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Game developers have many choices. You can throw a game up on your websites and sell it yourself. You can sell it through GOG Humble Bundle Steam I'm sure ther

Game developers have many choices. You can throw a game up on your websites and sell it yourself. You can sell it through GOG Humble Bundle Steam I'm sure there are others. With UWP you have no choice, it goes through Windows. The concern is that Microsoft is making it so certain features won't be available to your program if you aren't sold through the store. There won't be any competition. If you sell a non UWP app through some other market, you will not be able to use those features.

douche 10y ago
The day that Win32 executables don't run on Windows is the day that Windows irretrievably jumps the shark. This is a company that has gone to sometimes absurd lengths to ensure compatibility with out-dated third-party software. There's too much legacy code out there, and too much legacy code still in active, important code bases. I'll start worrying about the future of locked-down UWP applications once I start seeing anybody build some that are more than gimped versions or toys. Wake me up when Visual Studio or SQL Management Studio is rewritten as a UWP app.
- carlosrg 10y ago
  >Wake me up when Visual Studio or SQL Management Studio is rewritten as a UWP app. Given that they already ported an entire browser to UWP (Edge), that may happen sooner than you think. I wouldn't consider a browser a "toy".
  - cwyers 10y ago
    Visual Studio is still 32-bit.
  - moogly 10y ago
    It appears Visual Studio Code might become the future mainline VS, but that's an Electron app.
  - jasonkostempski 10y ago
    It's easier to move a couch when no one is sitting on it.
- BigJono 10y ago
  Keeping in mind that I don't know much about Win32 and even less about UWP. It seems people are less worried about Win32 becoming unsupported and more worried about some new technology only being available to UWP apps (maybe something like the next version of DirectX?), which will force everyone to move away from Win32.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    Microsoft absolutely wants everyone to leave Win32 behind going forward. Because Win32 is old and holds their platform back. UWP apps work on multiple architectures, hardware formats, etc. But since UWP isn't a walled garden, this is okay, it's just... the new way for apps to be built on Windows. And obviously, Microsoft being Microsoft, legacy Win32 support will be around for a ridiculously long time. This is the company that still provides monthly updates for Windows Vista.
    - Silhouette 10y ago
      Because Win32 is old and holds their platform back. That's one way of looking at it. Another would be that for most practical purposes, Win32 is their platform. We've heard this mantra from Microsoft many times before, switching out things like database APIs, dev tools, interop protocols, the entire history of .Net, and so on. These things have come and, in many cases, gone, all while Win32 endures in the background supporting the software that makes the real money.
      - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        And surely, as long as Win32 is still making the real money, it'll still be supported. But UWP, while nascent, is at the very least, far more secure than Win32, which is something any platform should strive to aspire to. In almost any other topic on HN, if we were discussing moving to running things in secure containers, people would agree it makes sense to move that way and that the additional layer of security is worthwhile. But because it's Microsoft doing it, and Microsoft is changing their software from like... the same way they've been doing it for the last twenty years, people are upset about it? I'm confused. When we talk about UWP, it shouldn't be "UWP is inherently evil", we should comment on and criticize issues Microsoft may have with the development of UWP. Initially, UWP was very hard to use outside of the Windows Store, and so it's fair to criticize there. And arguably, they've been working on improving this. They demonstrated Steamworks running on a UWP app at Build this year. We should definitely criticize if Microsoft does something specifically to lock down UWP. But we should not inherently decide UWP is evil because it's new.
- kapep 10y ago
  Yes, they will never drop Win32 for enterprise for that reason. But I think they could limit Win32 it for the Windows 10 consumer editions without the common user being affected much, if they port IE and Office to UWP and can also convince major game publishers to release their next AAA games as UWP applications in the windows store.
blahi 10y ago
Why can't game developers sell UWP games on their site?
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  They can. So can Humble Bundle and Steam and GOG. Since November UWP sideloading has been allowed in Windows by default.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
>With UWP you have no choice, it goes through Windows. False. With Windows 10, sideloading is permitted by default. The caveat being, of course, that you're on your own for making sure the app is safe if you choose to use a sideloaded app.
- squeaky-clean 10y ago
  It appears to be disabled by default, though it's not very difficult to enable. I bet this would confuse a huge number of non-technical users. http://www.howtogeek.com/219651/windows-10-allows-you-to-sideload-universal-apps-just-like-android-does/ http://www.howtogeek.com/219651/windows-10-allows-you-to-sid...
  - WorldMaker 10y ago
    It has been enabled by default since November's update to Windows 10.
  - GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
    How odd. I just re-checked two freshly installed Windows 10 Pro systems I have next to me and that setting is configured to allow sideloading by default. Perhaps it's a recent change?
- Silhouette 10y ago
  With Windows 10, sideloading is permitted by default. For now.

