Why won't you allow prior Windows support?

RE-EDIT: Because nobody’s actually answering the main question due to confusion of what I said:

The title: Why aren’t previous versions of Windows supported? There seems to be no logic as to why not.

Or at least have it on Steam?

So you would buy it on Steam if it was windows 10 only? I fail to see how that makes any difference or why that would change your mind?

That ship sailed long ago

I have far too many applications that still utilize 32-Bit

That’s basically irrelevant as all win32 applications basically run fine in Windows 10. I mean you’re probably running 64 bit WIndows 7 anyway.

I genuinely don’t understand in the slightest how you’re going to make any money off this on what’s considered a dying platform

How exactly is Windows 10 a ‘dying platform’

But I, and possibly hundreds of thousands of others are not going to switch OS’s just to play this game.

Which is of course your choice, but that doesn’t really mean MS has to cater to your decision either.

@Satoru said:

Or at least have it on Steam?

So you would buy it on Steam if it was windows 10 only? I fail to see how that makes any difference or why that would change your mind?

That ship sailed long ago

I have far too many applications that still utilize 32-Bit

That’s basically irrelevant as all win32 applications basically run fine in Windows 10. I mean you’re probably running 64 bit WIndows 7 anyway.

I genuinely don’t understand in the slightest how you’re going to make any money off this on what’s considered a dying platform

How exactly is Windows 10 a ‘dying platform’

But I, and possibly hundreds of thousands of others are not going to switch OS’s just to play this game.

Which is of course your choice, but that doesn’t really mean MS has to cater to your decision either.

A: Steam as in supporting prior Windows versions, (I should have clarified, yes I’m aware Steam has nothing to do with OS support.) which they have yet to give a reason why they can’t do that.

B: There are definitely software applications that don’t run on Windows 10 that I’m aware I own. Forum posts have assured me that it doesn’t.

C: Windows 10 is not the dying platform, however the Windows Store is. It’s not profitable to the point that other devs had to pull out and put their games on Steam to prevent from losing money.

D : No, they don’t, but they have yet to explain why they don’t support older versions of Windows. Which leads me to believe that it’s merely to turn profit and literally nothing else. They don’t care about the game, or the people who are even inclined to purchase it, as far as I’m aware. So until I get a reasonable answer, that’s what I’m going to believe.

RE-EDIT: Because nobody’s actually answering the main question due to confusion of what I said:

The title: Why aren’t previous versions of Windows supported? There seems to be no logic as to why not.

C : Not Windows 10, Windows store. It’s hilarious how companies think they can create an online service in attempts to compete with Steam only to have devs LEAVE their platform and move to Steam just because it’s more profitable.

Thats’s sort of besides the point given that anyone can make a game Windows 10 only and still put it on Steam. Thus the point for you seems moot given that if AOE:DE was on Steam and Windows 10 only, how would that be any different than your current situation.

D : They don’t owe me the change, no. But they still owe me an explanation as to WHY NOT.Because I’m under the impression that I was invited to test their game when I gave them my system specs

Not sure why the devs ‘owe’ you an explanation on any design choices.

You were not invited to test the game when you gave them your system specs. you were applying for a closed beta, which clearly stated what the minimum system requirements were. Regardless, applying for the closed beta was not an invitation to test.

And surprise surprise, I can’t even test it for them. So they owe me that much

Again you’re not really ‘owed’ anything.

they push it to a more profitable platform than the Windows store.

You seem to be confusing the OS requirements with the windwos store requirement. Those are two different things. Again they can make the game windows 10 only and put it on steam. Why would that be any different to you if they put it on a ‘profitable platform’ and still maintain the windows 10 only requirement.

The recommended RAM is 16 GB.

Why put in steam will be more profitable, they are focus in success of Store than in a remake.or remakes.

Microsoft are worried about sales a remaster all is about Ms service.
The store.
The OS.
And Xbox live service.

@TheLostSentinel said:
Or at least have it on Steam?

Because it looks like I won’t be part of the beta test, or purchasing this in the future.
Why? Because I have Windows 7 & 8.1.

Am I ever going to upgrade? Absolutely not. I have far too many applications that still utilize 32-Bit, and if I upgrade, I’m isolating hundreds of dollars worth of software in favor of a game I played when I was a kid.

