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

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?

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