Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Windows Store: Who bought it here ?
- Thread starter GhostTrick
- Start date
No, it was Caayn. Yes, it is MS' priority to drive Windows 10 adoption, duh. Creating a service that spans 3 versions of their OS seems efficient? That makes them spread their resources thin, makes developing newer features slower (as they would have to support issues with the previous OS'), and less drive for consumers to get their newer software in which they try to get money in different ways.
Yea, consumer-wise, if I'm on the old thing, I want the new thing without changing what I'm doing, but that's not how stuff works. I used WOG before Steam came about and hated that I had to upgrade (so many issues) because that's what they were going to support. It's really just that simple.
Vintage said:
Funny how one little search can solve an easy issue.
Because I don't want to, because my computer works fine right now, there's no new features of 10 I want, and I rely on my computer for work.
I'm not going to update just so Microsoft will let me by a game from them, especially not one that is available elsewhere.
Edit: obviously MS should not be obligated to support a variety of OSs with their store, but their failure to do so (especially when many of their competitors manage it just give) is a barrier for some users.
I'm amazed that Win10 App Store and Xbox crossbuy isn't a thing yet. That's a unique value that no one else is in a position to offer, but they aren't bothering. This game would have been an excellent one to launch it with.
Sora the Cat
Member
Why 10? how did they come up with that number?
Did someone just went: "ooh, it's windows 10 so they should have like 10 installations right?"
The Real Napsta
Member
MS does it for certain games don't they?
You read that incorrectly. You are limited to install it on 10 different devices at the same time using your account. You can install it as many times as you need but just within 10 different devices.
I had a $50 windows store gift card from some random promotion so I could get the windows store version for $4 out of pocket, so that's what I did
My immediate impression of the way they are handling games was pretty negative. The store doesn't ask you where you want to install it, and automatically installs to your C: drive, which didn't have enough space. I realized this quickly, but let it go to see how it would handle it. Rather than telling me, it just installed 8 gigs of the game and then failed. The store itself has no option to change the default download location so a google search led me to the discovery that the option to change the download location was buried in the general windows options, and even then it just lets you decide the drive, not the actual location.
Downloaded the game, it launched fine with no issues. no overlays seem to work with it, which is a bummer (fraps, rivatuner ect). I was able to get the fps counter from shadowplay to work eventually, but I have no idea how. I just kept turning it off and on and eventually it popped up once.
Next, as I tried to add the game to steam as an non steam game, I discovered my major issue I have with this system. The game files themselves seem to be in a folder in the install drive that, even as my own computer's administrator, windows isn't allowing me access to. I haven't put any real time into actually getting in there outside of double clicking and getting a "you don't have permission to do that" error, but I shouldn't have to.
The interesting thing is, and I would love someone else to take a look at this to see if i'm not crazy, my performance seems to be a bit better than those with similar systems are reporting in the main PC performance thread. I'm getting pretty consistent 60fps with some dips into the 50s and high 40s occasionally on a 2gb GTX 680SLI setup, on high with shadows on medium, which is higher than most benchmarks are saying I should be getting. I'm seeing about 80% utilization on my GPUs
(EDIT) Turns out my SLI utilization was a monitor not reporting correctly for whatever reason. According to nvidia inspector, i'm only seeing 10-15% utilization on the 2nd gpu
The download/installation location issue is enough of a problem for me that I wouldn't recommend going the windows store route unless you have a significant reason to do so (as I did). I would like someone else to check into that performance thing, as I'm going to assume that there is some other factor in play unless someone else comes back noticing the same thing
My immediate impression of the way they are handling games was pretty negative. The store doesn't ask you where you want to install it, and automatically installs to your C: drive, which didn't have enough space. I realized this quickly, but let it go to see how it would handle it. Rather than telling me, it just installed 8 gigs of the game and then failed. The store itself has no option to change the default download location so a google search led me to the discovery that the option to change the download location was buried in the general windows options, and even then it just lets you decide the drive, not the actual location.
Downloaded the game, it launched fine with no issues. no overlays seem to work with it, which is a bummer (fraps, rivatuner ect). I was able to get the fps counter from shadowplay to work eventually, but I have no idea how. I just kept turning it off and on and eventually it popped up once.
Next, as I tried to add the game to steam as an non steam game, I discovered my major issue I have with this system. The game files themselves seem to be in a folder in the install drive that, even as my own computer's administrator, windows isn't allowing me access to. I haven't put any real time into actually getting in there outside of double clicking and getting a "you don't have permission to do that" error, but I shouldn't have to.
