsoft owns Windows. They own Games for Windows, Games for Windows Live, and Games for Windows Marketplace. They own the games they put out on the service.

So they had a service/storefront they owned, on which they sold games that they made, for an operating system they made, using a backend for multiplayer and community features that they made, and all of that still went up in smoke. So we're supposed to believe that because things are slightly more tightly tied together this time, suddenly all of the problems will disappear and we should trust them 100%?

Are you for real?

 

[aeolist]

So what goes through your head when making this post... you're obviously a smart guy so you know in your head beforehand that "hey the obvious and easy reply to my post will be that 'Windows Phone OS had a negative eleventybillion marketshare and is not at all comparable to Windows on PC'"... so why make this post when you know I'm gonna reply with such an easy rebuttal?

what easy rebuttal? windows phone had a terrible marketshare because microsoft couldn't get it off the ground.

windows 8 and 8.1 didn't have the upgrade rates of 7 and 10 but they were still loaded on hundreds of millions of PCs and the store there never took off in the slightest. your point is that buying into this ecosystem makes sense because microsoft is incentivized to make it succeed, and i'm reminding you that they've had every reason to make previous MS app stores succeed (probably even a bigger reason with windows phone versus desktop since smartphones were growing exponentially more at the time) and instead let them go to shit and abandoned them after a few years of poor support.

 

[EGM1966]

give microsoft a chance!

ok i know we've already done this about a dozen times over the last decade and they've completely dropped the ball, often in a way that didn't just disappoint but actively screwed over their customers, but come on just one more chance!

You're right. I should welcome their on-going attempts to turn an open platform they happen to provide on element of (OS) into their own closed wall ecosystem because they got blindsided by Apple and Google and have serious envy about it.

I should probably buy an Xbox too because they've doing everything right now and should be forgiving: I can purchase games for Xbox to get PC code.

It'll be great.

 

[MageBoySA]

So what goes through your head when making this post... you're obviously a smart guy so you know in your head beforehand that "hey the obvious and easy reply to my post will be that 'Windows Phone OS had a negative eleventybillion marketshare and is not at all comparable to Windows on PC'"... so why make this post when you know I'm gonna reply with such an easy rebuttal?

Windows is losing market share in the retail space on PCs as well. It is being propped up by businesses (who don't want the store because you need to install the store on your server to manage it with group policy)

 

[Akronis]

DirectX 10,11,12
Windows 7,8,10
The full version of visual studio 2013 for free
Basically a lot of infrastructure for gaming and game devs.

I would say PC gaming extends to more than just Windows (or at least I want it to) so I wouldn't say any version of Windows or DirectX is an improvement for PC gamers. Open platform needs open solutions to thrive.

Maybe that's just me though. I can see why most people think DirectX and Windows are good things.

 

[wesleyshark]

This is a good thing.

 

[CecilRousso]

What has Microsoft done that's positive for PC gaming in recent years?

They let people who care, make good things with their old IP's, on Steam.

That's something.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

I've been wanting to reply to this thread but hesitated because I'd get avatar quoted and laughed at but then realized who gives a shit? I can damn well share my opinion freely so here it is... BEST GAMING NEWS IN MONTHS!!! I had lost hope with how crappy the past couple years have been with remasters and remakes and my PS4 collecting multiple layers of dust and my PC....holy crap I don't eve wanna open the case to see what it's in there. Getting to the point...I've always been a fan of GFWL. I preferred it over Steam, Origin, Uplay. I liked the overlay, the integration with xbox live in case I ever bought the new xbox, the light client, how it's not really open when you play, the better achievements, the fact that it's not associated with fanboys of the worst order, the 360 controller being integrated, not having to navigate through a bloated client, the whole shebang. Never had an issue with it either (many many others can say the same) so when it was discontinued with no further game support i was bummed. When the Win10 store was announced I was excited but no stinkin games were being released on it. Fast forward to today and the best exclusives on consoles are now going to Win10. I can't get into 95% of japanese games so my PS4 is a dust collector...well not really, I use it for netflix a few times a week but in terms of games ughhh so I've always been envious of MS western exclusives and now here we are, they're hitting PC and NOT ON STEAM. I couldn't be more happier. I don't give a shit about mods or editing exe files. Mods cheapen the experience for me...like Fallout mods for example. Fixing Dark Souls and those other games wasn't modding, it was fixing broke ass games. Hopefully we won't see too many of them on the Win10 store. I SERIOUSLY doubt we will...Remedy and MS are working on QB themselves. It's not some new PC japanese developer like Dark Souls. I believe the Forza games, Fable, Sea of Thieves, Scalebound, Gears, Halo MCC and all other big Win10 exclusives will have the same top quality ports. That's my prediction. We won't have need for any ridiculous resolution fixes and whatnot. All of this will be on a nice closed cheat-free experience with full Win10+XBL integration. I couldn't be happier. I'm legit upgrading my PC b/c of this. It could run min specs on these games but a few hundred bucks and I'm golden. Best gaming news in a long ass time.

