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

[eydee]

From the point of view of the Metro D3D and Windows Store problem, developers don't need to move to linux and try to move the players with them. At this moment all windows versions can run traditional win32 x86/x64 code. There are compilers, there are multiple graphics APIs, and they can freely choose. They can just simply ignore the new "standard", and that's it. We could say that the whole thing is about not having to port games at all, but using in-house game engines is something that becomes scarce. And using the industry standard engines (many of which are free) already makes it possible to target multiple platforms with little additional work, most of which is marketing and technical support, which would be needed even with 100% identical code.

Surely, I'm all in for linux gaming becoming a great thing, but at this moment is isn't the last chance developers have, it is a possible bright future instead.

[hangingwithsnoopy]

I may be mistaken but the main 2 objections I read is not the ability to "Sideload" a program but that now Microsoft is limiting access to some components of Windows to ONLY their app store thus forcing people to release them through their app store only for acceptable performance. And that some components to programs that currently "Sideload" have access to components that are not available through the Windows store yet if ever.

[johnc]

PC gaming is essentially a closed platform as it is now, thanks to years and years of developers knob-polishing DirectX and other closed, proprietary, locked-in tech.

You guys made your bed. Enjoy getting bent over by MS.

[b15hop]

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.

And Uplay / Blizzard / GOG.

The smaller percentage of dedicated - "core" ? - gamers will go where the content is and have both the expensive desktop and console devices needed to play the games they are interested in. These are also often the online "vocal majority" who mistakenly (!) feel they speak for the gaming community at large. They won't settle for a lesser desktop experience if the XBox plays it better on their 56" TV, for example. Likewise the other direction for games that are hindered by a needing a traditional desktop input device set, guarantee of extended duration without power drop, ridiculously powerful GPU/CPU presence, brobdingnagian RAM or local storage requirements, or any combination.

As a PC gamer, I am frankly tired of games being built for Playstation or Xbox first, and PC is an after thought. I completely agree with John Carmack that API on the desktop needed to improve fast. Hopefully Vulkan can fix that because consoles are taking too much of the glory. Why spend so much on a PC only to find the graphics only look marginally better if that. It's quite a disappointment. I think personally that phone app games are over rated, and only really show where the money is. This is why I have such respect for Blizzard, who seem to push the gaming boundaries but stay true to their cause. Ie Desktop.

My theory with Microsoft is that eventually they will get too greedy and shoot themself in the foot. Look at the way they dealt with Internet Explorer? Trying to corner the market, time and time again. Greedy tactics don't get far. Consumers aren't that stupid. It's starting to happen now on mobile platforms too. I won't be surprised if Microsoft try to force their app store and destroy all the potential value that makes Windows gaming worth it... What gives Valve the advantage to really show off SteamOS... But to me SteamOS is average at best. SteamOS really needs more than just gaming to get them off the ground. So if Microsoft screw up, Valve really should use this as an opportunity to really work hard at making SteamOS what it needs to be. A complete desktop and gaming environment. Not just a gaming platform.

[c0derbear]

As a former professional game developer (15 years+ in that industry) and having pushed on multiple platforms I'd contribute this....please take it as the 'two cent' contribution it is ...

Linux based gaming will be somewhat niche for a long time, simply because the dominant consumer desktop OS is not Linux based and won't be, for a very long time.

Development shops simply can not sustain supporting the larger public in Linux based gaming, the sheer hardware variants combined with driver variants that live out there are unwieldy at best. Microsoft has worked HARD (by hook and by crook) to get Windows to a point where it is well supported by the IHVs, Linux support lags in important ways that the general populace won't have the patience for. Heck, my wife barely does and she is a technologist in her own rights who HATES Windows - one day we'll figure out why suspend/resume doesn't work on her 2015 Alienware 15 R2 under Ubuntu but it hasn't resolved yet.

I would speculate though that over time we're going to see fewer and fewer casual games being pushed out for desktop, leaving them be mobile based - whether phone or tablet - which will result in the pragmatic duality of Android and iOS being the dominant by-the-numbers gaming platform (which they may already be). I continually see people spending more and more time playing games this way, and buying the portable battery packs to support it. I have former colleagues who more and more are developing only for iOS or Android or the two, and have abandoned desktop and console targets altogether.

The smaller percentage of dedicated - "core" ? - gamers will go where the content is and have both the expensive desktop and console devices needed to play the games they are interested in. These are also often the online "vocal majority" who mistakenly (!) feel they speak for the gaming community at large. They won't settle for a lesser desktop experience if the XBox plays it better on their 56" TV, for example. Likewise the other direction for games that are hindered by a needing a traditional desktop input device set, guarantee of extended duration without power drop, ridiculously powerful GPU/CPU presence, brobdingnagian RAM or local storage requirements, or any combination.

[Nille_kungen]

I hope he know, that its only a way of distribute packages. They can use it or they can refuse it. Its Simple.

Did you read the source article?

[CleanCut]

Agile Perception will be boycotting UWP for our next project, Skyfire. I'm glad Tim brought this to my attention. Until now I was considering including UWP as one of the platforms we would publish on. By the way, we use Unreal Engine 4 and support Mac, Linux, Windows, and consoles...in that order.

[Azrael5]

gaming producers should transit to linux operating systems but linux operating systems must improve a lot more and faster. Linux developers must cooperate much more towards specified operating systems. Too many redundant projects are useless, a dispersion of energy. Also the dichotomy deb or rpm represents a disadvantage it occurs to decide for one common standard: final user hate wasting time to understand the system differences between operating systems. Gamers are interested to manage vga & audio controllers, apis, shader models, tessellation, hardware acceleration, and as common final users rpm or deb represent an idiotic question to avoid because it's a waste of time. So devices, managers, drivers, also kernel are important features but huge number of different operating systems , deb targz, rpm audio cards not implemented, etc... represent weaknesses. So developers should begin to thought as final users and specified gamer users instead of developers which make a hardware machine workable.

[Nille]

I hope he know, that its only a way of distribute packages. They can use it or they can refuse it. Its Simple.

[andre30correia]

same old story, like dx12 opengl war, many years ago, this time will not result, to many android, apple shit and linux out there