I tend to agree with the concern, people, especially gamers, tend to be very short sighted and don't look to the future. Think about how people embraced digital DLC and microtransactions, they got in the door, and now we're knee deep in rage over how these systems are abused (day 1 DLC, games being released with as much content trimmed as possible to sell it seperatly, etc...).
Right now everyone wants a slice of that sweet digital distribution pie, we have pretty much every company trying to open their own store to sell their products exclusively, on their terms, through their service, while a few like STEAM try and be as universal as possible.
Microsoft's idea seems to be gradually working up towards trying to force digital distribution platforms to pay them a fee for a liscence to have their programs work on Windows. The idea being that for you to run a game through Steam, Steam would have to pay Microsoft a cut.
The end result of this would be raising the price of games, as Steam and other services would have to raise their prices to cover the cost, or find other ways of passing the expense on, since it's doubtful they are just going to eat the loss. Microsoft is also doubtlessly going to push as hard as they can.
The issue of course here is "what can be done about it?", and I think that's the bottom line behind a lot of people's comments. Simply put your alternative would be to go to an alternative operating system (all of which have their fans), that's kind of a pain in the arse given that PCs come pre-loaded with Windows, and most computer users are already familiar with it. I doubt your average PC user even knows how to set up and use an alternate OS.
At any rate, it's something to keep an eye on, nothing has happened yet (as those playing games on Windows 8 apparently can attest) but guys like Gabe Newell don't seem to go running around screaming "the sky is falling" at the slighest drop of a hat, so it's worth paying attention to. I give his name a degree of credit, not just beause of his gaming chops, but because he seems to do a lot of experimenting with tech and such as well. With no offense intended I don't take Notch or the guy who did "Serious Sam" quite as seriously. Maybe I should, but Notch creating one truely epic game (so far) doesn't make him as worthy of respect to me as Gabe. That isn't to say I don't respect him, I just don't consider him in the same league for either tech or business at the moment. I'm not a huge fan of Valve's games, but I do tend to pay attention when The God-Emperor Of Steam says something, even when I don't care for it.
