Vapourware Microsoft want to get into PC gaming again

[Spectacle]

There was a 64 bit XP but it was poorly supported IIRC.

That was actually Windows Server 2003 reskinned to look like XP. It didn't use the same kernel as XP or share all that much code, which is why it had so many compatibility issues.

 

[Severian Silk]

All these fuckups wrt windows games is just Microsoft s way to steer people back to xbawks

 

[tormund]

In any case, I don't see this going on for long. They will maybe whine that sales of Gears HD and Quantum Break are 1% of console ones (at least they won't be able to scream PIRACY! this time around) and then they will quietly stop supporting Win Store and finally pull the plug in few years, like they did with GFWL.

 

[Jigawatt]

There was an image showcasing the original plans for the AoE series. AoE 1 to 3 happened pretty much as planned, but 4 to 6 were meant to explore other eras of history. Kind of like Empire Earth. AoE 6 was futuristic and featured a guy who looked a lot like the Halo space marine.

I remember that, it was inside a book that came with the collector's edition of III.

At the time that shit got me excited. Now somehow I'm not so sure

 

[Gerrard]

That was actually Windows Server 2003 reskinned to look like XP. It didn't use the same kernel as XP or share all that much code, which is why it had so many compatibility issues.

Except it didn't really have many compatibility issues unless you were trying to use some ancient printer. Every major manufacturer of hardware had it supported.
The biggest issue you could've come across was if someone had a program that used the Windows Installer and made it check the system version against a specific list that did not include XP x64 , so it would throw up "unsupported system version" and require fiddling with the installer.

 

[yellowcake]

That was actually Windows Server 2003 reskinned to look like XP. It didn't use the same kernel as XP or share all that much code, which is why it had so many compatibility issues.

Except it didn't really have many compatibility issues unless you were trying to use some ancient printer. Every major manufacturer of hardware had it supported.
The biggest issue you could've come across was if someone had a program that used the Windows Installer and made it check the system version against a specific list that did not include XP x64 , so it would throw up "unsupported system version" and require fiddling with the installer.

Yeah I hear this crap all the time. It is completely untrue. I've been tending to a few XP x64 machines (3D workstations) for many years and use it on my main box too. Never had a single issue, everything works, EAX HD on X-Fi, barcode scanners, virtual controllers, what have you. In fact I found it more stable than 7. I built a workstation with s2011 MSI mobo and 6C proc not that long ago, all drivers for XP x64 were easily obtainable and the box works OC'd 24/7 flawlessly ever since. I'd say it's the best OS MS ever made.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war

With its new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10, as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolising app distribution and commerce.

In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers.

Even an industry heavyweight like Tim Sweeney of Epic Games speaks out against MSFT's heinous attempts of pushing PC gaming into a retarded Apple-cult lockdown. It just never worked before so why do they keep trying?

Also, fuck them in the ass if they won't release Age IV on Steam.

 

[Angthoron]

That was actually Windows Server 2003 reskinned to look like XP. It didn't use the same kernel as XP or share all that much code, which is why it had so many compatibility issues.

Except it didn't really have many compatibility issues unless you were trying to use some ancient printer. Every major manufacturer of hardware had it supported.
The biggest issue you could've come across was if someone had a program that used the Windows Installer and made it check the system version against a specific list that did not include XP x64 , so it would throw up "unsupported system version" and require fiddling with the installer.

Yeah I hear this crap all the time. It is completely untrue. I've been tending to a few XP x64 machines (3D workstations) for many years and use it on my main box too. Never had a single issue, everything works, EAX HD on X-Fi, barcode scanners, virtual controllers, what have you. In fact I found it more stable than 7. I built a workstation with s2011 MSI mobo and 6C proc not that long ago, all drivers for XP x64 were easily obtainable and the box works OC'd 24/7 flawlessly ever since. I'd say it's the best OS MS ever made.

As far as I understand, XP x64 only poses serious problems if you "upgrade" an x32 system or Win2K.

 

[tormund]

With its new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10, as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolising app distribution and commerce.

In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers.

Even an industry heavyweight like Tim Sweeney of Epic Games speaks out against MSFT's heinous attempts of pushing PC gaming into a retarded Apple-cult lockdown. It just never worked before so why do they keep trying?