e: I sincerely hope MS doesn't listen to this thread and puts them on Steam instead. Keep em on Win10...grow your store, gain good faith from customers and your efforts will be rewarded.

If you had used paragraphs, I might have been convinced you weren't trolling.

 

[Bitch Pudding]

People defending UWA with their lives. People commending Bethseda for increasing the price of their season pass.

What a world we live in.

You just lack the capability to truly understand MS' vision and it's positive impact for the XBOX brand as a whole. So do I.

 

[Htown]

This is a good thing.

No it isn't.

 

[cakely]

The very fact that you're saying this as if it's some kind of reason to trust Microsoft this time is insane. Microsoft owns Windows. They own Games for Windows, Games for Windows Live, and Games for Windows Marketplace. They own the games they put out on the service.

So they had a service/storefront they owned, on which they sold games that they made, for an operating system they made, using a backend for multiplayer and community features that they made, and all of that still went up in smoke. So we're supposed to believe that because things are slightly more tightly tied together this time, suddenly all of the problems will disappear and we should trust them 100%?

Are you for real?

This! This, exactly. The very fact that someone can claim that "it won't happen again" is an extremely valid concern.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

The very fact that you're saying this as if it's some kind of reason to trust Microsoft this time is insane. Microsoft owns Windows. They own Games for Windows, Games for Windows Live, and Games for Windows Marketplace. They own the games they put out on the service.

So they had a service/storefront they owned, on which they sold games that they made, for an operating system they made, using a backend for multiplayer and community features that they made, and all of that still went up in smoke. So we're supposed to believe that because things are slightly more tightly tied together this time, suddenly all of the problems will disappear and we should trust them 100%?

Are you for real?

MS effed up with gfwl but look at what's happened since then... Windows 7 was a killer OS, Windows 8 SP2 was a killer OS, Windows 10 is arguably the best OS ever made. DX12 is awesome too. I'm sorry for being an optimist but the Win10 store is built into Windows. Nothing is gonna happen to our games unless Windows itself collapses which won't happen.

what easy rebuttal? windows phone had a terrible marketshare because microsoft couldn't get it off the ground.

windows 8 and 8.1 didn't have the upgrade rates of 7 and 10 but they were still loaded on hundreds of millions of PCs and the store there never took off in the slightest. your point is that buying into this ecosystem makes sense because microsoft is incentivized to make it succeed, and i'm reminding you that they've had every reason to make previous MS app stores succeed (probably even a bigger reason with windows phone versus desktop since smartphones were growing exponentially more at the time) and instead let them go to shit and abandoned them after a few years of poor support.

You tried to relate the failures of the mega flop Windows Phone to Windows PC. This is totally unfair and not comparable, which you already knew but still posted it.

Windows is losing market share in the retail space on PCs as well. It is being propped up by businesses (who don't want the store because you need to install the store on your server to manage it with group policy)

For gaming, nothing is in the same universe as Windows. Who are they losing market share to for gaming? Windows 10 has been a major success for both gaming and regular PCs. It's the best OS ever released.

