Hearthstone on iPad. I smell hypocrisy.
This is an interesting tidbit. I was checking out Battle.Net and once again debating on whether or not to fire up WoW again when I noticed a free to play game from Blizzard. Hearthstone Heroes Of Warcraft. I also noticed it was releasing (and now has released on iPad).
This is interesting because Blizzard (along with Valve) screamed bloody murder when Microsoft wanted Windows 8 modern apps to be hosted in their app store only and with MS taking a cut of the sales.
Guess what? If you're putting this game out on the iPad, then it is hosted on Apple's stores, not Blizzard's and any of the transactions have a percentage taken by Apple.
They have conceded to the exact same thing that they condemned Microsoft for. And amusingly, on Windows, they simply stuck with a traditional x86/x64 version of the game. As I had said from the beginning was a perfectly acceptable approach for companies like Blizzard and Valve to continue following. In other words, they huffed and puffed over nothing. The platform they mocked remains the one that is most open for them.
I'm not saying that can't or won't change. Microsoft may very well still kill off the Windows desktop in favour of the Modern apps at some point in the future. But, as things stand today, both environments are viable targets. With Atom processors proving worthy contenders for ARM based chipsets there is increasingly less need to worry about the WinRT crowd unless ARM machines start giving Atom a more measurable run for its money.
But, what I think is the worst about this hypocrisy is that the fear mongering companies like Blizzard and Valve built around Windows 8 undoubtedly had some negative side effect on Windows 8 and Windows PC sales. Which further cemented the stranglehold Apple had on the market, leading Blizzard to a scenario where they needed to conceded to one company exactly what they had condemned the other for.
Had companies like Blizzard and Valve not felt the need to cry wolf and instead stood behind the platform that both quite literally would not exist without, then perhaps Windows 8 would have a more stable market share today, and these companies could be rightly condemning Apple who actually forces such policies on all of their tablet OS's.
That is a bit utopian I'll agree. But the point is valid. However remote the possibility, the possibility exists that the reason Blizzard had to give up profits to Apple may very well be because they played a role in devaluing Windows in peoples minds, when that product wasn't inherently forcing them to do anything that they weren't already doing.
Valve has remained stubborn as far as I can tell. But, I don't suspect SteamOS is really going anywhere, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a Blizzard-esque retreat to a company that will screw them over the same way they hallucinated Microsoft was.
I don't work for MS or Blizzard or Valve for that matter. And it is of course possible that they had additional information that drove their decisions and PR material. But I can only operate on the information available to me and the events that have transpired.
This is interesting because Blizzard (along with Valve) screamed bloody murder when Microsoft wanted Windows 8 modern apps to be hosted in their app store only and with MS taking a cut of the sales.
Guess what? If you're putting this game out on the iPad, then it is hosted on Apple's stores, not Blizzard's and any of the transactions have a percentage taken by Apple.
They have conceded to the exact same thing that they condemned Microsoft for. And amusingly, on Windows, they simply stuck with a traditional x86/x64 version of the game. As I had said from the beginning was a perfectly acceptable approach for companies like Blizzard and Valve to continue following. In other words, they huffed and puffed over nothing. The platform they mocked remains the one that is most open for them.
I'm not saying that can't or won't change. Microsoft may very well still kill off the Windows desktop in favour of the Modern apps at some point in the future. But, as things stand today, both environments are viable targets. With Atom processors proving worthy contenders for ARM based chipsets there is increasingly less need to worry about the WinRT crowd unless ARM machines start giving Atom a more measurable run for its money.
But, what I think is the worst about this hypocrisy is that the fear mongering companies like Blizzard and Valve built around Windows 8 undoubtedly had some negative side effect on Windows 8 and Windows PC sales. Which further cemented the stranglehold Apple had on the market, leading Blizzard to a scenario where they needed to conceded to one company exactly what they had condemned the other for.
Had companies like Blizzard and Valve not felt the need to cry wolf and instead stood behind the platform that both quite literally would not exist without, then perhaps Windows 8 would have a more stable market share today, and these companies could be rightly condemning Apple who actually forces such policies on all of their tablet OS's.
That is a bit utopian I'll agree. But the point is valid. However remote the possibility, the possibility exists that the reason Blizzard had to give up profits to Apple may very well be because they played a role in devaluing Windows in peoples minds, when that product wasn't inherently forcing them to do anything that they weren't already doing.
Valve has remained stubborn as far as I can tell. But, I don't suspect SteamOS is really going anywhere, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a Blizzard-esque retreat to a company that will screw them over the same way they hallucinated Microsoft was.
I don't work for MS or Blizzard or Valve for that matter. And it is of course possible that they had additional information that drove their decisions and PR material. But I can only operate on the information available to me and the events that have transpired.
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