Also, fuck them in the ass if they won't release Age IV on Steam.

It is at least encouraging to see that both the bigger gaming sites and various industry vets are lately standing against Microsoft's latest BS, instead of (typically) ignoring it or even trying to justify it.

 

[Alienman]

Microsoft helping bringing that second videogame-crash.

 

[Alienman]

Windows tried to force a windows 10 update . It scheduled it in a couple of days. I could cancel it but what the hell. That has never happened before. Anyone else had that happen to them?

 

[Infinitron]

Windows tried to force a windows 10 update . It scheduled it in a couple of days. I could cancel it but what the hell. That has never happened before. Anyone else had that happen to them?

Yeah, happened to me. That thing is getting increasingly aggressive.

 

[Zarniwoop]

We are the Microsoft. You will be upgraded. Lower your firewall and enable Windows Update. Your PC will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

 

[Alienman]

Damn, will probably wake up one day with windows 10 installed on the computer.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war

With its new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10, as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolising app distribution and commerce.

In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers.

Even an industry heavyweight like Tim Sweeney of Epic Games speaks out against MSFT's heinous attempts of pushing PC gaming into a retarded Apple-cult lockdown. It just never worked before so why do they keep trying?

Also, fuck them in the ass if they won't release Age IV on Steam.

This is too good not to quote in its entirety:

Microsoft wants to monopolise games development on PC. We must fight it
Microsoft is looking to dominate the games industry ecosystem with its aggressive new UWP initiative. Developers must oppose this, or else cede control of their titles

With its new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10, as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolising app distribution and commerce.

In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers.

This isn’t like that. Here, 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.

Windows Store and UWP
I’m not questioning the idea of a Windows Store. I believe Microsoft has every right to operate a PC app store, and to curate it how they choose. This contrasts with the position the government took in its anti-trust prosecution, that Microsoft’s free bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows was anti-competitive.

My view is that bundling is a valuable practice that benefits users, and my criticism is limited to Microsoft structuring its operating system to advantage its own store while unfairly disadvantaging competing app stores, as well as developers and publishers who distribute games directly to their customers.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Photograph: Microsoft

The specific problem here is that Microsoft’s shiny new “Universal Windows Platform” is locked down, and by default it’s impossible to download UWP apps from the websites of publishers and developers, to install them, update them, and conduct commerce in them outside of the Windows Store.

It’s true that if you dig far enough into Microsoft’s settings-burying UI, you can find a way to install these apps by enabling “side-loading”. But in turning this off by default, Microsoft is unfairly disadvantaging the competition. Bigger-picture, this is a feature Microsoft can revoke at any time using Windows 10’s forced-update process.

The Solution
If UWP is to gain the support of major PC game and application developers, it must be as open a platform as today’s predominant win32 API, which is used by all major PC games and applications. To the PC ecosystem, opening UWP means the following:

• That any PC Windows user can download and install a UWP application from the web, just as we can do now with win32 applications. No new hassle, no insidious warnings about venturing outside of Microsoft’s walled garden, and no change to Windows’ default settings required.
  
• That any company can operate a store for PC Windows games and apps in UWP format – as Valve, Good Old Games, Epic Games, EA, and Ubi Soft do today with the win32 format, and that Windows will not impede or obstruct these apps stores, relegating them to second-class citizenship.
  
• That users, developers, and publishers will always be free to engage in direct commerce with each other, without Microsoft forcing everyone into its formative in-app commerce monopoly and taking a 30% cut.

This true openness requires that Microsoft not follow Google’s clever but conniving lead with the Android platform, which is technically open, but practically closed. In particular, Android makes it possible to install third-party applications outside of the Google Play store, which is required for Google to comply with the Linux kernel’s GNU General Public License. However, Google makes it comically difficult for users to do so, by defaulting the option to off, burying it, and obfuscating it. This is not merely a technical issue: it has the market impact of Google Play Store dominating over competing stores, despite not being very good.

Games and EA are operating highly successful businesses selling their games and content directly to consumers.

