Is Windows 8 the Biggest Threat to the Future of PC Gaming?

[Chiefcrowe]

http://kotaku.com/5895291/is-windows-8-the-biggest-threat-to-the-future-of-pc-gaming?popular=true

Hmm, this is a pretty interesting point of view...

 

[thespyder]

So the main problem with that article is that it assumes Windows 8 is the next generation of the Windows platform. And i don't think it is. It is more a hybrid of the handheld OS and Windows. I see it as a niche market rather than the next step in Microsoft's road to dominance.

And considering that PC gaming is higher now than it has been in years, and an actual rival for the console gaming industry, I don't see the general public adopting a platform that takes away from current gaming capabilities.

Just my opinion.

 

[Barfo]

Actually, it's the Mayan Prophecy.

End of the world > Microsoft

 

[thespyder]

Actually, it's the Mayan Prophecy.

End of the world > Microsoft

I think you will find that the Mayans predicted the rise of Microsoft and interprated it as the end of the world.

I hear that Billy boy is working on an AI project that he calls Sky... something or other. and it goes online on 12-21-2012.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Crappy games are the biggest threat to PC gaming. The three games I was looking forward to were Skyrim (fantastic, even better than I expected), MW3 ( I liked it OK, dont hate me), and Mass Effect 3 (major disappointment). With Bioware basically gone as we used to know it, and Valve and Blizzard putting out games very rarely, I dont see any games on the horizon that I am really looking forward to except for Borderlands 2. There are even rumors that Bethesda is going the MMO route, and look at what happened to Bioware when they did that.

 

[lamedude]

We maintain that the primary threat to the PC (and gaming consoles) comes in the form of Apple's AirPlay combined with Bluetooth 4.0+ controllers. A Windows 8 failure may buy enough time for Apple to release displays (and get partners to release displays) with embedded AirPlay. The "computing" will be done on an iPad/iPhone, the keyboard/mouse handled by Bluetooth and the display via AirPlay.

Does Stardock thinks WiDi won't work with Win7 and PC gamers that complain about consoles ports are going to be happy with iOS games?
MS has done more damage to PC gaming by releasing the Xbox then abandoning the PC than Win8 will.

 

[drebo]

Windows 8 will be an epic failure on desktop and laptop PCs. The latest build completely got rid of the start button, and you still can't properly exit out of metro apps.

I have no idea what Microsoft thinks they're doing.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Ok, I could see the trepidation over Windows 8, although I'm not sure how many of their complaints aren't just as true, if not moreso of other platforms.

I could be mistaken, but Microsoft has said they have plans for significant changes to gaming on PC, with hints about Xbox integration, and as far as I know, in no way is the current PC gaming experience diminished at all in Windows 8.

Another problem is, there's such a vast disparity between Windows 8 could hurt Microsoft as far as gaming on PC to PC gaming's future belongs to Apple. I mean, the software complaints raised seem baffling considering they're mentioning a lot of iOS which is even more hurt by those same things. I'm also not sure why they think that Airplay somehow enables Apple to do things that aren't possible with Windows PCs.

 

[gorcorps]

Actually, it's the Mayan Prophecy.

End of the world > Microsoft

The Mayans never accounted for leap year like our currently followed calendar. So if you adjust for that the world should have ended a while back.

 

[slightlyhuman]

i'll be on win7 for a long time coming. usd to say the same thing about xp. glad i don't game like i used to.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I see it as a niche market rather than the next step in Microsoft's road to dominance.

Unfortunately that is the exact opposite of how Microsoft sees it. It's a post-PC world and all that BS.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Crappy games are the biggest threat to PC gaming. The three games I was looking forward to were Skyrim (fantastic, even better than I expected), MW3 ( I liked it OK, dont hate me), and Mass Effect 3 (major disappointment). With Bioware basically gone as we used to know it, and Valve and Blizzard putting out games very rarely, I dont see any games on the horizon that I am really looking forward to except for Borderlands 2. There are even rumors that Bethesda is going the MMO route, and look at what happened to Bioware when they did that.

So you're only playing the games from the massive hype-machine with marketing budgets greater than the GDP of Luxembourg? No wonder you're disappointed. Perhaps if you try looking a littler harder for games that resources also put into the actual game itself you might find something more interesting?

There are lots of great games just beyond the 3-4 super-AAA blockbusters that come out each year, but few people pay attention to that. For example from smaller publishers like Paradox and Stardock, or indie developers.

I'd say that's actually more a danger to the health of gaming in general; most of the industry is built on a very small number of mega-franchises and that's where the majority of the money goes. I don't see how this can lead to growth in any healthy way. Thankfully it seems like smaller and indie publishers are doing well on the PC due to the lower cost on entry and that's where interesting things are happening. So there may still be hope.

 

[darkewaffle]

Crappy games are the biggest threat to PC gaming. The three games I was looking forward to were Skyrim (fantastic, even better than I expected), MW3 ( I liked it OK, dont hate me), and Mass Effect 3 (major disappointment). With Bioware basically gone as we used to know it, and Valve and Blizzard putting out games very rarely, I dont see any games on the horizon that I am really looking forward to except for Borderlands 2. There are even rumors that Bethesda is going the MMO route, and look at what happened to Bioware when they did that.

They made a successful entry into the new market and then proceeded to put out one of the most highly rated and best selling single player titles in recent memory?

