Rumor: Microsoft to relaunch PC gaming with Windows 8

[NYHoustonman]

I agree with you, and that works for those who have desktops, but more and more people are buying laptops instead of desktops lately.

That and most people are too afraid even to install a video card without help from a friend and/or have power supplies that can't handle video cards that would suit the processor they're using.

Giving the average consumer a GPU that can handle modest gaming (as opposed to Intel's past garbage) would be huge, period.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Makes me wonder if MS is eyeballing Valve just to get it's Steam base. Build steam or something similar right in the browser.

 

[simonizor]

Uh, didn't they do this already with Vista and then again with Windows 7?

 

[Anteaus]

Right ... Microsoft didn't have to kill hardware audio acceleration, but yet they did so with vista (and continued in W7)

I think you should recheck your facts. Microsoft merely changed the driver architecture disallowing low level kernel access. Its not their fault Creative decided to forgo rewriting their drivers for proper Vista/7 support. Creative decided that it would cost too much money to properly integrate the X-fi with Vista/7. Since many other aftermarket audio card brands license Creative chipsets, this leads to a unfair perception that it is MS fault. It all gets routed through DirectX...at that point its in the hardware developers hands. It works the same way for video. Hardware acceleration isn't much a problem there.....

Soon creative will put out a new card line that is fully compatible, but in the mean time I still say they screwed up with their earlier decisions.

 

[heat901]

didnt creative always have buggy drivers to begin with?

 

[Acanthus]

didnt creative always have buggy drivers to begin with?

Yes.

 

[postmortemIA]

I don't think that Creative will make anything new - if anything they will go bankrupt. It is a shame though, that when we get new graphics chips every year we don't have any hardware accelerated sound anymore.

 

[shortylickens]

MS promised to reboot gaming with Win 7.
And they clearly didnt give a shit when it came. The developers that continue Windows gaming are doing mostly because of blind fanaticism (Blizzard) or as sort of a pity thing (console ports). They havent been getting the MS support they were praying on.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

That's why they made UT 2004, which was definitely better than UT 2003 .

I know. UT 2004 is a great game but for different reasons than UT99 (Onslaught; failed for CTF and DOMination IMHO). I was just commenting about UT 2003.

 

[BladeVenom]

I'll believe MS, when they prove it. The year before the Xbox came out, MS Game Studios released 12 PC exclusives. How many PC exclusives are they planning for 2011? 2012?

 

[coloumb]

/shrug

I still have plenty of PC games to keep me entertained and there will be a lot more PC games down the road which will keep me entertained probably until I'm retired. Maybe I'm the oddball in the gaming world - but I don't own a Wii, PS3, nor an Xbox360 [though the Kinect is seriously making me consider buying an Xbox360 - that looks like it'd be a lot of fun with the kids]

Consoles fill the gap for a generation of gamers who didn't want to play "complex and nerdy" PC games at a desk which is most likely located in a small room by itself in the basement or in the far corner of the house.

They want to play games sitting on the couch with their family, friends, and enemies.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I don't think that Creative will make anything new - if anything they will go bankrupt. It is a shame though, that when we get new graphics chips every year we don't have any hardware accelerated sound anymore.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/10/25/sound_blaster_xfi_titanium_hd_card_review

Supposedly its good. Im looking for a new sound card and I would get that, but I know I will never receive any driver updates ever.

Im going for the Asus Xonar Essense STX when I get the money.

 

[Lonbjerg]

Then why do you have a problem with games being on consoles as well as PC? Why is that "sad"?

I do...because those kind of games drag over the limitations of consoles to the PC....thus holdning back PC gaming.

CCP (EvE - Online ) and CryTek (Crysis) thinks the same

 

[frozentundra123456]

You are kidding right??? Who has done more to hurt PC gaming than microsoft??
Back in the day, I used to play CD games online free such as Galactic Battlegrounds, AOE, etc. I dont remember the name of the service, but they shut it down.
Then came games for windows live, and when people rebelled at paying for the service , they made it so lame that everyone who is forced to use it hates it.
Then they shut down the studio that made AOE and Age of Mythology (Ensamble I think).
Then Vista, with its Vista exclusive game, a lame port of an outdated console game (Halo 2).
If they really revive any kind of gaming for Win 8 it will probably make the games exclusive for Win 7 and Win 8 in order to force people who have XP and vista to upgrade.

