Windows Store Won't Sell Adult-Rated Games

[Entitled]

Since you can still install Steam and Origin on a Win8 computer, this story isn't worth the web space it's taking up.

Assuming the Win7-based desktop environment will always be there in Win8+ is beyond naive. It's akin to MS DOS in Windows 3.0. Eventually it will be phased out. Then software like Steam will not be permitted on Windows systems because it's a third-party store.

But feel free to continue to bask in the ignorant bliss of 'the now'.

That's true, and it might also explain why they are obiously giving so little fuck. If the Windows Store is eventually going to be the only source of Windows content, then they don't need to appeal to any specific type of content, because that content will stop to exist in the future anyways, if they say so.

 

[Doom972]

So, I'll have to keep using Steam? I'm OK with this.

BTW, is this supposed to replace the infamous Games for Windows Live?

 

[suitepee7]

well this is only hurting themselves. if anything i'm glad because it gives me another excuse not to use a new system

 

[Schadrach]

At first I thought this was just about those "questionable games from the late 90s", but this is actually quite silly. Seeing how Valve is already protesting against what they want to do with the restrictions in Windows 8 adding this to their basket doesn't seem like something that will help them gain support from publishers/developers.

You should look at what all has had AO ratings though. Most of them are what you'd expect, but also GTA:San Andreas, the uncut version of Indigo Prophecy, Manhunt 2 (only game to get AO rated for violence and not get cancelled as a result) and a collection called the "Monster Box" (a compilation of Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Evolva, and Sacrifice -- I love the hell out of one of those games [guess which?], and used another as my first test for a new video card for a while [last card I played it on was a GeForce 4]) are also in that heap.

 

[nodlimax]

Serious question:
Is there currently any reason at all to even consider getting the new Windows 8 OS?

I mean come on, I haven't seen anything remotely interesting in Windows 8 - so should I change? I don't like the new style and the system doesn't seem to have anything I really need.

The switch from Windows XP to 7 was logical and necessary because of the advanced technologies (32bit to 64bit switch and some other stuff), but what does Win8 do for me as a user?

 

[Schadrach]

Since you can still install Steam and Origin on a Win8 computer, this story isn't worth the web space it's taking up.

Assuming the Win7-based desktop environment will always be there in Win8+ is beyond naive.

And assuming it won't is needlessly pessimistic. You don't know shit about what Microsoft intends to do past Win8 and neither do I. All we can do is choose to think one way or the other. Choosing to think that it would be insane for MS to decide to nuke their open platform on the desktop is not naive; they sold 400 million Win7 licenses during the last fiscal year and over 600 million total. The company as a whole made $69.94 billion. Yeah, their business model is clearly broken and they need a drastic change, right?
It's still a possibility for the distant future, but that's it. By the way, I get that they're jealous of Apple's image and some of its success, but even fucking Mac OS X doesn't lock you into the app store! Only iOS does. Hmmm, sounds familiar doesn't it? *cough*Win8=/=WinRT*cough*

Besides, how the fuck did phasing MS-DOS out suddenly not permit 3rd party software on Windows?

DOS isn't part of any version of Windows NT or any of it's descendants. As in XP, Vista, and 7 haven't had DOS.

So what exactly are you talking about?

 

[RA92]

I still don't understand how MS managed to make the most successful console this generation with this kind of idiocy.

 

[cidbahamut]

Serious question:
Is there currently any reason at all to even consider getting the new Windows 8 OS?

I mean come on, I haven't seen anything remotely interesting in Windows 8 so should I change? I don't like the new style and the system doesn't have anything I really need.

The switch from Windows XP to 7 was logical and necessary because of the advanced technologies (32bit to 64bit switch and some other stuff), but what does Win8 do for me as a user?

It lets you pay Microsoft money to beta test for Windows 9.

Microsoft operating systems tend to alternate between good and crappy. XP was good, Vista was rubbish, 7 was good. 8 will be terrible and then they'll fix everything up for Windows 9. It's been an ongoing pattern for a while now.

As for this marketplace thing, it's just a terrible business decision on their part and they deserve to lose money and not compete in the online distribution business because of it. Gaming isn't just for little kids anymore and hasn't been for a long time. There's no good reason to cut off a huge potential market base like that.

 

[Worgen]

I still don't understand how MS managed to make the most successful console this generation with this kind of idiocy.

The answer to this question is pretty much just halo and gears of wars.

Win 8 seems like a waste of time and effort, seems like its good for notebooks but that's really it.

 

[WanderingFool]

Okay, I didnt know whats so wrong with Windows 8 before. But now seeing this, I can see a reason why people wont like it. Doesnt answer the reason for all the hate before hand, but I can see some actual justifcation now.

 

[jollybarracuda]

Well, it could have been a little alternative to Steam, being built right into the operating system and all, not a bad idea. And then they stopped making sense.

 

[Petromir]

Microsoft got into massive trouble for having IE installed by default on windows, that's not a good sign for them being able to lock the store down.

And as pointed out Apple haven't yet and they are as paranoid and controlling as they get.

 

[MPerce]

.....why?

What are you thinking, Microsoft? That is so much potential money that you're gleefully tossing out the window. I would kinda sorta understand if this only applied to ESRB games, but the PEGI system is so hilariously terrible that you're cutting yourself off from basically every AAA game.

I don't get it. You've been in the gaming business for almost 11 years. You know how much money people will spend on those games. But you decide not to sell them because think of the European children.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Please Microsoft, continue shooting yourself in the foot; it is hilarious when you do!

*sigh* It's vista all over again, except, somehow, even worse.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Bill Gates is probably turning in his... uh... well, he probably already has engineers on the task of building him a proper grave that will be comfortable despite all the turning he will have to do.

How, in the age of ever greater freedom and USER CHOICE does Microsoft think the user wants anything other than a solid, stable platform to run THEIR CHOICE of software on as an OS?

Dude, Gates has been out of Microsoft's shoes for years. If you want to blame someone, blame Steve Ballmer. Gate is far too busy running poker tournaments and donating money for cancer and polio research to care.

If anything, Ballmer's policies are far more craven than anything Gates ever did. Anyone remembers how he'd seriously vowed to "fucking kill" Google over how that widdle search engine was costing him an engineer?

Microsoft doesn't care about its users anymore. It cares about its market share, and the only way to sustain its presence is to remove personal freedoms from the user base. Or so it thinks. It'll work for the casual crowd, who's likely to go "Oh, I wasn't going to buy that silly thing with guns and boobs anyway, I'm looking for a snazzier Solitaire!", but the rest of us?

We've got Steam, Origin and GoG. Microsoft can run its OS like a Fascist state all it wants, it won't stop serious gamers from doing any of the following things:
a) pirate games
b) install one of these download services on Windows 8
c) switch to Linux and/or Wine
d) buy the game in retail and install it to Windows 8 on a disc

I'm firmly convinced Baller's going to steamroll Microsoft into oblivion before the end of the next decade. The only segment of their market I see as having the slimmest chance of survival is the Xbox division.

We need Gaben to make the GabeOS!

Well, Steam is already turning into a decent armchair front-end for living room gamers and they've started offering creation-related apps instead of just games - who's to say they won't pack a word processor in the future, or work out a deal with Adobe or The GIMP's makers?