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Why Epic’s Tim Sweeney blasted Microsoft in bid to keep Windows 10 open

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 10 min

About once a decade, Tim Sweeney, the graphics guru and CEO of Epic Games, stirs the hornet’s nest. He did so on Friday by blasting Microsoft for allegedly trying to close off the Windows 10 store and hurting the much-cherished openness of the personal computer.

In an op-ed piece in the Guardian and in an interview with GamesBeat yesterday, Sweeney said that he worries that Microsoft is making it hard for developers to create games and programs that do not use its Windows app store — a move that could close off what to date has been an open platform.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.