With last night's Windows 11 announcement, Microsoft also announced a major change to the Windows Store: starting July 28, developers will retain 100% of the revenue earned from in-app purchases.

Microsoft confirmed this exception to The Verge, explaining that app developers will have the option to offer in-app purchases through their own or third-party platforms (without having to pay Microsoft a fee), but games will be excluded from this option . Sales from games will always result in a 12% distribution to Microsoft.

The technology giant has not clarified exactly why apps and games are treated differently. Figuring out the difference is key to the infamous ongoing legal battle between Epic and Apple that began with Epic's attempt to bypass Apple's payment platform with Fortnite. As a bizarre side effect of the controversy over "what is a game," Roblox has completely erased any reference to being a game from its platform.

"Xbox Hardware has always been sold at a loss, but the revenue sharing between game sales and subscriptions more than makes up for it.

On a brighter note, the revenue sharing for selling games on the Windows Store will be a bit more generous on August 1, when Microsoft will reduce it from 30% to 12% (the same as the Epic Games store). For cross-buy games, though, this will be rather odd.

Outside of the store, Windows 11 takes some important steps for games at the system level, such as DirectStorage to reduce load times and automatic HDR enablement for games developed using DirectX 11 or higher.