http://www.pcgamesn.com/gears-of-war/microsoft-uwp-tim-sweeney Quote: Tim Sweeney says that Microsoft will "force-patch Windows 10 to make Steam progressively worse and more broken" Update July 26, 2016: Tim Sweeney's been decrying Microsoft's treatment of the Windows platform again, including a not insignificant amount of doomsaying. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has long been a detractor of Windows 10, the Universal Windows Platform and Microsoft in general. Now, in an interview with Edge, he's gotten even more savage than normal. First, Sweeney's explanantion of the differences between the UWP system and the current one - Win32. "There are two programming interfaces for Windows and every app has to choose one of them," he says. "Every Steam app – every PC game for the past few decades – has used Win32. It’s been both responsible for the vibrant software market we have now, but also for malware. Any program can be a virus. Universal Windows Platform is seen as an antidote to that. It’s sandboxed – much more locked down." So what's the problem? Well, Sweeney sees a possible future where Microsoft start to lock things down by "phasing out" Win32 apps by convincing everyone to use UWP. "If they can succeed in doing that then it’s a small leap to forcing all apps and games to be distributed through the Windows Store. Once we reach that point, the PC has become a closed platform. It won’t be that one day they flip a switch that will break your Steam library – what they’re trying to do is a series of sneaky manoeuvres. They make it more and more inconvenient to use the old apps, and, simultaneously, they try to become the only source for the new ones." As for Steam, Sweeney says that Microsoft are going to target it through deliberately bad patches. "Slowly, over the next five years, they will force-patch Windows 10 to make Steam progressively worse and more broken. They’ll never completely break it, but will continue to break it until, in five years, people are so fed up that Steam is buggy that the Windows Store seems like an ideal alternative. That’s exactly what they did to their previous competitors in other areas. Now they’re doing it to Steam. It’s only just starting to become visible. Microsoft might not be competent enough to succeed with their plan, but they’re certainly trying." This does seem to assume that Valve wouldn't be able to fix Steam to work despite Microsoft, and that the Microsoft store wouldn't be a legitimately good option. Closing off the ecosystem would also prevent, for example, businesses creating apps for use in-house - doesn't seem like a great business move. We've contacted Microsoft for comment on Sweeney's thoughts. Thanks, PCG. Original story April 1, 2016: At their //Build/ conference, Microsoft are diving deep into the techy side of their business. It’s not all directly related to games, but much of it deals with the backend programming that supports what we play. Specifically they’ve been talking about their new Universal Windows Platform app model that’s proved controversial so far. Epic’s Tim Sweeney, who has been the loudest industry figure discussing UWP in recent weeks, has said on Twitter that while he likes what Microsoft are saying now about the system, they need to fully commit to it being open to use by developers and won’t change in the future. At //Build/, group program manager for the UWP project Andrew Clinick gave an hour-long talk about why they’re making it, what it’s for and how it will help developers. On Twitter, Sweeney reacted with cautious optimism, seeming pleased with what Clinick was saying about what was possible with UWP. Microsoft Channel 9 @ch9 Follow Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic Here is @andrewclinick's technical presentation on UWP installation: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2016/B809 …. One-click install, signing by any CA root. However, what he wants out of Microsoft is a total commitment that the open nature of UWP will remain, and won’t be patched out later. Them just saying it isn’t enough for him, and he has specific demands that were detailed in a VentureBeat post. 31 Mar Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic @ThomasNigro @andrewclinick Yes. What we really want is a clear Microsoft *commitment* to UWP being open in specific technical ways. Follow Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic @ThomasNigro @andrewclinick At Build, Microsoft showed cool new open features of UWP and stated their plan, but not a commitment. He says Epic still won't be targeting UWP with the current plans until he's satisfied that Microsoft won't pull the code-rug from under their digi-legs. A fair position to be in when you're talking about games developed by massive numbers of people, and a pretty large standing down from last month.
Holy shit... I wonder if PC crowds and Steam will be forced to adapt Linux just to avoid it all being locked down by Microsoft. Also think of the indie crowd? "Sorry, we have no interest in your silly little game" (though in reality they'd never even answer your request to have your game on their store)
If the market creates enough demand then it will be created. If that were to happen, fully expect another company to come in with a OS built specifically for gaming that allows for other programs.
I really like the SteamOS. I just hope we'll have full control over it. They're saying we're getting full control - what I want is to see Unity etc. run on it in the future. It's based on Debian 8, I'm expecting all that database sweetness etc. to come with it or that it'll at least support it. And they've got their own proprietary drivers finally worked out, which has been a big obstacle on the path to full blown Linux gaming. I guess Steam / Valve got started right in time. I really loved my earlier tryout with Linux. It runs so fast and efficient, my only issue was that I couldn't run my work software and games on it. I need to get SteamOS but I need to check out the hardware compatibility. It has limited compatibility - getting those drivers to work with Linux and all. But anything based on the Steam machines will work out fine. Hey, we don't even need to ask Microsoft if we can install shit on our machines? Best, we should have full Linux depth customization of our own systems. And games will run on it! Sweet! http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
