DirectX 12 Will be Exclusive to Windows 10

[Soviet Heavy]

I'm still holding out for the Steam OS thats actually going to be optimized for gaming.

 

[Ark of the Covetor]

See, there's only one problem with this; based on MS' past behaviour, all I can think when I see this is "OK, but what's the catch?". Either they have a way of making money out of people who get the free upgrade right away(ads/grotesquely overpriced microstransactions within Win10 itself), or it's part of a longer term strategy that's not clear to us plebs yet - perhaps they're attempting to pry people loose from Win7 so they don't have a repeat of the WinXP situation, in preparation for fucking us up the bum when Win11 rolls around in a couple of years.

Microsoft are a corporation, they don't give their stuff away for nothing unless it will increase their revenue in some other way. More than that they're one of the King Cunts of the corporate world, so this isn't going to be a case of doing us a wee favour now and asking for a wee favour in return later, it'll be a wee favour now in exchange for us signing a contract in our own blood to give them our souls.

 

[gigastar]

Well, if theyre hiding anything, at least the free upgrade window will be long enough for us to hear about it beforehand.

 

[NLS]

See, there's only one problem with this; based on MS' past behaviour, all I can think when I see this is "OK, but what's the catch?". Either they have a way of making money out of people who get the free upgrade right away(ads/grotesquely overpriced microstransactions within Win10 itself), or it's part of a longer term strategy that's not clear to us plebs yet - perhaps they're attempting to pry people loose from Win7 so they don't have a repeat of the WinXP situation, in preparation for fucking us up the bum when Win11 rolls around in a couple of years.

Microsoft are a corporation, they don't give their stuff away for nothing unless it will increase their revenue in some other way. More than that they're one of the King Cunts of the corporate world, so this isn't going to be a case of doing us a wee favour now and asking for a wee favour in return later, it'll be a wee favour now in exchange for us signing a contract in our own blood to give them our souls.

Tbh, individual OS license sales probably aren't such a big dip in Microsofts pocket. Giving away Windows for "free" ensures that their existing and potential customers stay in the Microsoft ecosystem. Since so many people are used to using Windows at home, it becomes natural for any big or small enterprise to license Windows and Office with minimal training effort. On top of this Microsoft provides lots of enterprise software such as Windows Server, SQL, Dynamics CRM, Exchange, Lync, OneDrive, Visual Studio etc. All of this runs natively on Windows, and the more people who are accustomed to it, the better for both businesses and Microsoft.

As for the regular consumer, the tight integration within Microsofts OS, mobile platform and XB1, might entice more consumers to consider Windows Phone or XB1 as an alternative to other brands.

And finally, Microsoft can start cutting down on supporting older versions of Microsoft and instead shift focus to maintaining one OS.

In short: Give something away for free, and you'll gain customer loyalty that ensures they stay your customer.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Well, this isn't as much of a dick move as the last time they held a Direct X version or game hostage behind a new Windows. The gratis upgrade also will help sweeten over anyone who put up with being force fed the atrocity that was the UI formerly known as Metro.

Though, I still don't get why people think the 1 year free upgrade only lets you use Win 10 for one year. Has that subscription software trend that Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud started made everyone more paranoid than me? (I don't blame them for being paranoid, with today's shady tech trends, but I do blame them for not reading a very important and plainly spelled out detail right in the middle of the article.)

I may swap to Windows 10, about half way through month 11. By then, they will have the major kinks worked out, and backtracked on the design choices that have been labeled as "catastrophically stupid".

That is the best way to go about it. Let the early adopters do the final, extreme beta testing for you. I should mark my calendar, just so I don't forget.

 

[J Tyran]

Free upgrade sounds good, almost to good to be true. There must be something in it for Microsoft, either the rumour about adverts are correct or they will focus on some kind of built in store front. Maybe it will heavily integrated with Bing unless you deactivate it, my own personal theory is that it has something to do with Microsofts push towards "one OS for everything" and in the conference they made a big deal out of the "universal apps" that work across devices. They are still desperately trying to break into the mobile and tablet market so by giving Windows 10 away they may be hoping that people will adopt other devices with Windows OS, in the way that will integrate and synchronise and use services like office 360 etc so by giving it away people may think "that HP stream syncs well with Windows 10" with things like the universal apps.

