Epic Games' Tim Sweeney Is Warning Of Microsoft's Closed Gaming Ecosystem

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Epic Games' Tim Sweeney Is Warning Of Microsoft's Closed Gaming Ecosystem

Epic Games' Tim Sweeny has written a lengthy op-ed coming out against Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) effort that would close up the Windows gaming ecosystem as "a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10."..

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Epic-OpEd-Windows-UWP

[eydee]

As long as MS doesn't stop traditional programs from functioning, this shouldn't be a problem. Developers can just keep staying away from Metro, and keep on what they've been doing for many years. Can they make a game using Vulkan or OpenGL and compile it with GCC to any platform, then sell it on Steam, GOG, and various distribution platforms? I'm sure they can. The only result will be having little to no games in the MS Store.

[pracedru]

It will be very exciting to see if Microsoft can Hinder migration to SteamOS/GNULinux.

[Kano]

Using Steam is nicer for games, as it supports Linux and OS X too. The other way MS Store is always involved and supports mainly Win 10 and Xbox One. Epic has basically no own store, only EA and Valve. But maybe they wanted to create a new one - but that would not be only against MS but against EA/Valve too.

[GuercH]

As long as MS doesn't stop traditional programs from functioning, this shouldn't be a problem. Developers can just keep staying away from Metro, and keep on what they've been doing for many years. Can they make a game using Vulkan or OpenGL and compile it with GCC to any platform, then sell it on Steam, GOG, and various distribution platforms? I'm sure they can. The only result will be having little to no games in the MS Store.

It's a problem of control, to publish on microsoft platform you need to follow the rules, so if you want your game on XBOX you need to sign up for this, you will get pc access as a bonus, they want this, they want this bad! that's why they want to de-emphasize charging for windows, so windows becomes even more ubiquitous as a platform, and only if you control the platform you can charge money for it. Valve understands the danger here, i sure hope blizzard and others understand this too.

[stevenc]

working to turn today’s open PC ecosystem into a closed, Microsoft-controlled distribution and commerce monopoly

F/OSS distros, wave from the other side of the fence...

Even if SteamOS boots into the proprietary Steam client usually, the rest of the platform (primarily just Debian/Ubuntu) is obviously free for any publisher to distribute their games on. Valve had incredible foresight after all, they've reserved themselves a chair for when the music stops.

[remm]

It's obvious the MS of old is now back with a vengeance.

We can only ack that Valve's strategy was correct all along, it used the time it had on hand up to this day to create a real ecosystem. If they hadn't done that, it would be too late now.

[zanny]

is obviously free for any publisher to distribute their games on.

Good luck actually managing to get users on SteamOS to do that, though. You would have to somehow get your game into Steam even if it isn't downloaded / installed in Steam (which is not that hard, Steam lets you make applinks inside it). I'm not sure if SteamOS even has a graphical APT tool so they can give you deb packages as downloads.

[Kemosabe]

This kind of news make me dream badly at night. . . honestly

[eydee]

It's a problem of control, to publish on microsoft platform you need to follow the rules, so if you want your game on XBOX you need to sign up for this, you will get pc access as a bonus, they want this, they want this bad! that's why they want to de-emphasize charging for windows, so windows becomes even more ubiquitous as a platform, and only if you control the platform you can charge money for it. Valve understands the danger here, i sure hope blizzard and others understand this too.

Yes, xbox games will be terribly performing metro programs on a console that isn't even that popular. They might have a similarly low quality windows counterpart in the closed store bought by 2 or 3 people. It won't change anything. Developers won't abandon the PS4 and traditional PC platform just to have one unpopular version of their game. See Tomb Raider, it has a metro and a traditional version as well, and of course PS4 too.