'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder

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Post'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by KK » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:16 pm

Guardian wrote:One of the world’s biggest and most successful games development studios has launched a stinging attack on Microsoft.

Tim Sweeney, co-founder of Epic Games, creator of the multimillion selling Gears of War series, has accused the Redmond corporation of attempting to monopolise and control the entire PC games market.

“[Microsoft is] curtailing users’ freedom to install full-featured PC software, and subverting the rights of developers and publishers to maintain a direct relationship with their customers,” he wrote in the Guardian.

Sweeney’s anger is directed at the newly announced Universal Windows Platform (UWP), a programming application for Windows 10 developers. Microsoft says UWP will allow studios to produce a single version of a game – or any piece of software – which will then run on all current Microsoft devices, including Windows 10 PCs, the Xbox One console and Windows smartphones and tablets.

The concern voiced by Sweeney and echoed by other developers the Guardian has spoken to is that UWP is a closed platform, which means developers will need to be licensed by Microsoft to distribute games written using the platform. It could also mean that Microsoft will be able to control the sale of PC games and applications, ensuring that UWP titles will only be available through its own Windows Store.

The unprecedented attack on the Microsoft’s direction by one of its most valued game development partners will be seen as a huge blow to the company. The Gears of War Ultimate Edition, a new version of the classic Xbox title updated for Windows 10, was one of the key draws at Microsoft’s recent Spring Showcase event. Gears of War 4 (which is not developed by Epic Games but uses the company’s Unreal Engine 4 technology), is one of this year’s most anticipated Xbox One titles.

Tim Sweeney writes: “Microsoft is moving against the entire PC industry – including consumers (and gamers in particular), software developers such as Epic Games, publishers like EA and Activision, and distributors like Valve and Good Old Games.

“Microsoft has launched new PC Windows features exclusively in UWP, and is effectively telling developers you can use these Windows features only if you submit to the control of our locked-down UWP ecosystem. They’re curtailing users’ freedom to install full-featured PC software, and subverting the rights of developers and publishers to maintain a direct relationship with their customers.”

A key concern is that Microsoft is set to include and update features in UWP that won’t be supported by older development platforms. This means that games studios will need to support and use UWP if they want games to remain at the cutting edge of games capabilities on Windows 10.

Microsoft has faced the ire of developers and PC gamers in the past. Its Games for Windows Live initiative, launched with Windows 8, was an attempt to create a “walled garden” for the sale of PC games – it proved hugely controversial with gamers and game makers and the company later conceded that it “wasn’t the right approach”.

Currently, UWP will not affect Xbox One development. However, Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox Division, announced at a press event in San Francisco last week that developers will be able to roll-out UWP-developed games onto the console. Sweeney fears that if Microsoft upgrades the hardware of the machine at some point in the future, Microsoft could seek to lock down game creators to the platform.

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.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... -microsoft

Microsoft still making friends well into this console generation, I see...

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Errkal » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:20 pm

So it is just another way of delivering software, it doesn't stop people using exe installs or selling that way if they don't want to?

This all sounds like the OMG METRO IS GOING TO KILL THE PC thing again.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by NickSCFC » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:39 pm

Epic following Bungie into the former studios Microsoft have strawberry floated up relations with category.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by OrangeRKN » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:41 pm

Thank god PC gaming isn't already almost exclusively confined to a single platfor-

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by NickSCFC » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:42 pm

Errkal wrote:So it is just another way of delivering software, it doesn't stop people using exe installs or selling that way if they don't want to?

This all sounds like the OMG METRO IS GOING TO KILL THE PC thing again.


It worked, metro is dead.

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They even abandoned it on Windows Mobile.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Rax » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:45 pm

Errkal wrote:So it is just another way of delivering software, it doesn't stop people using exe installs or selling that way if they don't want to?

This all sounds like the OMG METRO IS GOING TO KILL THE PC thing again.

Yeah I dont see how this actually curtails peoples freedoms. Microsofts 1st party output will obviously use UWP and be exclusive to the windows store but theres nothing stopping 3rd parties from launching on Steam, GOG, Origin etc., at least not from what Ive seen. The piece mentions Microsoft launching new PC features and keeping them exclusive to UWP, I can only assume this is a reference to DX12, but thats hardly essential to getting a PC game up and running, it might add some nice bells and whistles but its hardly essential and hamstringing developers.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by degoose » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:47 pm

I'm confused why this even matters regarding the UWP thing, just sell your game on GOG or steam like you can right now or am i missing something (I probably am)

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Errkal » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:48 pm

Rax wrote:
Errkal wrote:So it is just another way of delivering software, it doesn't stop people using exe installs or selling that way if they don't want to?

