Tim Sweeney should be a name familiar to most by now, he’s the founder of Epic Games and best known for his work on the Unreal Engine. That is however not the reason that he’s making headlines for the last year or so, it’s rather his public rants against Microsoft and Windows. Now he’s back with another ridiculous list of tweets and this time he’s attacking the newly announced Windows Cloud.
At this point, I should probably make it clear that this is my personal opinion on the subject and it might not reflect my coworkers nor eTeknix’ view on the matter.
So what’s Mr Sweeney up to this time you ask? Well, in its simplicity, he is claiming that Windows Cloud will steal your PC game library and ransom it back to you. He cites the fact that Windows Cloud will be upgradeable to a full version of Windows for a fee as the source for this ridiculous claim. Yes, that is partly true, but the only part of this that is the truth is that Windows Cloud will be upgradeable to a full version. And that’s a good thing and it is a feature that shows that Microsoft is past the time where they want to lock you down into a single choice.
Update: Windows Cloud will steal your Steam PC game library and ransom it back to you…for a price. Source: https://t.co/Wc8xihRaCo
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 4, 2017
Next up, he claims that Microsoft will be ransoming Unreal Engine, Unity, Photoshop, 3D Studio, and Maya – which simply is utter bulls*** in itself. Anyone with half a brain can see that. On from that, he claims that you will have to pay for the privilege to use software that isn’t from Microsoft, which once again is nonsense and not in any way illegal as he also claims.
Want to buy software from someone other than Microsoft? They will make you pay for the privilege. Disgusting and ILLEGAL!
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 4, 2017
If that wouldn’t already show how out of touch with reality this guy is, it goes on with the latest claim in which he calls Windows Cloud ransomware. Seriously? You got to be kidding me, Tim.
Windows Cloud is ransomware: It locks out Windows software you previously bought and makes you pay to unlock it by upgrading to Windows Pro.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 7, 2017
So, now that we got Sweeney’s point of view on the subject, let us take an objective look at the issues he thinks exist. Yes, Windows Cloud will come with some restrictions and yes, it will allow you to upgrade to the full version of Windows for an extra fee in much the same way that you can upgrade a normal home version to a pro version. But no one forces you to use Windows Cloud in the first place nor is there anyone forcing you to upgrade it. Instead, it’s an alternate choice to the normal Windows ecosystem, one that is based around Microsoft’s UWP. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is in no way any different that Google’s Cloud system nor is it any different than Apple’s closed ecosystem. For some reason, no one bats an eye when those two companies do such things, but when Microsoft does something similar, everyone calls bloody murder.
Even more ridiculous is his comparison with Valve’s Steam platform which in my personal opinion is a cancer on the gaming community. The only difference between the Steam platform and let’s say the Windows store is that Steam has been around longer and has a larger user base. They also lock you down, they force you to use it and do so even if you purchase you games in retails shops on disks. If anyone is forcing you to use anything, it’s all the companies who have their games exclusive on that platform. Yes, I use Steam too – but because it was forced upon me to be able to play third party games purchased on retail disk which didn’t reveal that it was needed in the first place.
“Valve’s Steam platform is a cancer on the gaming community” , rly ? Say that to the indie game developers…
Yeah… I stopped reading this opinion post at that point. The use of the word “cancer” out of context in ‘professional’ journalism just reminds me of all the ‘toxic kiddies’ who plague online gaming, never mind the fact that the writer just comes across as a Steam hater. Please leave opinions for the comments sections eTeknix.
Indeed its a ridiculous use of the word, its disgusting when used by the average gamer simpleton, its also embarrassing when used on this media format
https://betanews.com/2017/02/09/windows-10-cloud-hacked-to-run-win32-programs/
But we really do need to revisit Sweeney’s original criticism of UWP. Because mr Hansen you are falsely claiming that no one bats an eye for Apple and Google having closed ecosystems. If you go back and re-read his statements you will see that he’s attacking Microsoft for going down the same road as those two companies. Granted, that just cannot be called “batting an eye”, it’s full blown out attack on the concept of closed ecosystems. Concerning the ransomware nature of Windows Cloud, in essence it is. Simple fact is that conceptually when you have some basic functionality in one version but in next one you choose to charge it, you are swindling your users. And Windows has been open platform since always, and crap load of companies depend on that openness. So it’s not just users which could be impacted. Granted, Windows Cloud is successor to RT and most likely will be DOA, same as RT was. But if users of Windows do not oppose closing of ecosystem now, then maybe there will come day when desktop versions will become closed as well.