Microsoft are obviously trying to get as many people to adopt Windows 10 as they can and as quickly as they can, even to the extent that they are throwing away the potential revenue they would have made from selling the operating system. There must be some reason they are doing it and knowing Microsoft its because they will have a lot more to gain if people adopt the OS quickly.

 

[Creedsareevil]

soo.... see you in 10 years when developers will finally phase out dx9?
What will we have then? Windows 35 with Direct X 29?

You know what microsoft:

Make a good, sleek OS with no bullshit that runs smooth and is easy on the specs....

I'll buy it.

 

[Poetic Nova]

If only W10 shipped without the Xbox integration, then I might have upgraded.

 

[wizzy555]

soo.... see you in 10 years when developers will finally phase out dx9?
What will we have then? Windows 35 with Direct X 29?

You know what microsoft:

Make a good, sleek OS with no bullshit that runs smooth and is easy on the specs....

I'll buy it.

Actually the good thing about this one OS for all devices shtick is that it motivates them to reduce resource usage (for the smaller devices). Windows 8 for all its faults removed aero to decrease graphics usage on tablets and by some accounts reduced the RAM usage.

 

[Signa]

Well that's surprisingly balanced for Microsoft. I mean it's not as good as simply supporting DirectX 12 on multiple OS versions, but people have been predicting that bit of exclusivity since they realized that the number twelve comes after eleven. I'll probably do the upgrade. It's not like I don't still have my Win7 disc if I change my mind.

Don't be so sure. If this is an upgrade policy, I would expect Microsoft to invalidate your Win7 key because it's been spent to upgrade it to a Win10 key. It's how all upgrades have worked in the past, and why I always get the full version, so that I do have the option to return to the old OS, or install the old OS on another PC.

 

[Asuterisuku]

Equating piracy to emulation and vice versa is foolish. Why do you do foolish things, ohh never EVER wrong black and white views person?


All companies want to expand. You do not get my money if your game is on a console. You might if its on PC. Simple as.
PC is BY FAR the largest single platform. It makes more sense it to be the primary

I can understand some first party and even third party exclusives. Even if it DOES damn their legacy and makes them mortal. Bayonneta 2 for example. When it is a game with the budget of my country ... I see no reason for it to be exclusive. Well, other then bound to attempt at making more money

This has been cleared up over and over.... In Bayonetta's case, Platinum lost their publisher, and therefore, their funding. The game simply wouldn't have been made, had Nintendo not stepped in, which is why the game is Wii U exclusive.

 

[Jburton9]

See, there's only one problem with this; based on MS' past behaviour, all I can think when I see this is "OK, but what's the catch?". Either they have a way of making money out of people who get the free upgrade right away(ads/grotesquely overpriced microstransactions within Win10 itself), or it's part of a longer term strategy that's not clear to us plebs yet - perhaps they're attempting to pry people loose from Win7 so they don't have a repeat of the WinXP situation, in preparation for fucking us up the bum when Win11 rolls around in a couple of years.

Microsoft are a corporation, they don't give their stuff away for nothing unless it will increase their revenue in some other way. More than that they're one of the King Cunts of the corporate world, so this isn't going to be a case of doing us a wee favour now and asking for a wee favour in return later, it'll be a wee favour now in exchange for us signing a contract in our own blood to give them our souls.

Good catch : )

What we have seen so far with our beta, it will have a storefront built into Windows 10 allowing Microsoft to get a percentage of the sales. So it is a win for them to get as many people on the platform and in funnels the sales.

Next is the built in search with Cortana that really is a data mining tool for each user on the workstation and that is another product placement vectored ads, selling data kind of thing. So far no ads on the desktop other than the trending now when search is clicked but it is still too early in the beta as ads could easily be slipped in before release.

Now the key phrases are "We see Windows 10 as a service" and licensed to "that device" what does that mean to Microsoft? Renting an OS? Support Service? Hmm they have not truly clarified yet.

If it is like before and key based so that someone could reinstall onto a new workstation then great but so far it is indicating that it acts like a one use OEM license. New workstation build will require a new license.

If it is a subscription, renting an OS, then the built in Live user login could be used to license rekey a new workstation. Like Windows 8 you can skip the firm prompting to login with a Live ID and just use a local workstation generated account.

