[Steam] Valve's latest on Windows vs Linux

[Ciuco]

Doesn't matter which path it takes it will always meet a monster (Monopoly)

[hoppy]

Is it any different to PC games being impacted by console games?

The developers go where the $$ are, and from what I hear, Linux does not have a large footprint on desktops.

[hadrian6616]

If i was a game developer i would only make games for consoles and markets.

[Drac]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Ditch what has been used to make games for the last 7+ years??

The only devices that use DirectX are Windows PCs and Xbox. Macs, Linux, Playstations, Nintendos, every phone and tablet - all Open GL. And even before Direct X, games were made using Open GL (Quake ect). Hell even Halo started life as an Open GL game on the Mac.

Direct X should have had really gained a foothold to begin with. It being proprietary is why Carmack never really liked using it. Also, it's nothing more than a rendering API, not a game making tool in any real sense of the term.

[Father]

They would be better off taking MS to court over Windows 8 and it's intentions for limiting its sales via its own app store as I think it would be a much bigger case then the browser wars ever were. Fundamentally it is uncompetitive and unlike the xbox which is a closed platform the PC is not, does that mean that Windows is allowed to be, I don't know.

I can not really ever see Linux take off as a gaming platform, it's not a mainstream OS and maybe PC gamers aren't mainstream no way that all those millions of users on Steam are all hardcore enough to geek around with Linux in order to play game, imagine one computer families which use it for home office stuff like email and what not to all of a sudden start dual booting their systems in order to play a game.
My neighbour is a console gamer, has a pc mainly for exactly that, runs his invoicing application, his printer works on it, checks the internet and email in outlook.
I could probably get him onto Steam but onto Linux!!!!
Would love to see it happen, hell I work in webhosting this work with Unix/Linux all the time but I am very sceptical to say the least.

DX is indeed another big problem, sure there is OpenGL but face it tons of games are developed for the xbox which is a DirectX system making a port to PC easy, I can't see these devs recoding in order to run on Linux under OpenGL, not sure how much is involved as admittedly I'm no gamedev.

With gaming and system like Steam being such a massive thing in the PC world surely driving sales of windows and hardware one can only imagine the type of overpaid managers at MS that are making decisions.

Basically I don't think that MS really cares at all about PC gaming, they care about their old business model falling victim to technology innovations from Apple and Google and trying to compete with them.
By all means go ahead MS in doing so as competition is a good thing but with PC gaming being such a lucrative thing why on earth would you ignore that market for which you still provide the foundations for today and with more and more games becoming available on OSX now I can even see MS losing ground there. Lets face it what does Windows 8 offer the PC gaming market, absolutely nothing, the only time they did think about PC gamers was when they said lets force them to Win8 by making future version of DX exclusive to it.

MS you have lost every possible respect I ever had for you!

[xenoph]

Originally Posted by Father

I can not really ever see Linux take off as a gaming platform, it's not a mainstream OS and maybe PC gamers aren't mainstream no way that all those millions of users on Steam are all hardcore enough to geek around with Linux in order to play game, imagine one computer families which use it for home office stuff like email and what not to all of a sudden start dual booting their systems in order to play a game.

Mainstream gaming platform, perhaps not. But would the number of users increase? Yes, I would think so. I know a lot of people that would've happily used Linux, but they don't because they're gamers and can't play what they want there.
And I also know a lot of Linux users who refuse, on principle, to buy games and run through Wine/Crossover, but they would happily buy and support native games.

[MadMax]

I was thinking that if M$ causes game developers to start abandoning the PC then they'd become even more console-centric, and then less people would buy PCs, and therefore less sales of Windows, and shoot themselves in the foot.

But the flip side of that is more people would buy Xbox 360s I guess.