 

[CharmingCharlie]

Do you really think this will happen again? The Win10 game store is inside windows itself... it's built in, it's not a separate store front. Give it a chance mate.

Yes I do think it will happen again. Microsoft has a long rich history of ditching shit when it aint going the way they want it and screw those that bought into the program. Just because the windows store is "built in" to windows does not remove Microsofts ability to say "fuck it lets try something else because the store isn't meeting our targets".

As for giving it "a chance" seriously how many chances are PC gamers meant to give Microsoft ? Everything you said was posted about the god awful GFWL when it was first spawned on us. We had the same shit from people then going "give it a chance" and "this time it will be different" and "Microsoft is totally committed to PC gaming now with this new client". Yeah we all know what happened with that.

You want to give Microsoft another chance then that is up to you but personally I think Microsoft can take their pathetic attempt at creating a walled garden on the PC and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

 

[aeolist]

MS effed up with gfwl but look at what's happened since then... Windows 7 was a killer OS, Windows 8 SP2 was a killer OS, Windows 10 is arguably the best OS ever made. DX12 is awesome too. I'm sorry for being an optimist but the Win10 store is built into Windows. Nothing is gonna happen to our games unless Windows itself collapses which won't happen.

every single time they've tried to create a new software platform (winRT for windows 8/phone, UWA for windows 10/mobile, GFWL for games) it has failed spectacularly. UWA is still somewhat new but has put up extremely poor numbers so far.

the windows operating systems are successful because of win32, which has been around forever and has wide support. they do not have a good track record for this.

You tried to relate the failures of the mega flop Windows Phone to Windows PC. This is totally unfair and not comparable, which you already knew but still posted it.

no, microsoft has related the failures of windows phone to windows PC because they are trying to merge those ecosystems. i don't think it's unfair at all because it demonstrates previous failures that are remarkably similar to current efforts.

 

[JaggedSac]

From the tests i have done it looks like it doesn't actually blocks those things, so i don't understand why you are agreeing with that post.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=195417314&highlight=#post195417314

As far as I can tell, you can modify the contents of a windows store app. The only downside is that you can't use the original dev's signature.
A win32 app also has absolutely no trouble interacting with the minecraft store app. I used cheat engine and was able to modify in game values easily - just like with any other win32 app. (windbg worked as well)

How does cheat engine work? What does it alter and how does it alter it?

 

[Akronis]

How does cheat engine work? What does it alter and how does it alter it?

Hooks onto a process and allows you to edit memory addresses in real time.

 

[cakely]

Ok. For the record, I think we're being played here.

 

[Costia]

Be careful with cheat engine, you can get banned from various servers or VAC banned on steam for just having it run in the background.

 

[jelly]

The very fact that you're saying this as if it's some kind of reason to trust Microsoft this time is insane. Microsoft owns Windows. They own Games for Windows, Games for Windows Live, and Games for Windows Marketplace. They own the games they put out on the service.

So they had a service/storefront they owned, on which they sold games that they made, for an operating system they made, using a backend for multiplayer and community features that they made, and all of that still went up in smoke. So we're supposed to believe that because things are slightly more tightly tied together this time, suddenly all of the problems will disappear and we should trust them 100%?

Are you for real?

Anyone remember this?

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys/

"Bennett insists that MSN Music keys are, in fact, not yet expiring. Technically speaking, that's true—if I authorize one of my PCs, never get rid of it for the rest of my life, and never upgrade its OS, I will be able to play my tracks forever. But as some of our readers note, this technicality is not rooted in reality—the authorizations will now expire when the computer does, for whatever reason. DRM-free music may be the new hotness these days, but people who bought music before the record industry began to see the light are still stuck with their DRMed music."

Microsoft must do loads of customer research but consumer trust for some reason doesn't matter. How many times can you pull the rug away from under people and expect them to sit on a new one.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

Yes I do think it will happen again. Microsoft has a long rich history of ditching shit when it aint going the way they want it and screw those that bought into the program. Just because the windows store is "built in" to windows does not remove Microsofts ability to say "fuck it lets try something else because the store isn't meeting our targets".