 

[Anubis]

i cant read that at work but i fail to see how changing the interface to tiles will have anything to do with how PC games work

 

[Texashiker]

kotaku interviews company a lot of pc gamers have never heard of, then says pc gaming is dead?

lol

If you want to see how well pc gaming is doing, look at the success of Skyrim, Counter-Strike, TF2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2,,,,.

If anything, its the consoles that should be worried. For the past 1/2 decade consoles have been holding the gaming community back. Who has DX11 support? Not consoles thats for sure.

 

[Red Storm]

I agree with their report. We're going to see a shift to mobile devices as they become more and more powerful. The key is how long it's going to take, but if Windows 8 is any indication of what Microsoft is trying to go for, I completely understand not wanting to be tied down to their ship. Eventually you'll no longer need a console or a desktop PC, instead you just connect your tablet/phone to a controller (be it keyboard/mouse or a gamepad) and play away, while the display is streamed via wireless to the monitor/TV.

What needs to happen first is someone like Steam releasing a native client for iOS/Android. I can definitely see Valve porting the Source engine over to these platforms, and then you can bet dev companies like Stardock will make the switch. It's easier to code for, publicity via mobile app stores is much easier and so lessens the reliance on needing a publisher. It's a win/win for developers.

 

[imaheadcase]

Win 8 is JUST for one OS to rule them all. It brings nothing to the table other than making it better for developers, not consumers.

Mobile gaming, is still a niche market. The problem with mobile gaming is space and hardware restrictions. You can't bring a product like steam to a mobile OS with all the bandwidth caps in place currently.

No matter what anyone says, gaming will always be on big screens..will it be a PC? I don't think so, but it WILL be heading to the living room when TVs start to match the capabilities of a monitor.

 

[JamesV]

Mobile gaming, is still a niche market. The problem with mobile gaming is space and hardware restrictions. You can't bring a product like steam to a mobile OS with all the bandwidth caps in place currently.

Apparently Steam hasn't heard it can't be done - http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

Looks like you buy the games for the PC/Mac on the mobile device, but that can, and probably will change.

As far as Win 8, I bet the same thing is going to happen after MMO's started making alot of money - when dev's see that they can make a casual mobile game and charge $1 for it, then reap millions for a minor investment compared to a retail PC game that might flop ... I believe we are about to see a huge trend-shift to mobile.

 

[thespyder]

Unfortunately that is the exact opposite of how Microsoft sees it. It's a post-PC world and all that BS.

if that is indeed Microsoft's attitude to the whole thing then Windows 8 is going to go the way of Vista. PC users will not adopt to the new OS to such a degree that they will have to go back and 'Fix' it until it meets the approval of the user community.

Microsoft will fix and rebrand, just they way they did with Windows 7. They will never admit that consumers 'Made them change'. But it will all be the same thing.

 

[Gheris]

With the way trends change you can't go all in unless your looking at just a short term strategy. Sure, right now mobile gaming is hot, but what happens when it goes stale? Those who planned for the long term will reap the benefits. If MS were smart they would create Windows 8 so that it can deliver a mobile and classic desktop experience. If they don't then 8 will certainly be a flop in the long term.

 

[Kadarin]

The Mayans never accounted for leap year like our currently followed calendar. So if you adjust for that the world should have ended a while back.

Maybe the universe has already ended, and wavefront of that ending simply hasn't reached the Earth yet due to the speed of light limitation.

 

[Martimus]

The Mayans never accounted for leap year like our currently followed calendar. So if you adjust for that the world should have ended a while back.

The Mayan Calendar year was actually more accurate than our current Gregorian Calendar year. It was 365.242036 days, which is slightly more accurate than the 365.2425 days of the Gregorian calendar. (http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html)

That said, the dates of 12-21-2012, and 12-23-2012 are based on what historians believe to be the date that the Mayan calendar will cycle back to 13.0.0.0.0 (or back to 0) which doesn't mean a lot. The Mayans had units of measure for 63 million years called a aluatun (1 alautun = 20 kinchiltun = 23,040,000,000 days = approx. 63 million years: http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html)

Since the Mayans haven't been around for a very long time, no one really know what it means for them to roll over the age in their calendar. It probably means nothing, just that they only created 19 ages at that time.

 

[wanderer27]

i'll be on win7 for a long time coming. usd to say the same thing about xp. glad i don't game like i used to.

The only reason I went with Win7 on this build is I needed access to more RAM - can't do 16GB on XP

If not for that I'd still be on XP, and as such, I don't see a reason/need to move off of Win7 . . . . unless we start needing access to TB's


.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It sounds like Windows is following the "every-other" pattern

Windows 98 was good.
Then came Windows ME which was trash.
Windows XP was good.
Vista was garbage.
Windows 7 was good.
So Windows 8 should suck.

 

[frozentundra123456]

They made a successful entry into the new market and then proceeded to put out one of the most highly rated and best selling single player titles in recent memory?

If you are talking about Bioware, they abandoned a great single player franchise to put out an MMO which has had some initial success, but I think the long term success is still open to debate. In any case I will never play an MMO, so TOR is of no interest to me.

As for the quality of their single player franchises, I give you Dragon Age II and the terrible ending of Mass Effect 3. Can you really claim that those live up to their past single player games such as Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, and DA Origins?

And as for ME3 being so highly rated, well PC Gamer gave DAII a 90+ % rating too. Enough said.