Irony of PC game developer discontent with Windows 8

[BladeVenom]

Gabe needs people buying and using Windows.

For now.

Steam is working on Linux, and their own hardware comes next. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/03/valve-confirms-hardware-development

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

For now.

Steam is working on Linux, and their own hardware comes next. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/03/valve-confirms-hardware-development

Just curious, and I don't know anything about coding or anything, but if steam made their own hardware and reached linux, would they be able to port most current games from their library or would it be a going forward thing?

 

[postmortemIA]

Just curious, and I don't know anything about coding or anything, but if steam made their own hardware and reached linux, would they be able to port most current games from their library or would it be a going forward thing?

Maybe Valve games, but rest of stuff that is DirectX dependent, probably not.

That is why only subset of games work on Mac.

 

[gorcorps]

Just curious, and I don't know anything about coding or anything, but if steam made their own hardware and reached linux, would they be able to port most current games from their library or would it be a going forward thing?

Steam doesn't "own" those games, they just host them. They can't port much of anything other than HL, Portal, TF, and CS because it's not theirs to port. That's assuming it's even possible which, as mentioned above, pretty much isn't with most windows games.

 

[BladeVenom]

I'd guess Valve's hardware is going to be a Linux PC. They could use something like WINE to play Windows games. Another option would be dual boot. They could offer incentives for developers to also make a Linux version, but I doubt they'd be porting other companies old games. The only things they'd port would be their own games.

 

[mmntech]

Though I agree their displeasure with Windows 8 stems mostly from the store, I do agree with their main points. I've been messing around with it over the weekend and it's definitely not an ideal desktop OS. Especially where multitasking and workflow are concerned. Yeah, the old desktop is still there, but it's shoved in the background. You have to go through Metro to open programs. It lacks the clean interface on the desktop that Windows 7 has. It's a very good OS for tablets and embedded systems but 7 is still better for traditional systems. Windows 8 just feels clunky to me.

 

[Dominato3r]

If like Apple though, the T&C say no in-app sales. Steam would fail that requirement big time.

Yea, this is not some the Windows store does IIRC. In-app purchases are good to go.

I don't think that Gabe is afraid of (shitty) competition. MS tried and failed in Games for Windows. He's afraid of crap being pasted all over windows (pun intended). Which alienates his target audience. Gabe needs people buying and using Windows.

No, you're under estimating what the consequences will be with the Windows 8 Store. Unlike previous attempts, this store will come preinstalled on every Windows 8 PC sold. Windows ships around 370M/375M units a year. Sooner or later the number starts to add up.