The lights are on
Valve's Gabe Newell has announced his displeasure with the upcoming Windows 8, because he believes it will lead to a more closed platform.
Speaking to Ed Fries at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle, Newell expressed his opinion when talking about having options when it comes to different platforms (including the company's expansion into Linux) and the openness of those platforms. Newell believes that Windows 8 in particular will make the PC more of a closed system. "I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space," said Newell. "I think that we’re going to lose some of the top-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They’ll exit the market. I think margins are going to be destroyed for a bunch of people."
Although Newell doesn't go into specifics of what he finds so offensive, Microsoft is putting more strict hardware requirements on machines that are licensed to run Windows 8, and the tablet version (Windows RT) exclusively runs software purchased through Microsoft's app store. These requirements could make it harder for companies like Dell who rely on lower-end hardware. Also, Newell's Steam store front will be locked out of Windows RT, similarly to how everything for Apple's iOS has to go through that company.
Windows 8 comes out on October 26.
For more of Newell's comments at the conference, head over to Venture Beat.
Email the author Matthew Kato, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Gabe Newell has no neck... and that is a catastrophe itself. I'm not hating on his comment, I couldn't care less about this news. Mac is where it's at anyways
Indeed.
The week this software releases, all those tiles will be replaced with soda and car advertisements.
I've used the Windows8 RP and the OS is garbage. I hope its an epic fail. I know I'm not buying it.
Well it looks like I am going to be using Windows 7 until it is either discontinued or my Xbox can print and run an Office Suite.
I have the Windows 8 preview, and from what i can tell the only major difference between win 7 and win 8 is that fancy block start screen, other than that it seems like a waste of money to upgrade.
I can run win 7 for the next 10 years if i have to. I works great with windows loader :-}
Is that picture what Windows 8 looks like? Wow that does look pretty horrible. Bring back MS-DOS !! C:
no need for an upgarde
Another reason why I greatly despise Microsoft.
here's a great suggestion.
Keep old UI, maybe spiff it up a bit.
make everything else better! :D
From what I've seen I'd rather stick with W7 just because I'm more familiar with it and it has the same desktop layout as previous versions so I'm used to it but W8 really doesn't look bad at all.
Gabe Newell looks like a fat harry potter
yeah, i cont get into Windows 8, the UI is worse than MacOS. on a touchscreen it makes sense but anywhere else it just looks dumb
Meh, I can live with it. I have 3 PC's, so I will upgrade one of them
I like a clean desktop, this looks like its exactly the opposite of what that is 0_o I'll check it out just for curiosity sake but I've had no problems with 7, I'll just stay put.
Wow. I was dead set on getting a PC for the next gen. Now I don't know what I want to do. BTW, I think Windows 8 looks like another insipid and bland design choice from Microsoft. This is what Apple has done to the world. Microsoft is trying to be Apple now. I hope Linux really takes off in the gaming community.
DID YOU KNOW: When you buy a physical copy of a Steamworks game, you are unable to sell it or play it on a computer that doesn't have your Steam account. You own the game, but you have no ownership rights.