Windows 8 Will Be a "Real New Push Into PC Gaming"

[Player Two]

Methinks that by 'support' they mean 'control'. This is going to be one long line of agonising integration into Microsoft's gelatinous blob of Live, designed to quash independent gaming and smother our precious titles in DRM.

If this happens, we have two choices: Either a) Pirate everything (meaning that Steve Ballmer will personally shove a retractable baton up your jacksie) or b) switch to Linux. I'm serious. Better still, learn how to dual boot it now, so that you're ready for this fateful next release.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

By the time 8 rolls around no on will care and only want flash based games....

 

[superbatranger]

Every notice how basically every other Windows OS sucks balls? 7, good. Vista bad. XP good. ME bad. 98 good. 95 bad.

Looks like they're right on track for a giant flop.

OH SNAP!

Looks like I'm waiting for Windows 9, then...

Pssh, by then every one will have bulky, over-sized virtual reality helmets.

 

[veloper]

Windows 7 is fine for gaming. That's not the problem and with the current standstill in hardware technology, with no new consoles and PC games(ports) all running smoothly on mainstream PCs, nobody will need windows 8 for atleast another 5 years.

If they want to do something constructive M$ should fix GFWL, even if that means stealing Valve's notes on Steam.

 

[Jumwa]

But Microsoft are making a lot of money from PC gamers despite what you originally said. And the money they make, or rather lost and are trying to recoup, from xbox is not all that much to them.

Why Microsoft started the xbox in the first place and what they plan on doing with it in the future has not so much to do with some plan to collect more of a share of the sale value of boxed games. It's a more complex picture. Most of the "visionaries" behind the xbox are not even still working anywhere at the company. With Microsoft it might only exist because enough people see it as a "cool" project internally.

Presuming you were right, then they have the strangest way of showing it, because just a few months ago they bought out exclusive rights for DLC for Fallout: New Vegas for Xbox, thereby canceling or delaying a PC release of it. They have indefinitely postponed Fable 3 for PC. They canceled the PC version of Alan Wake (I believe?) even though it was originally to be a PC title when they bought the game. They make no talk of bringing Kinect to PCs, and last I saw they denied it would happen.

Just to name a few recent examples.

If helping PC gaming matters to Microsoft at all, then they seem to be mistaking sabotaging it for aiding.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Presuming you were right, then they have the strangest way of showing it, because just a few months ago they bought out exclusive rights for DLC for Fallout: New Vegas for Xbox, thereby canceling or delaying a PC release of it. They have indefinitely postponed Fable 3 for PC. They canceled the PC version of Alan Wake (I believe?) even though it was originally to be a PC title when they bought the game. They make no talk of bringing Kinect to PCs, and last I saw they denied it would happen.

Just to name a few recent examples.

If helping PC gaming matters to Microsoft at all, then they seem to be mistaking sabotaging it for aiding.

I think that you are mistaking Microsoft for a rational individual that acts on one long term play. If you give people control of a relatively small and unsuccessful part of the business like xbox and tell them to make it work then they are going to take this sort of decision. They almost act like a competing company inside Microsoft, some even say that Microsoft should be split up because of this sort of thing.

 

[nipsen]

All they've done so far is sabotaged PC gaming in every way they could.

And, as their obnoxiously annoying fans point out - "it works, so more power to them".

Anyway. "PC gaming", in the sense of having the latest tech, and games built on the edge to support new things - that is something we'll never see again. It's over. Done.

 

[Woodsey]

They said the same thing about Vista, and I'm pretty sure they said it about 7.

Color me uninformed, but what exactly is all this hate towards Games for Windows Live stemming from?

To me the Games for Windows client is just a crappy digital download service, but the GFWL elements implemented in the games is actually a good thing to me.

I would LOVE to have this being part of the entire gaming environment on PC, a-la Xbox Live, rather than the way it is now (game dependant).

Am I alone on this?

*ahem*

(read in the style of that dreams song)

STEEEEEE-EEEEE-EEEAAAM, STEAM STEAM STEEEAM, STEEEEE-EEEE-EEEAAAM!

GFWL does it's best to prevent people from actually playing their games, and it tries to treats PCs like they were consoles.

 

[twm1709]

If I had a nickel every time I heard microsoft promise this crap to pc gamers whenever they launch a new product they want us to buy, and they never deliver. This is beyond insulting, by now it's almost like they're making fun of us.

 

[Mercurio128]

Color me uninformed, but what exactly is all this hate towards Games for Windows Live stemming from?

To me the Games for Windows client is just a crappy digital download service, but the GFWL elements implemented in the games is actually a good thing to me.

I would LOVE to have this being part of the entire gaming environment on PC, a-la Xbox Live, rather than the way it is now (game dependant).

Am I alone on this?

Yes, yes you are.

The only time I'm even remotely aware of GFWL is when it pops up to tell me why I can't play Dawn of War 2, or that I need to re-log in for the hundredth time.

Besides, the PC already has Steam, which is basically what GFWL wants to be. And isn't shit.