I’m sorry Microsoft, but your marketing tactics as of late have been very poor. I genuinely don’t understand in the slightest how you’re going to make any money off this on what’s considered a dying platform. I love this game, for sure. But I, and possibly hundreds of thousands of others are not going to switch OS’s just to play this game.

Please re-consider the decision you’ve made.

If you are not going to upgrade “ever” then you are risking to lose all your data and apps due to lack of your operating system support. And if your software is somehow incompatible with Windows 10 you should ask developers to update their software which they should do at least sometimes anyway.

RE-POST FROM ABOVE:
Because nobody’s actually answering the main question due to confusion of what I said:

The title: Why aren’t previous versions of Windows supported? There seems to be no logic as to why not.

Because those are the target specifications they are building to

Windows 10 is the future of Windows. It’s important to come to terms with this reality.

Please refrain from bumping this thread because you don’t agree with the replies.

Windows seven is losing its support from microsoft soon and not many people that I know use 8. As Rhrmn has mentioned, Microsoft is trying to promote windows 10 through bringing back popular pc games such as AoE and making them exclusive

Win 7 is not going to be supported on newer intel architectures. Which means you’re going to have to be on Windows 10 soon because any new computer you buy right now WILL NOT RUN windows 7.

Win7 will be history… I din see why give to them support specially for gaming.

@TheLostSentinel said:
Why aren’t previous versions of Windows supported? There seems to be no logic as to why not.

Because Microsoft wants to cash in on both the game and Windows 10 sales.

I personally won’t be switching to Windows 10. Tried it briefly, and switched back to Windows 7 because 10 supported all of 2 out of dozens of programs and games I have. And no, to those who might say for me to find patches, not everything has a patch for Windows 10.

Everyone had a free chance to upgrade for a year. If you didn’t, that’s your bad.

@TheLostSentinel said:
RE-EDIT: Because nobody’s actually answering the main question due to confusion of what I said:

The title: Why aren’t previous versions of Windows supported? There seems to be no logic as to why not.

I’m surprised no one has answered this yet…

AoEDE is going to be a UWP app that you can only get from the Windows 10 Store, and will only open in Windows 10. It will not install like a traditional program, therefore it won’t be available on prior versions of Windows. All the Windows 10 Store apps install like this, and are proprietary to the Windows 10 platform. It is also the reason you cannot link it into your Steam library list, which apparently has a lot of people riled up a bit. (Though to be fair, it may be more than that)

It has to do with Microsoft’s shift from being primarily a software license company, to being a data-collection company.

With Windows 10, Microsoft basically repackaged Windows 7 and 8 together, with some minor adjustments, and then stuffed it full of data-collection, spying, and telemetry services that send over 2,500 - 5,000 different points of data to Microsoft at just its most basic (turned down as low as possible) setting. Microsoft take the data they collect and compile it into business reports, which they sell to whoever is interested: Advertisers, researchers, government, police, etc.

Because Microsoft’s new focus is on generating data from people using Windows 10 so that Microsoft can make money off of that data, Microsoft has been desperate to have as many people as possible using Windows 10 in as many ways as possible. The more that people are using Windows 10, the more data is being generated, and the more money Microsoft can make from it.

There is no reason why AoER cannot run on Windows 7 - but since Microsoft wants people to use Windows 10 because of all the spying and data-collection they built into it, Microsoft is doing things like making Windows 10 exclusives, and forcing people’s PCs to download and install Windows 10 even without the permission of the owners of those PCs and the Windows 7 or 8 licenses that are on them.

And a reason why Microsoft would want to make AoER a Windows Store exclusive is because there is a standard 30% of sales that goes to Valve, Origin, Uplay on those services - but if Microsoft sells their game on their own service, then they don’t have to pay 30% of the sale cost to the owners of other services.

However, Microsoft and Windows Store do not have good reputations - and deservedly so. So, I think that after a year, Microsoft is going to want to cash in on the 50%+ of AoER sales that they simply will not get so long as the game remains an exclusive to the Windows Store. And I think that we’ll see AoER make its way to Steam, in the end. That’s why I’m contributing to the discussions, here. If I knew AoER wasn’t going to come to Steam or other digital retailers, I wouldn’t invest anything in the AoER community, because there’d be no point since I wouldn’t buy the game.

@“Beegor Bucleor” said:
It has to do with Microsoft’s shift from being primarily a software license company, to being a data-collection company.

