The Windows 10 version of the forthcoming Gears 5 will not be using Microsoft's United Windows Platform (UWP) API.
That's according to senior community manager at developer The Coalition TC Octus, who said on Twitter (below) that the upcoming shooter would be using Win 32, same as the Steam edition.
No reason has been given for Gears 5 not using UWP, but we've reached out to Microsoft for comment as to its dwindling support for the platform. It's entirely possible, though, that The Coalition wanted to release both the Microsoft Store and Steam versions of the title on Win 32 for the sake of ease - but that's just speculation on our part.
UWP was announced by the Xbox firm at GDC 2016 and was a means of creating applications numerous platforms within the Microsoft ecosystem. This was also the start of the company's renewed focus on PC gaming, with the Big M saying that this would make it easier to bring its first-party releases to Windows 10 as well as Xbox.
Win 32 on both stores.
— TC Octus (@OctusTC) August 25, 2019
Members of the industry had issues with this straight out of the gate with Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney accusing Microsoft of building a walled garden in the open PC market. There was a wealth of technical woes with the platform, too, with developer Remedy facing issues with Nvidia cards and unstable frame rates for 2016's Quantum Break.
Speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz at Gamescom 2018, the studio said it wanted to make up for these mistakes with Control, which launches today.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has repeatedly said that it wants to be better supporting PC, so it'll be interesting to see where UWP fits - it at all - in Microsoft's strategy moving forward.
