Technically, Windows 8.1's installer is distributed through the Store, so yes. But you were referring to games. All third-party games that run on Windows RT tablets come from the Store.

The problem is that you can use only XInput with Store apps. DirectInput doesn't work in Windows Runtime, and XInput doesn't work with HID class joysticks.

How about this: "They win noticeably more matches with a mouse and keyboard than with a gamepad." Or would you then proceed to slam me for not backing up "noticeably" with statistical rigor?

Windows Store applications cannot see HID controllers; they can see only Xbox 360 controllers. Only desktop applications can see HID controllers.

Perhaps games could display a generic controller. Granted, the order of HID controllers' buttons varies greatly, but if games can phone home for digital restrictions management, they can certainly phone home to tell the developer which make, model, and VID/PID of HID controllers are most popular.

I could load Spyhunter into FCEUX, but what good would that do on a Linux laptop?

Wikipedia's article about Sprint mentions that Sprint uses "1xRTT" and "EVDO", which I know are parts of CDMA2000. How exactly does Sprint's implementation differ from that of Verizon other than by being on different frequency bands?

The FM radio app, perhaps?

In the U.S. cell phone market, when people who aren't RF engineers say "CDMA", they usually mean the CDMA2000 stack.

Publishers see "just leave a way to run illegal copies, and all is golden."

On the other hand, perhaps some AAA publishers don't want to share a platform with "the riff-raff" for fear of their products being lost among the me-too knockoffs that flood both Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. Case in point: Try searching these stores for "Flappy" and seeing which games other than dB-Soft's show up.

Fans of mobile gaming would claim that "alteration of game mechanics" is the best course of action in this case. Developers had to alter game mechanics when porting shooters from the PC to the PSP; why should mobile be different? For example, a mobile FPS might be reimagined as a fixed shooter (like Duck Hunt) or a rail shooter (like Area 51).

Consider what would have to be removed to port something like StarCraft to a PSP, which has no good mouse substitute.

One practical problem is that Android has far longer audio latency (minimum time between touch and audio feedback) than the dedicated handheld systems. This screws with the rhythm of certain activities in certain games. For example, the NES game STREEMERZ: Super Strength Emergency Squad Zeta is a lot harder on EMUya (NES emulator for an Android-based set-top box) than on an NES due to audio latency messing with grapple timing. Rhythm games are right out. Or does the Shield have a low-latency audio API that some other Android devices lack?

Great. You're about to arouse both CronoCloud and BasilBrush.

I guess the console makers' rationale is that if a developer has the resources to work around "absurd" requirements to get an SDK, it's more likely to have the resources to make a game that's better than Action 52. Perhaps you don't remember the crapfest that was the Atari 2600 library in 1983-1984, but it nearly brought down video gaming entirely in North America. Being selective about who is allowed to develop for a platform is console makers' way of ensuring "better quality gameplay, and all that ball of wax." That said, Sony has reportedly dramatically loosened up who's allowed to develop for PS4 and PS Vita; searching the web for "Pub Fund" will pull up articles about its recent indie developer outreach efforts.

Including an app for stealing users' personal information. Whenever mobile malware makes the news, it's almost always on Android, not iOS, and not the game consoles (except for "taihen" and "r0mloader" way back in the early DS homebrew days).

Some people would claim that all worthwhile games can be "redesigned for a touch-screen interface". For example, one could redesign a platformer by removing the exploration element, resulting in Canabalt or Rayman Jungle Run.

I tried the demo of Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure on my Nexus 7 tablet. I couldn't make a lot of the jumps with the on-screen gamepad alone; I had to pair a Bluetooth keyboard.