Win 8 a 'walled garden' for digital games distribution?

[sandman2575]

I was just idly browsing the internets and came across this -- I guess I didn't know it wasn't only endusers who were unhappy about Windows 8.  But the sentence in bold really caught my attention:

"Several key developers in the gaming community have made it perfectly clear that they're either not seeing a reason to upgrade to Windows 8 anytime soon, or that they see the new OS as a huge catastrophe waiting to be unleashed. There's also fear that Microsoft is creating a walled garden, that it hopes to push all software exclusively through its Windows Store, shutting out platforms like Steam and Origin.

"If Microsoft decides to lock down Windows 8, it would be very, very bad for indie games and competition in general," said Minecraft creator and founder of Mojang, Markus "Notch" Persson."

Some choice quotes:

"The latest backlash against Windows 8 essentially started with Valve's CEO who called the OS a "catastrophe." Blizzard's Rob Pardo seemingly backed up the assessment, saying the new OS wasn't good for Blizzard either. id Software's John Carmack sees no benefit of upgrading to Windows 8, and Stardock's Wardell used words like "schizophrenic," "obnoxious," and "nightmare" when describing the OS earlier this year."

(And this from the usually even-keeled and understated Brad Wardell!!)

As someone who has really come to love Steam, this struck me as a tad ominous.  Thoughts?  Reason to worry, or tempest in a teapot?

(btw, this is not exactly news, an article form Aug. '12:  http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-8-Gaming-developers-Stardock-Newell,16788.html  Still, I found it interesting.)

[smittyohio]

I don't see it happening... I think the "monopoly police" would put a stop to it before it got going.   At least I hope they would...

[tgb]

All I know is I had to buy a new rig last weekend and had no choice but to go with 8.  Once I got used to it, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would.  One of the first things I did was purchase StarDrive off of Steam, and had no issues doing so.

[Kushan]

I haven't found a single one of my games that doesn't run perfectly fine on Win8. I think this whole thing of MS creating a walled garden got started when they announced they were not going to allow M rated games on the MS App Store, and since then has been blown way out of proportion. I just don't see MS cutting their own throat my locking down any version of Windows and prevent any 3rd party software from being installed. They may continue to block games/software on the the MS app store, but who uses that anyway?

[Longdan]

I just look at MS's past behavior.  You cannot trust them to act in your interest unless they have a reason.
That's all.  I hope for the best. 

[Zulu1966]

Yes - but Windows 8 is not the issue. Its what is going to heppen with windows 9. Windows 8 is just windows 7 with a bolt on. Likely windows 9 will be a beast all its own. I can quite easily see them going this route, just cause it seems stupid to us - doesnt mean they see it that way.

[Zulu1966]

They may continue to block games/software on the the MS app store, but who uses that anyway?

And thats entirely the problem.

[sandman2575]

I don't want to give the impression that I think some conspiracy is afoot here.  When you stop to think of it, it seems pretty logical that MS would, in an ideal world, want to muscle out Steam and co. to grab that territory for their own.  The question is, from their standpoint, is it worth alienating customers to do so?  This is a longstanding concern of MS's I'm sure -- they'd love to eliminate the Firefoxes (and Googles) of the world and see everyone happily using Explorer and Bing.  They've gotten in trouble in the past for trying (litigation, anti-trust etc.) --

I think they must look at Apple's business model with envy -- it's interesting that Win 8 has a decidedly "OS X" feel to it.  They must look at iTunes and think, 'god, wouldn't it be great to corner your customer base into having to use our distribution for, you know, everything.'  That Steam must be in MS's gunsights isn't too surprising -- although I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Steam is headed for extinction or anything like that.

Time to move to Ubuntu ... ?   :)

[Staggerwing]

DYI Steamboxes. There's one on my middle distance To-Do List.

[sandman2575]

^interesting -- I wasn't aware of the Steambox idea.  Looks like the PC / console convergence is moving right along...

[renobe]

I haven't found a single one of my games that doesn't run perfectly fine on Win8. I think this whole thing of MS creating a walled garden got started when they announced they were not going to allow M rated games on the MS App Store, and since then has been blown way out of proportion. I just don't see MS cutting their own throat my locking down any version of Windows and prevent any 3rd party software from being installed. They may continue to block games/software on the the MS app store, but who uses that anyway?

I am wondering if the gamers who stated they are having no problems with Win 8 are playing only games that have been published recently an not the  older games. I also think that wargamers dont have a proper perspective on their value to Microsoft and the computor industry. Wargaming software is only a very very small part of the computor industry. The vast majority of people use their computors for business, web surfing, e-mailing ,photos, and watching vidios on line.

[Nefaro]

I think they must look at Apple's business model with envy -- it's interesting that Win 8 has a decidedly "OS X" feel to it.  They must look at iTunes and think, 'god, wouldn't it be great to corner your customer base into having to use our distribution for, you know, everything.'  That Steam must be in MS's gunsights isn't too surprising -- although I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Steam is headed for extinction or anything like that.

Time to move to Ubuntu ... ?   :)

Indeed.

But MS has also enjoyed far more widespread use due to being a much more open system than Apple's iron-fisted tendencies.  There's more than one reason Apple's OS/computers aren't used by a majority, but a large part of it is that MS systems have been so much more open.

If MS believes they want to take on Apple at it's own over-priced locked-down proprietary tendencies, then it will only hurt them as they'd be forsaking one of their strengths.

[Huw the Poo]

Time to move to Ubuntu ... ?   :)

Linux, yes.  Ubuntu, no. ;)

[jejo68]

I haven't found a single one of my games that doesn't run perfectly fine on Win8. I think this whole thing of MS creating a walled garden got started when they announced they were not going to allow M rated games on the MS App Store, and since then has been blown way out of proportion. I just don't see MS cutting their own throat my locking down any version of Windows and prevent any 3rd party software from being installed. They may continue to block games/software on the the MS app store, but who uses that anyway?

I am wondering if the gamers who stated they are having no problems with Win 8 are playing only games that have been published recently an not the  older games. I also think that wargamers dont have a proper perspective on their value to Microsoft and the computor industry. Wargaming software is only a very very small part of the computor industry. The vast majority of people use their computors for business, web surfing, e-mailing ,photos, and watching vidios on line.

dont forget porn  :)

[Staggerwing]

Time to move to Ubuntu ... ?   :)

Linux, yes.  Ubuntu, no. ;)

Why not Ubuntu? It seems much easier on the Linux n00bs than other 'distros'. Is there another that we neophytes should be checking out, assuming we are not eager to type 'sudo' more than once a week?