With Windows 10, Microsoft basically repackaged Windows 7 and 8 together, with some minor adjustments, and then stuffed it full of data-collection, spying, and telemetry services that send over 2,500 - 5,000 different points of data to Microsoft at just its most basic (turned down as low as possible) setting. Microsoft take the data they collect and compile it into business reports, which they sell to whoever is interested: Advertisers, researchers, government, police, etc.

Because Microsoft’s new focus is on generating data from people using Windows 10 so that Microsoft can make money off of that data, Microsoft has been desperate to have as many people as possible using Windows 10 in as many ways as possible. The more that people are using Windows 10, the more data is being generated, and the more money Microsoft can make from it.

There is no reason why AoER cannot run on Windows 7 - but since Microsoft wants people to use Windows 10 because of all the spying and data-collection they built into it, Microsoft is doing things like making Windows 10 exclusives, and forcing people’s PCs to download and install Windows 10 even without the permission of the owners of those PCs and the Windows 7 or 8 licenses that are on them.

And a reason why Microsoft would want to make AoER a Windows Store exclusive is because there is a standard 30% of sales that goes to Valve, Origin, Uplay on those services - but if Microsoft sells their game on their own service, then they don’t have to pay 30% of the sale cost to the owners of other services.

However, Microsoft and Windows Store do not have good reputations - and deservedly so. So, I think that after a year, Microsoft is going to want to cash in on the 50%+ of AoER sales that they simply will not get so long as the game remains an exclusive to the Windows Store. And I think that we’ll see AoER make its way to Steam, in the end. That’s why I’m contributing to the discussions, here. If I knew AoER wasn’t going to come to Steam or other digital retailers, I wouldn’t invest anything in the AoER community, because there’d be no point since I wouldn’t buy the game.

Google does the same.

I don’t understand those Win10 haters. What are you doing here? Do you really think that all your whining here will make Microsoft change their mind and release AoE:DE on Win7? Don’t count on it.

@Satoru said:
Win 7 is not going to be supported on newer intel architectures. Which means you’re going to have to be on Windows 10 soon because any new computer you buy right now WILL NOT RUN windows 7.

That false idea was just a part of Microsoft’s propaganda, and I’m sure that Microsoft paid both AMD and Intel hefty sums of cash to not release chipset drivers for Windows 7 for their newer CPUs. But, the good news is that an x86 processor is going to work with an OS that is designed to run on the x86 instruction set. And new Intel and AMD CPUs are still based on the x86 instruction set, and that isn’t going to change with future Intel and AMD CPUs. Therefore, new CPUs, regardless of what Microsoft tries to suggest to people through dishonest market, will work fine with Windows 7. And all current latest Intel and AMD CPUs work just fine with Windows 7.

@Augustusman said:

Google does the same.

They don’t, though. When you use an online service, you’re choosing to enter somebody else’s environment and make use of their tool. But what Microsoft does is probe your own personal and private offline desktop spaces, gather data on what you do in them, and then send reports to Microsoft servers about it. The difference is the same difference as taking something from your own house as your own and selling it, versus taking something from somebody else’s house and selling it. One is your right, the other is theft.

There is a new (since the previous 3 - 5 years) trend in monetizing people’s data. And like other just-arising societal phenomena, it has a wild west stage, where people act like anything goes, without discretion or limitations. But, eventually, the understanding of what it all means sinks in, and then things become regulated. I expect the same to happen with what Microsoft, and some other companies are currently doing with what is essentially data-theft, and profiting off of crime - because property laws already establish some pretty strong arguments against unilaterally taking what belongs to a person (such as data generated by a person’s PC hardware, processing capability, electricity…).

What Microsoft is doing in Windows 10 is data-theft, and software piracy, and equivalent to somebody installing malware on your PC that utilizes your paid-for electricity, your personally-owned PC hardware and software licenses, and your system’s processing power to bot-mine Bitcoin, which then gets sent to a secret Bitcoin wallet that can be accessed by the person who installed the malware on your system. Do you think it is legal for you to bot-mine off of Microsoft’s servers? No, it isn’t. And if a person is caught doing such a thing, Microsoft will sue that person, and they’ll likely go to jail for vandalism and theft, amongst other things. And the money they make off of doing such would be a crime that is called Unjust Enrichment. Well, Microsoft is likewise guilty of Unjust Enrichment via their data-mining people through Windows 10.

