Former Steam boss Jason Holtman working for Microsoft

[smackababy]

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but oh, it is so fitting.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ture_of_PC_games_evangelist_Jason_Holtman.php

This guy is the true hero among gamers. Infiltrates MS, gets rid of GFWL, then bails out.

Didn't he accomplish his goal though? He made Windows gaming better for everyone.

 

[KaOTiK]

Didn't he accomplish his goal though? He made Windows gaming better for everyone.

VERY VERY true

 

[norseamd]

Not only do I recall playing games before either of those, I still own some of them.

same here. thought open gl was better than directx very recently. like 4.2 vs dx11. and now we have open gl 4.4 vs direct x 11.2. how do those compare? if i remember right open gl was considered not as good as direct x from like 1995 to 2010 time.

 

[KeithP]

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but oh, it is so fitting.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ture_of_PC_games_evangelist_Jason_Holtman.php

This guy is the true hero among gamers. Infiltrates MS, gets rid of GFWL, then bails out.

Maybe I am getting the timeline wrong but wasn't he hired at Microsoft about the same time that the announcement was made that GFWL was shutting down? Seems unlikely to me that he was involved in that decision.

I would guess killing GFWL and hiring him were decisions made by the same people/group within MS. Since he is leaving I would guess that either MS has changed its plans again or he felt he couldn't get anywhere with them and left.

-KeithP

 

[Texashiker]

But this means either he got fed up with the practices at Microsoft or Microsoft had enough of what he wanted to change.

Sounds to me like he was a mole sent in by valve to get rid of gfwl.

 

[BrightCandle]

Gfwl dying was good for gamers, and it just goes to show the problems with drm and the impact on customers. But doesn't seem like he got much done there.

 

[smackababy]

Gfwl dying was good for gamers, and it just goes to show the problems with drm and the impact on customers. But doesn't seem like he got much done there.

So far, MS is doing right by gamers with GFWL. While it may be 'dead', games that rely on it for multiplayer and DRM still work (Dark Souls is a good example). And, while it is buggy and clunky, it does still work.

 

[KaOTiK]

So far, MS is doing right by gamers with GFWL. While it may be 'dead', games that rely on it for multiplayer and DRM still work (Dark Souls is a good example). And, while it is buggy and clunky, it does still work.

Till August 22nd I think when they shut the server down. Then any games not patched removing it wont be playable. Dark Souls is actually having Steamworks patched in and GFWL patched out due to this as well as many other titles like Batman Arkham Asylum/City, Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, and others. But there are still a lot of games we haven't heard anything on if they will get it removed. Half the people on my friends list on Steam have been playing Fable 3 because none of them believe MS will remove GFWL from it so they are trying to play the game before not being able too anymore.

MS doing right in this situation would be leaving the servers up for existing games and just not allowing GFWL to be implemented into anything else. Instead they just kill it off and essentially are just shrugging their shoulders going oh well.

Granted, most people saw this coming miles away when GFWL was first introduced knowing MS would just kill it off and leave the consumer SOL.

 

[Jodell88]

same here. thought open gl was better than directx very recently. like 4.2 vs dx11. and now we have open gl 4.4 vs direct x 11.2. how do those compare? if i remember right open gl was considered not as good as direct x from like 1995 to 2010 time.

Believing FUD from Microsoft I see. The real difference is that Microsoft can be quicker to implement features than OpenGL because there isn't a group that has to approve features (Microsoft was part of the OpenGL ARB).

There are advantages of OpenGL over DirectX such as OpenGL being tied to the hardware as to what it's capable of, unlike Windows where it is tied to a specific OS.

 

[norseamd]

Believing FUD from Microsoft I see.

what does this mean? not an expert so i am only repeating what has been said by other publications across the web. something like open gl started to fall behind dx 8 or 9 and that was how it was until like recently.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opengl-directx,2019.html

also some websites have said that open gl 4 is the same or better than dx 11. both can run tesselation and such. valve says that open gl is faster than dx 11. would personally like more developers to use open gl because it is open source and that means more compatibility with linux and such. how close to the metal can open gl get?

what do the features of dx 11.1 and 11.2 make as a overall difference compared to dx 11?

 

[norseamd]

(Microsoft is part of said group)

microsoft is not listed as a member of the khronos group on wikipedia

 

[desura]

metro is fine on the desktop. I use it all the time.

Only difference between it and the classic start menu is that it takes up the entire screen, which allows easier navigation and seeing all information on the program you want to launch.

Also, IMO Vista was one of the best OS's released by MS. Fixed many issues I had with XP. Win7 was just a slight reskinning of Vista and not so impressive.

 

[norseamd]

metro is fine on the desktop. I use it all the time. Only difference between it and the classic start menu is that it takes up the entire screen, which allows easier navigation and seeing all information on the program you want to launch. Also, IMO Vista was one of the best OS's released by MS. Fixed many issues I had with XP. Win7 was just a slight reskinning of Vista and not so impressive.

and windows ME?

 

[Jodell88]

microsoft is not listed as a member of the khronos group on wikipedia

You are correct. Microsoft was never a member of the Khronos Group. However, they were on the OpenGL Architecture Review Board from 1992 to 2003. In 2006 the OpenGL ARB gave it to the Khronos Group.

 

[mikeymikec]

Windows 8 - nope
Windows 7 - nope
Vista - lol, no
Windows xp - yes.

No.

Compare Windows 2000 to XP and please tell me what is revolutionary about the latter. Evolutionary, yes.

Out of those four, Vista was the most revolutionary. It wasn't the best, but it packed in the most changes.

 

[norseamd]

I dont know if microsoft pays other studios to delay PC games, but otherwise your post is spot on. I still remember fondly the days when Microsoft sponsored Ensemble studios and they made such great games. Does anyone remember the MSN Gaming Zone: lots of free games, and free online play for CD games, and only the host needed the CD? Still remember how sad I was when I found out that support for Age of Empires and Galactic Battlegrounds and all the other games on the MSN gaming zone was gone. Oh well, enough nostalgia, I played many, many hours on these games with my grandson, and the custom maps were fantastic. I used to be a supporter of Microsoft, because when you think about it, Windows and Office, and all the other software they make was an amazing achievement. But in the last 5 years or so, they seem totally out of touch or self destructive, or maybe just so egotistical that they want everybody to use what MS thinks is best. I just dont understand how they can make such stupid decisions, I mean there must be a smattering of people in the company that have some common sense along with all their formal IT training, and dont they ever, you know, actually use the stuff they design? It all pretty much started when they forced the ribbon on office (I know, I have finally come to accept it at least), then Vista, then Win 8, then Win RT, then the Xbox 1 debacle. it just goes on and on, and the only outstanding product in that time period was Win 7. I also dont know why MS continually tries to give the shaft to PC gamers, because gaming is probably the only reason I would install Windows on a PC I built myself--otherwise, I would just use Linux.

wish ensemble studios was still around

 

[BladeVenom]

Yeah I saw this news. Gosh darn it, this gave me hope for Microsoft back when he was hired. But this means either he got fed up with the practices at Microsoft or Microsoft had enough of what he wanted to change. With that, my interest in Linux gaming and SteamOS spiked a bit.

That's basically what I take from this. That MS wasn't actually serious about improving PC gaming. So he left, or was asked to leave because he actually wanted to change things.

MS only really cares about Xbox gaming now.