Windows Phone dead or alive?
Despite a July 29 release date for Windows 10, most of us didn't read the fine print, if there was any. The release on the PC seems sketchy. You have to sign up to reserve a copy and then wait to be notified when it is ready. These are digital products not something you run out of! And if they're worried about bandwidth, there must have been sometime late night or early morning when they could have downloaded it to my laptop.
For Windows 10 Mobile we found out, we will have to wait until later in the year -- possibly as late as mid November according to some analysts. I understand the Xbox version has also been delayed similarly.
Meanwhile our Windows Phone games were migrated from the old Windows Phone 8 store to create dummy listings in the Windows 10 phone store. The descriptions say "requires Windows 10". We have several new games that have already been released on iOS and Android, but due to the current state of limbo we are unsure if we should attempt to place them in the Widows Phone Store. If we make a Windows 10 game, can those that still have Windows 8 or 8.1 on their Windows Phones (almost everyone except developers) still download it? Or would they have to wait until Windows 10 Mobile is released.
Furthermore the average game player doesn't understand that just because Microsoft says one version will play on PC, Xbox and phone, doesn't mean it will know how to take advantages of the special features of each, or worse rely on some feature that is missing on one or more.
When we and other developers complained that there weren't enough customers with Windows Phones to make it worthwhile to spend the time it takes to submit the game. And this is assuming that the developer used Unity or some similar multi-platform engine so that they can easily export builds for the various devices. Our problem has not been PC and Xbox, although it might be nice to be able to reach them as well. Many of our games were designed for a handheld device, to be played when you're riding on the subway, or waiting for someone to meet you. The problem has been the total lack of customers and Microsoft didn't understand how to help create a vibrant marketplace. Twitter offers special ad cards to promote your apps. You include the iOS and Android IDs and tweet about your game with built-in links to the App Store and Google Play. Someone at Microsoft could have called Twitter and requested equal access, as we suggested to them. Instead Microsoft's solution to game developers was to just offer them free handsets and then free credits with the Unity Asset Store. To be honest, without which we probably never would have considered publishing the 6 titles that we currently have in the Windows Phone Store.
Then the announcement that Microsoft was closing the entire Nokia wireless division they had just bought a year earlier. See: Ballmer's phone blunder cost Microsoft $10B That virtually eliminates the largest supplier of Windows Phones. Unless Samsung and HTC step up production, we are doomed to selling games to a line of phones that only achieved a 2.5% market share. We sell thousands of copies of an iOS game, hundreds of an Android, and single digits on the Windows Phone. Of course, if I believe that PC or Xbox owners would like to play the same game on a much larger screen with completely different input devices and gameplay.
There's also the issue of if the Windows Phone is still alive. See: Told ya so: Microsoft Lumia, Windows Phone are DEAD
Of course I'd like to call Microsoft and ask them where things stand, but it appears the only people that probably could answer my questions were part of the 7,800 in the Windows Phone division that were let go. And the others don't seem to return phone calls or emails. So for now, we -- like other publishers -- are in a state of limbo regarding our future support for the Windows Phone.
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