|OT| Xbox Game Pass for PC | Microsoft OT | Is This Legal?

Paul

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Jan 26, 2019
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Let's see if they actually ditch the whole UWP lite thing or if it's just another "we rebuild the Xbox app, and this time it will be better... we promise! (but are still using the Windows Store system)".
God I wish so much they would ditch it completely.
Of course, best thing would be just putting entire gamepass on Steam instead..
 
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Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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"We're releasing a new Xbox app for PC. It's required to launch games but doesn't have all the features of the previous one, so you'll need to download the new Xbox, Xbox Classic, and the Xbox Console Companion to fully engage in the Xbox ecosystem. Look forward to the fixes and additions we will never deliver on."
 
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Le Pertti

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Oct 10, 2018
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As you see it best for you. Just don't become someone who gets angry at GamePass because he has spent money to purchase 3 years of Gold and regrets it.

:toucan:

To me, GamePass is that 1€ deal for 1 to 3 months, so I cannot imagine spending more than 12€ per year for it. That is why I don't mind the occasional hiccups.
I missed this, but did you do this and did it work?:)
 

Paul

MetaMember
Jan 26, 2019
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Great news. Though this being MS I still wait for the other shoe to drop.
 

Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
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The Steam demo was a trip. I'm down to give it a spin when it launches.
 

Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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If after this whole installation update I still can't add Gamepass games to Steam, to stream them with Remote Play, I'm gonna be pissed. One of the biggest downsides to using Gamepass for me right now.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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If this means that most future games will be normal .exes running from normal folders with normal permissions that I can normally run through Steam with normal Steam controller support, I might actually reconsider Gamepass (for specific "throwaway" AAA games I just want to play/try once).
 
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SkyStarblaze

Starlit Entity
Aug 20, 2020
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I might aswell try and ask here, did anyone have any luck getting EA to remove a phantom account from a Microsoft account? My Microsoft account is linked to a phantom EA account and EA's support so far has been unwilling to help so I can't use my Gamepass benefits on EA desktop.
 

Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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Right now, I'm up to a fullllll year of backed-up PC gamepass. All for like, a dollar and some Bing search ad revenue. Noice.
 
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Arc

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Sep 19, 2020
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manchego obfuscator

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Jan 23, 2020
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Haven is leaving at the end of the month, damn. Doubt I'm going to get around to finishing it before then but c'est la vie
 

Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
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Haven is leaving at the end of the month, damn. Doubt I'm going to get around to finishing it before then but c'est la vie
Hmm. HLTB says the main story is around 10 hours. Maybe I'll give it a crack?

edit: Yo, Haven is pretty cool. Yeah, I'll definitely knock this one out.

----------


WindJammers 2 coming to Game Pass Console/PC.
 
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DrShrapnel

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Mortal Shell is excellent! Glad to see more people will have a chance to play it via Game Pass.
 

manchego obfuscator

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Jan 23, 2020
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jesus, looked Windjammers 2 up and it was announced over three years ago. hard to believe that such a simple game still has no release date
 

Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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Apparently, that insider thing for custom install directories has been deployed, and should hopefully be available for everyone by next Monday. I say apparently cuz I don't have it yet, phooey.
 
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DrShrapnel

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Does anyone else run into issues with Outriders on Game Pass? It’s like a stroke of luck that I can get the game to fire up. Connection issues galore and it takes forever to load up. I don’t remember encountering issues with the demo on Steam.

I was also wondering if anyone knew whether PC games counted towards the Reward Quests? Thinking of upgrading my trial to Ultimate just to claim Reward points, but I feel like it was hit or miss in the past.
 

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
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So, about the custom installs things.


First of all, besides entering the Insider thing, you have to enable in the Xbox app settings.

Now, over here things are... buggy. I think after enabling it games that don't support the new feature refuse to install giving one of those super useful error codes (Undungeon, Haven for example). On these games you get the old dialog only offering the drive to install.

For games that support it, you get the dialog with the option to choose the folder, and yes, the files are unpacked. There is still a lot of "garbage" files for the Windows Store, but at least it's all accessible. Fastest way to test is with a small game like Among Us.

So.... very buggy for me, but it does appear to be going in the right direction.
 
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Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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God fucking damn it. This update changes literally NOTHING. The folders are still heavily locked down, the only difference is you can look inside them. Any kind of editing will not work, it's treated as if the folders do not exist if you try to fiddle with them.
 
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Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
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Yes, they appear to only have unpacked the games.

I'm also getting that message when trying to add a game to Steam, but as an Administrator I'm able to complete delete the game folder.

That is... until I tried to get more control and change permissions (was trying to see what exactly Steam was checking for). Then Windows denied access to the .exe file and I ended up with less access than before :p

I have no idea what they're doing here. It's obviously more open (at least for me for a games installed on a drive/folder that is not on the C drive) but still somewhat tied to App system, even though now the Microsoft Store calls the Xbox App to install/update the games.