Edit: put it this way, in the time it takes GFWL to sign in properly and stop wasting my time with it's point-based purchasing system I can start up steam, buy a game in a huge sale (which apparently Microsoft are allergic to) and have it nearly downloaded.

 

[beema]

Ha! Like anyone buys that load.

Also, as someone said previously, every-other Windows OS is a complete fail. No way 8 breaks this cycle. Also, I'm not sure how you would make 3rd party games an integral part of your OS. If MS can't even release their own goddamn games on PC in a reasonable amount of time, why should anyone believe them.

 

[dochmbi]

Oh look at us how committed we are to PC gaming, at the same time we pay Remedy to kill the PC version of Alan Wake and make it Xbox 360 exclusive.

 

[Jumwa]

I think that you are mistaking Microsoft for a rational individual that acts on one long term play. If you give people control of a relatively small and unsuccessful part of the business like xbox and tell them to make it work then they are going to take this sort of decision. They almost act like a competing company inside Microsoft, some even say that Microsoft should be split up because of this sort of thing.

You're quite right in that Microsoft is not functioning as a cohesive entity on this. However, overall they've sunk a great deal of investment to hammer the Xbox to "success" at pretty much any cost. It wasn't just their games division that could allow such heavy (and until very recently) unprofitable investment. So their actions were at least tacitly approved, if by mere fact of their being allowed to continue for years.

And stacked against the very real actions and investment of their Xbox division, all Microsoft has done to help PC gaming in recent years has been to promise to "revive" PC gaming time and again. The only material act they've taken is the universally hated Games for Windows Live platform (I am not judging GFWL personally, but we can at least agree that most gamers think it a blight at least, I think).

So stacked against their very real actions against PC gaming, we have some PR talk and a buggy, disliked games platform. So yes, you are likely right in that in the depths of Microsoft's massive corporate bureaucracy there is a desire to see PC gaming do better, and to their advantage of course. However, the extent of that desire, or the weight it carries within their corporate framework, obviously pales in comparison to the desires to keep it down to benefit the Xbox.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Well, they love to stall don't they? No matter how many times the claim is made, nothing's been shown for it, and anything seeming like progress is poorly received and poorly implemented.

Perhaps Microsoft just isn't good at any gaming-oriented developments, and has simply become a marketing behemoth. They've done nothing to keep their word to gamers (< generalising) in years, and I doubt now/years from now will be the start of it. They're just good at milking money from people and using their brand-power, not at serving the gaming community; third-party companies aside.

Go ahead, prove me wrong, Microsoft. I could use the surprise.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

It will probably contain some DX version for better graphics that no one wants. This DX version cannot be ported by the Microsoft engineers to previous Windows versions due to multiple reasons, the biggest one being greed.

Other than that, I don't know what the hell they could do. I don't want them to pre-install community crap software or download services. Look, I'm an Apple user. I already got to deal with Apple sneaking in the iStore in iTunes, but atleast I can turn that off.

 

[crazypsyko666]

I'll tell you why I've stopped laughing about Microsoft making PC games legitimate, and it's because they still have Xbox 360 exclusives, not MICROSOFT exclusives. That would be something I could do. Why is any non-exclusive or Xbox exclusive game NOT on PC? It's just more money for the developers, regardless of cost and time. This has been proven over and over again.


So here's the deal, Microsoft, if you want to show us that PC gaming is in your best interests, start now. Not in another two years, because I'm not waiting for you.

 

[Delusibeta]

What's everyone's beef with GFWL? I've used it for Fallout 3 and haven't had any problems with it. I just use it to keep track of my achievements.

It's prone to not working. Also, the shopping interface is notoriously rubbish. Did you know that there's an Achievement Remover mod for Fallout 3?

 

[LoganN]

Valve does, though. Valve has a huge majority of the digital distrubition market when it comes to games. Estimates are in the high eighty percent. Plus, Valve's software is bundled with games, and required to be installed and used to play those games.

I don't see why they couldn't bundle their own software with their own software.

Because Steam isn't a requirement to run your PC, or play video games. Windows is. And if MS integrates a digital distribution system with their Operating System, which is used by over 90% of PC users, you can argue that that's an unfair use of their Operating System's vast marketshare to take over another market. Because how can Valve compete with a product directly integrated into the Windows operating system?

On certain games Steam IS a requirement. You can't install some games without it and an account, and you can't play them if you remove Steam later. You can install GFWL without an account, but you still can't remove it later and expect to play. Microsoft is going to have a full app store with the next version of Windows, so things will get interesting. I can't see Valve sueing them while they have the majority of the market, and I don't see their market shrinking any. So, unless Valve goes out of buisness, Microsoft will be able to impliment it by default in Windows 8, or they will just add it in a service pack all the same.

 

[Togusa09]

They've been saying they're making a push back into PC gaming for years... Failing each time... Well, except direct X, but the games for windows live initiative is going badly.

If they want to to encourage people back to PC gaming, they should try and open up the platform. Make it so the games pabe windows can interface with multiple online services like media player can, and get rid of the month it takes to deploy patches.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

How? By making new games require windows 8 via Directx restrictions?

If their idea of 'for games & gamers' is anything like GFWL then I really wish they'd spare us the effort.