Epic CEO: Microsoft will hobble Steam via Windows 10 updates

[maxp779]

Steam has proven itself worthy time and again by adding value for the end user. It has built in chat, it has voice chat as well. They do sales that are pretty decent. Its got an offline mode.

No Steam is a solid piece of software that honestly has not irritated me since 2004 and half life 2. Windows on the other hand has done nothing but become more of a PITA since XP. They’ve updated it and kept it secure but everyday things like the UI are either neglected completely or are just a shambles. Windows 8 UI was garbage. Windows 10 start menu is garbage. Windows has two browsers now, both are crap. There is also two control panels, both have functionality the other is lacking (because MS removed some functionality from the classic control panel). Paint hasent seen any updates in a decade, I use paint.net now. They deprecated windows photo viewer in windows 10 so now I need irfanview... Windows media player needs a freaking codec pack to play anything so its VLC I end up using. It dosent even have internet checkers anymore Linux has become less of a PITA to install and use, I am honestly shocked by this.

This is all just stuff off the top of my head but windows it a piece of trash these days. Its been taken off all my machines except my main desktop. It’ll be removed from that when world of warships works acceptably on Linux. Or I get an nvidia card, whichever comes first.

[Freebo]

Cry more.... what a load of crap get over yourself. His just upset that they have been trying to push linux however its simply not good enough for gaming, it if was gamers would move over. The steam console is a total failure and Microsoft's new direction with xbox and pc could be awesome for games however not awesome for steam.

[chuck4100]

I wonder... I have to start steam with Task Scheduler to give it Admin function so it could install games and such as starting without many things in steam wouldn't work for me.
I also have to restart steam on some bootups as it randomly runs super slow.
Always (and still mostly do) thought these were just random issues but who knows.

[Saracen]

So an operating system I refuse to use is (allegedly) trying to break a games system I refuse to use.

If true, about which I have reservations, all I can say is I'll stop LMAO long enough to say DILLIGAS.

[Potbellieddwarf]

I don't know whether anything Tim Sweeney is saying is true but I have a question for other gamers using windows 10,

Has anyone else been having problems with games freezing and crashing ?

Recently I have been noticing that more and more of my games are having problems and not only on Steam, but also Origin, Uplay and Gog. Can't say anything about Windows Sore as I refuse to buy any games from there as they are far too expensive.

I am even at the point of thinking of rolling back to Windows 8.1 just to see if the problems still occur. Extreme ? maybe but I am sick of games crashing and refusing to run when they were working perfectly a couple of weeks ago.

[Otherhand]

ok.... so boss of a games company that sells a lot via steam, might as well be boss at steam because he obviously has no vested interest in steam whatsoever

I'm often wrong on these forums. When I am, I don't feel the need to defend my original wrongness.

Rather than accept that you made a mistake, you're now trying to find an angle whereby you were somehow right, and also that I was somehow wrong for pointing out your error. Desperate stuff.

I don't know whether anything Tim Sweeney is saying is true but I have a question for other gamers using windows 10,

Has anyone else been having problems with games freezing and crashing ?

Recently I have been noticing that more and more of my games are having problems and not only on Steam, but also Origin, Uplay and Gog. Can't say anything about Windows Sore as I refuse to buy any games from there as they are far too expensive.

I am even at the point of thinking of rolling back to Windows 8.1 just to see if the problems still occur. Extreme ? maybe but I am sick of games crashing and refusing to run when they were working perfectly a couple of weeks ago.

It might not work for you, but I've heard of a few people who were getting constant crashes in Assassin's Creed at particular points (i.e. every time they complete a sequence, every time they captured the last district of a borough) and it turned out to be a clash in UPlay, solved by switching UPlay to Offline Mode. It wasn't strictly the moment in the gameplay, but the fact that a UPlay "Action" achievement is awarded at those moments, and reporting the news back to the makers killed the game. For others, switching off the overlay solved the issues. If you're getting problems with all games clients, perhaps you have a problem with these overlays too?

