Following concerns from Epic Games’ founder Tim Sweeney about the threat of Microsoft establishing a PC games monopoly, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has moved to ease concerns about the Universal Windows Platform.
In a series of tweets, Spencer commented:
Windows has always been an open ecosystem welcoming the contributions of hardware and software partners, and will always continue to be.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 4, 2016
UWP is a fully open ecosystem, available to every developer, and can be supported by any store. Broad range of tools https://t.co/LqPcjRFzu9
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 4, 2016
We will discuss our next steps with the Universal Windows Platform at //build later this month.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 4, 2016
@emiel1981 @TimSweeneyEpic is a friend and he pushes for what he believes. I agree UWP has to be open and that's what we are doing.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 4, 2016
@cambaxter999 @Primey_ The feedback is great, even when it's negative, I read it and it impacts our plans. Thanks for being vocal.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 4, 2016
For his part, Sweeney replied:
I like the sound of this, and look forward to thorough technical details on UWP's planned openness at //build. https://t.co/9oitPe3DuM
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 4, 2016
Microsoft also issued a statement to GameSpot commenting, “The Universal Windows Platform is a fully open ecosystem, available to every developer, that can be supported by any store. We continue to make improvements for developers; for example, in the Windows 10 November Update, we enabled people to easily side-load apps by default, with no UX required.”
Sweeney explained in a recent interview why he’s concerned about the Universal Windows Platform, why he’s speaking up now, and what he believes Microsoft should do to address concerns about the platform. Sweeney said he discussed his concerns over a year ago with Microsoft executives, including Spencer.
“Being Epic, we want to fight for our rights, being independent software developers, to make PC software without Microsoft’s permission,” Sweeney commented. “My tendency is to fight this really early on as they’re starting to do it and not wait until they’ve gained so much momentum that we lose.”
You can read more about Sweeney’s concerns here. His comments are somewhat surprising given Microsoft’s close working relationship with Epic Games. The studio created one of the Xbox 360’s most important games, Gears of War in 2006, with the rights to the franchise later being acquired by Microsoft. While Epic isn’t working Gears of War 4, which is due to release this year, the game is being developed on Epic’s Unreal Engine.
