Microsoft wants serious, non-gaming developers to make more money Microsoft says it will take less money from Windows developers selling apps in its store, making its marketplace significantly more appealing than competing app stores in certain cases – assuming revenue share rather than market size is the primary consideration. In a blog post published on Monday, to be explained on Tuesday …
No, and I don't have any plans to.
It's bad enough Windows 10 trying to make me believe by PC is a touchscreen tablet and that I want to shout at Cortana in my office.
As far as I can see you would only buy into the ecosystem if you really want to carry the same apps and state between phone slab and PC. In my world I have these devices to do different jobs, otherwise why would I bother having them all?
I didn't buy from the windows store on pc, rather through my xbox one. Got State of Decay 2 as I would any other game, but it is cross platform. The one purchase lets me install it on Xbox One and on PC (Windows 10 only, apparently). I'm not sure if the revenue share is different when purchased via xbox or pc but if there are other games that are cross platform that I want to get then I might just purchase them through the store. Never had a need for anything else on it though.
Nobody wants a walled garden in Windows. The only tolerable 'walled garden' is Steam, but even that is cross-platform and not chained to Windows.
I guess pimping the new Age of Empires game exclusively on the Microsoft app store didn't help much, eh?
The only tolerable 'walled garden' is Steam, but even that is cross-platform and not chained to Windows. ... Anonymous Coward
Spoken like a Native and Virgin with No Experience of the Delights and Tribulations of the Perfumed Garden, AC. That particular and peculiar walled garden is more than just only tolerable and inviting and even enabling and able to prove itself addictive and almighty.
The Challenge to Enjoy and Fail at Spectacularly is to Imagine there be a More Heavenly Destination and COSMIC Space Place to Explore and Exploit/Discover and Worship. :-)
At the risk of not posting juvenile commentary...
This is actually a pretty good deal for publishers, compared to the alternative options. Acceptor fees for an online credit-card sale are at least 2% - and that's for high-volume customers. Add the costs of hosting your downloads, licensing one of those annoying update-checker systems, a sales-tracking/analytics package, customer feedback forms and the other stuff you get on the Store dashboard, and it makes pretty good financial sense to exchange the hassle for a 5% cut in revenue.
Anything that costs more than about $500 per copy still is better value to self-host (software at this price is normally sold as part of a package with support anyway), but small publishers selling at $50-100 would be financially better off using the Windows Store (Microsoft Store? whatever) as their credit-card acceptor and download host.
They always seem to end up with the worst working conditions which is ironic given that when they're making decent, cutting edge games rather than crappy throwaway low tech ones, they're actually succeeding at some of the most technically challenging and interesting fields of software development!
UWP won't even support anything really "serious" which might need services, or kernel drivers.
Innovation and interaction with windows Is being slowy strangled, on the platform. You're a gifted amateur and want to make a new kernel driver for some fancy hardware for W10 ? Tough luck!
You won't do it with UWP anyway. Win32 for now, but you'd better have your EV signed driver package ready to submit to MS for a signature. Except you won't be able to get one unless you run an established and registered development company which can be vetted. Kind of catch 22 for you then. Microsoft simply don't have a way of supporting those kind of innovators who made their platform so successful in the first place.
Or perhaps just use Linux for your future world beater, as it seems that is going to be the only option soon for innovation. Windows, just like Android and IOS, will soon be a "TOY" OS, which is ok for word processing, arty programs, games, but good for little else, unless Microsoft develops it, itself.
I'm not really a Linux fan, but I do I want an OS > I < can decide what can be run on it at ANY level. After all, it is still MY computer isn't it ?
I'm a grown up, and know the risks here.
If you're a a non-gaming application developer you seem to have choices:
1) Self host it. Charge what you like. Keep 100% but spend a little on advertising it.
3) Put it on the Windows Store. Pay MS a percentage. you'll still need to advertise it.
What's the advantage of having it in the Windows Store? What do you get for handing over a percentage, however small or large, to MS?
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