“In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers. This isn’t like that. Here, Microsoft is moving against the entire PC industry …”

– Tim Sweeney, co-founder and CEO, Epic Games

CARY, N.C. – A new war in videogame development has been declared, and Epic Games in Cary is the igniter, choosing to take on Microsoft.

Remember all those attacks against Microsoft in years past as being a monopolistic, dastardly empire led by “Darth Gates”? Well, Microsoft opened up, so to speak, over the years, and even now works with open source pioneer Red Hat, a long-time critic.

However, Microsoft is now seeking to “monopolize” game development on PCs, with a “closed” initiative and the gaming industry must fight back, says Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games.

Microsoft quickly fired back, denying a “closed” system.

Interestingly, Sweeney-led Epic sold its entire multi-billion-selling “Gears of War” franchise to Microsoft, which is revamping the games and preparing a new title.

Whatever good will there had been between the two companies is out the window now with Sweeney publishing a fiery op-ed in the U.K. Guardian.

“Microsoft wants to monopolize games development on PC. We must fight it,” reads the headline.

A big David is fired up

This is no David v. Goliath fight, by the way.

Sweeney, a hall of famer in game development, has plenty of financial muscle since Epic is nearly half owned by China-based giant Tencent, Epic also carries a lot of weight in the game industry itself, given the power of its best-selling Unreal game development platform which crosses all technology, and a long history of successful game development. Paragon, its newest, will be available soon.

However, Sweeney warns game developers are at risk of losing control over titles due to Microsoft’s so-called UWP initiative.

“With its new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, Microsoft has built a closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10, as the first apparent step towards locking down the consumer PC ecosystem and monopolizing app distribution and commerce,” Sweeney writes.

“In my view, this is the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made. While the company has been convicted of violating antitrust law in the past, its wrongful actions were limited to fights with specific competitors and contracts with certain PC manufacturers.

“This isn’t like that. Here, Microsoft is moving against the entire PC industry – including consumers (and gamers in particular), software developers such as Epic Games, publishers like EA and Activision, and distributors like Valve and Good Old Games.”

Sweeney warns that “new PC Windows features exclusively in UWP” is telling “developers you can use these Windows features only if you submit to the control of our locked-down UWP ecosystem. They’re curtailing users’ freedom to install full-featured PC software, and subverting the rights of developers and publishers to maintain a direct relationship with their customers.”

A “sneaky” move

While saying he doesn’t question the right of a Windows Store or bundling.

However, he adds, “[M]y criticism is limited to Microsoft structuring its operating system to advantage its own store while unfairly disadvantaging competing app stores, as well as developers and publishers who distribute games directly to their customers.”

“The specific problem here is that Microsoft’s shiny new ‘Universal Windows Platform’ is locked down, and by default it’s impossible to download UWP apps from the websites of publishers and developers, to install them, update them, and conduct commerce in them outside of the Windows Store,” he points out.

There is a work-around but he stresses “[T]his is a feature Microsoft can revoke at any time using Windows 10’s forced-update process.”

Sweeney says the industry and app developers must insist on an “open” platform. He wants this so “users, developers, and publishers will always be free to engage in direct commerce with each other, without Microsoft forcing everyone into its formative in-app commerce monopoly and taking a 30% cut.”

Sweeney acknowledges having worked with Microsoft for years and says the company has “always been willing to listen” to Epic’s concerns. But …

“We wouldn’t let Microsoft close down the PC platform overnight without a fight, and therefore we won’t sit silently by while Microsoft embarks on a series of sneaky manoeuvre aimed at achieving this over a period of several years.”

Read the full post at:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/microsoft-monopolise-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war