Also, concerning what Microsoft versus Google do, in June of this year, Google announced they will stop scanning people’s emails to look for data they can mine to turn a profit. However, Microsoft’s Privacy Statement says that Microsoft will not only scan people’s emails, but will gather readable contents of emails and documents, and also collect portions of audio and video recordings made in Windows 10, as well as anything that passes through Microsoft services such as One Drive.

@Augustusman said:
Win7 will be history… I din see why give to them support specially for gaming.

While Microsoft in particular don’t want to give support for Windows 7 (because they want to push people to Windows 10 where they can exploit people’s OS usage for profit), I think that Windows 7 is going to linger around for longer than Windows XP has.

While Windows XP and Windows from Vista and onward run on very different core architectures, everything since Windows Vista is still mostly running on Windows Vista at the core. That’s why what runs on Windows 7, for the most part, should run without issue on Windows 10, and is also why whatever runs on Windows 10 is likely to also run on Windows 7. The biggest exception is where Microsoft has put up artificial restrictions, such as UWP or DirectX 12, which Microsoft has done not because these thing need Windows 10 for anything, but because Microsoft just want to push people to use Windows 10 because of all of its inbuilt data generation and collection processes that Microsoft uses to make money off of Windows 10 license owners.

Normally, Microsoft would release a new OS every certain number of years to get a revenue boost for the company. But, since Windows 7, Microsoft hasn’t had a lot of stuff that’s important to add or change to the Windows OS. That’s why Windows 8 was such a weak offering (with a bizarre removal of the desktop - change for change’s sake), and is why people didn’t really go for it. Windows 10 is mostly the same deal (although not as much), but it represents a major shift in Microsoft’s core business strategy: Instead of making money primarily off of people buying Windows 10 licenses, Microsoft is making money from every little action people do in Windows 10, by way of usage data generation and collection. And this is why Microsoft offered Windows 10 free for a year (it’s actually still free, via either using Windows 7 or 8 key during Windows 10 installation, or via other avenues Microsoft has left open), and also why Microsoft forced the installation of Windows 10 on millions of PCs without their owners’ permission.

This is also why Microsoft has called Windows 10 their last Windows OS (I’m sure that’s just marketing, and that Windows 10 won’t actually be the last Windows OS) - because, so long as Microsoft has turned daily PC usage into a money generator for them, they don’t need to rely on license sales for profit from their OS division.

So, Windows 10 is a repackaged Windows Vista / 7 / 8, for the purpose of getting Microsoft’s spy / data-leech tools on people’s systems, so that Microsoft can perpetually make money off of people running Windows without having to produce and sell a new OS every few years.

And because Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 are all based on Vista, when you’re running Windows 10, you’re still mostly running Windows Vista.

To reference data posted in another location, when Microsoft’s support for Windows XP ended in April 2014, Windows XP still held about 26% of the desktop market share, according to Netmarketstat. And Windows 7 held 49% of the desktop market share, at the same time.

Right now, Windows 7’s market share remains at 49%, while Windows 10 holds less than 28% of the total desktop market share. And in the previous year, Windows 10 gained just 5% market share, with those gains coming from drops in Windows XP and Windows 8.1’s market shares, and not from a shift in Windows 7’s market share.

Now, the thing with Windows 10 being essentially a repackaging of Windows 7 and 8 with tons of bloatware and data-mining tools built in, is that, Windows 7 is going to continue to be a modern OS for about just as long as Windows 10 is a modern OS. Because, for the most part, they’re the same OS.

Sure, Microsoft can add new features to Windows 10 to separate them, but DirectX 12 isn’t one of them, because Windows 7 has Vulkan support - which is the open-sourced variant of the same graphics technology as DirectX 12, and is likely to be preferred over DirectX 12 by developers, other than Microsoft, precisely because it is open-source, and because it is multi-platform and available for XP, Vista, 7, 8(.1), 10, Linux, and Android, whereas DirectX 12 is only for Windows 10 (and Xbox). DirectX 12 got a head start over Vulkan in readiness for implementation by developers, but in the past year, some game developers dropped implementation of DirectX 12 into their games in favour of Vulkan. Cloud Imperium Games, who are making Star Citizen, is one of them.

@Fetandrey said:
I don’t understand those Win10 haters. What are you doing here? Do you really think that all your whining here will make Microsoft change their mind and release AoE:DE on Win7? Don’t count on it.

People have questions and have a right to express themselves. I don’t see anything wrong with that.