17-Bit's upcoming strategy game Skulls of the Shogun can only be played on Windows 8. Yep, sorry, Windows 7 users, no Skulls of the Shogun for you!
This news was confirmed by the develops themselves and here's what they had to say.
We are launching on Windows 8, Windows Phone and XBLA around the Windows 8 release. So no, that won’t include a Windows 7 version.
Working with MS, we were all really excited about the cross-platform nature of the game (it’s a great fit for mouse, touch, and gamepad, which is rare). We had a choice to support either Windows 8 or GFWL on Windows 7.
Borut Pfeifer, 17-Bit game designer and programmer gave a host of reasons why they went this route and while they might seem sound on paper, I'm guessing PC players won't like it that much.
As PC gamers we’re aware of the issues GFWL has had. Windows 8 & Xbox Live on Windows 8 are a great step forward. Some of that is just improvements in Windows 8 itself – you can associate your PC login with your windows live/xbox account, and then logging into Xbox Live games is seamless, just like on an Xbox. If you don’t want to sign in, it’s much easier to handle (so you don’t explicitly have to create a local user account – although you do have to sign in to buy stuff as far as I know).
While that might be bad news for some, you can at least take comfort in the rather cute-looking gameplay video below.
Skulls of the Shogun is set for release on Steam and on Xbox LIVE later this year.
Are you okay with the game only appearing on Windows 8? Should Windows 7 users be worried that this might be the start of a precedent?
Source: RPS