As for giving it "a chance" seriously how many chances are PC gamers meant to give Microsoft ? Everything you said was posted about the god awful GFWL when it was first spawned on us. We had the same shit from people then going "give it a chance" and "this time it will be different" and "Microsoft is totally committed to PC gaming now with this new client". Yeah we all know what happened with that.

You want to give Microsoft another chance then that is up to you but personally I think Microsoft can take their pathetic attempt at creating a walled garden on the PC and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

For me it's not about giving them "another chance" b/c I'm one of the weirdos that liked gfwl so they haven't lost my good will...although i do have the urge to play Virtua Tennis 4 from time to time, but let's take away my bias for a minute as admittedly I'm an outlier and look at the facts:

* Win7, Win8 SP2, Win10, DX12 have all been positives for Microsoft
* We are getting the BEST exclusives on their console DAY AND DATE on PC. Not months or years later.
* Using QB as an example, Remedy is personally working on the port. QB is probably a $40-50 million game and we're getting it DAY ONE! Not left over scraps years later, we're getting a 5 star meal at the best table in the restaurant on a saturday night.
* The Win10 store is built into windows and all of the games will be XBL as well. The odds of it going extinct and us losing our games again is tiny... you may not agree! But that's how i feel.
* QB is out in April right? Just a couple months from now and we can get a quick gauge at what MS is bringing to the table with their port. We'll see who's right! It won't tell us how things will be years from now but we'll get a good glimpse at how seriously they'll take it. Fair?

 

[Nillansan]

This is a good thing.

I am getting tired of these fucking posts.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

P.S. I've always thought QB looked a bit too good to be an X1 game so i wouldn't be shocked if most of the footage we've seen so far is the PC version

 

[tiredheadcrab]

I am getting tired of these fucking posts.

Everyone has their own reasons for liking what is happening. Lets all hold hands around a camp fire.

Spoiler

I do however find people that are bothered by those posts interesting.

 

[aeolist]

For me it's not about giving them "another chance" b/c I'm one of the weirdos that liked gfwl so they haven't lost my good will...although i do have the urge to play Virtua Tennis 4 from time to time, but let's take away my bias for a minute as admittedly I'm an outlier and look at the facts:

* Win7, Win8 SP2, Win10, DX12 have all been positives for Microsoft
* We are getting the BEST exclusives on their console DAY AND DATE on PC. Not months or years later.
* Using QB as an example, Remedy is personally working on the port. QB is probably a $40-50 million game and we're getting it DAY ONE! Not left over scraps years later, we're getting a 5 star meal at the best table in the restaurant on a saturday night.
* The Win10 store is built into windows and all of the games will be XBL as well. The odds of it going extinct and us losing our games again is tiny... you may not agree! But that's how i feel.
* QB is out in April right? Just a couple months from now and we can get a quick gauge at what MS is bringing to the table with their port. We'll see who's right! It won't tell us how things will be years from now but we'll get a good glimpse at how seriously they'll take it. Fair?

1. how do they still have your goodwill after nuking the backend that ran games you bought? do you just not care about continual access to your purchases?
2. windows 7/10 are sales/upgrade successes for microsoft thanks to UI design and in the case of 10 extremely pushy upgrade notifications. dx12 is a backend technology that barely exists right now. they've always done well making UI shells and development tools, the problem is that you're extending this trust to new software platforms where they've made efforts and have consistently been extraordinarily poor.
3. we are getting SOME exclusives day and date almost a year after windows 10 launched, after years of PC radio silence and hyper-focus on their closed console system
4. remedy is working on the port because they're historically a PC studio. they worked on the alan wake PC port which they were only allowed to create after getting the publishing rights back from microsoft, who didn't have any interest even though GFWL was "alive" at the time.
5. they've bundled every one of their new software platform with their OSs for the last several years. all of them have failed and been either explicitly abandoned or left to rot on their own.
6. we'll see who's right after a year or two of releases or lack thereof. UWA has been a failure so far and i don't think a few high-profile exclusive games will get any real marketshare for it, especially since most of the other software available there is shoddy garbage.

