This is the story of a video game developer who goes on a crusade against gaming giant Microsoft, the company that has both the Xbox and Windows, open the main computing platform at play. the man called Tim Sweeney, a veteran of the industry having co-founded the studio Epic responsible, including franchises Unreal Tournament or Gears of War. The reason for his anger and his fight? Microsoft’s new application format called Universal Windows Platform (UWP) a tool, he said, aims to transform “ the current PC ecosystem, open, in a distribution system and closed sales and controlled by Microsoft . “
Lock an open system
in an article from the British newspaper the Guardian, the US aged 45 delivers an impassioned diatribe against this new UWP app format. At present, no matter whether you buy a game commercially on Steam or GOG distribution platforms, or directly from publishers like Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, games are all applications in the format “Win 32″ an older type of installer that Microsoft has decided to update it. But according to Tim Sweeney, the update hides a maneuver control by the US retail giant to play video content
UWP: technical
jail
According to Tim Sweeney, apps UWP prevent” default, downloading via the sites of distributors or publishers, [prevent] the installation or updating and sale (of content, ed) from the Windows Store . ” In the manner of applications default to Windows 10, the settings for the installation and maintenance of games exist, but the fact that Microsoft has the “disabled by default, the disadvantage unfairly competitive.” And far from pure speculation, Mr Sweeney takes a current example of an open system theoretically but yet totally locked. Android
Google as (bad) model
If the mobile operating system from Google is obligated ” to conform to the Linux kernel obligations “to allow the installation of third party applications, in practice, Google has made handling” hard (realize, editor) for users by disabling the default functionality in the hiding and the Offensive. “
the system, however, open in its infancy, is indeed almost locked by Google , so that in the West, the role of “stores” self is very marginal. Even Amazon and Amazon app Undernground with his punching power, do not compare with the Play Store. Only China with its huge market and protectionist laws allow the existence of more than 200 local stores with a market share of ridicule for Google – only 4%
It’s not that the Windows Store Tim Sweeney denounced, adding that “ Microsoft has the right to offer an app store ” that he even thinks “ that can bring value to users .” His criticism and target strategy “ insidious ” to structure its operating system to “ advantage its own store .”
the call to developers
Tim Sweeney grandstand is not a rant, it is also an invitation to his colleagues to avoid the “trap” format UWP and reject it outright: “ we will not let Microsoft lock the PC platform overnight without a fight ”
It remains to be seen if his voice will be heard and. / or if Microsoft will be able to provide answers – and satisfactory guarantees – to reassure the world of video game creation.
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