Steam is right to be working on Steam OS. Based on the presentation, Windows 10 has a lot of Steam like features including game streaming, cross play with Xbox One, integrated library etc. Add the Store front to sell apps and games and hmm other than steam exclusive sales what is to keep people from simply using the built in store?

When Microsoft says Windows 10 is a big move they are not kidding, they are shifting their company and integrating their whole product line around it.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Is anyone really surprised by this? Pretty much every modern version of Windows has an exclusive version of DirectX. XP had Dx9, Vista had Dx10, and 7 had Dx11. Really the only modern version of Windows that didn't have an exclusive version of DirectX is Windows 8. Microsoft has been doing this for a very long time with many of their products. Another example would be Internet Explorer.

I just hope this means the rest of the Halo series is finally making its way to PC.

Doubt it. Microsoft needs something to sell Xbones.

 

[octafish]

i'd be eager to update my computer to windows 10 and get rid of the annoying windows 8 forever but i suspect that if i do everything i did to even get games working on my pc would be rendered useless

here's hoping they focus on gaming comparability

Nah. 7 is 8 is 10. It's the same OS with different interfaces and minor tweaks. That said the tweaks make a difference, games run better on 8.1 compared to 7.

If 10 has less of a learning curve from XP than 8 did, and has proper support for older software will we finally see enterprise jump ship from XP?

 

[Jacked Assassin]

Xbox One on the other hand I probably want to buy Sunset Overdrive before it becomes free from GWG. Just so I can own that game without having to worry about losing it if or when my GWG would expire on Xbox One. If Sunset Overdrive ever came to Steam I'd probably buy it again.

GWG freebies are yours even if your account sub expires, downloaded a bunch in my free trial and still have em.

If I remember correctly that's only true for Xbox 360.

Xbox One on the other hand you must be subscribed in order to play Xbox One's GWG.

 

[Callate]

If- as seems fairly likely- the games of the next few years are constrained by the abilities of the PS4 and XBox One as the previous generation was by the 360 and PS3, why should anyone care?

Sure, Crytek or the like might release a game that pushes the boundaries so far that only a new DirectX can keep up, but it seems like many developers are barely using the features trumpeted in DX 11.

Still, memo to self- pick up that OEM of Windows 7 for the next rig while you still can...

 

[RicoADF]

What about the rumours of the integrated ads? Are they true? Is the UI any better?(since trying to get to C:/ using 8 is needlessly convoluted with Metro)

I know it sounds petty, but that is the one point where I draw the line and tell MS to go fuck themselves.

I haven't seen any ads in the OS sofar. For a beta it's been quite stable, only 1 driver issue with a universal dock I borrowed to test and to be fair I'm sure the driver was for Windows 7 anyway.
The start menu is back so you can pin "My Computer" tonight and basically set it up like 7, however the tiles still do the auto order crap which pisses me off so I just put my games there and have my computer pinned to the list on the left. I can provide a screenshot this arvo if you'd like.

is that the transparency thing in the design?

fuck microsoft for telling me what I can/cant have on my desktop!!

Yes Aero is the transparency in Windows Vista/7. I've actually switched my main OS to Xubuntu and have Win 10 for the few games that Wine can't do (or steam/GoG hasn't already got on Linux) and I've never been happier. See Microsoft, that's how you get my patronage, by letting me choose what to do with MY machine. I didn't get a 780ti when they were $800 AUD to display boring flat windows that look older than Windows 2000

 

[RicoADF]

Free upgrade sounds good, almost to good to be true. There must be something in it for Microsoft, either the rumour about adverts are correct or they will focus on some kind of built in store front. Maybe it will heavily integrated with Bing unless you deactivate it, my own personal theory is that it has something to do with Microsofts push towards "one OS for everything" and in the conference they made a big deal out of the "universal apps" that work across devices. They are still desperately trying to break into the mobile and tablet market so by giving Windows 10 away they may be hoping that people will adopt other devices with Windows OS, in the way that will integrate and synchronise and use services like office 360 etc so by giving it away people may think "that HP stream syncs well with Windows 10" with things like the universal apps.

Microsoft are obviously trying to get as many people to adopt Windows 10 as they can and as quickly as they can, even to the extent that they are throwing away the potential revenue they would have made from selling the operating system. There must be some reason they are doing it and knowing Microsoft its because they will have a lot more to gain if people adopt the OS quickly.