 

[jelly]

Windows Store might not disappear but UWA could if Microsoft decides to try something else.

Windows Store on PC might disappear but stay on mobile and tablets because nobody wants those apps on the desktop.

Hypothetically.

Microsoft will chop without a second thought if another direction will bear more fruits.

 

[OtisInf]

clearly this time it'll work out, considering that the store is part of windows!

although the windows phone OSs have had app stores built into them for years. they languished with poor support while microsoft built better apps for android and iOS than they did for their own platform, and now windows phone/mobile is basically a dead platform.

so again, maybe not.

You do realize the windows store has been there since windows 8.0, and has never been a success at all?

Microsoft thinks they can make a lot of money through their 'store' as Apple does too. But it's just one of the many streams of income they have, the same goes for gaming/xbox. Their core business is shifting towards Azure mainly (and other cloud services), and the 'store' is just a side way to make money off Windows client. Games belong in the category of 'apps' one in theory would like to buy from an 'app store' so they put games in their store, and every PM in Redmond is pleased. Whether it actually works out or makes money is a much more complicated story: it's similar to how the whole XBox project likely will never break even, even though they make money today. It's not their core business, not a pillar the company relies on, and if it fails, too bad.

For us gamers it's a bit of a problem if you want to play a particular game that's exclusive to their store but in general not that big, as it's not likely that many publishers will ever release their games in the Windows store and MS own portfolio is too small to make it the 'go to store for games'.

As app developers are not eager to write any UWP app at all, their store is a barren wasteland with only a couple of apps compared to what's available elsewhere. I don't see this change in the future, and IMHO I wouldn't worry that much: MS will be forced to either keep their games on Xbox One or publish them outside the store as normal software. Their plan would work if their games would have the pull they had in the early 360 days, but nowadays it's more a matter of 'oh, an MS game, can't play it, too bad, let's play something else', and therefore their 'exclusiveness' hurts them only, it doesn't create what they hope it will: a successful store.

Microsoft itself is also to blame for this btw: they first alienated the developer community with their WinRT initiative (the OS API), and the divide between DevDiv and WinDiv, then came with a new platform again after WinRT, UWP, and with the failing phone OS, there's little incentive to go UWP over what is already there (win32/.NET/WPF). With the upcoming \\build conference we'll likely will see more success stories how great UWP is and a lot of noise, but at the end of the day one has to conclude: it has failed, and the long term options for MS are: clients: iOS/android, server: azure.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

1. how do they still have your goodwill after nuking the backend that ran games you bought? do you just not care about continual access to your purchases?
2. windows 7/10 are sales/upgrade successes for microsoft thanks to UI design and in the case of 10 extremely pushy upgrade notifications. dx12 is a backend technology that barely exists right now. they've always done well making UI shells and development tools, the problem is that you're extending this trust to new software platforms where they've made efforts and have consistently been extraordinarily poor.
3. we are getting SOME exclusives day and date almost a year after windows 10 launched, after years of PC radio silence and hyper-focus on their closed console system
4. remedy is working on the port because they're historically a PC studio. they worked on the alan wake PC port which they were only allowed to create after getting the publishing rights back from microsoft, who didn't have any interest even though GFWL was "alive" at the time.
5. they've bundled every one of their new software platform with their OSs for the last several years. all of them have failed and been either explicitly abandoned or left to rot on their own.
6. we'll see who's right after a year or two of releases or lack thereof. UWA has been a failure so far and i don't think a few high-profile exclusive games will get any real marketshare for it, especially since most of the other software available there is shoddy garbage.

1. It's seflish but i just don't care about losing those old games. VT4 and I kinda wanted to finish Bulletstorm but I'm not the type that cares about ancient games. If i had the option to 'trade in' my digital PC games for store credit i would ditch like 90% of my library in an instant.

2. Their effort with gfwl was poor. I feel like this is a new era...gfwl feels so long ago, like MULTIPLE operating systems ago. I have faith and it may be blind but I don't think it's as crazy as you make it out to be.

