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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Analysis and Opinion   >   Opinion   >   Why is the Microsoft Store so bad?

Why is the Microsoft Store so bad?

By on August 5, 2022

I just saw a chart from Martin Nerurkar about the sales of his game Nowhere Prophet by platform.

He followed up with this tweet:

And if you’re wondering why the Microsoft Store isn’t on this graph, that’s because we haven’t made a single sale there in this entire time.— Martin making 💚 GOBLIN ERRANDS 💚 (@mnerurkar) August 5, 2022

Martin isn’t sure, for many reasons, how many copies he’s sold: his data is by revenue. But he estimates about 20,000 copies, with not one copy purchased on the Microsoft Store – a store that is automatically included in a platform that has 1.4 billion Monthly Active Users.

That’s a poor showing by Microsoft. The Microsoft store is terrible. It can’t work out whether it is a retail store for $59.99 games or an appstore offering safe, free, quality-of-life apps for Windows. It’s trying to be both (and I suspect failing at both).

With a potential footfall of 1.4 billion users a month, how is Microsoft letting this opportunity pass it by so badly?

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com