There has never been anything wrong with playing Call of Duty on PC. Hell, the series got started there. But if you’re looking at picking up or playing Infinite Warfare and the Call of Duty 4 remaster some time soon, you might like to know that it’s really not worth playing through the Windows store.
The FAQ on Activision’s support page for the Windows Store version of the page is a good illustration of some of the barriers still facing players who purchase through the Windows Store.
Namely, if you buy the game there, you won’t be able to play with anyone who buys on Steam:
Can I play Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered for Windows 10 on Windows Store with my friends that are playing on another PC platform?
No, you can only play these titles with other users of Windows 10 on Windows Store.
Call of Duty has already suffered from a dwindling player base on PC over the last few years. You’ll always be able to get a game, provided you’re happy to stick to Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, and occasionally Kill Confirmed or Domination.
The fact that users have continued to stick with the older Modern Warfare titles hasn’t helped. And when you consider how small the Windows Store footprint is (as evidenced by Quantum Break and Rise of the Tomb Raider earlier this year) in the first place, its a real issue for those (particularly in Australia) who buy on the Windows Store and hope to get regular multiplayer games.
The segregation, however, appears to be on the part of Activision. Windows Central quoted a Microsoft spokesperson who said that “We support cross-play between devices and platforms for partners who want to enable it”. Meaning cross-play between the Windows Store and Steam works just fine, if the developer puts in the work.
But even though the situation around Infinite Warfare doesn’t appear to be Microsoft’s fault – since we don’t know precisely how much work is required to get cross-play going between UWP apps and Steam – the end result is the same.
Why would you ever buy something through the Microsoft Store when you can have a much better, more sustainable and often a cheaper experience on Steam?
Comments
12 responses to “The New Call Of Duty Is Another Reason Not To Buy On The Windows Store”
Maybe not with this case, but in a lot of recent games, the reason is that you also get the Xbox One version and vice-versa.
Been enjoying play anywhere. Especially with multilayer meaning I can play pc while anyone can use my game sharing on console to join the same games in the same room. With split screen almost dead it’s pretty much my modern split screen gaming.
Steam has it’s own matchmaking and networking API. Windows Store (xbox live) has it’s own matchmaking and networking API.
They are not interoperable.
If a developer wants to support cross-store play, they need to use a third party (or roll their own) matchmaking and networking API’s. In some cases, they can still provide expected functionality (friends invites from store friends lists and so on), but many store specific features that people use would be unsupported.
So, it’s not really a reason to now buy on the windows store, just a reason to not buy Activision games from the Windows Store because they don’t enable cross-play in their games.
Seems a little silly to issue a blanket statement about an entire store when it isn’t the stores fault that the game is like this.
double post
Lmao do the people at microsoft even live on the same planet as the rest of us?
Did you miss the part of the article which points out this was a choice of Activision’s?
“Choice of Activision’s” dumbs it down a little too much. Microsoft put a system in place that requires Activision to put in extra effort to get it working properly on Microsoft’s platform. Activision made the choice not to put in the extra effort, so it’s actually the fault of Microsoft and Activision.
Seen this hapen a few times with different vendors. I remember you couldn’t gift dlc content for The Division through Steam if they purchased it directly from Ubisoft, even though you could link the game on Steam through Ubisoft.
Did we really need another reason to hate Activision?
Just don’t buy their games. Period.
This is laughable garbage in the same league as geo-blocked music and films.
Also, there has been things wrong with CoD on PC, eg: whether it’ll have dedicated servers or not