Does windows 8 bring anything to PC Gamers?

Reading about the DRM heavy app store makes me wonder whether a PC running a future Windows version will only startup and work if permanently connected to the internet.

Any off-line laptop usage will have to be approved and a connection to the internet required every 12 hours for re-evaluation of continued off-line usage.

All deltas on the hard drive will be scanned before being moved to the cloud, where all data will be sold to the Far East or the highest bidder (preferably both).
 
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"The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don’t realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior," says Valve's Gabe Newell as quoted on AllThingsD. "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. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, 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."
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I think Win8 was made specifically for gamers. Why else make it so puzzling to use. ;-)

To be fair I think 8 is a nice incremental upgrade from 7 in all respects. Except Metro. As soon as they supply an on/off switch for it they can have my money. But I expect to have my money for quite a while. Possibly until Win9. Or at least until the board fires Ballmer.

Gabe's comments are interesting. You wouldn't expect him to be so critical in public.
 
I think Windows 8 is an interesting advance, but sadly it's been plagued with Vista syndrome - the whole Internet is complaining again. :p Would have been a better idea to use this as a transition OS where the old option is still available, but not set as default.

I've dabbled with Linux before - the problem is, people just want their OS to work (wonder why Apple is so successful?); Linux still has quite patchy driver support in some areas, and a good number of problems required some convoluted terminal commands. :p

GNOME and KDE have shot themselves in the foot recently (esp. GNOME with their new interface), so decent fully-fledged window managers are slightly had to come by.

Apart from these issues, it's a solid OS. I would certainly go back if there was better driver and application support.
 
Can't help but feel that Microsoft are starting heading towards a slippery slope with Windows 8. The more they head in this closed metro direction the more viable Linux distros will become, if Windows 9 continues on the same path I can see a widespread shift to Linux happening.

I think that would be a great thing actually, I'm just surprised that Microsoft would even let there be a risk of that happening. They must think their place at the top is safer then it is.
 
Shaddow said:
Is anyone running this and playing BF3 - Any problems with Punkbuster?

That was one of the issues I hit when I upgrading to Win7 Release candidate; the Punkbuster guys point bank refused to support pre-release OS; then they took an age once the Final was released.
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I had no issues with bf3 or punk buster. The only games I have issues with are la noire and the walking dead. Everything else has been problem free.

My mate had just built a machine with windows 8 which was running a laptop harddrive. It was a lesser spec machine compared to his main desktop which was running a sad and windows 7. The difference in boot speed was quite large. I was surprised
 
m4rk84 said:
Can't help but feel that Microsoft are starting heading towards a slippery slope with Windows 8. The more they head in this closed metro direction the more viable Linux distros will become, if Windows 9 continues on the same path I can see a widespread shift to Linux happening.

I think that would be a great thing actually, I'm just surprised that Microsoft would even let there be a risk of that happening. They must think their place at the top is safer then it is.
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As nice as this would be, I don't think it's going to happen, for gamers anyway. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation really, revolving around directx. High budget console games will always run directx, therefore PC ports are written using directx. To get developers to port games to opengl, there has to be a significant linux market to make it financially viable, which would only exist if gamers had all their games on linux.

Of course there are some people who will move over. Personally I intend to dual boot and install steam as soon as valve release the client, mainly to show my support :). However, if windows 8 is a flop then people will stick with windows 7, just like with XP and vista.
 
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AWPC said:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/25/g...s-a-catastrophe-for-everyone-in-the-pc-space/
Gabe Newell has spoken ;)
"I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people.”
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This post in the comments I thought was particularly relevant :

What Gabe is talking about is the fact that Windows 8 will have a software store included in Windows. In effect Microsoft will have six times the amount of current Steam accounts within one year of Windows 8′s release (Expected sales are in the ballpark of 350 million licenses sold for Windows 8 in the first year), and thats just the first year.
So of course he is worried. What happens once Microsoft is ready to take the same 30% cut Gabe does now? Microsoft already has an offering across devices, but it’s not yet ready (As I see it anyhow) to be a total digital distribution network for all devices that uses Microsoft software.
But is that the direction Microsoft is pushing it? You bet! And they have a much larger developing muscle than Valve does, so Gabe is worried for his business, and with good reason.
He should just be more specific, and more honest that that is his issue
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All well and good if it's competition for Steam, but it's Internet Explorer all over again - default content store being shipped with windows giving MS an advantage over other content providers.
 
|Thomas| said:
As nice as this would be, I don't think it's going to happen, for gamers anyway. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation really, revolving around directx. High budget console games will always run directx, therefore PC ports are written using directx. To get developers to port games to opengl, there has to be a significant linux market to make it financially viable, which would only exist if gamers had all their games on linux.

Of course there are some people who will move over. Personally I intend to dual boot and install steam as soon as valve release the client, mainly to show my support :). However, if windows 8 is a flop then people will stick with windows 7, just like with XP and vista.
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I can see your point, however there is hope. It's widely rumoured that Playstation4 uses the OpenGL library for development rather then DirectX.

This could turn out to be an extremely clever move for both Sony and Valve who have demonstrated a working relationship before. With Valve focusing on steam for Linux and Sony focusing on the home console market.

The use of OpenGL in the Playstation4 would be the exact tie needed to push more games onto Linux.
 
m4rk84 said:
I can see your point, however there is hope. It's widely rumoured that Playstation4 uses the OpenGL library for development rather then DirectX.

This could turn out to be an extremely clever move for both Sony and Valve who have demonstrated a working relationship before. With Valve focusing on steam for Linux and Sony focusing on the home console market.

The use of OpenGL in the Playstation4 would be the exact tie needed to push more games onto Linux.
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I hadn't heard of this, that's very interesting! Indeed it could be an important move for linux if it is true :)
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Brave speaking out against Microsoft.

Will probably wait for a while before upgrading to Win8.
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Not really as Gabe is a maverick & always has been he is probably a billionaire several times over noawadays if the 30% Valve slice of Steam sales is anything to go by thats a huge amount of money :eek: as least we all know Gabe would never sell to MS he used to work there & has spoken out many times in the past.

Google are the most likely buyer for Valve if anyone.
 
Sleepery said:
This post in the comments I thought was particularly relevant :



All well and good if it's competition for Steam, but it's Internet Explorer all over again - default content store being shipped with windows giving MS an advantage over other content providers.
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I doubt 350m will happen thats ludicrous marketing speak from MS if they get 50% of that even with massive discounts & letting tier1 vendors have it for free on their new device I would be amazed.

This will be Zune the Sequel & its not just Valve who would lose out the indie devs may struggle to ignore the money from MS for making their game Win8 as that means they do not need to do much to also release the same title on MS Surface Tablets/XBLA/WP7 as Xbox LIVE For Windows 8 is identical code so no more need to code a different online service for each platform MS have done it already under the hood (like they should have done with GFWL :().

2-3 years time I would worry but not much will change before then too much money in PC gaming as it is in 2012 when nextgen consoles hit however that could gamechange things a lot :eek:
 
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