So, it's going to get messy....
 

Paul

MetaMember
Jan 26, 2019
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JFC why is this so hard for MS to figure out?

Why do companies like Ubisoft and EA manage to offer normal access to game files on their sub services while MS still insists on this locked down bullshit? Why, Mr. Anderson, why?!
 

Dinjoralo

None shall remember those who do not fight.
Dec 6, 2018
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According to one of the guys who works on this stuff, after pointing stuff out on Twitter;

It's possible adding games to Steam might end up in the cards. Just gotta... keep throwing feedback at them.
 
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Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
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Yeah.... My very basic knowledge of Windows permissions is not sufficient to understand what Microsoft is doing here. When trying to inspect the permissions of the file/folders I can see that the App associated with the game, "All Applications Package" and "System" have Read & Execute permissions. Regular users only have Read.

So in theory I shouldn't be able to delete or even execute anything as Administrator without at least an UAC prompt like I'm doing, unless there is something in "Special Permissions". I guess this means that these folder are really one of those that the OS itself is deciding who has access to what.

It think this is why Steam is failing to add the game as non-Steam. It's getting an Access Denied when probing for execute permissions.

As usual, if there is a simple and a confusing way to do things, Microsoft goes for the latter.
 

fantomena

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Dec 17, 2018
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According to one of the guys who works on this stuff, after pointing stuff out on Twitter;

It's possible adding games to Steam might end up in the cards. Just gotta... keep throwing feedback at them.
People have been throwing feedback to them for the last few years...
 
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MomoVideo

ķ͕͕̍̅͋ḭ̼͂̕lļ͓̞̙̀͗͆̊ ͉͛m͕̲̮̆̒̐̍͢e ͠
Apr 5, 2021
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Does anyone know if you can install PC Game Pass games on an external SSD?

EDIT. Apparently, it's possible.
 
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SkyStarblaze

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Aug 20, 2020
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Yeah.... My very basic knowledge of Windows permissions is not sufficient to understand what Microsoft is doing here. When trying to inspect the permissions of the file/folders I can see that the App associated with the game, "All Applications Package" and "System" have Read & Execute permissions. Regular users only have Read.

So in theory I shouldn't be able to delete or even execute anything as Administrator without at least an UAC prompt like I'm doing, unless there is something in "Special Permissions". I guess this means that these folder are really one of those that the OS itself is deciding who has access to what.

It think this is why Steam is failing to add the game as non-Steam. It's getting an Access Denied when probing for execute permissions.

As usual, if there is a simple and a confusing way to do things, Microsoft goes for the latter.
The weird thing is, running Steam as admin doesn't help and I also can take ownership of everything in these folders but the .exe files. I've never seen anything like this before, I'm straight up unable to do anything to these .exe files o.o
 

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
854
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The weird thing is, running Steam as admin doesn't help and I also can take ownership of everything in these folders but the .exe files. I've never seen anything like this before, I'm straight up unable to do anything to these .exe files o.o
Yeah, the .exe does trigger the "no access" warning, but over here I'm finding out that even when there is no error, something is always reverting the changes I do to permissions. When I try to add "execute" and "write" for example for normal users, the OS reverts these changes.

In this mess it's no wonder that Steam can't view the permissions, even running as Administrator.

Again, I don't understand a lot of about Windows security to say a lot about it, except that this whole "you are the Administrator/root user... but not really" is annoying.
 

DrShrapnel

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Played some Torchlight 3 last night, and to my surprise, it’s pretty fun. Certainly not on par with a Grim Dawn, but for a simple play through, it’s kinda enjoyable.
 

SkyStarblaze

Starlit Entity
Aug 20, 2020
111
71
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Yeah, the .exe does trigger the "no access" warning, but over here I'm finding out that even when there is no error, something is always reverting the changes I do to permissions. When I try to add "execute" and "write" for example for normal users, the OS reverts these changes.

In this mess it's no wonder that Steam can't view the permissions, even running as Administrator.

Again, I don't understand a lot of about Windows security to say a lot about it, except that this whole "you are the Administrator/root user... but not really" is annoying.
Yeah same, I could try to run Steam as "Trusted Installer" which is even above admin but I don't think that's a good idea 😅
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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Played some Exo One, been really enjoyable. Such a good thing about the Gamepass model is playing a game like this that I had never looked into before.
 
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Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
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Mortal Shell is now available on GP PC/Console/Cloud.

Before We Leave and Undungeon is also up and ready to play for PCers.
 

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
854
2,390
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Yeah... fair warning for anyone using this to try Stardew Valley. It will devour your free time.

Specially if this version (with the new Xbox app) can be modded.