Windows Store Is a "Disaster"

Did Microsoft keep Peter Molyneux on the payroll and just move him to profit projections?

Jokes aside, Microsoft wanting their own online store seems incredibly foolish. Looking at Steam's success and thinking an overnight science project of an attempt will take Steam's customers does sound familiar though. Reminds me of every television network wanting their own streaming service to get gains like Netflix, HBO, and Hulu (but really, why even Hulu). Amazon took the right route and made it a bonus for signing up to their main source of revenue, something consoles are already doing with Games with Gold and Playstation's version of that. Steam for everything, GOG for DRM-free, and HumbleBundle as the hybrid. Who would honestly veer from these 3? They cover everything for PC needs.

TL;DR: Other instances similar to Microsoft's failure.

Sorry for the disorganized rant, been off my game this week :/

Good video, interesting stuff.

Replies:

@Balarush I fuckin love grapes, but I missed the reference (sorry!). But yeah forgot about achievements, that's a valid point. I still feel like it'd be easier/cheaper to streamline Steam achievements to xbox accounts than gaffing, but hindsight is 20/20ish?

@Abel0990 There is competition in the PC market already though, diluting the market and pulling exclusivity on where these games are sold (which you can bet was their initial thought, prior to eating shit) just loses sales, as the Microsoft guys complained about for an exclusive title. As the video said, the type of market client Windows Games uses would force developers to make a second game that's the exact same, it would turn out to be an extremely painful and fatal exercise in futility. Windows needs to learn from their mistake, they could look at the Disney/Netflix deal for the classic example of "If you can't beat em, join em." Microsoft's best move would be to sell exclusivity of their products to a single seller, either Steam for the easy road and money, plus convenience of having achievements already at their disposal (as pointed out by @Balarush); or the more ballsy method of backing GOG to loosen Steam's grip on the PC market in hopes of a more forgiving second shot at their own market way down the road. Steam for easy money, GOG for eventually making their own client and immediately shaking Steam. My money is on them sticking with Steam since they've already sold games through them, but you have to admit the GOG scenario would be unbelievably juicy... One can dream :D

UWP was always going to be a rough transition for videogames. Any other type of software developing for Windows really just needs to code for different interfaces. Much like webpages do with desktop/mobile or android does with all the backwards compatibility. As someone who develops desktop programs, UWP isn't that different from what I already do with Windows development. Just a little more overhead, IF I wanted to account for the other type of Windows 10 devices.

With the projections, you have to aim high. It's a combination of getting the stockholders hype, but also believing in the platform you're building. As dumb as it may sound, if you reach your goals without too much effort, then you're not setting high enough goals. 1 billion by 2018 may be a bit high, but it's a driving force for everyone at the company to work better/harder. That being said, if they fail (like really fail, not miss it by a little, but a lot), then they'll fall hard. I know from personal experience.

As for the windows store, when it comes to software (aside from AAA videogames) and developing it independently, it's can actually be awesome. Instead of making some kind of windows program and trying to distribute/sell it independently, you can use Windows store instead or do both.

I love Windows 10 and my coworkers do too (who also work in software). If it really bothers you, then jump to Apple products. They keep their OS consistent and super user friendly. Or you can be a hipster and jump to a linux os like Ubuntu haha

I got the windows 10 Minecraft Beta for achievements.

Achievements won't unlock for me. :l

ashley is a bombshell. golf clap for the burns lol hahaha Kudos

I think Meg meant spilling the beans at the end. I have never heard it phrased as spilling the tea.

I would love nothing more than to have my phone, PC, and console communicate and cooperate flawlessly, such as Microsoft wants. But unfortunately, it is not the case, nor do I think it ever will be:

- Xbox is good. They've nailed that down, though they have their hiccups.

- They have a great operating system

- I personally love Windows Phone, except...

