Microsoft Kills Windows Media Center in Windows 8, Unless You Pay

Microsoft announced in the Windows 8 blogosphere, that Windows Media Center (WMC) will not be included with Windows 8 out of the box. Customers can purchase it through the Add Features to Windows 8 control panel for a nominal fee.

The cost of decoder licensing was cited as one of the primary reasons for breaking WMC out as a separate component although they also describe the fee as nominal. In light of their recent loss in a German court to Motorola, over H.264 licensing fees (around $4 billion according to Microsoft) this move should come as no surprise. Requiring people to acquire WMC through a download is the first step to removing it from the operating system altogether.

Windows Media Player will still be included will all but the mobile versions of Windows 8 although it will not include native support for DVD or Blu-Ray. In fact, it doesnt include support for any of what Microsoft refers to as Metro Style codecs such as MKV for video and FLAC for high quality music.

The layout of WMC looks and acts much like GUI of modern smart-phones where you have clickable icons that lead you to content and activities. Microsoft is also reacting to market research that most people get their video and audio content from online streaming sources such as Netflix and Hulu. Putting these two concepts together it becomes clear the WMC is becoming little more than a redundant interface.