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Microsoft’s Phil Spencer is getting personally involved in fixing the Windows Store

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has once again promised a brighter future for the Windows Store. Do we believe him this time?

Xbox Phil Spencer

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer acknowledged at the recent XO18 event in Mexico City that Microsoft has “got a ton of work to do” in order to fix the Windows store for PC gamers.

The fact that there are issues with the Windows store is not news to anyone who has tried to use it. Microsoft’s digital store offers the chance to install games with one click but is known for failing to do that as downloads fail over and over. This is increasingly a problem as Microsoft publishes its first-party games through the Windows store – titles including Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4, and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.

On top of that, there’s the Xbox Game Pass program, which lets PC gamers pay a subscription to get Xbox titles on their machines on the same day as their console release. Microsoft obviously wants more people to use the Windows store, then, but continuously fails to deliver on the brighter future it promises every year.

Oh yeah, this is hardly the first time Spencer has acknowledged that the Windows store needs to be better. In 2016, Spencer said there were “plans to improve” the Store, and then in 2017 Microsoft said it wanted “to treat PC like a first-class citizen.” Sorry if you spat your coffee out after reading that.

Now, in this year’s edition of Microsoft’s Big PC Promises, we have Spencer saying this, according to Neowin:

“I think we’ve got a ton of work to do on Windows. Windows is something I’m very committed to, I’ve heard the feedback about our Store. I’m going to take a bigger leadership role on what’s going on with the Windows (sic) Store, make it really tailored to the gamers that we know want to see the best from what we have to offer.”

Will it happen this time? Will Microsoft actually be able to improve the Windows store? Tune in next year to find out.