douche 10y ago

The day that Win32 executables don't run on Windows is the day that Windows irretrievably jumps the shark. This is a company that has gone to sometimes absurd lengths to ensure compatibility with out-dated third-party software. There's too much legacy code out there, and too much legacy code still in active, important code bases. I'll start worrying about the future of locked-down UWP applications once I start seeing anybody build some that are more than gimped versions or toys. Wake me up when Visual Studio or SQL Management Studio is rewritten as a UWP app.

carlosrg 10y ago
>Wake me up when Visual Studio or SQL Management Studio is rewritten as a UWP app. Given that they already ported an entire browser to UWP (Edge), that may happen sooner than you think. I wouldn't consider a browser a "toy".
- cwyers 10y ago
  Visual Studio is still 32-bit.
- moogly 10y ago
  It appears Visual Studio Code might become the future mainline VS, but that's an Electron app.
- jasonkostempski 10y ago
  It's easier to move a couch when no one is sitting on it.
BigJono 10y ago
Keeping in mind that I don't know much about Win32 and even less about UWP. It seems people are less worried about Win32 becoming unsupported and more worried about some new technology only being available to UWP apps (maybe something like the next version of DirectX?), which will force everyone to move away from Win32.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  Microsoft absolutely wants everyone to leave Win32 behind going forward. Because Win32 is old and holds their platform back. UWP apps work on multiple architectures, hardware formats, etc. But since UWP isn't a walled garden, this is okay, it's just... the new way for apps to be built on Windows. And obviously, Microsoft being Microsoft, legacy Win32 support will be around for a ridiculously long time. This is the company that still provides monthly updates for Windows Vista.
  - Silhouette 10y ago
    Because Win32 is old and holds their platform back. That's one way of looking at it. Another would be that for most practical purposes, Win32 is their platform. We've heard this mantra from Microsoft many times before, switching out things like database APIs, dev tools, interop protocols, the entire history of .Net, and so on. These things have come and, in many cases, gone, all while Win32 endures in the background supporting the software that makes the real money.
    - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
      And surely, as long as Win32 is still making the real money, it'll still be supported. But UWP, while nascent, is at the very least, far more secure than Win32, which is something any platform should strive to aspire to. In almost any other topic on HN, if we were discussing moving to running things in secure containers, people would agree it makes sense to move that way and that the additional layer of security is worthwhile. But because it's Microsoft doing it, and Microsoft is changing their software from like... the same way they've been doing it for the last twenty years, people are upset about it? I'm confused. When we talk about UWP, it shouldn't be "UWP is inherently evil", we should comment on and criticize issues Microsoft may have with the development of UWP. Initially, UWP was very hard to use outside of the Windows Store, and so it's fair to criticize there. And arguably, they've been working on improving this. They demonstrated Steamworks running on a UWP app at Build this year. We should definitely criticize if Microsoft does something specifically to lock down UWP. But we should not inherently decide UWP is evil because it's new.
kapep 10y ago
Yes, they will never drop Win32 for enterprise for that reason. But I think they could limit Win32 it for the Windows 10 consumer editions without the common user being affected much, if they port IE and Office to UWP and can also convince major game publishers to release their next AAA games as UWP applications in the windows store.

blahi 10y ago

Why can't game developers sell UWP games on their site?

WorldMaker 10y ago
They can. So can Humble Bundle and Steam and GOG. Since November UWP sideloading has been allowed in Windows by default.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago

>With UWP you have no choice, it goes through Windows. False. With Windows 10, sideloading is permitted by default. The caveat being, of course, that you're on your own for making sure the app is safe if you choose to use a sideloaded app.

squeaky-clean 10y ago
It appears to be disabled by default, though it's not very difficult to enable. I bet this would confuse a huge number of non-technical users. http://www.howtogeek.com/219651/windows-10-allows-you-to-sideload-universal-apps-just-like-android-does/ http://www.howtogeek.com/219651/windows-10-allows-you-to-sid...
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  It has been enabled by default since November's update to Windows 10.
- GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
  How odd. I just re-checked two freshly installed Windows 10 Pro systems I have next to me and that setting is configured to allow sideloading by default. Perhaps it's a recent change?
Silhouette 10y ago
With Windows 10, sideloading is permitted by default. For now.