More Companies Think That Windows 8 is a Gaming Catastrophe
Three days ago we reported that Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Software called Windows 8 a “catastrophe” for gaming. Now, Blizzard executive vice president of game design at the Diablo 3 studio, Rob Pardo, has agreed with him in a tweet, “nice interview with Gabe Newell – “I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space* – not awesome for Blizzard either”
So, that’s two major games companies just slightly less than keen about Windows for gaming, to put it mildly. Back in March, Stardock, another major player in PC gaming, made its thoughts known too. Stardock president and CEO, Brad Wardell, wrote an editorial damning the Windows 8 desktop experience and by extension, gaming.
At the bottom of all this is the Metro interface and the way it closes off the platform by forcing all software purchases to be made through the Microsoft Store, which Microsoft takes a massive 30% cut of all sales. With all this negativity from major players, it’s not looking too great for Windows 8, is it?
“There’s a strong temptation to close the platform,” Newell said, “because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors’ access to the platform, and they say, ‘That’s really exciting.'”
This appears to reference to the Windows Store in the Microsoft operating system, which could restrict companies’ options to sell their software directly. Microsoft will take a 30 per cent royalty cut of every sale made through this store.
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