Windows 8 – You Fail So Hard…
Dear Microsoft,
I love most of your hardware products, and the fact that your founder is one of the wealthiest people in the world.
What I don’t understand, is how you are about to release a revolutionary operating system that a few “key” players in the gaming industry are already poo pooing on.
Just take a minute and think about this before releasing Windows 8 please.
- The Angry Asian
Here are the actual statements from the people that are already poo pooing on Windows 8.
Rob Pardo (VP of Game Design for Diablo 3) on his Twitter account stated : “nice interview with Gabe Newell – “I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space* – not awesome for Blizzard either ”
An excerpt from The Register:
First it was Gartner, now Gabe Newell, the former Microsoft executive and billionaire computer games baron behind Half-Life, has laid into Windows 8.
Newell, who oversaw the first three versions of Windows under Bill Gates among other roles during his 13 years at the software giant, has reportedly called the touchscreen-friendly Windows 8 a “catastrophe for everyone in the PC space”.
Speaking at Casual Connect in Seattle, Washington, All Things D rather meekly reports Newell prophesied the death of some companies that today are happily churning out PCs running the Windows operating system.
He is reported to have told the audience: “I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC OEMs [manufacturers], who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.”
That alternative, apparently, is the open-source operating system Linux. Newell explained why his company – Valve Software, which he co-founded with ex-Microsoftie Mike Harrington in 1996 – is interested in putting its games on something other than Windows. He also wants to make titles in Valve’s online store Steam available for Linux users. In The Reg’s recent live chat with the boss of Linux distribution Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth, there were plenty of penguin-powered punters hoping for a Ubuntu-Steam tie-up.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It’s a hedging strategy,” Newell is reported to have said.
Steam is believed to make up 70 per cent of the digital game distribution market with 40 million users on its books. Today it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android.
So there you have it. To Face Palm, or not Face Palm?
What say you? Let us know here at NewbCast Gaming. Comment and tell us where you lie
About the Author: AngryAsian
Executive Producer for NewbCast Gaming. Used to get payed to party, but now hates going to clubs.
Ordained 10/14/2012 shoot me an email if you want me to officiate your wedding = D 
I actually enjoy using Windows 8, as I’m running it on a production machine right now without any problems. Mr. Newell is the only key player right now actually stating that Windows 8 will be a “catastrophe.”
The reason why he’s stating this is because Microsoft will be including an app store in Windows 8. Inside that app store, games. What does Mr. Newell’s company distributes via their own app store? Games. Essentially what’s he’s complaining about is that unless people are smart, they won’t be downloading Valve’s Steam to acquire their games on their Windows machines, but instead will be using the Windows 8 app store to acquire them, thus cutting into some potential profits.
What I think Mr. Newell fails to understand is that if Valve can continue to deliver a superior product and service, the Windows 8 App Store won’t be the big threat as he’s making it out to be.
It’s interesting that the author would continue to spread this story around like the other blog outlets without presenting the real reason why Mr. Newell made this comment to begin with, which almost 99% of the other blogs have also failed to do.
Paul Thurrott, Mary Jo Foely, and Leo Laporte breaks this story down during episode 271 of Windows Weekly, which can be found at http://www.twit.tv/ww It’s a good show to listen to if you’re wanting to understand the why behind the why in all things Microsoft.