The interesting thing is, and I would love someone else to take a look at this to see if i'm not crazy, my performance seems to be a bit better than those with similar systems are reporting in the main PC performance thread. I'm getting pretty consistent 60fps with some dips into the 50s and high 40s occasionally on a 2gb GTX 680SLI setup, on high with shadows on medium, which is higher than most benchmarks are saying I should be getting. I'm seeing about 80% utilization on my GPUs
(EDIT) Turns out my SLI utilization was a monitor not reporting correctly for whatever reason. According to nvidia inspector, i'm only seeing 10-15% utilization on the 2nd gpu
The download/installation location issue is enough of a problem for me that I wouldn't recommend going the windows store route unless you have a significant reason to do so (as I did). I would like someone else to check into that performance thing, as I'm going to assume that there is some other factor in play unless someone else comes back noticing the same thing
flaxknuckles
Member
Nope, didn't buy from the Windows store because I got it cheap from Greenmangaming. And because I think in the future there will be Mac and SteamOS versions added to my account on Steam. And because Windows 10 might become a piece of crap in the future and I won't be able to play my games after downgrading to Windows 8 because they are Win10 only. And because I think they might patch in Steam Controller support in the future. There are just way too many reasons to buy the game on Steam instead of Microsoft's store.
flaxknuckles
Member
Well, that's a dealbreaker for me if I can't use the Steam overlay with it. They need to make an actual PC games store and stop trying to force a mobile one on us if they want us to buy from it.
UWPs only run on Win10. That is regardless of whether it is a game or app.
Caayn
Member
As Zedox posted after you. It means that you can install it on 10 different Windows 10 devices at the same time on which your account is used. If you want to use it on an 11th device you just need to uninstall it on one of the other 10 devices. Seems fair.
This is my biggest issue with Windows 10 apps/games. Hope that this gets fixed asap. I would really want to use RTSS with this game.
You can take ownership of the folder "Right Click -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner: %CurrentOwnerName% Change".
Go to settings to change where installs from the store go.
I did try that and it didn't actually work, which surprised me. That was the point where I just went "Meh" and started playing the game. I'll try it again later though. There were a few things I had to do multiple times to actually make them work with this game.
I was more annoyed that I had to do that in the first place
ShinjiPSX01
Banned
Wish this was crossbuy... A friend bought the game on xone with my account.
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
Lol and I believed them when they said they were gonna take PC seriously this time. If I can't install KI in a drive other than C when it comes out, then I can't play the effing game.
You can, but you have to go into the general windows options before you launch the store to buy it. Past that, while you can choose the drive, you can't choose the actual install location as far as I have discovered. It basically treats it like any other windows app
Caayn
Member
Hmmm that's strange. That worked for me. That's all I did and now I have full access to that folder.
Not exactly correct. If you want more control over the install folder you can alter it via the registry. But granted, that's something that shouldn't be needed. A install prompt or the option "Apps of type X are installed in folder Y" would be a welcome addition.
Yeah i'll try it again. I just probably did something wrong. The major issue is there are a bunch of hoops you have to jump through for absolutely no reason.
You shouldn't have to adjust folder permissions to get to a game's .exe
You shouldn't have to do registry edits to tell a game to install to a certain location
These are things steam figured out a decade ago. I mean, all in all it hasn't really been a bad experience. There are just so many little things that make me scratch my head and try to figure out why in the world they did it that way.
Chobel
Member
Wait a sec, this pretty much means one purchase equals 10 licenses, how the hell SE agreed to that? If it works like that then it's way better than "fair".
Ten different Windows 10 devices. This is how it works for all Windows 10 apps and Office 365. You can manage your active devices here: https://account.microsoft.com/devices
By making it more expensive, it seems.
Hey everyone, I work with some people who work on the Windows Store. The higher price on the Windows Store is a bug, it should be fixed by now and if not it'll be fixed soon. Steam should have never been cheaper than the Windows Store.
I totally acknowledge that most people who buy it on PC will get it from Steam.
But I want to know from people who bought it from the Windows Store and had problems downloading it. I know that the Store team has done a massive amount of work to make downloads more reliable, and at this point you shouldn't have any problems downloading games - not even large games like Rise of the Tomb Raider.
The download should be able to use your whole internet connection too. The biggest problem is that the progress bar doesn't update enough so it makes it look like the download is slower than it actually is. If you check network traffic in Task Manager you should see it downloading at full speed.
