Halo: Spartan Assault and Skull of Shogun become the first universal Windows apps

[Himanshu Arora]

Just a couple of weeks after making the announcement, Microsoft on Tuesday released the first universal apps for Windows and Windows Phone. The apps in question include Halo: Spartan Assault and 17-Bit's Skulls of the Shogun, which you can now buy once and play across all three Windows platforms.

Both of them are priced at $4.99 each, and can be downloaded through the Windows Store or Windows Phone Store. The company has also re-purposed many of its free games into universal apps. These include Wordament, Hexic, Mahjong, Minesweeper and Solitaire.

For developers, the move means means that their apps will now be accessible on every Microsoft platform, while users will have to pay just once to enjoy the app on any of their devices. Scores, rewards, and other data will be automatically synced with each device.

Microsoft has previously said Xbox One users will eventually get access to universal apps as well, but there's no word yet on when that'll happen.

Surprisingly, the Windows Store does not provide any indication on whether the app is a universal or not. Windows Phone Store listings however display a small notice saying “Made for Windows Phones and Windows PCs”.

Microsoft has also dropped the minimum price for paid apps. The previous minimum was $1.49 but the company has pulled it down to $0.99 or $1.29.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56425-halo-spartan-assault-and-skull-of-shogun-become-the-first-universal-windows-apps.html

 

[oldikes]

So if I bought spartan assault on steam (windows 7) right now, id be able to play it on my windows phone/tablet/windows 8 if I ever got one?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Oh. I thought after reading the headline it was going to be something interesting.

 

[RH00D]

So if I bought spartan assault on steam (windows 7) right now, id be able to play it on my windows phone/tablet/windows 8 if I ever got one?

Microsoft doesn't have any control over Steam and they have no way of being able to link your Steam and Microsoft accounts together so they couldn't do that even if they wanted to.

 

[oldikes]

Microsoft doesn't have any control over Steam and they have no way of being able to link your Steam and Microsoft accounts together so they couldn't do that even if they wanted to.

but that doesnt mean buying the game through steam doesnt mean you still have to connect to your microsoft account. Alot of games on steam use "double DRM", like you still have to go through origin after you buy it on steam or something

 

[rsabatino]

Microsoft doesn't have any control over Steam and they have no way of being able to link your Steam and Microsoft accounts together so they couldn't do that even if they wanted to.

but that doesnt mean buying the game through steam doesnt mean you still have to connect to your microsoft account. Alot of games on steam use "double DRM", like you still have to go through origin after you buy it on steam or something

one stem comes compatable to phones then you will be able to access all your games. steam is only associated with steam you will need the steam client to play steam games even microsofts.

 

[oldikes]

one stem comes compatable to phones then you will be able to access all your games. steam is only associated with steam you will need the steam client to play steam games even microsofts.

Guys I know how steam works.

in reseponse,unless microsoft acknowldeges that I do own the game and adds the liscense to my MS account. Im questioning what it says in the article - Buy the game once, play it on all platforms.

I wasent asking about steam specifically per say, maybe just using it as an example. but does anyone actually know the answer to this?

 

[Guest]

The article is for apps developed on the universal windows RT apis for distribution in the Windows Store only, it won't link your purchase on any other store, steam, ios, google, etc.

If you purchase on Windows phone 8.1 you will be able to download the version for Surface RT, Xbox One and Windows 8.1 x86.

Whether this changes next year will have to wait and see.

 

[darkzelda]

That's interesting, but when is Spotify's official app coming to windows 8? I can't believe a service like this doesn't have an official app on windows 8, I'm about to drop my premium subscription a get Deezer instead.