- Windows Phone has no store. It is lackluster, and doesn't have many apps. Because it doesn't have many apps, it doesn't sell. Because it doesn't sell, it doesn't have many apps. yadda yadda

- Their Windows Store for PC is good, but it is very much like the Windows Phone's curse

Really, Microsoft is trying to push its way into these markets that already have huge companies that have established great things. Steam? No one's replacing Steam anytime soon. iOS or Android? Nu-uh.

They need to develop with what's already there. They're spreading themselves thin, and I really don't want to see them go under.

I played Fable Legends in multiple iterations of its beta, and every one of those was just horrible to play. Poor controls, extremely badly implemented game mechanics, poor matchmaking, it had zero direction and as a beta was a bad reflection of where the game was going, and that was 6 months to a year. If they'd moved that little in that long, and played that badly, I would have been surprised if it wasn't canceled. It was just horrible.

Fable Legends didn't fail because of a lack of people to sell to, it failed because it was just bad. I played a bit during the beta and gave up after just a few hours. Lionhead should've just moved towards Fable 4 in a true open-world setting that so many games are getting so good at now days.

Windows 10 in itself is a good platform and has many of the advantages that Microsoft was trying to incorporate into 8 without the disadvantages of needing a touch screen device. Its better then Windows 7 and the people who haven't upgraded yet will be sorry once they have to pay for their upgrades.

The xbox app on Windows 10 is a fantastic work in progress. Its still unpolished in some ways but in many ways its very good and basically allows you to use most of the Xbox features with the ease of a keyboard and mouse instead of a controller. Which when checking achievements, replying to friends messages, or just typing in your password, can all be a very nice convenience.

The problem with the Windows 10 store, however, is that Microsoft's target audience is the same audience that ALREADY HAS AN XBOX ONE. There is no reason for PC users to stop using steam and pick up Windows as their go to shop and everyone who has an Xbox is just going to keep using an Xbox for gaming. Its a failure because Microsoft is too late to the party to start getting control of the PC gaming market and there is no part of the console market that wants to start using a PC for gaming. The very very small community that does cross console-PC gaming may use the store but again, they will probably mostly use steam for their PC side of things anyways.

Gigantic is another one which was used in all of the microsoft promotional material for win10/xbox one exclusives but had a load of development issues as one. It's very telling that they signed a deal with Perfect World to publish the game instead and to use their Arc platform to get the game on 7, 8 as well as a standalone version on win10 which doesn't need the microsoft store. It will still have a xbox one/windows 10 app version too but the players of that version won't be able to interact with the arc client one.

I can understand Microsoft's thinking, they see other publishers like EA with Origin and think "we need that" but they simply don't have the numbers of IPs of the likes of EA being produced and released. They have a platform in win10/xbox one which they should focus on providing a good experience on, not spend time trying to force things onto people. The essentially forced win10 upgrades and closed store with all it's issues is a massive negative on what is essentially a good base of a platform for them to build with.

I'm all for store competition on PC, Steam shouldn't get a carte blanche but there's plenty of others out there already in GOG, greenmangaming, G2A etc. Allow them all to sell through the store platform, use it like a selling hub instead, sort of like price comparison sites where Microsoft still get a cut and users get the best deals from the various sources.

Though I do agree the Microsoft store is a mess, because it is, I don't think Microsoft is more to blame for Fable Legends. There was absolutely no direction with the game, the last half of its life it was turned into a MOBA, and wasn't the 4v1 gameplay anymore. Though it is sounds as though it's somewhat Microsoft's fault, I don't think LionHead isn't more to blame here.

Fable Legends failed because it wasn't a Fable game. That's the crux of the problem. Whether you have issues with development or not, ultimately when the next entry in a struggling franchise is completely different and barely related, you're asking for trouble.

Microsoft has always been a fool hardy company that's excellent in engineering their own failures. The only way Xbox doesn't become Nintendo (no offense nintendo) is b splitting from cancerous microsoft parent company.