Windows 8 Sour Grapes??

[Nigel H-J]

With Windows 8 just around the corner and reported to be much more improved than Win7 there is one big concern regarding this release.........namely from Gabe Newell.....Valve Software's boss.

From what has been reported from the BBC is this just a case of sour grapes or is there every justification for concern for gamers?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18996377

Regards
Nigel.

[emfrat]

Going on historical form, every second Windows release has been a dud, and I expect Win8 will be too.

MikeW

[airboatr]

Bill Gates , making things harder for others to compete? chyeah right..

OK - I'll admit I'm being a tincy wincy bit sarcastic.

[Vancouver]

I was under the impression that Bill Gates had stepped down a couple of years back.

[speedbird591]

According to that linked news report he actually said that W8 would be a catastrophe for PC games makers. He's simply worried about his business model going down the pan. I guess Microsoft want to emulate Apple's success with a closed platform and retain control of the material using it and profits arising from it.

It makes good business sense from Microsoft's point of view but at the expense of entrepreneurial spirit. But Microsoft are not a charity or social club and they have to react to their loss of market share.

I suspect that Windows will become as restricted as Apple software and be boring but reliable. Exciting and innovative development will innovate elsewhere. Linux, I suppose.

Ian

[TSR2]

The Windows Market place will not replace traditional methods of PC install, wether thats CD \ DVD or streamed content. I think that they plan to make content streamers use the marketplace API and this is whats ruffling the feathers of a few, but one mans loss is another mans gain, and while that would render the Steam (and other) download clients useless it does ope the door to ther content developers to develope products and sell them without having to worry about how they are going to market and distribute their software.

[Garry Russell]

Isn't the way forward the existing download clients to move across to the new way of doing things?

[speedbird591]

Isn't the way forward the existing download clients to move across to the new way of doing things?

Yes. But where's the fun in saying it in one sentence when you can use three paragraphs, like me?

Ian

[TSR2]

Isn't the way forward the existing download clients to move across to the new way of doing things?

Yes and no mate. If you have a company that has invested a great deal of time and money in a download client such as Steam to find that you might not be able to use it anymore is bound to hurt. TBH I suspect Steam and others like it will work fine on Windows 8 for the next few years, but the move started by Apple is towards one delivery mechanism. I don't think the one size delivery mechanism is a good idea though. Its great to give small fish an opertunity to develope for Apple / Windows etc, but where do you draw the line? Corporates use technology such as Citrix to deliver applications to their users on Apple / Windows / Java devices, so given that that functionality will never exist in iTunes / Marketplace etc you can't really stop people installing application delivery or streaming clients. Its all a bit of a grey area and I suspect it will take at least 5 years to see any clear direction.

[airboatr]

I was under the impression that Bill Gates had stepped down a couple of years back.

Left back in 06 running the day to day business I think.

But he is chairman of MS and recently took credit acquiring Skype saying (he) influenced board members to make the acquisition . I'd bet my bottom dollar he had input in Win 8.