3. The initiative was just announced. Yeah we're not getting forza 6 day one b/c that already released but QB is day one, Forza Horizon 3 is (probably) day one, Sea of Thieves is (probably) day one... the future titles all seem like they're gonna be day one. What more can we ask for? These are their best most expensive console exclusives and we're (probably) getting them all day one. That doesn't sound like a half-assed GFWL effort to me.

4 & 5. I don't have a response for. For #5 I'm not very familiar with the software platforms you're referring to.

6. A lot of this will depend on how good these games are. If QB is a middling and repetitive shooter it's not gonna sell, even with spectacular gfx. This may sound like a preemptive excuse on my part but think about it...gotta have killer apps on any new platform not mediocre ones. Battlefield 4 helped lay a foundation for the new Origin. It was a true killer app.

 

[collige]

2. Their effort with gfwl was poor. I feel like this is a new era...gfwl feels so long ago, like MULTIPLE operating systems ago. I have faith and it may be blind but I don't think it's as crazy as you make it out to be.

Their effort with Windows 10 is poor as well, hence the 40 pages of this thread explaining why the App Store sucks compared to every other platform for games on PC.

3. The initiative was just announced. Yeah we're not getting forza 6 day one b/c that already released but QB is day one, Forza Horizon 3 is (probably) day one, Sea of Thieves is (probably) day one... the future titles all seem like they're gonna be day one. What more can we ask for? These are their best most expensive console exclusives and we're (probably) getting them all day one. That doesn't sound like a half-assed GFWL effort to me.

Timeliness is not synonymous with quality. Customers have shown time and time again that they prefer good ports than rushed ports.

 

[aeolist]

1. It's seflish but i just don't care about losing those old games. VT4 and I kinda wanted to finish Bulletstorm but I'm not the type that cares about ancient games. If i had the option to 'trade in' my digital PC games for store credit i would ditch like 90% of my library in an instant.

can't really argue with that, as insane as it seems to me

2. Their effort with gfwl was poor. I feel like this is a new era...gfwl feels so long ago, like MULTIPLE operating systems ago. I have faith and it may be blind but I don't think it's as crazy as you make it out to be.

yeah, it was windows 7-era microsoft, years after steam had launched and gradually become something people actually liked. there were far better examples of what microsoft was trying to do well before GFWL launched, so that's really not a good excuse. even worse is the fact that it never actually improved.

3. The initiative was just announced. Yeah we're not getting forza 6 b/c that already released but QB is day one, Forza Horizon 3 is (probably) day one, Sea of Thieves is (probably) day one... the future titles all seem like they're gonna be day one. What more can we ask for? These are their best most expensive console exclusives and we're (probably) getting them all day one. That doesn't sound like a half-assed GFWL effort to me.

so, that's one game confirmed. one. i think it's a little early to be jumping to any kind of conclusion about their level of support.

4 & 5. I don't have a response for. For #5 I'm not very familiar with the software platforms you're referring to.

windows phone 7 was abandoned, early adopters screwed over. windows phone 8 was abandoned, early adopters screwed over. windows 10 mobile is a half-baked mess with very little hardware support and basically nothing in the pipeline. the windows 8/8.1 store never saw good support from microsoft while android and iOS did.

6. A lot of this will depend on how good these games are. If QB is a middling and repetitive shooter it's not gonna sell, even with spectacular gfx. This may sound like a preemptive excuse on my part but think about it...gotta have killer apps on any new platform not mediocre ones. Battlefield 4 helped lay a foundation for the new Origin. It was a true killer app.

let me put it this way: i don't think any game or set of games can be killer apps for the windows 10 store. microsoft wants to make UWA their premiere software platform for everything, all kinds of apps on every hardware form factor. console-style games that sell a few million copies at best will do nothing to move the needle for them.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

Their effort with Windows 10 is poor as well, hence the 40 pages of this thread explaining why the App Store sucks compared to every other platform for games on PC.

What about the Win10 store effort is poor other than for those who need to edit exe files, run FRAPS and have mods? I'm looking at it right now...what's so bad? It's light weight and loads really fast. Problem is the games are all shovelware or mobile ports. That's about to change.

