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Retro-gaming emulators no longer permitted on Windows Store


JamesD

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Yeah, I'm not understanding why windows needs an "App Store" install service, nor what is lost if we can't use it.

 

It really feels like Windows is trying really hard to force itself to be relevant.

They are forcing themselves to be like Apple like SOOOOO HARD!

Edited by Prosystemsearch
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The Windows App Store only made sense in a few contexts: Windows RT (the original non-pro Surface, which is super dead), and Windows Phone (which is mostly dead). Both leaned heavily on touch, and both were an iOS-style walled garden.

 

Windows 10 isn't encumbered in this way, and allows sideloading from anywhere. The main reason I would want to even have the Store available would be to load up cross-buy Xbox games like Forza Horizon 3.

 

The fact that they're (finally) banning emulators hurts no one and should have zero impact on the vast majority of people -- and the Windows Phone fans are already accustomed to being pissed on. They're like Odyssey 2 gamers in an Atari world, a similar mindshare and market share as a fart in a tornado.

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Microsoft really needs to come to terms with Windows' position in the world: it's the dominant PC operating system, but due to outside trends will continue to see its market share and relevance (very slowly) erode over time. This isn't a commentary on anything specific to Microsoft, just that when you reach a point where you have 98% of the market, the only place to go is down. And that's not the end of the world... even with the decline of PCs accelerating things, Windows is so entrenched that it'll be a viable product for at least 20 years. The government and major industry alone will keep it afloat, to say nothing of the people who would refuse to touch anything else even if it were free.

 

So, you've got time, Microsoft. Time to figure out where you're taking your company into the future. You don't need to "Me Too" everything Apple does. You're not Apple. You're Microsoft, and there are things you do way better than Apple, so get cracking on that.

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actually, it mostly annoys people wanting to use emulators on the xbox one...

 

however, i'm sure there will be a way around that too..

 

later

-1

 

The Xbox One (actually the xbox brand historically) needs to decide on what it wants to be. MS seems to alternate between saying "It's a console, a living-room experience, and built from the ground up to be such" and "It's basically just a PC, so why don't we let it do everything a PC can do?". And sometimes they seem to say both within a month of each other. MS hasn't really been able to place the Xbox since the days when it was a frontend for Windows Media Center.

 

So which is it, Microsoft? Is this thing a console that plays console games, or do you want it to run Windows stuff too? Because trying to cherry-pick functions of both is making you look stupid.

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no recent console is just a console that only plays games.

 

The Switch pretty much is, the PS4 basically is. I mean the PS4 can't even play CD's. It can play Blu-Ray and DVD but video playback has been a feature since the PS2. The PS4 actually removed an entertainment feature (CD) that every other PS since the PS1 had. And it didn't add any extra over the PS3. Sony has gone out of their way to say the PS4 is a game console, not a general entertainment device.

 

Only the Xbox has been trying since day one to be something more than a game console. Most consoles that try to do that end up failing. With Xbox One they went a little too far in that direction and that's why they stumbled so bad out of the gate. But they still don't seem to know what they want the system to be. At the moment they seem like they want it to do what Windows Phone and Windows RT couldn't, which is give them their own walled garden for Windows. They're probably hoping that rather than buy expensive gaming PC's, most people eventually just buy Xboxes to play the same games, and then they have to buy other software through the Windows Store. But that will not happen, ever.

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The Switch pretty much is, the PS4 basically is. I mean the PS4 can't even play CD's. It can play Blu-Ray and DVD but video playback has been a feature since the PS2. The PS4 actually removed an entertainment feature (CD) that every other PS since the PS1 had. And it didn't add any extra over the PS3. Sony has gone out of their way to say the PS4 is a game console, not a general entertainment device.

 

Only the Xbox has been trying since day one to be something more than a game console. Most consoles that try to do that end up failing. With Xbox One they went a little too far in that direction and that's why they stumbled so bad out of the gate. But they still don't seem to know what they want the system to be. At the moment they seem like they want it to do what Windows Phone and Windows RT couldn't, which is give them their own walled garden for Windows. They're probably hoping that rather than buy expensive gaming PC's, most people eventually just buy Xboxes to play the same games, and then they have to buy other software through the Windows Store. But that will not happen, ever.

 

 

I'm going to be honest with you... I was never seriously looking at a PS4, but its inability to play CDs pretty much guarantees that it'll never be under my TV. It's not a feature I use often, but once in a while I do like to throw a disc in (particularly when said disc is fresh out of the wrapper). It's such a stupid thing to omit that it boggles the mind. But, I realize I'm like the last person on the planet who still cares about that.

 

Anyway, Windows at its core was never a walled garden. The whole value in Windows was its versatility and customization. This came at the expense of stability, and we all understood that. Trying to turn it into a walled garden removes the good things you'd want in the first place-- at that point, you might as well go to OSX.

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there's a windows store?

LOL, Microsoft has tried to force me to go to it a few times, but that's pretty much my experience.

 

It's just Micro$oft trying to capitalize on the whole online store thing.

 

Really, all banning emulators in the store does is keeps Microsoft from getting sued and I'm sure they know it.

It's just more of the same we keep seeing elsewhere.

 

 

And in response to the PS4 not being able to play CDs... say what?

I actually thought of buying one for titles I hadn't seen in the XBOX world, but that is a big nope.

 

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i'm surprised people worry about playing cd's, i have a few thousand of them, but i rarely use them.

 

i've converted most to digital.

 

--------

back on topic, despite trying to say other consoles don't have other features, they are easily added or have them also.

online video playback, media playback are all part of them.

 

the switch isn't really being pushed as a home console, but more of a portable, but it still has other features, despite being a hybrid.

 

 

later

-1

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Not to be all "let them eat cake," but if this is honestly something you care about, couldn't you just play audio CDs on your Jaguar VLM or Sega Saturn or PlayStation 3 or something?

 

I used the CD player in my old car (a 2005 model) to hold my iPhone. I've never put a disc into my current (2014 model year) car.

 

Optical discs are bulky, fragile, and heavy. I say meh to them.

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Not to be all "let them eat cake," but if this is honestly something you care about, couldn't you just play audio CDs on your Jaguar VLM or Sega Saturn or PlayStation 3 or something?

 

I used the CD player in my old car (a 2005 model) to hold my iPhone. I've never put a disc into my current (2014 model year) car.

 

Optical discs are bulky, fragile, and heavy. I say meh to them.

 

Yeah I never liked CDs in the car- Hard to change them while driving, hold them the right way, make sure they aren't upside down, and the eject mechanisms are motorized and slow. As opposed to cassette which was very easy to change, thanks to autoreverse, it didn't matter which side you put up. Could swap them quickly without looking :)

 

These days I have a USB port on my car stereo, so all my music is on flash drives, so not much swapping required. Even though I'm sure someone will flame me now about how much better CDs sound than low-bit rate audio files :P

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You converted your CDs to digital? Can't be that hard, considering they already are digital... ;-)

 

Audiobooks are still very popular on CD format, and when I pick up a new disc, I like to throw it right in the player before ripping it. There are also some albums that benefit from just playing start to finish, or holiday albums that just work best played on a whim.

 

It's not an option I need often, but I want it there.

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