Windows 10 Just Got Sweeter

candy crush saga coming to windows 10 2015

candy crush saga coming to windows 10 2015

Some casual Windows games have the reputation of being addictive. If there was one PC game that’s most played, it would be Solitaire. Other addicting Windows past times include Hearts, Freecell, Spider Solitaire, Minesweeper, Microsoft Plus’ Lose Your Marbles and Windows 95’s Space Pinball. These simple games provided countless hours of fun for casual players who wanted to take short breaks from work and studies. As for yours truly, I spent hours trying to beat my record of solving a solitaire game in thirty seconds, Minesweeper likewise. I also got addicted to the smooth animation and colors of Lose Your Marbles and was ecstatic when Space Pinball came out. I know, it doesn’t take blazing guns, explosions and high frame rates to satisfy me. I’m one of those guys who still use my Famicom.

Fast forward, many fans were disappointed when Windows 8 removed Solitaire from its pre-installed games lineup. What I got when I bought my ASUS Vivobook was an object finding game ADERA and a workout game ASUS Ballstrike. Solitaire was relegated as a free app in the Windows Store called the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. Perhaps to push users into the Windows Store experience. To Microsoft’s credit, the Solitaire collection has beautiful visuals and smooth effects. Come Windows 10, Solitaire will be back as a pre-installed past time, what’s more, Microsoft made a deal with games maker King to sweeten the pot.

In an effort to draw more users into the Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile ecosystem, Windows will now include –gasp!—the controversial, highly-addictive Candy Crush Saga.

Sound hard to believe? Here’s the official Microsoft Announcement:

windows 10 adding candy crush 2015

“…Solitaire, Hearts, Minesweeper. These are games that have been by millions of times over the years in Windows and they’re coming back in Windows 10… In addition to these games, we’re also working with partners to bring some of their great games to Windows 10 too. And we’re excited to announce today that King will bring their game, Candy Crush Saga, to Windows 10. Candy Crush Saga will be automatically installed for customers that upgrade to or download Windows 10 during the launch!”

This is great news for Candy Crush addicts who plan on upgrading to Windows 10. I was hoping for Candy Crush Saga to be in Windows 8.1 when I actually got to playing it on other platforms. Problem is, it just arrived on Windows last December. Better late than never. For those who haven’t played it yet, Candy Crush Saga is a beautiful but increasingly complex Match 3 game that addicted millions worldwide. Unlike Bejeweled, it has a social media aspect wherein players can ask for more lives from their Facebook contacts in case a particular puzzle is too difficult to beat. It also has a competitive aspect (bragging rights) where players can post their current level on Facebook. Of course, the higher the better. To ease the kind of stress the game has, it comes with some relaxing music and beautiful visuals.

Also, unlike the Windows 8 platform which many popular games and apps initially shunned, Microsoft has made real efforts in connecting with app developers like King to give users more. So what’s next? Flappy Bird? Clash of Clans? We won’t know ‘til launch but great games do not really a great OS make. SteamOS users might beg to differ though.

But, as summer comes closer, new builds come into play and Build 10122 includes some improvements on the user interface, the built-in apps as well as under the hood and introduced a few bugs as well. You can’t have your sweets without having some toothaches.