I understand the sentiment. Just understand that the Store on Windows 8 was woefully inadequate, and Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Windows 10 store isn't a simple Win32 game (like the version on Steam) repackaged and distributed through the Store. Instead, it's a full Universal Windows Platform app. While I totally understand that doesn't mean much to you as a customer, so it's probably not a reason for you to upgrade to Windows 10, it's helping to set the stage for the future of the platform. The UWP release of Rise of the Tomb Raider inherently requires Windows 10 because that app platform doesn't exist on Windows 8.
This game proves that the Universal Windows Platform can handle demanding games just fine. Again I know that doesn't mean much to you or most PC gamers now, but it's an important step for the platform as a whole.
If that was the case, wouldn't Microsoft have blocked the Steam release entirely? Of course not. The reality is that Microsoft's publishing partnership with Square Enix both gave most PC gamers what they want (a Steam release), and also a version from the Windows 10 Store for those already on Windows 10.
Windows 10 is already on 200 million devices. It's not like Microsoft thinks that this game in the Windows Store will drive more people to upgrade to Windows 10. It's the other way around - there are already so many people on Windows 10 that putting a version in the Store could be worthwhile.
Unlimited installs across 10 devices simultaneously.
I totally acknowledge that most people who buy it on PC will get it from Steam.
But I want to know from people who bought it from the Windows Store and had problems downloading it. I know that the Store team has done a massive amount of work to make downloads more reliable, and at this point you shouldn't have any problems downloading games - not even large games like Rise of the Tomb Raider.
The download should be able to use your whole internet connection too. The biggest problem is that the progress bar doesn't update enough so it makes it look like the download is slower than it actually is. If you check network traffic in Task Manager you should see it downloading at full speed.
I understand the sentiment. Just understand that the Store on Windows 8 was woefully inadequate, and Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Windows 10 store isn't a simple Win32 game (like the version on Steam) repackaged and distributed through the Store. Instead, it's a full Universal Windows Platform app. While I totally understand that doesn't mean much to you as a customer, so it's probably not a reason for you to upgrade to Windows 10, it's helping to set the stage for the future of the platform. The UWP release of Rise of the Tomb Raider inherently requires Windows 10 because that app platform doesn't exist on Windows 8.
This game proves that the Universal Windows Platform can handle demanding games just fine. Again I know that doesn't mean much to you or most PC gamers now, but it's an important step for the platform as a whole.
If that was the case, wouldn't Microsoft have blocked the Steam release entirely? Of course not. The reality is that Microsoft's publishing partnership with Square Enix both gave most PC gamers what they want (a Steam release), and also a version from the Windows 10 Store for those already on Windows 10.
Windows 10 is already on 200 million devices. It's not like Microsoft thinks that this game in the Windows Store will drive more people to upgrade to Windows 10. It's the other way around - there are already so many people on Windows 10 that putting a version in the Store could be worthwhile.
Unlimited installs across 10 devices simultaneously.
If you work with people on the windows store team, i'm curious if you have any insight as to why a few decisions were made.
1. how you cannot (outside of which drive) choose the location that the game downloads or installs outside of having to edit the registry
2. how users don't have permission to view the game files without editing permissions
3. Why overlays such as rivatuner or fraps fps counters don't work with the windows store version.
I'm just curious why these decisions were made, because I wasn't particularly thrilled with them
Thanks!
Caayn
Member
Thanks for dropping by! Appreciate it.
Do you happen to know and willing to share if there will be some kind of compensation for people like me who bought it for the full(bugged?) price?
Download used 200Mb of my 500Mb connection according to the network traffic in the Task Manager. Had no problems with the download and installation of the game. Worked just like every other Windows Store app.
I also appreciate that they(/you?) took the trouble to create a Windows 10 version of the game
I'm not going to speak for the Store team, I'm simply relaying what I've heard from people who do work on Store, but obviously I'm not going to share internal business decisions or reasons for why one feature does exist or why another feature doesn't exist, or whether certain features will change over time.
But 1) You can change the location for the download from Settings:
No idea about the technical limitations around overlays, permissions, etc.
Caayn - sounds like that's a question for customer support.
But 1) You can change the location for the download from Settings:
No idea about the technical limitations around overlays, permissions, etc.
Caayn - sounds like that's a question for customer support.
