Microsoft Refunds Windows Store CoD: Infinite Warfare Buyer Due To Lack Of Online Players

When Microsoft launched its “Xbox Play Anywhere” program, which sees select Xbox One titles ported over to the PC, it felt like a great move. Who doesn’t want Halo and Forza on the PC? Well, little did most of us realize, playing these games through the Windows Store brings with it a slew of caveats.

I admit that I’ve never been a fan of the Windows Store; I find it clunky, and confusing. I have on multiple occasions tried to give it another honest chance, but time and time again, I wind up baffled as to how Microsoft considers it to be a viable solution. A couple of weeks ago, I installed Gears of War 4 through the software, and at launch, I couldn’t even figure out how to play it. When going to the game page, there was no denotation that I had owned the game, nor an option to simply launch it. That fun carried over to me trying to uninstall it, something I had to hit Google up for (yes, really).

With the release of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, we find another issue to be aware of: games sold on the platform might not be compatible with the same game sold through other platforms. Some users found this out the hard way, when trying to play Infinity Ward’s latest: those who own the Windows Store version can only play against those online who also own the Windows Store version. That means that the tens of thousands of players on Steam are invisible to them. One unfortunate Windows Store purchaser found themselves with the option of playing against one other player across any one of the game’s modes. Sheesh.

If someone purchases CoD for the multiplayer portion – and most do – it’s a massive issue if there is no one online to play with. With as few players on the Windows Store version as there is, there’s no question that even aged CoD titles still have more players than this brand-new one on this platform. The problem is so ridiculous, in fact, that Microsoft actually refunded one person who purchased the game. Hopefully that person has now learned what “Steam” is.