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Windows 10's Store Locks 'Call of Duty' Purchasers Into Windows-10-Only Battles (vice.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
Two Call of Duty games have been remastered for Windows 10, but if you buy them through the Windows 10 Store there's a problem. "Windows 10 Store players will be isolated from other PC versions of the game," reports the Windows Central site, noting a statement from Microsoft which implies that the decision was made by Activision.
"For unknown reasons, Windows 10 Store customers are segregated from customers who bought the game from Steam, which is by far the most popular platform on PC," reports Motherboard. "Call of Duty fans who made the unfortunate of mistake of giving Microsoft their cash are left sitting in lonely multiplayer lobbies waiting for games that'll never start."
Motherboard reports that at least one player successfully requested a refund, calling the situation "another black eye for a digital storefront that PC gamers already avoid like the plague."
"For unknown reasons, Windows 10 Store customers are segregated from customers who bought the game from Steam, which is by far the most popular platform on PC," reports Motherboard. "Call of Duty fans who made the unfortunate of mistake of giving Microsoft their cash are left sitting in lonely multiplayer lobbies waiting for games that'll never start."
Motherboard reports that at least one player successfully requested a refund, calling the situation "another black eye for a digital storefront that PC gamers already avoid like the plague."
Can go FUCK itself.
If you paid for a PC game, and *DON'T* have a disc in your hand as a result, then you are just a plain old sucker. The app store model only works for smartphones, but PC owners DEMAND more. Tell these companies that you won't stand for crappy practices and limited availability. Tell them by not giving Microsoft's store ONE RED CENT!
Suckers
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
One is because multiple large developers all want their own ecosystem for digital downloads. That in itself is good since it helps with the cost of the games in the end, and in most cases leads to significant discounts.
OK, your UID is too low to be an astroturf account, so, seriously, you're advocating a distribution monopoly as the key to low prices? Really?
See the 20% off or more on titles from places like Greenmangaming, Gamersgate or Gamesrepublic vs say Steam, Origin or Ubi's thingy
Wait, maybe you worded the first quote wrong or something? Origin is EA's "own ecosystem for digital downloads" and unsurprisingly isn't big on discounts. Steam OTOH is famous for "80% off" sales for older games. I have hundreds of Steam games, lots of them big-budget titles, but my average purchase price is well under $10.
Now getting all games on all platforms? More difficult, since developing for multiple platforms becomes expensive. Especially since consoles require a "buy-in" to develop on and for every patch they require you to pay for certification of said patch
Overlap between console peasant gaming and PC overlords isn't necessarily good for game quality, and mobile gaming is the same deal - three different worlds with three different ideals for good UI and good gameplay.
OTOH, making all "PC games" available for Windows, Mac, and Linux is certainly worthwhile. Smaller devs might not be able to afford to test everything thoroughly on three platforms and be wiling to stand behind it, but that's what value-added distributers like GOG could come in. GOG, for the old games they sell, does the work to make DOS and early Windows games work well on modern Windows (and they're starting to do that for Mac, but again for old games). There's certainly room for a Mac-specific GOG-like, that makes indie games run flawlessly on Mac for a larger cut. Ditto Linux. For an indie dev, that's still more money coming in than not being on that platform at all.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
It doesn't work in some genres, especially for PvP.
Let's take Overwatch, for example. PS4 and XBOX gamers, using a game controller, are at a significant disadvantage as compared to mouse/keyboard. For instance, Torbjiorn got a nerf on consoles, but not on PC, because people can track and aim more quickly on PC, negating his advantage there. So you may not want to matchmaker those people together, as the PC gamers will, on average, own the console gamers.
But for Windows Store and Steam not getting matched together? Yeah, that's insanity.
-=Lothsahn=-
Stories like these just makes me depressed and realizing that we have a world worse than what's depicted in Max Headroom.
I think that both Aldous Huxley and George Orwell underestimated what we would come to.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
That's retarded.
Ezekiel 23:20
And PC players have options for outside-game chat and voice programs that let teams coordinate or stealthily share info better.
When I was a kid that was called a TELEPHONE. I agree with the rest of what you said, but please don't make it sound like console players have exactly zero options for voice communication.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
THIS.
Windows Store isn't somehow magically preventing the game from talking to players on other platforms. This was a conscious decision by Activision to do this. Why? I have no idea, but let's simply skewer Microsoft over Activision's choice and not ask them why this was done.