Timeliness is not synonymous with quality. Customers have shown time and time again that they prefer good ports than rushed ports.

We'll find out in less than 2 months.

 

[flaxknuckles]

Anyone remember this?

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys/

"Bennett insists that MSN Music keys are, in fact, not yet expiring. Technically speaking, that's true—if I authorize one of my PCs, never get rid of it for the rest of my life, and never upgrade its OS, I will be able to play my tracks forever. But as some of our readers note, this technicality is not rooted in reality—the authorizations will now expire when the computer does, for whatever reason. DRM-free music may be the new hotness these days, but people who bought music before the record industry began to see the light are still stuck with their DRMed music."

Microsoft must do loads of customer research but consumer trust for some reason doesn't matter. How many times can you pull the rug away from under people and expect them to sit on a new one.

Holy crap I forgot about that. That paired with GFWL makes me very hesitant about Microsoft's store now. I'll jump in for bomba prices or Ukranian price errors but Microsoft dooming two download stores should make anyone think three times before they buy their shit off the Windows Store. That shit with MSN should be posted at the top of every Windows Store thread from now on.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

windows phone 7 was abandoned, early adopters screwed over. windows phone 8 was abandoned, early adopters screwed over. windows 10 mobile is a half-baked mess with very little hardware support and basically nothing in the pipeline. the windows 8/8.1 store never saw good support from microsoft while android and iOS did.

I have to leave to work but let me respond to this one quick... the 4 examples you listed here are mobile. That's what I was talking about earlier. Give me some examples of abandoned platforms that aren't mobile. Win Phone OS is to Windows PC like the Vita is to the PS4... that's how it should be considered. No relevance to the success of the other one and should not be compared in that way.

 

[jelly]

Windows RT for the Surface 1 and 2.

 

[MageBoySA]

I have to leave to work but let me respond to this one quick... the 4 examples you listed here are mobile. That's what I was talking about earlier. Give me some examples of abandoned platforms that aren't mobile. Win Phone OS is to Windows PC like the Vita is to the PS4... that's how it should be considered. No relevance to the success of the other one and should not be compared in that way.

Games for Windows Live

 

[aeolist]

I have to leave to work but let me respond to this one quick... the 4 examples you listed here are mobile. That's what I was talking about earlier. Give me some examples of abandoned platforms that aren't mobile. Win Phone OS is to Windows PC like the Vita is to the PS4... that's how it should be considered. No relevance to the success of the other one and should not be compared in that way.

this is absolutely untrue though. since windows phone 7 microsoft has been talking about unifying their software ecosystems and they got there with windows phone 8. WP8 ran a slightly more limited version of winRT which was the new app platform for windows 8/8.1.

comparing UWA on windows 10 to windows phone is absolutely appropriate.

 

[wapplew]

One more reason to give them another chance, all wrong doing was on Ballmer and Mattrick and they are gone.
Nadella and Spencer at the helm, they truely care about gamers. Let's give them a chance, please, guys.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

said the scorpion to the frog

 

[Mivey]

There should almost be seperate discussion about the worth of freedom on PC with respect to accessibility of the actual programs themselves. Seems there a few who are willing to throw that away to play MS exclusives and quite a few who are not, but that is really a seperate discussion from what is going to happen with Quantum Break, certainly a different perspective, at least.

 

[AlucardGV]

No it isn't.

so you rather not have it on pc?

 

[etta]

so you rather not have it on pc?

Now hold on a moment...

 

[RionaaM]

For me it's not about giving them "another chance" b/c I'm one of the weirdos that liked gfwl so they haven't lost my good will...although i do have the urge to play Virtua Tennis 4 from time to time, but let's take away my bias for a minute as admittedly I'm an outlier and look at the facts:

* Win7, Win8 SP2, Win10, DX12 have all been positives for Microsoft
* We are getting the BEST exclusives on their console DAY AND DATE on PC. Not months or years later.
* Using QB as an example, Remedy is personally working on the port. QB is probably a $40-50 million game and we're getting it DAY ONE! Not left over scraps years later, we're getting a 5 star meal at the best table in the restaurant on a saturday night.
* The Win10 store is built into windows and all of the games will be XBL as well. The odds of it going extinct and us losing our games again is tiny... you may not agree! But that's how i feel.
* QB is out in April right? Just a couple months from now and we can get a quick gauge at what MS is bringing to the table with their port. We'll see who's right! It won't tell us how things will be years from now but we'll get a good glimpse at how seriously they'll take it. Fair?

