Tim Sweeney, the co-founder of Epic Games and co-creator of the Unreal Engine, is not fond of Microsoft's attempts at breaking into the PC world. In truth, Microsoft isn't making an attempt, they have already busted down the wall between the Xbox One and Windows platform and established their presence on the PC.
It's no suprise that Microsoft is bridging the gap between Windows and Xbox either, the company has been talking about "unified gaming" for a while now. Sweeney has never really be pro Microsoft heading to PC via Windows 10, but a new interview further explains why believes it to be the case.
According to Sweeney, Microsoft will make Steam "progressively worse" by changing the file set up from win32 to UWP.
"There are two programming interfaces for Windows and every app has to choose one of them," said Sweeney during an interview with Edge Magazine (via PCGamer). "Every Steam app – every PC game for the past few decades – has used Win32. It’s been both responsible for the vibrant software market we have now, but also for malware. Any program can be a virus. Universal Windows Platform is seen as an antidote to that. It’s sandboxed – much more locked down."
Sweeney didn't stop there, he went on to detail specifically why that is a problem:
"The risk here is that, if Microsoft convinces everybody to use UWP, then they phase out Win32 apps. If they can succeed in doing that then it’s a small leap to forcing all apps and games to be distributed through the Windows Store. Once we reach that point, the PC has become a closed platform. It won’t be that one day they flip a switch that will break your Steam library – what they’re trying to do is a series of sneaky manoeuvres. They make it more and more inconvenient to use the old apps, and, simultaneously, they try to become the only source for the new ones."
"Slowly, over the next five years, they will force-patch Windows 10 to make Steam progressively worse and more broken. They’ll never completely break it, but will continue to break it until, in five years, people are so fed up that Steam is buggy that the Windows Store seems like an ideal alternative. That’s exactly what they did to their previous competitors in other areas. Now they’re doing it to Steam. It’s only just starting to become visible. Microsoft might not be competent enough to succeed with their plan, but they’re certainly trying."
Basically, Sweeney is arguing that Microsoft is phasing out Steam as a gaming platform to take its place and they are doing so by 'breaking' the platform.
