Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is dividing opinions, and Tim Sweeney has spoken out.
Remember how Microsoft is now including Windows 10 PC in their Xbox ecosystem? While details are still scarce, we do know that games that are on the Windows Store will have exclusive Windows features under the UWP scheme.
This does not sit well with one Tim Sweeney, the boss of Epic Games. Writing in The Guardian, he warns against allowing Microsoft to monopolise games on the PC, and that the exclusive features are “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.”
However, Sweeney is fine with Microsoft running the Windows Store, and no restrictions should be placed on them in terms of operation and curation.
He further added that 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.”
In return, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Windows, Kevin Gallo had the following to say:
“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 by default, 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.”
The outcome of this debate is certainly going to be interesting, and we here at Gamer Malaya will definitely keep an eye on it. If you are a PC gamer, you should too!