Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 PC operating system will feature an App Store, the company has confirmed via a post on the Building Windows 8 blog, offering another possible delivery system for games.
In the post, Microsoft Windows chief Steve Sinofsky lists an "App Store" team among those working on the new operating system, confirming screenshots of such a store (pictured) that were leaked earlier in the year.
No further details on the effort are provided, but Sinofsky grants that "you can probably figure out [what teams are working on] based on the name" of the teams.
This is not the first time that Microsoft has integrated a digital application marketplace into a PC operating system -- Windows Vista included a Windows Marketplace that failed to attract much attention. The company also currently operates a web-based Games for Windows Live Marketplace.
Microsoft previously contested Apple's "App Store" trademark, saying the term is too generic to be protectable. Amazon also brought a similar case against Apple, which a judge recently said the Mac maker is likely to lose.
I hope getting on there is more straightforward than XBLA: you submit your app, and if it doesn't explode their machine, they add it to the store and just take their percentage.
I think this is a good idea. Though they should expand it to allowing OS components. like make IE optional. This would allow for MS to concentrate on the OS itself, pushing all the extra crap into stand alone apps that you can choose to install.
I'm a little worried. Isn't this just another distribution channel where the middle man is going to want 30%, and the only thing developers get out of it is the illusion that they can become one of the platform's darlings?
What Microsoft is still lacking, though, is its own Facebook (preferably embedded into Windows).
"Microsoft Faces", anyone?..
http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-platform-power.html
We need less middle men, not more :(