Is Microsoft's Windows 10 Candy Crush Saga deal bad for consumers?

Martin Brinkmann
May 15, 2015
Updated • Jul 5, 2017
Windows, Windows 10
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Microsoft announced today that its upcoming operating system Windows 10 will ship with the popular match-3 game Candy Crush Saga.

I run a weekly series on Betanews about new applications in Microsoft's Windows Store. While I think that the quality of games and apps has improved, especially with the release of Windows 8.1, it is still lacking when compared to Apple's or Google's store.

Popular games and apps are usually released late on Windows, that is, if they are released at all. While I would not necessarily say that this situation is keeping Windows 8.1 from performing well, it certainly impacts the attractiveness of the operating system on touch-based devices.

King's Candy Crush Sage is without doubt a smash hit. It is a match-3 type game in which you try to match three or more of the same candy type in each level to progress to the next.

Gameplay is highly addictive and the game uses various techniques to entice games to buy their way to the next level. While it is theoretically not required to part with money to play the game, level design in later stages of the game make it an extremely frustrating (some would say unfair) experience.

Most Windows editions ship with games, for instance classic Solitaire, Minesweeper or Hearts games. Windows 10, some editions at the very least, will ship with universal application versions of classic games.

Besides those, Microsoft announced that Candy Crush Saga will ship with Windows 10 as well. It is a third-party game that will be installed on upgrade systems as well as clean-install systems.

It is unclear how the integration will look like in detail right now, for instance whether it will be listed in the start menu or just under all apps.

Is it bad for consumers?

There is not really a downside to the deal right now apart from the storage space that the game takes up on the device.

Since it is a Windows app, it can be removed from the system just like any other app on it. If you are not interested in the game, uninstall it and that's that.

The operation should not take longer than half a minute tops to remove it from the system.

Neowin calls it bundleware and while that is certainly fitting, the integration is less of an issue when compared to other types of bundleware, for instance trial versions of security programs or software added by the manufacturer of the device.

The main reason why it is less of an issue is that it does not impact the system in any way apart from the storage space that it is taking. It won't start with the system or take up system resources while Windows 10 is running.

It is interesting to note that Candy Crush Saga is not the first third-party game that Microsoft shipped with a Windows operating system.  The first third-party game was 3D Pinball which the company shipped with Windows 98.

My opinion of the deal would change if any of the following would happen:

  1. Candy Crush Saga cannot be removed from the system.
  2. The system advertises the game to you, for instance by displaying notifications to you.
  3. The system advertises other King (or partner) games and apps to you because of the deal.
  4. The game takes up Gigabytes of space.

Now You: What is your take on the bundling?

Summary
Is Microsoft's Windows 10 Candy Crush Saga deal bad for consumers?
Article Name
Is Microsoft's Windows 10 Candy Crush Saga deal bad for consumers?
Description
Microsoft Windows 10 will ship with the popular game Candy Crush Sage pre-installed. Is that bad for users of the system?
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

  14. Raphael Benzo said on September 24, 2023 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Tank you for your help

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