Businesses rejected Windows 8 because the interface required people to be fully retrained and users don't like the interface, lucky for Microsoft Windows 7 will keep them happy for now however when they go to upgrade from 7 Microsoft has to make sure 10 doesn't have the same issue.

After all if users hate the interface and you have to pay for them to learn then you may as well pick a better OS, Linux, weather it be a free distribution or (more likely) Mac's with their Linux based OSX.

By handing 10 out for free Microsoft wants to keep its users with Windows which will keep their real money makers (enterprise) with them.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I'll echo what some others have said; I'll wait about 6-9 months into the free upgrade period. By then any dirty secrets or colossal fuck ups should have been revealed and I can make a decision if I wanna dive in or not.

 

[Strazdas]

Linking in the region lock article while hiding behind "well its legal in certain countries". Egging on people to go purchase and app that clearly was not within the rules... each has those little defenses to look upstanding... but when you see it enough times especially in the relatively small time frame... yeah I don't buy that as credible.

There is nothing illegal about circumventing region lock in the way these people did it anywhere in civilized world, meanwhile some countries were specified where courts have already ruled it to be peoples rights.

Just because you didnt like it does not make it illegal.

Here we go again. Some companies were created by them and would the talent still exist in the world? Yes but the likelihood of them getting together, having the same funding, and making the same game is so low it might as well be zero. However we can't forget they do provide jobs too so would all those people be in work anyway? Well I suppose they could all make some cheap indie tat but forgive me if I'd rather have the exclusives over that.
Additionally some games are made due to the competition and wanting to have something comparable (Halo - Killzone, Final Fantasy - Wild Arms, and many more), if that competition isn't there than would those games be made?
There have been many "unconventional" games given support for years, would they have received it without them? Would EA/or whoever you like allow a studio making a game that is clearly not going to be profitable to the levels to require many years of slow development... get the time needed?
Other games like Gravity Rush get made to push the hardware features on the device... and it all goes on.

I can safely say things would be different as its common sense. You however need some evidence if you're going to prove things would remain the "same" or "better". So as I don't think you have alternate reality vision, nor could you show me that vision even if you had... this goes nowhere.

your forgetting the reason why those companies were created. that is to make profit. they would be created just as well to make profit even if it was on a different platform. while the resulting IPs may not be exactly same, thats as big of an argument as "choosing not to buy a game means developers wont develop that precise ip 10 years later", as in, completely pointless.

The job provider defence is often used when industry is afraid the consumers may want things to get better. its as bad of a defence as it always were. just providing a job, that is according to some surveys one of the most mentally demanding jobs with little pay, is not enough of a reason to support you. If a shit company goes bancrupt this does not mean that a better one cannot take its place. removal of bad companies is essential to betterment of human livehoods, and hiding under "buh provides jobs" is as good as doing same for slavery.

oh and dont act like EA or Ubisoft is the only publisher willing to support games. Look no further than Paradox to see it support fan made projects making them into full games even though they never end up being financia success.

I'm still holding out for the Steam OS thats actually going to be optimized for gaming.

Steam OS is just a restricted linux fork. not going to happen.

perhaps they're attempting to pry people loose from Win7 so they don't have a repeat of the WinXP situation, in preparation for fucking us up the bum when Win11 rolls around in a couple of years.

Thats the prevalent theory. The costs of having to keep supporting old OS for a long time may be higher than the costs of upgrading everyone for free. And after that they have a singular OS that they keep upgrading and everyone is up on same OS without any way to get out of that grasp. Basically an always online DRM for OS

Though, I still don't get why people think the 1 year free upgrade only lets you use Win 10 for one year. Has that subscription software trend that Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud started made everyone more paranoid than me? (I don't blame them for being paranoid, with today's shady tech trends, but I do blame them for not reading a very important and plainly spelled out detail right in the middle of the article.)

During the conference MS representative kept repeating "windows as service" which is exactly how they call 365 - office as service.

Actually the good thing about this one OS for all devices shtick is that it motivates them to reduce resource usage (for the smaller devices). Windows 8 for all its faults removed aero to decrease graphics usage on tablets and by some accounts reduced the RAM usage.

the problem is though - thanks to removal of aero there is no way to properly setup desktop interface anymore. you either get the transparency bullshit or you get letters that cannot be read (dark grey letters on black background). the only way to avoid that is the high contrast themes, which goes back to XP style looks more than 7.