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Notch Won't Certify Minecraft For Windows 8
MojoKid writes "The backlash against Windows 8 from various developers continues, but this time a game's creator isn't just expressing discontent. Notch, the developer behind smash hit Minecraft, has declared that he won't be working with Microsoft to certify Minecraft for Windows 8. Note that this doesn't mean Minecraft won't run on Windows 8. The certification process in question is Microsoft's mandatory rules for submitting content to the Windows game store. In order to be listed there, an application must be Metro-compatible and conform to a laundry list of other conditions. The real problem with Windows 8 is that it locks ARM users into a second class experience. If you buy an x86 tablet, you can download programs from SourceForge, GitHub, or any file mirror. If you're an ARM user, you can download programs from the Microsoft store and that's it. The bifurcated permission structure is the problem, and it makes WinRT tablets categorically impossible to recommend for anyone who values the ability to install whatever software they please."
Windows being Windows, I don't forsee any real future issues with getting your own apps on the ARM version. Just the nature of Windows will probably make it much easier to work around, and if the userbase grows enough it will move along that much faster. Microsoft is trying the walled garden technique the Apple has going, but I don't foresee it being as effective or foolproof as Apple's.
Sometimes I feel like Microsoft si kind of flopping around like a fish on land when it comes to tablets. Even though they technically had a headstart, they've only just started their move to tablets and it feels rushed. The current release cycle of good > bad > good > bad will most likely continue and Windows 8 will flop. At least I hope it does and it will force them to rethink their stupid Start menu removal, amongst other things.
That Ballmer would understand that a large portion of windows past success was due in part to the fact that software for the system was available anywhere. Now upon porting to a new platform, he wants to emulate apples walled garden, which only worked because of vendor lock in and the desirbility of the device. It won't work. Android is proving that an open market gains more market share. With at least 3 other options (iOS, Android, and regular windows), users will likely stick with those platforms unless tricked or forced, and MS doesnt have the power in the mobile market to force.
So now there are at least 2 aspects of Win8 that should fail, the interface, and the locked down ARM version
Disclaimer: Sent from android phone.
Silence is a state of mime.
Notch developed most of the game by himself in the beginning. Then when he started hiring people Jeb eventually took over development and Notch doesn't do any code for minecraft anymore. So yes, he did develop the main base game by himself, but anything that's happened in the past year(?) has been all Jeb and the other developers.
Also I'd say it's more the press taking his tweets and blowing them up rather than him being some kind of PR supergod, almost every single one of his tweets ends up on some news site somewhere, even the inane ones. What's he supposed to do about that, stop tweeting altogether?
Not to mention he's just saying what we're all thinking. ;)
Regardless of the fact that he may be whoring for attention, he does make a valid point. How are you going to explain to consumers that Windows RT and Windows x86 aren't' the same when they are being marketed under the same brand? It's going to be very confusing.
I'd say Microsoft shot itself in the foot here, not by enacting the walled garden (which is bad), but by not releasing a compat layer to run WinRT executables on earlier versions of i386/amd64 Windows.
No one is really going to port stuff just for porting sake, and the API is quite different, with no obvious upsides. As for users, there are three groups:
* Windows Phone 8: laughed at, and without software it's a chicken-and-egg problem
* Windows 8 for business: no sane business is going to migrate for 5 or so years
* Windows 8 for home users: they don't upgrade for the (non-existing) coolness factor but by getting Windows with replacement hardware
Thus, the only real way to get actual users for WinRT software in the short term would be making it possible to run it on Windows 7 (and if they really cared, even XP). With no users, there will be no serious developers.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Please explain how Android has a walled garden? Last time I checked I can install applications without using google play/market
Apple has a walled garden.
Yes.
Android does too.
No
Microsoft has a walled garden, but if you have an x86 tablet, you can plant petunias and begonias
WTF?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Slashdot needs an edit feature. You're right. My bad. Had a different train of thought originally.
body massage!
Not to mention that he quite happily did minecraft pocket edition for the ipad, an ARM ecosystem that is just as restrictive as the Microsoft app store on windows RT.
No hypocrisy there, no siree.
Consumers went 'ohhh, walled garden, totally restricted to one vendor, apple decides what apps I'm allowed to install, awesome' and bought the things by the utter truckload.
The most common complaint about android is that Google doesn't exercise ENOUGH control over the OEMs to prevent fragmentation
Is it any surprise that Microsoft went 'seriously? A walled garden where we get to cream a big slice of profit on every bit of software is what customers want? Alrighty then!'
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
Hey, I thought Apple held the patent on locking users into an app store? They should sue MicroSoft for patent infringement.
... and the impending death of Windows/PC as an open, general-computing platform by the hands of Microsoft. He didn't mention tablets once in his tweets.
body massage!
If you were earning millions and millions, would you want to give 30%+ away to MS or Valve, for very little beyond a billing system and content hosting?
Not really greed, just good business sense, IMHO.
The only way to distribute Metro apps (x86 or ARM) is via the Windows store. "Side loading" (with is just a funky name for installing Metro apps outside the windows store) is only available for Windows enterprise and server editions. See http://richfrombechtle.wordpress.com/tag/windows-8-sideloading/ or google for "sideloading windows 8"
I don't know you guys that are talking about tablets got the memo that Windows 8 also (unfortunately) runs on the desktop.
This is a path that goes a lot further then Apple as I'm still able to install software freely on my Apple desktop. With Windows also, but not the new Metro apps they are trying to push or I should run the enterprise version.
Valve does not prevent a developer from distributing games through any other mean, and there is no lack of concurrence in the Digital Game Delivery market. Self-publication is very cheap, and platforms like Steam are intended for developers that are ready to invest money to respect Valve's conditions, in exchange for an improved revenue through a better exposition to gamers that are used to buy their games.
This is quite different from the current Microsoft and Apple tactics of using their power as an OS provider to extract a "gatekeeper tax" on all programs sold for their platform.