Hazybeard

I think this words it quite nicely, it indeed feels like a part of your drive has been taken ransom. Back in the day indeed the amount of Windows store apps at least I personally would use were very minimal. However, now with the game pass and the incredible amount of traction it has gained I think the situation is rapidly changing.

I am honestly OK with the way Steam, uPlay, Origin, Epic Games, Battle.net, etc all do it. They do not block you at an OS level from looking at the files (like mentioned in the article, they could not even if they wanted to). However, MS takes it that step further, and in my opinion that is a step too far. Even when booting into Linux, you wont find the game blobs you typically expect (like in Steam). You will find game blobs encrypted by MS. I would like MS to be on an equal playing field with Steam, uPlay, Origin, Epic Games, Battle.net, etc.

Yes, but you are not blocked from reading the actual bytes. You cannot in this case. I am not talking about understanding the bytes, that's secondary.

Fixed, sorry about that. Copied it from word, seems to have taken the background with it.

Correct.

Right, but you can still access/decode the blob of data if you desired. Here you cannot even begin reading the files.

Fixed it, my bad. Copied it from Word.

Hey everyone, I have something I feel I need to say to you all regarding Microsoft and more specifically their Xbox Game Pass for PC. I first started using it after seeing a recommendation for it on the WAN show on LinusTechTips. What I am about to say is not written because I hate Microsoft, I don’t. It's also not that I have a fundamental problem with the Game Pass, it's been great for me, and I am glad it's out there. I am writing this piece because what I found while looking into the way the Game Pass is made to work is plainly unacceptable. Recently, I wanted to lo