My main question is, are you going to be selling the Phoenix client? If so, then you can expect a 30% fee for using a service that is provided to you to gain more exposure to your `customers' which is of a high standard, which has millions of users. If you're not intending to charge for Phoenix, then they can't take a 30% cut of nothing, and you will just need to pay whatever the membership / developer / license fees are (last I checked, around 100USD?) which compared to the benefits of more exposure, is a relatively small price. However, both Apple and Windows don't "demand" that you have your software in their stores; you're free to distribute using your own channels however you will not get the benefits of their distribution centres (trusted signing, updates, reviews, exposure and so on). As for the software not appearing in the Metro UI unless you pay... I have doubts. Mainly, because it's a Wired link and Wired reporters are generally not the brightest crayons in the pack, but secondly because I can see this getting cracked / hacked / modified beyond belief, and as Dr. Brain said; because this kind of behaviour seems like corporate suicide for Microsoft. I can expect it from Apple; they're targeting a different corner of the market, but not Microsoft. However, I'm now exclusively Linux (although I am thinking of ordering one of the new Retina MBPs) so it's not too big a deal in my eyes. If they do implement this, and Linux gets some damn needed updates I'll be a happier guy. ;-P Good luck!