I don't get it, I really don't. People lost the games they paid for, and you still have misguided fools who are asking them to give Microsoft another chance, and praising how good that awful software was.

Yes, I think someone who says they still have good will after the fucking store collapsed (taking people's games with it), and wants to convince me that it'll be great this time, when all signs point to an even bigger mess, is a fool. I honestly don't get it.

 

[EGM1966]

One more reason to give them another chance, all wrong doing was on Ballmer and Mattrick and they are gone.
Nadella and Spencer at the helm, they truely care about gamers. Let's give them a chance, please, guys.

In the consumer market you earn trust and "another chance". It's never given by the majority, and rightly so. If MS earn it fine, if not then they suffer the same fate as their previous attempts to promote their store and services on PC/Mobile devices.

I find the idea of just giving them a chance "because" bizarre quite frankly.

Not sure why you'd figure Nadella is some huge gaming fan. I doubt he's negative about it but his focus thus far seems very much on bigger fish for MS (and rightly so too in his role).

Spencer seems decent but like everybody in his position choices for the business (like exclusives and parity clauses) come before general gamers so I don't see any reason to view him as a businessman who likes the industry he's in (which is for sure a plus) but just as likely to make deal that screws you as the consumer (hello Rise of the Tomb Raider) as do something for your benefit.

 

[MaLDo]

Be careful with cheat engine, you can get banned from various servers or VAC banned on steam for just having it run in the background.

But CheatEngine is the only way to play with smooth framerate games like Sega Rally Revo, Toy Story 3, Epic Mickey 2, Split/Second and so on.

 

[Akronis]

so you rather not have it on pc?

I'm not buying it in this state, so frankly I don't care either way. Don't try and pull this shitty argument when we have to give up basic functionality that we've had for decades prior to this.

 

[Nevadatan]

Oh, look, another GFWL situation. This sure will end well.

oh well, lets prepare for the ride, as gfwl's one surely were amusing.

 

[Sydle]

this is absolutely untrue though. since windows phone 7 microsoft has been talking about unifying their software ecosystems and they got there with windows phone 8. WP8 ran a slightly more limited version of winRT which was the new app platform for windows 8/8.1.

comparing UWA on windows 10 to windows phone is absolutely appropriate.

They didn't really get there though until Windows Phone 8.1. Windows Phone 8 actually had limited support for Windows Runtime (UWA for WIndows 8/8.1). It wasn't until Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014, 2 years after Windows Phone 8 released, that complete support for Windows Runtime arrived. The poor reception of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and the different development architectures for a couple of years made the whole thing a mess for consumers and devs alike.

UWA is supposedly fully supported by Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile from the start.

 

[8-Bit Sunset]

so you rather not have it on pc?

I will never buy anything on a Microsoft GFWL store so it makes no difference.
Looks like I'm (and a vast majority it seems) not going to be playing it anyway.

Despite the fact that Microsoft is making a concerted effort with Xbox and Windows 10 to establish its own gaming platform in the PC space, it doesn't wish to compete with Steam.

"We are not intending to compete with Steam," Microsoft senior director for PC gaming Kevin Unangst told PC Gamer at Gamescom. "If anything, we want Steam to be even more successful – they’ve done great things for PC gamers in terms of having a single store."

According to Unangst, Microsoft aims to attract more and more PC gamers to its own marketplace in addition to Valve's online platform. "Over time do we want more developers to come over to our store and offer it in addition to Steam? Absolutely. Is competition good for people? Absolutely. But our goal right now isn’t to do anything else other than support Steam and help it run great on Windows 10."

Typical Microsoft!
What a turnaround half a year makes!