- will their modding platform allow mods and free user-created content for games without official/curated mod support?
- why aren't game devs allowed to sell keys for WinStore games on their own website or in competing 3rd party keystores?
- why are WinStore games in Europe at least €10-€20 more expensive than similar (or even the same) games in EVERY other digital game store on PC?
- why are the best discounts for WinStore games held behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall? And why are these discounts on par with console instead of other digital game stores on PC?
- The current game bar is nothing more than a portal to MS' own services. Can we expect a more open approach that allows competing services as well?
I can answer some of these myself, but I'll get their responses too.
- answer is yes, and actually, you won't even need to use their modding platform once uwp has matured, people will be able to fuck around with DRM-free uwp apps the same way they're able to today on win32, eventually. uwp programs can be packaged in executables to run on win10 pcs with local auth only, OR they can be set up with DRM by the provider. whether it's the microsoft store, adobe cloud, etc.
- i'll ask that one.
- ill need some examples here. frostpunk for example is the same price on win store as it is on steam. the reason some games are higher price could be due to Xbox Play Anywhere, matching the console price. and why are console games higher price in europe? ive spoken to microsoft about this, and they've said it's political, at least in the UK, where they are asked not to undercut physical retail. retail still plays an important part in hardware distribution. it creates a problem, because, for example, devs have to choose whether to join XPA at a higher price point to match console, or go PC-only, to match Steam. Speaking to Paradox last year, they told me they chose to keep Cities Skylines off Xbox Play Anywhere cus they wanted to keep the price matched up with Steam. And speaking to people from the Windows Store team, this is an area Microsoft is looking to improve for devs and publishers. nobody has really tried anything like Xbox Play Anywhere before, so there are some kinks to improve and work out.
- again, this is more a systemic issue rather than a policy. i expect with phil spencer promoted to the senior leadership table @ Microsoft and Terry Myerson ousted completely, pc gamers will get a higher priority.
- also expect this too, game bar is still relatively new. the windows 10 april 2018 update split it off from the OS as well, turned it into an app, so that it could be updated more frequently. I imagine Twitch integration is on the horizon, especially cus Microsoft is all ilybby<3 with Amazon lately. Twitch is working on a UWP app, and I expect some form of shell integration is on the cards as a result. I'll get an official word from them for you.
seriously keep the questions coming, i will pose them all to Microsoft when I get the chance. The goal IS to make UWP open, and yeah, Microsoft has a lot of trust to earn in this area, and the shitty state of the Windows Store has not helped.
you might think UWP is some kinda "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kinda deal, but the idea is to liberate devs from the win32 legacy/hardware requirements. if microsoft does nothing to compete in this area, you're looking at far less open companies becoming dominant in pc gaming, or relying on floss forever -- which might be fine. if floss is fine, then everyone can just ignore UWP in the same way you might ignore how other operating systems (mobile or otherwise) impact win32. it'll be this separate thing that won't matter and won't impact steam.