 

[Nintendesert]

DX has done a lot to advance PC gaming. It used to be a pain in the ass to use Glide or OpenGL and DX standardized graphics/audio and the ease for playing games on the PC.

Microsoft has made a ton of missteps but they have also done a lot to make PC gaming much more user friendly than it used to be.

 

[Joemonkey]

be cool if i could dual boot into a "steam OS" where it took all the resources it my computer had to offer and optimized them for gaming. If they left the overlay you could still chat with friends and browse the web.

 

[tokie]

DX has done a lot to advance PC gaming. It used to be a pain in the ass to use Glide or OpenGL and DX standardized graphics/audio and the ease for playing games on the PC.

Microsoft has made a ton of missteps but they have also done a lot to make PC gaming much more user friendly than it used to be.

All DX has done is encourage lock-in to the platforms that Microsoft offers. As consumers of video games, we would all be better off if developers went cold turkey on DX and used OpenGL.

Don't start thinking that Microsoft is making gaming more "user friendly" for any purpose other than monopolization. If they cared anything about the users, they would make DX an open standard.

 

[Nintendesert]

DX continues to push forward while the open standards aren't going anywhere. And Microsoft is a business, of course they are making DX more user friendly to make money and increase their market dominance. So what? That's what a business is supposed to do.

 

[BladeVenom]

DX continues to push forward while the open standards aren't going anywhere.

Have you heard of little company called id Software. They use OpenGl. Doom 3 was the best looking game of it's time. The upcoming Rage will ne using the id Tech 5 engine which is looking good so far.

Have you heard of John Carmack? Some even consider him the best game engine designer in computer history, and he doesn't use DirectX.

 

[Mem]

All DX has done is encourage lock-in to the platforms that Microsoft offers. As consumers of video games, we would all be better off if developers went cold turkey on DX and used OpenGL.

Don't start thinking that Microsoft is making gaming more "user friendly" for any purpose other than monopolization. If they cared anything about the users, they would make DX an open standard.

Everybody would jump to Linux OS if OpenGL became the gaming standard(I know I would).

Microsoft will keep DX closed for their own operating systems,good or bad I don't think this will change.

As to relaunch well we keep hearing that ,however PC gaming is far from dead and keeps on going.

 

[Maximilian]

Its consoles and piracy guys not direct X and removal of hardware audio acceleration, although neither helped pc gaming theyre both minor things.

 

[power_hour]

Just give us a decent version of Kinect and no DRM and maybe they can earn some respect. The rest is a pipe dream.

 

[Anteaus]

Everybody would jump to Linux OS if OpenGL became the gaming standard(I know I would).

Microsoft will keep DX closed for their own operating systems,good or bad I don't think this will change.

As to relaunch well we keep hearing that ,however PC gaming is far from dead and keeps on going.

No one would go to Linux just because OpenGL would become the gaming standard, because if it did it would only replace Direct3D. DirectX is a all-in-one integration package that supplies more than video. Controllers, audio, video (2d&3d), etc. Developers love DirectX because they can spend more time making content and less time worrying about how to make everything work together.

Also, MS provides DX support free of charge to developers...no licensing fees and a wide footprint means no brainer at choosing a platform to support. Another strike against linux is its strength. Developers have enough problems developing for one platform with all of its various hardware options...imagine having to deal with all the various distributions out there, with varied package systems, varied kernal compilations.

MS provides standardization as well as a large install base....linux might be growing, but until it starts showing up on average Joe's machine it will never be more than fleeting potential.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Alright... "Multi-Platform"...

So, lets see, "The Witcher 2" is the only game there that is locked for PC. Rumors of D3 on consoles are already out, and the rest of those games already have a set console version....

Please dont tell me Blizzard sold out to consoles too!!!

 

[llee]

didn't they put out a similar release when windows 7 was being hyped? (not that win7 is bad or anything)