News - Valve says a "catastrophe" and Blizzard says "not awesome"

[HEXUS]

Microsoft isn't receiving much love for its upcoming Windows 8 OS and App Store.

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[lanham192]

but apple has been like that for ages and these company's have wasted no time in getting their games out on mac. so I don't understand what they are complaining about.
although Microsoft are doing themselves no favours by charging 30% on a platform no one wants to develop on as it is. they should drop it 20% and give out copy's of RT for free to OEMs so they can compete on a fair playing field. if and when windows RT picks up maybe then look at making money from it. if Microsoft don't stop the rot soon they will find themselves completely out of the race.

[axis09]

well time for a Valve_OS then Gabe

[Brewster0101]

Developers do have options. Don't produce on windows 8 and concentrate on consoles and Linux. I only use windows so I can play the games I want - if I could play them on Linux I would never buy windows again (or any Microsoft package for that matter)

[Hicks12]

must admit the only reason I dont use linux is because hardly any of my games work on it and I dont fancy jumping through hoops (like using wine) just to play a game at worse performance than MS operating systems and less reliably. The next fact is that there isnt anything that comes close to beating Visual studios which I use daily, until that actually works on Linux (doubtful) then I will be on an MS operating system for years to come, I like linux but its just unable to take me from MS as I always need one .

I think valve and Blizzard are just being silly, they seem to have no issues developing for an OS that had only a few % of the market when they went to developing on Mac but now that MS has an operating system that is integrating everything together they kick up a fuss... its most likely due to the fact their console will be a bit fudged if they are actually making it .


Oh and no one is forcing people to develop on Windows, its up to them just as they develop for the Iphone over Android and vice versa, it is their decision... both take cuts! And I think people forget that this 30% is nothing, as the fact is Windows is everywhere so the market potential is huge... its up to developers to decide if its worthwhile and tbh theres a lot of applications for windows so im pretty sure there will be lots and lots.

[blueball]

I wonder if the EU will have something to say about this latest approach by MS. They forced them to unbundle IE etc.

[brasco]

Anyone else read into the fear that win8 is releasing the game store? What exactly is different to developing for win7? Gabe is an ex-MS employee so not surprising he's kicking up a fuss..

[wombat]

Well the only problem is for WindowsRT, can just ignore Metro for the desktop and the x86 slates.

[directhex]

Anyone else read into the fear that win8 is releasing the game store? What exactly is different to developing for win7? Gabe is an ex-MS employee so not surprising he's kicking up a fuss..

Windows app store only accepts Metro apps.

None of Valve or Blizzard's products would be accepted into it, even with heavy rewriting.

There's why they're concerned. They can smell the end of Windows accepting arbitrary third party apps. And the precedent is the Mac app store, which refuses apps without sufficient sandboxing, meaning many apps cannot be published there (and many have been pulled due to the terms getting tighter & tighter, which screws people who buy from the mac app store then their app gets pulled)

[Lee H]

Gabe Newell - I wish he would change the record and shut the hell up.

Back in October 2007 he was hating on the PS3. Then he was hating on the Xbox 360 and every time something new comes out he is whining about it all over the internet.

Until I see HL2:EP3 released he can whine all he wants as its falling on deaf ears.

[kalniel]

Windows app store only accepts Metro apps.

None of Valve or Blizzard's products would be accepted into it, even with heavy rewriting.

There's why they're concerned. They can smell the end of Windows accepting arbitrary third party apps. And the precedent is the Mac app store, which refuses apps without sufficient sandboxing, meaning many apps cannot be published there (and many have been pulled due to the terms getting tighter & tighter, which screws people who buy from the mac app store then their app gets pulled)

Absolutely. Here are two publishers seeing a behemoth entering their domain, they are never going to say it's a good thing.

[directhex]

Absolutely. Here are two publishers seeing a behemoth entering their domain, they are never going to say it's a good thing.

Right. But be aware of what kinds of games can be accepted into the Windows 8 app store (e.g. http://www.armedgame.com/ is the most graphically advanced game written for WinRT and available on the app store). And consider the precedent on pricing from the Games for Windows Marketplace.

[kalniel]

Don't you think there's going to be a tie up with the next MS games console?

[brasco]

Windows app store only accepts Metro apps.

None of Valve or Blizzard's products would be accepted into it, even with heavy rewriting.

So what are they whining about? It's not a threat, everything dx/x86 still runs fine, I don't get it!

[Mblaster]

Don't know what all the fuss is about, for the x86 version of Windows (which in the PC gaming space, is the only one that matters) people can still continue to buy games on DVDs and install, or download and install through 3rd party platforms like Steam.

The easy approach to this is to pretend it doesn't exist, and to continue to market and sell your games exactly as you are now, and not to list your games in the Windows store.

[MattEvansC3]

This all needs to be put in perspective, the people complaining here are;

Valve - The company that changed its T&Cs forcing developers to release their DLC on their store and then taking a 30% cut for the privilege
Blizzard - The company that forced a single player game online so that they could then charge its customers for the privilege of selling their items for real money.

The 30% model was originally pioneered by Valve with the Steam store then adopted by Apple before being adopted by MS. Also Gabe made these comments at a Google sponsored event.