Jamie McKane
MyGaming Journalist
Windows 10 will ruin PC gaming: Game developer
This is how Windows 10 will destroy PC Gaming.
This is how Windows 10 will destroy PC Gaming.
Windows 10 will ruin PC gaming: Game developer
- Thread starter Jamie McKane
- Start date
DieGrootHammer
Daddy TK
It's no secret that Tim Sweeney doesn't like Microsoft and what they are doing with UWP. He's been at the forefront of criticizing them every chance he's had. It also sounds like he is motivated by a more emotional agenda than a logical, objective one. Thus, I think he is over exaggerating the intentions of Microsoft.
UWP is not the enemy in my opinion. For years Steam has enjoyed a pretty much uncontested monopoly of the PC gaming market, and for good reason. The Steam platform pretty much saved PC gaming from itself in 2004, and they've continued to make PC gaming issues irrelevant with every iteration. But we all will agree that Steam is far from perfect. In fact, there are more controversies creeping out almost every day, probably not all Valve's fault, but definitely part of the environment Steam has created.
UWP will be positioned as a competitor to Steam, not a replacement. Microsoft has at least one person smart enough to know that they will alienate their entire target market if they so much as hurt their precious Steam platform. Microsoft will have more than 22 million angry users actively avoiding their products should they go after Steam in such a cynical way. It would be the worst business strategic decision of all time if Microsoft did that. No, UWP will emerge as a competitor, and Microsoft will leverage their Xbox Live user base and their Xbox integration as the initial pull onto their platform. gradually they will add more and more titles outside of Xbox and Microsoft Studio titles, probably start a price war with Steam, and take on the platform in that way.
And this is not a bad thing. With genuine competition from Microsoft, Steam will be forced to use their unending pile of money to innovate even more, and in retaliation Microsoft will try and will our hearts with even more functionality. In both scenarios we as gamers win, as we get better platforms and better features.
Tim Sweeney is cynical and emotional in his thinking.
UWP is not the enemy in my opinion. For years Steam has enjoyed a pretty much uncontested monopoly of the PC gaming market, and for good reason. The Steam platform pretty much saved PC gaming from itself in 2004, and they've continued to make PC gaming issues irrelevant with every iteration. But we all will agree that Steam is far from perfect. In fact, there are more controversies creeping out almost every day, probably not all Valve's fault, but definitely part of the environment Steam has created.
UWP will be positioned as a competitor to Steam, not a replacement. Microsoft has at least one person smart enough to know that they will alienate their entire target market if they so much as hurt their precious Steam platform. Microsoft will have more than 22 million angry users actively avoiding their products should they go after Steam in such a cynical way. It would be the worst business strategic decision of all time if Microsoft did that. No, UWP will emerge as a competitor, and Microsoft will leverage their Xbox Live user base and their Xbox integration as the initial pull onto their platform. gradually they will add more and more titles outside of Xbox and Microsoft Studio titles, probably start a price war with Steam, and take on the platform in that way.
And this is not a bad thing. With genuine competition from Microsoft, Steam will be forced to use their unending pile of money to innovate even more, and in retaliation Microsoft will try and will our hearts with even more functionality. In both scenarios we as gamers win, as we get better platforms and better features.
Tim Sweeney is cynical and emotional in his thinking.
Jan
Grand Poobah
Very good post!
Just the threat of Microsoft encroaching on Steam's domain has caused Valve to invest in the development of Linux as a gaming platform. Speculation is that GabeN wanted another OS waiting in the wings just in case Microsoft does not have that one smart person.
So, in short:
- It will hurt Windows immeasurably if they break Steam while it is so popular. With the pretty decent MacOS and Debian/Ubuntu Linux support Steam enjoys now, Valve will actively encourage people to switch operating systems.
- Already the competition in the field has been great. Just the fear that Microsoft might close off Windows like iOS and Windows Phone has encouraged Valve to invest in supporting Linux (if the speculation is true). It has done more for gaming on Linux than decades of activism ever has.
Blazzok
New member
Not to mention that Steam is a Win32 application, and for Microsoft to "break" Steam, they have to break Win32, which is a problem. A lot of Microsoft's own programs and applications are still Win32, even Explorer is Win32. So if they do something to Win32 to try and affect Steam, they will be affecting their own OS as well.
Even if Windows was not reliant on Win32 though, and Steam was, why would they do it? Like [MENTION=9789]DieGrootHammer[/MENTION] said, they will just screw up their user base. Microsoft has also been driving backwards compatibility for forever, that is why you can still play Doom and Quake on Windows 10, so if they break Win32 to mess up Steam, out the window goes all that backwards compatibility, and not just for gamers, for a lot of companies still using older software. Companies who buy Windows are a much larger market for Microsoft than gamers, so all that revenue would be lost.
In the very unlikely event that MS did decide to break Win32, Valve could just release Steam as a UWP app that is side-loaded and it would work fine.
Even if Windows was not reliant on Win32 though, and Steam was, why would they do it? Like [MENTION=9789]DieGrootHammer[/MENTION] said, they will just screw up their user base. Microsoft has also been driving backwards compatibility for forever, that is why you can still play Doom and Quake on Windows 10, so if they break Win32 to mess up Steam, out the window goes all that backwards compatibility, and not just for gamers, for a lot of companies still using older software. Companies who buy Windows are a much larger market for Microsoft than gamers, so all that revenue would be lost.
In the very unlikely event that MS did decide to break Win32, Valve could just release Steam as a UWP app that is side-loaded and it would work fine.
blaaislaai
New member
I will not worry too much about this, there's been always methods around things. Besides, STEAM can just release updates to counter the anti-steam patches from MS.
Or just keep your windows updates disabled, like I did
Or just keep your windows updates disabled, like I did
Sweepslag
New member
I will not worry too much about this, there's been always methods around things. Besides, STEAM can just release updates to counter the anti-steam patches from MS.
Or just keep your windows updates disabled, like I did
Turning off Windows update is never a good idea. Malware spreaders specifically look for outdated machines with known vulnerabilities.
But hey, if you want to risk the security of your entire system based on a rumour with no facts to back it up, go right ahead...
