5 ms·

Microsoft has been happy-ish to have their games on Steam for a while now. They probably would've gone all-in on the Xbox store if the windows store (backend) w

by mastax 5y ago

Microsoft has been happy-ish to have their games on Steam for a while now. They probably would've gone all-in on the Xbox store if the windows store (backend) wasn't so shitty.

cuteboy19 5y ago
Windows store is really bad. The UI, the UX, the lag, the jank, all designed to spoil your day
- zeusk 5y ago
  and until a couple months ago, it was a crappy web app.
  - jay_kyburz 5y ago
    Steam is a web app.
    - zeusk 5y ago
      Not the main app, only the storefront and the community pages - they're trash too.
      - account42 5y ago
        Nah, steam itself has been migrating from VGUI to CEF.
- tempnow987 5y ago
  Literally how is the windows store so bad! Sometimes I'm not signed in and don't want to be signed in (setting up a new machine for someone else). The flows are just horrible. On the mac the store makes things, in general, easier. On windows its comedy. I wonder how many folks like myself now just instinctively avoid it.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  I looked through the MS store yesterday to see what was there. There was lots and lots of nudity apps. Like bikini girls screen savers ... for real.
- vultour 5y ago
  I can't think of a single non-developer application by Microsoft which isn't absolute garbage. Skype (after the Microsoft "upgrade"), Teams, Windows Store, the Xbox apps... It's incredible that they are unable to produce a properly working application for their own operating system.
  - totoglazer 5y ago
    Office?
belval 5y ago
The Xbox app is a masterclass in how not to design a user interface, it is clunky, the menus don't go anywhere, they mixed terminology (some places have "Add friend" others have "Follow friend"), users with multiple screens will find their game launching on the non-principal one, language is tied to the OS so if you want your games in English but your Windows is in French you have to change the OS-level language. I don't work at Microsoft, but if I had to guess there are several teams working on individual components and they lack a clear leader that enforce a global vision so it falls apart at integration time.
- snailmailman 5y ago
  It’s awful. A lot of basic stuff is just missing. I had an Xbox game pass trial. When it expired it closed the game I was playing. No message. When I tried to reopen the game nothing happened. None of my games worked. But most importantly, it never told me why. Nowhere in the interface does it communicate “your trial ended” or “hey resubscribe to game pass” or “you can’t play games anymore” instead everything just stops working with no explanation. I was midway through contacting support when I pieced together that maybe the trial ended, and confirmed that on their website. That information isn’t available in the desktop app. (This was over a year ago, hopefully it’s fixed now?)
  - lfowles 5y ago
    Probably not. I was waiting for my gamepass subscription to expire last week so I could renew using the Xbox Live Gold upgrade. I was constantly notified that my subscription was expiring soon, but never actually got a notice when it actually expired. All of my games still looked playable until I tried actually playing them.
  - marwis 5y ago
    Also when you try to launch a game that was removed from gamepass you will get wonderful exception 0x00whatever instead of actual reason.
- hinkley 5y ago
  All day long most of us are interacting with products from brands that we like while oblivious to the fact that these brands are owned by ones we make fun of or even despise. I don’t thing anyone gets this big without realizing your shareholders prefer dividends over you stoking your ego by making sure everyone knows the money is going in your pocket, even if that means less money comes in. I don’t think I’ve had Hennessy ever in my life, but they own my favorite Scotch and some friends’ favorite scotch. They don’t go bragging about it, they just collect the checks. Forgetting that Bethesda is owned by Microsoft is easier to do if it’s not on XBox.

by mastax 5y ago

Microsoft has been happy-ish to have their games on Steam for a while now. They probably would've gone all-in on the Xbox store if the windows store (backend) wasn't so shitty.

cuteboy19 5y ago

Windows store is really bad. The UI, the UX, the lag, the jank, all designed to spoil your day

zeusk 5y ago
and until a couple months ago, it was a crappy web app.
- jay_kyburz 5y ago
  Steam is a web app.
  - zeusk 5y ago
    Not the main app, only the storefront and the community pages - they're trash too.
    - account42 5y ago
      Nah, steam itself has been migrating from VGUI to CEF.
tempnow987 5y ago
Literally how is the windows store so bad! Sometimes I'm not signed in and don't want to be signed in (setting up a new machine for someone else). The flows are just horrible. On the mac the store makes things, in general, easier. On windows its comedy. I wonder how many folks like myself now just instinctively avoid it.
rightbyte 5y ago
I looked through the MS store yesterday to see what was there. There was lots and lots of nudity apps. Like bikini girls screen savers ... for real.
vultour 5y ago
I can't think of a single non-developer application by Microsoft which isn't absolute garbage. Skype (after the Microsoft "upgrade"), Teams, Windows Store, the Xbox apps... It's incredible that they are unable to produce a properly working application for their own operating system.
- totoglazer 5y ago
  Office?

belval 5y ago

The Xbox app is a masterclass in how not to design a user interface, it is clunky, the menus don't go anywhere, they mixed terminology (some places have "Add friend" others have "Follow friend"), users with multiple screens will find their game launching on the non-principal one, language is tied to the OS so if you want your games in English but your Windows is in French you have to change the OS-level language. I don't work at Microsoft, but if I had to guess there are several teams working on individual components and they lack a clear leader that enforce a global vision so it falls apart at integration time.

snailmailman 5y ago
It’s awful. A lot of basic stuff is just missing. I had an Xbox game pass trial. When it expired it closed the game I was playing. No message. When I tried to reopen the game nothing happened. None of my games worked. But most importantly, it never told me why. Nowhere in the interface does it communicate “your trial ended” or “hey resubscribe to game pass” or “you can’t play games anymore” instead everything just stops working with no explanation. I was midway through contacting support when I pieced together that maybe the trial ended, and confirmed that on their website. That information isn’t available in the desktop app. (This was over a year ago, hopefully it’s fixed now?)
- lfowles 5y ago
  Probably not. I was waiting for my gamepass subscription to expire last week so I could renew using the Xbox Live Gold upgrade. I was constantly notified that my subscription was expiring soon, but never actually got a notice when it actually expired. All of my games still looked playable until I tried actually playing them.
- marwis 5y ago
  Also when you try to launch a game that was removed from gamepass you will get wonderful exception 0x00whatever instead of actual reason.
hinkley 5y ago
All day long most of us are interacting with products from brands that we like while oblivious to the fact that these brands are owned by ones we make fun of or even despise. I don’t thing anyone gets this big without realizing your shareholders prefer dividends over you stoking your ego by making sure everyone knows the money is going in your pocket, even if that means less money comes in. I don’t think I’ve had Hennessy ever in my life, but they own my favorite Scotch and some friends’ favorite scotch. They don’t go bragging about it, they just collect the checks. Forgetting that Bethesda is owned by Microsoft is easier to do if it’s not on XBox.