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First Person Shooters (Games) Microsoft Windows Games

Windows 10's Store Locks 'Call of Duty' Purchasers Into Windows-10-Only Battles (vice.com) 174

An anonymous reader writes: Two Call of Duty games have been remastered for Windows 10, but if you buy them through the Windows 10 Store there's a problem. "Windows 10 Store players will be isolated from other PC versions of the game," reports the Windows Central site, noting a statement from Microsoft which implies that the decision was made by Activision.

"For unknown reasons, Windows 10 Store customers are segregated from customers who bought the game from Steam, which is by far the most popular platform on PC," reports Motherboard. "Call of Duty fans who made the unfortunate of mistake of giving Microsoft their cash are left sitting in lonely multiplayer lobbies waiting for games that'll never start."

Motherboard reports that at least one player successfully requested a refund, calling the situation "another black eye for a digital storefront that PC gamers already avoid like the plague."
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Windows 10's Store Locks 'Call of Duty' Purchasers Into Windows-10-Only Battles

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  • Windows 10 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Can go FUCK itself.

    • Re:Windows 10 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by The MAZZTer ( 911996 ) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [tzzagem]> on Sunday November 06, 2016 @03:06PM (#53224009) Homepage

      This is not Windows 10's fault. The game dev and/or publisher is responsible for this.

      • Re:Windows 10 (Score:5, Informative)

        by Nemyst ( 1383049 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @04:02PM (#53224239) Homepage
        Yeah, it's kinda crazy how the entire comments section is idiotic Windows 10 bashing when this is all on Activision and Valve. They're using Steamworks for multiplayer matchmaking, and Steamworks doesn't work if the game isn't sold on Steam (which is why most stores just sell you a Steam key). Microsoft sells the actual game rather than a key, so in order to work on their platform, Activision stripped out Steamworks and implemented another matchmaking solution, segregating both platforms. Since the Microsoft stores sees far fewer sales, the people who bought it there get shafted.

        There's a ton of ways this could've been fixed, but there's no reason to blame Microsoft here. The fact that Steam has such a hegemony on PC gaming is not good, and that's just one example of why.
      • This is not Windows 10's fault. The game dev and/or publisher is responsible for this.

        Eh? How is it NOT Windows 10's (Microsoft's) fault? They are the ones who enabled the behaviour to begin with! Sure, we can hate Activision for "taking advantage" of what was offered but what did you expect a publishing company to do? They would kill themselves directly if they thought it would give a penny extra profit... never realizing that they just killed themselves.

        Oddly, I am reminded of the situation of the woman wearing provocative clothing and walking down dark alleys... It is clear that the rapis

      • by Agripa ( 139780 )

        This is not Windows 10's fault. The game dev and/or publisher is responsible for this.

        I am sure Microsoft was all broken up about it.

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @02:16PM (#53223753)

    The people that continue to support Microsoft's grip on gaming are finally getting what they are supporting: quarantine.

  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @02:30PM (#53223831)

    windows store locks out mods and other stuff that you get with non sandboxed steam and gog games.

  • by iampiti ( 1059688 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @02:49PM (#53223945)
    If anything to prevent Microsoft from getting more power and making Windows 10 worse and more closed.
    In general it's better for power to be distributed among several companies instead of having a few have a lot of power. When software companies do we all know they'll try to lock you into their ecosystems. So in this case I prefer Steam has the majority of gamers into their store instead of Microsoft.
    They already have a lot of power over games with Windows and Xbox and if they were to get more they'd only get worse.
    Also I must admit I'm mad at Microsoft for what they've turned Windows into
  • The dev made the choice in the end to lock 2 up seperately. They could setup servers and everything to have both play together but didn't so not completely MS's fault for what in the end was the dev's choice.
  • by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @02:56PM (#53223969) Homepage Journal

    Stories like these just makes me depressed and realizing that we have a world worse than what's depicted in Max Headroom.

    I think that both Aldous Huxley and George Orwell underestimated what we would come to.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 06, 2016 @03:20PM (#53224075)

    Nothing from MSFT or UWP, technically or licensing wise prevents cross platform.

    This was a decision by Activision.

    • by BenJeremy ( 181303 ) on Sunday November 06, 2016 @07:10PM (#53225187)

      THIS.

      Windows Store isn't somehow magically preventing the game from talking to players on other platforms. This was a conscious decision by Activision to do this. Why? I have no idea, but let's simply skewer Microsoft over Activision's choice and not ask them why this was done.

      • This was a conscious decision by Activision to do this. Why? I have no idea, but let's simply skewer Microsoft over Activision's choice and not ask them why this was done.

        No. Nobody gets a free ride on this one. We skewer them both: Microsoft for making a platform that is incompatible and Activision for choosing a customer hostile solution.

  • Sounds a lot like what they're doing to Minecraft. You can play the Windows 10 version, but then can't play with anyone else.

  • Once again, Windows 10 users get what they deserve.

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