In a column for the The Guardian, Tim Sweeney, co-founder of large game development studio Epic Games calls Microsoft's Universal Windows development platform a 'sneaky manoeuvre'. The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) makes it possible to write apps that run on both Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile with the same codebase. According to Sweeney Microsoft has locked down the platform too much.
UWP apps are distributed using the Windows Store. It's also possible to install apps without the store which is called side-loading. But according to Sweeney this is too hard and therefore he calls UWP a "closed platform-within-a-platform into Windows 10". He also writes that "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."
Some new Windows features can only be used if developers use UWP which means consumers can only obtain that software through the Windows Store. Because the Windows Store comes by default with Windows 10 there is hardly room for fair competition. Both third party app stores and developers that distribute games to their customers will not able to offer UWP features that can only be offered through the Windows Store.
His main concern is that Microsoft will monopolize the sales of apps by making them only available through the Windows Store. Therefore Sweeney pleads for an open PC platform, "If UWP is to gain the support of major PC game and application developers, it must be as open a platform as today’s predominant win32 API, which is used by all major PC games and applications."
Microsoft's response to Sweeney's column is that, "the Universal Windows Platform is a fully open ecosystem, available to every developer, that can be supported by any store."