[aidanjt]

Thank god that they did. We now have standard applications from Microsoft that the world can use. THe alternative is a free for all, Android, or OSX. Heck no.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that the world would be better off with vendor lock in?

[nobodyspecial]

http://www.cnet.com/news/real-hits-microsoft-with-1-billion-antitrust-suit/
"RealNetworks said Microsoft has failed to share important information about the Windows code, thus hurting the performance of its RealPlayer product. For example, Microsoft refused to disclose details about certain security features, preventing Real from using them directly, according to the lawsuit."

This type of crap has been going on for ages with MSFT. Either they screw with things code wise, or just give away something in the OS until you're dead (netscape etc). What we end up with is worse software included as MSFT doesn't seem to do much to update included software after a while, and fewer choices as there isn't much point in competing in most cases with anything windows has built in. I don't use much of anything built into windows, but there are not many like me...LOL. Over time, many great apps just get killed by the MSFT machine and no ability to profit vs. a lot of stuff built-in.

http://gizmodo.com/microsoft-is-super-pissed-at-google-for-breaking-its-yo-1150559202
Microsoft isn't alone in pulling various kinds of shenanigans...ROFL. In this case telling your competition to code it "this way" or you can't run it (which happens to be a way even google engineers say is difficult).

[aidanjt]

What we end up with is worse software included as MSFT doesn't seem to do much to update included software after a while

In fairness to Microsoft here, they seem intent in turning that around with the way they're developing Windows 10. Even if the brunt of that focus is on the UWP side of things.

[Defiant]

Yeah I wouldn't discount what he's saying off the bat, MS have history and they aren't all shine holy than now these days. Let us not forget they are in it for the money and the Store makes them it and Steam doesn't.

As for other examples: Apple and iTunes, runs from all accounts on OSX like a normal run of the mill app. On Windows it runs like inbreed, hobbled dog at times and the rest of the times its just crappy. I will take money that they make it this way since they don't wont to promote it, windows or PCs.

I'm not saying its 100% right, but I know enough to not take those words with no caution.

[jimbouk]

They deprecated windows photo viewer in windows 10 so now I need irfanview...

Depreciated but not removed. A quick registry hack and you can get it back. But why oh why you need to go to these lengths to control applications on Windows 10 is beyond me, surely it could have just been on the 'Add/Remove Features' menu and not enabled by default rather than being there but silently disabled.

[jnutt]

This is such rubbish I wonder how this guy holds down a job!

[aidanjt]

This is such rubbish I wonder how this guy holds down a job!

Rather easily, since a) he runs his own company and is unlikely to fire himself. And b) he's American, and Americans don't share the British predilection for rationalising authoritarianism.

[canoedad]

You will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10, you will only use windows 10 ...

[shaithis]

But why oh why you need to go to these lengths to control applications on Windows 10 is beyond me, surely it could have just been on the 'Add/Remove Features' menu and not enabled by default rather than being there but silently disabled.

They are ripping everything out that could be delivered via a 3rd-party app in the store. Makes financial sense and stops some of the bloat people have been complaining about for years.

As for the OP, paranoid much? This is one guys idea of where Microsoft could possibly do in the future based on scaremongering.

[DanceswithUnix]

There may be an element of the old adage "Don't attribute something to malice that can be explained by simple incompetence"

The last time I tried running an old retro game on 64 bit Windows 10 I had to download VirtualBox, dig out an old XP install disc and run it in an XP VM. No amount of running as administrator or with various compatibility options would get the damned thing running native.

That sort of compatibility software rot seems usual for Microsoft, I find it amusing that people claim Win32 availability will still be there when it is nothing like the same as application stability on that platform.

Last attempt to run a seriously old game (Civ II) Windows all but laughed at me, turns out it was Win16 so I couldn't even launch the installer.

To be clear, I'm not saying MS intentionally nobbled that old game, I'm saying they don't give a hoot about old software other than trying to claim billions of old applications available despite lots of them probably not functioning any more.