Although Microsoft is making great strides in unifying its console and PC platforms into a single ecosystem, not everyone is especially happy about the push to use the Windows Store to sell games. In particular, the way the games launch through the Store, rather than the .exe file, and the lack of V-sync, has irked customers.
Fortunately Microsoft has now pledged to fix that issue, with the head of Xbox and Windows gaming, Mike Ybarra, taking to Twitter to respond to criticism of problems with Windows Store gaming.
https://twitter.com/XboxQwik/status/703734557774774272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He also addressed concerns that the Store did not support Nvidia’s SLI or AMD’s crossfire, multi-GPU gaming, stating that that was simply not true. It’s the responsibility of the developers to enable that feature, he claimed, though he failed to address other concerns.
Related: Buy a game on Xbox, get a copy for Windows – if Microsoft’s cross-buy works out
A Reddit thread popped up recently (via Winbeta) that brought up a number of other issues with the platform, stating that there are problems with slow downloads, a forced always-borderless fullscreen, and a lack of support for sweetFX. Other mods and hardware/software FPS monitoring are said not to work either.
While it may be the case that certain games support some of those functions and other games don’t, the situation is still causing worry among fans, as it seems likely Microsoft will push to sell most of its first-party titles, and possibly third-party titles also, through the Windows Store.
Moreover, one of the developers of Rise of the Tomb Raider has been quoted as saying that graphics control panels are unusable for custom in-game settings, as they push settings through the .exe, which the Windows Store does not utilize.
While this has got a few people rattling torches and pitchforks, others have urged caution. The Windows Store is still new, they say, and we should give it time to mature before forming a mob.
Have you purchased any games on Windows Store yet? If so, how did you find the experience?