Microsoft’s situation, however, is an embarrassment. Seven months after the launch of Windows Store alongside Windows 10, the place remains devoid of the top third-party games and signature applications that define the PC experience. Where’s Photoshop? Grand Theft Auto V? Fifa 2016? There are some PC ports of what were great mobile games, and some weirder things, such as the Windows 10 port of the Android port of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto from 2004.

But the good PC stuff isn’t there, with the exception of Microsoft’s own software products. Does Microsoft really think that independent PC developers and publishers, who cherish their freedom and their direct customer relationships, are going to sign up for this current UWP fiasco?


Minecraft is developed by Swedish company Mojang. Will future games be developed now that Microsoft is closing its borders? Photograph: Alamy

In my view, if Microsoft does not commit to opening PC UWP up in the manner described here, then PC UWP can, should, must and will, die as a result of industry backlash. Gamers, developers, publishers simply cannot trust the PC UWP “platform” so long as Microsoft gives evasive, ambiguous and sneaky answers to questions about UWP’s future, as if it’s a PR issue. This isn’t a PR issue, it’s an existential issue for Microsoft, a first-class determinant of Microsoft’s future role in the world.

Why We Fight
As the founder of a major Windows game developer and technology supplier, this is an op-ed I hoped I would never feel compelled to write. But Epic has prided itself on providing software directly to customers ever since I started mailing floppy disks in 1991. We wouldn’t let Microsoft close down the PC platform overnight without a fight, and therefore we won’t sit silently by while Microsoft embarks on a series of sneaky manoeuvre aimed at achieving this over a period of several years.

This day has been approaching for over than 18 months, and I need to give credit to Microsoft folks, especially Phil Spencer, for always being willing to listen to Epic’s concerns with UWP’s paradigm, and to proposed solutions. Because they listened very patiently, I hoped and believed that Microsoft would do the right thing, but here we are. Microsoft’s consumer launch and PR around UWP are in full swing, and this side of the story must be told.

Microsoft’s intentions must be judged by Microsoft’s actions, not Microsoft’s words. Their actions speak plainly enough: they are working to turn today’s open PC ecosystem into a closed, Microsoft-controlled distribution and commerce monopoly, over time, in a series of steps of which we’re seeing the very first. Unless Microsoft changes course, all of the independent companies comprising the PC ecosystem have a decision to make: to oppose this, or cede control of their existing customer relationships and commerce to Microsoft’s exclusive control.

Tim Sweeney is the co-founder of US-based developer, Epic Games, creator of the Gears of War series of Xbox and PC titles, which has sold over 20m units worldwide.

 

[Astral Rag]

Epic CEO: “Universal Windows Platform can, should, must and will, die”

 

[Farage]

As i said in another group, we dont need to fight this. If Microsoft does pull it off everyone will either buy a linux or crack a way into getting to steam.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...es-tim-sweeney-games-industry-fight-microsoft

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 bydefault, 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.”

 

[Mr. Pink]

Damn it feels good to use Linux now.

No updates, no problems.

So far I've been able to run all the games I want to run. DOSbox works just fine. Anything that I can't run goes on the pirated win7 partition.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Microsoft trying to kill Windows, shit is getting ridiculous.
W7 is problably my last Windows.

 

[vonAchdorf]

GabeN was right.

 

[Alienman]

Damn it feels good to use Linux now.

No updates, no problems.

So far I've been able to run all the games I want to run. DOSbox works just fine. Anything that I can't run goes on the pirated win7 partition.

Is it a painful change to make?

 

[Excidium II]

Depends on your level of technical aptitude/desire to learn more.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Damn it feels good to use Linux now.

No updates, no problems.

So far I've been able to run all the games I want to run. DOSbox works just fine. Anything that I can't run goes on the pirated win7 partition.

Is it a painful change to make?

I'm a tech idiot and it took 4 hours yesterday to setup a dual boot configuration on my new laptop (and 3 of those hours was wrestling with Windows and it's gay drivers)

Linux is actually easier to setup than Windows. On Mint, you get pretty much everything a casual user would want preinstalled, like word processing (libre office), image editing (gimp), browser (firefox) and video/music player (vlc).

edit: I'm talking about distros like Ubuntu, mint, debian

 

[Alienman]

I see. I know basically nothing about Linux. Just curious mostly, since it seems a change is needed eventually.