This all sounds like the OMG METRO IS GOING TO KILL THE PC thing again.

Yeah I dont see how this actually curtails peoples freedoms. Microsofts 1st party output will obviously use UWP and be exclusive to the windows store but theres nothing stopping 3rd parties from launching on Steam, GOG, Origin etc., at least not from what Ive seen. The piece mentions Microsoft launching new PC features and keeping them exclusive to UWP, I can only assume this is a reference to DX12, but thats hardly essential to getting a PC game up and running, it might add some nice bells and whistles but its hardly essential and hamstringing developers.

Exactly, it is a non story. There isn't even anything in the they are making you use their store as Android, iOS, etc. have been doing that for years.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Rog » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:01 pm

Not exactly a non-story. It wouldn't be beyond MS to demand UWP exclusivity if people want to publish on xbox.

As things stand at the moment it won't do them any good to do that though. Too much backlash over it's closed nature as it is. That is basically what this story really is. Gears has been released in a sorry state on the store. Locked V-sync, unable to even get at the exe, SLI/Crossfire support locked off (for some apps), performance problems etc etc Epic can't be happy to see their original work treated like this.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Trelliz » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:13 pm

It's a reversal of the argument last-gen that consoles had become gooseberry fool PCs, now MS are turning windows 10 into a gooseberry fool console environment, one that as I look at it more and more I am liking less and less. For ages I wanted Forza on PC, now it's coming in the form of Windows and windows store-exclusive with all the locking down that comes with it, a real monkey's paw moment if ever I saw it. Why should I bother getting these games on PC when all the benefits are now being removed into some weird hybrid singularity with all the bad points of both? I've been grumbling internally about the sorry state of gaming as a whole, and this is cementing that feeling pretty well.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Ironhide » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:41 pm

Trelliz wrote:It's a reversal of the argument last-gen that consoles had become gooseberry fool PCs, now MS are turning windows 10 into a gooseberry fool console environment, one that as I look at it more and more I am liking less and less. For ages I wanted Forza on PC, now it's coming in the form of Windows and windows store-exclusive with all the locking down that comes with it, a real monkey's paw moment if ever I saw it. Why should I bother getting these games on PC when all the benefits are now being removed into some weird hybrid singularity with all the bad points of both? I've been grumbling internally about the sorry state of gaming as a whole, and this is cementing that feeling pretty well.


I don't like this either.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by jiggles » Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:45 pm

I've already had one occasion where windows 10 literally forbade me from installing a bittorrent client as an exe and the settings to allow it were too buried for me to find. I'm not exactly a casual user, and I've never seen anything like it.

Reports of their universal apps being locked down even more don't surprise and I'll need to see proof of their claims to the contrary before I swallow their gooseberry fool.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Meep » Fri Mar 04, 2016 6:35 pm

If developers can still publish games for windows as normal installs with no OS constraints then there is no issue, right? Either you choose to use the new client MS has created or you don't, or publish both ways and allow people buy as they like.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by That » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:18 pm

Truly, 2016 is the year of Linux on the desktop.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Photek » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:27 pm

They've kissed and made up on Twitter.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Death's Head » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:27 pm

MS wanting a monopoly. So what's new?

Yes?
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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by NickSCFC » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:28 pm

Karl wrote:Truly, 2016 is the year of Linux on the desktop.


Will your Linux be able to play Quantum Break and Forza 6?

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by That » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:29 pm

No, but I can install a torrent program without reading a reference manual :simper:

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Photek » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:31 pm

NickSCFC wrote:
Karl wrote:Truly, 2016 is the year of Linux on the desktop.


Will your Linux be able to play Quantum Break and Forza 6?

And Gears.

They've made up, Phil spencer said it open to everyone and Epic lad is looking forward to build next month.

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PostRe: 'Microsoft is curtailing users’ freedom' according to Epic Games co-founder
by Photek » Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:31 pm

Karl wrote:No, but I can install a torrent program without reading a reference manual :simper:

PCsupremacy :dread:

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