Ah I see. Minecraft was about all that caught my eye, I just thought I may have been missing something.

I am interested in the Gears of War Ultimate Edition so that may be my first purchase on there.

They could possibly be a threat to other stores but they have a lot of catching up to do.

It'll be hard finding a reason to upgrade.

Lost me at "defiantly". Well, and Xbox One. And maybe Windows 10.

But seriously, I'm not sure I could see a Microsoft exclusive store turn into serious competition for Steam or GOG. The latter also cater to Linux and Mac users, for one thing. In fact, if you buy a Windows version of a game here, you get downloads of the other versions for free.

I suppose it could potentially be good for the customers if MS challenges Steam's position as the leader in digital games distribution. But I'm not convinced they are competing for the same target customer base. So far it sounds like it's just a convenient OS-built-in source of casual games.

Sure but one has to ask. When you look that the market share of Mac &/or Linux does that really matter? For the average consumer not really. That is coming from someone who does use Linux and keeps a Linux partition. That surely won't have any effect on MS unless by some miracle Steam Machines take off.

It could be, but on the other hand we might be just trading one near monopoly for another if MS can overtake Steam. And your right that right now it is nothing but casual games. Some big name games are apparently coming to the Store, but of course most you can get on Steam. But a library is really what it needs.

Gears of War
Fable Legends
ARK: Survival Evolved
Divinity: Original Sin
Cities Skylines
Halo Wars 2
Pillars of Eternity
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Sea of Thieves
Wasteland 2

Just to name a few...

The fact that those Steam box consoles ( PCs? ... whatever ) are supposedly going to run some version of Linux is going to be a factor. And then there's store loyalty -- most gamers seem to prefer for their collection to be in one place, which is part of why Steam is so popular and keeps growing, and it's hard for any other store to compete.


What that MS store would really need are exclusive games, and not just a handful of them either. No one already using ( and enjoying ) Steam, GOG or other services is likely to make the switch for games they could just as well buy at their current favorite distribution platform. And since major exclusives are a huge investment, I'm not if MS is interested in taking that route.

In fact, you know how insanely commercially successful all those crappy micro-transaction infested mobile games are? I could see MS being perfectly content with focusing primarily on mobile and casual style games, and even making a bigger profit that way, rather than trying to compete with Steam for the "core" gamer audience. In a way, competing for GOG's audience would be even harder and less profitable for them, since we're such a special, old-school niche bunch around here. So no, I still don't really see them as direct competition to Steam ( at least at this time ) and even less so for GOG.

Like a lot of the WinXP user base, many of windows 7 users will be wondering why bother (windows 8 users on the otherhand...)

It will be a factor if they take off, which is a big gamble right now. They aren't really predicted to, but who knows. Honestly Valve dropped the ball and is taking to long to get them to market in my opinion. They missed their window with Windows 8. It is true that gamers prefer their games to be in one place (mainly Steam), but I think we can all agree that that is not realistic anymore and will slowly change. EA has Origin, Blizzard has their client, MS has the Store now. Pretty soon it will be harder to ignore other clients.

Well Fable Legends, Gears of War, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Wars 2 seems like a good start as far as exclusives on PC go and no doubt there will be more. I honestly think they will try to focus on both, that is the entire idea behind universal apps really... they will work on everything. No mater if the mobile games or hardcore PC games. Granted we will see more mobile games on PC than hardcore PC games on mobile simply because of hardware and controls.

The only difference here is that when the time comes for me to put it down I will. I'm not going to be one of those sad bastards crying because they took away support for the 10+ year old OS. That was just pathetic.

I know I am waiting to see them crash out of the market as failures a second time. Of the 120 million they are quoting as having upgraded, I would guess less then 10-12 million will have bothered with the store, and most that do are looking for the quick access to MS word, media player and paint.
Even 10% of the market would be enough to turn a profit, but never to change the world. After the whole GfWL fiasco I would doubt many gamers really trust MS that much.
At least they have the determination to keep trying. You go guys!

Time will tell, as they say. If they're successful, or if Steam/Valve screw up in some major way, then Steam's uncontested position as market leader might take a dent, and maybe that's just as well for us as customers.

But I'm not really worried about MS being a threat to GOG's future. Currently there's no serious competition for them, within their own little niche market segment, and it doesn't look like MS is about to change that. If you want a ( fairly ) large selection of truly DRM-free games, in particular classics which work without any major hassle, compatible with all major OS options and without any mandatory client software, then there's simply no way around GOG. All alternatives are either not fully DRM-free, have a smaller selection of games, or other downsides.

Well that seems to not be happening really. According to reports 6 times more downloads are occurring of Windows 10 apps than Windows 8 and that was months ago when Windows 10 came out. Now that is probably even higher.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-windows-10-s-app-store-is-already-more-successful-than-windows-8-s-490184.shtml

I know I'm downloading more apps than I ever did on Windows 8, and it seems like developers are more keen on Windows 10 app development than Windows 8.

That's why it's not a recommended upgrade for 7, so they can install it without needing the user to opt in.
That kind of reminds me of Freddy vs., Jason. Whoever wins, we lose.

i'll believe this shill if Google Play can get as big as Steam.

it seems drm are coming in form of client's now