I know you can change which drive the game is installed to. That's not what I'm talking about. You can't choose where in the drive it is installed to. In addition, you need to change the permissions of the folder to view the files once it's installed, even as an administrator. That's more what I'm curious about
Yeah, similarly Windows 8.1 store had 81 devices limit too, too. (5 on Windows 8)
I believe this is because Windows Store Apps use sandboxing / process isolation (called AppContainer by Microsoft), by default apps can't read outside files their container, so injection of overlay fails.
So you can only use it on Windows 10, you are limited in how many systems you can install it on and it cost more than the Steam version where such limitations don't exist. And that's not to mention they have GfWL in their history.
Yeah, no thanks Microsoft.
Nice to read some answers. I know things take time to get right but it's just frustrating to see things continue to be a bit off. Microsoft shouldn't be rookies and there is plenty of success from conpetitors to learn from the get go. Maybe the bigger Windows team has their boots on smaller aspects and hands are tied until they get moving.
As the poster above mentioned, the pricing was in error before. MS almost certainly will have to do refunds.
Caayn
Member
Slightly off-topic:
I don't know who does the translation for the Windows Store but using google translate and copy-pasting the result is a no-go.
You save €5, but the word "opslaan" litteraly means to store something (aka to save a file for example). Not to save money in a purchase. The correct translation should've been "Bespaar" instead of "Opslaan"
Edit: I just received a full refund for the game. They couldn't transfer the difference so they had to do a full refund.
I don't know who does the translation for the Windows Store but using google translate and copy-pasting the result is a no-go.
You save €5, but the word "opslaan" litteraly means to store something (aka to save a file for example). Not to save money in a purchase. The correct translation should've been "Bespaar" instead of "Opslaan"
Will contact them. Just checked the store and the price has been updated. It's now €9(/$10) cheaper then when I bought it last night.
Edit: I just received a full refund for the game. They couldn't transfer the difference so they had to do a full refund.
there seems to be no reason to buy it from the win10 store if you're outside america, as they are charging more than steam.
theres also the matter of the windowsapps folder not allowing you access to the game files. someone needs to ask phil spencer if modding will be possible at all in the future.
edit: didnt read the bit about teh pricing bug.
theres also the matter of the windowsapps folder not allowing you access to the game files. someone needs to ask phil spencer if modding will be possible at all in the future.
edit: didnt read the bit about teh pricing bug.
cHaOs667
Member
At least, here in Germany, they don't charge more than Steam. Both prices are 44,99.
Wonko_C
Member
I'm not expecting this to work on Windows 10 phones and tablets, but Microsoft's vision (at least the vision they initially sold me in their press conferences) of Windows 10 was "One single OS for every device" with their universal apps thing. It would be cool if it was like that for real: buying the game from the windows store then it works with PC/Laptop, Phones, Tablets and even the Xbox One.
It can work exactly like that if the developer wants it to.
i missed the posts about the price bug.
This will never work, unless they (MS or developers) decide to stream to other less powerful devices, which would bring other problems.
Besides games like this don't need to work on phones or tablets. (well you could connect your phone / tablet to larger display).
InsaneTiger
Member
Steam FTW!
Not all games have unified lists. Some are still tied to PS3, Vita and PS4 only.
LukasTaves
Member
No, all that is optional. You can log in to the store only without changing your pc account to a Ms account.
There are sony first party games with separate trophy lists, in fact, I think this is better.
frontieruk
Member
odd here's my store price
I can't actually buy it though as my laptop doesn't meet minimum requirements... They don't give a fuck my PC will run this comfortably... Sale lost I suppose I'm not booting the gaming gig just to buy a game...
odd here's my store price
They fixed price to be same as on Steam. (it was supposed to be like that)
frontieruk
Member
just pointing it out as everyone was laughing they were pricing themselves out...
Hey, thanks for the information. I want to know if you know if the game was made with UWP from the beginning or was the game using Project Centennial (bridge for Win32 apps to UWP) for its development. Obviously, that's if you know.
Microsoft would rather use ROTR as an incentive for you to upgrade to Windows 10 instead of actually making the sale on the OS that you already own.
And, yeah ... look! There's a Windows 8 version already waiting for you in the Steam store. I don't think they thought this through.
Doug Heffernan
Member
I wish it were cross buy.
It now costs the same as Steam. In regards to limit number of devices, you can install the software to 10 devices without the Steam like restriction of only 1 being able to use it at a time (plus one offline machine)... so it's actually far, far better in that regards, seeing as you can deactivate a device later.
In fact the 10 device stuff is so ridiculously good, that I can see it actually preventing games from hitting the store.