Windows 8 may focus heavily on gaming to recover lost share

the8thark · Dec 27, 2010

Windows 8 may focus heavily on gaming to recover lost share
Windows 8 may focus heavily on gaming to recover lost share | Electronista

So there you go. Maybe Windows 8 will be a gamers paradise. Pretty much what all hardcore gamers want. But try to do some actual work and your so outta luck. At least Apple understand that gaming and actual work need to be catered for by the OS.

And another thing. Say they are really pushing their windows 8 futures to game on their PC. What about the Xbox? That's like promoting one arm of your company to the detriment of another. Bad idea by MS.

baggss · Dec 27, 2010

the8thark said:
And another thing. Say they are really pushing their windows 8 futures to game on their PC. What about the Xbox? That's like promoting one arm of your company to the detriment of another. Bad idea by MS.

Maybe they will create "Battling Business Units (BBUs)"!!!

louishen · Dec 27, 2010

plans for tablet optimizations, faster response times, integrated camera support and possibly a fully 3D rendered interface. It isn't due to ship until late 2012.

That's a lot of work to do on Windows, so I expect the late 2012 ship date to slip or some of those features to be quietly dropped. (remember Longhorn)

ezcompane · Dec 27, 2010

louishen said:
That's a lot of work to do on Windows, so I expect the late 2012 ship date to slip or some of those features to be quietly dropped. (remember Longhorn)

I certainly remember Longhorn. Still makes me wonder who thought it was a good idea to drop Longhorn and go through with Vista. I guess it was great for Apple seeing as Vista made me drop MS and go with OSX.

cwa107 · Dec 27, 2010

ezcompane said:
I certainly remember Longhorn. Still makes me wonder who thought it was a good idea to drop Longhorn and go through with Vista. I guess it was great for Apple seeing as Vista made me drop MS and go with OSX.

Longhorn = Vista, minus a few ambitious features that Microsoft deemed unnecessary in order to hasten the release. Of those dropped features, WinFS was probably the most important and still sorely needed.

iWhat · Dec 27, 2010

Steam has made lots of headway, a big plus is its variety of games for many of the OS platforms. It's going to be another uphill battle for Microsoft.

TattooedMac · Dec 27, 2010

Is there really that many *gamers* out there for MS to make a OS dedicated to gaming ?? And as the 8thark stated

But try to do some actual work and your so outta luck.

is MS shooting them self in the foot ?? Trying to please 1 genre of people and leaving the others out ....
Considering Steve Ballmer's comment of it being a big gamble

Windows 8 has been characterized by Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer as a big gamble

SweetCosmicPope · Dec 27, 2010

I've always thought of PC gaming as more of a subculture. I don't have statistics, so this is all conjecture, but I would suspect that console gaming is the king, and PC gaming is not only a subculture of THAT genre, but of PC use, as a whole.

Assuming this rumor is correct, and Windows 8 will be dedicated to gaming, I think this is a terrible idea.

Now, a gaming flavor would be a great idea, IMO. Windows does their flavors, anyway, so here's my proposition.

Work with hardware makers to create barebones windows systems, perfect for surfing and checking e-mail, perhaps making a word document. Maybe even try to make it a tablet in the vein of the iPad, which is admittedly the extent of what most PC users need. If MS can master the shortcomings of the iPad, and not create their own, they may have a golden goose.

Make the productivity version. Specifically designed for creation, including editing suites and what-not, and optimized for capture cards and high end video/audio.

Then make the gaming version. Similar to the productivity version, but less built-in software taking up space and possibly resources, and optimized to take advantage of high frame-rates, and exclusively for 64 bit systems to use extremely high amounts of RAM.

Oh yeah, and get rid of Ballmer. He seems to think he's some kind of visionary, but he sounds like he knows absolutely nothing about technology or what people want in their software and hardware.

Edit: I meant to comment on the risk thing.

I think risk would be a good thing for MS. They need to take a risk, otherwise they're going to keep doing the same old thing. You can't innovate without a risk, and innovation is desperately needed at MS, right now. I suspect that it has less to do with gaming than it does with MS going full blown 64 bit and dropping legacy support. That would be my guess, anyway.

iggibar · Dec 27, 2010

Correct me if I'm wrong, but people aren't ditching Windows because of their lack of gaming...LOL. I don't think making gaming better, will fix the problems that made people ditch Windows in the first place! And as long as bootcamp exists, they'll also be helping Apple.

XJ-linux · Dec 27, 2010

Should be interesting. I LOVE competition amongst OSs. Good for the consumer and requires the hiring of new talent and new developers. Anyhow, I've never had trouble doing any "actual work" in the enterprise world on a Windows system so I hope that doesn't change. We just moved to Win7 and Office 2010 so I''m guessing my employer will pass on this one.

the8thark · Dec 28, 2010

XJ-linux said:
Should be interesting. I LOVE competition amongst OSs. Good for the consumer and requires the hiring of new talent and new developers. Anyhow, I've never had trouble doing any "actual work" in the enterprise world on a Windows system so I hope that doesn't change. We just moved to Win7 and Office 2010 so I''m guessing my employer will pass on this one.

That is my point exactly. Like you a lot of the enterprise market might skip this W8 release. And that is a lot of lost profits for MS. And a lot of pointless legacy support for W7 that is so not needed. Cause W8 should be doing the job.

louishen · Dec 28, 2010

TattooedMac said:
Is there really that many *gamers* out there for MS to make a OS dedicated to gaming ??

Seems not, consoles dominate the market, unless most PC game software is pirated

the8thark · Dec 28, 2010

louishen said:
Seems not, consoles dominate the market, unless most PC game software is pirated

You assume MS actually looks at data like this and takes it into account. You might be asking a little too much of MS to do that.

Village Idiot · Dec 28, 2010

I don't see the point. People aren't switching to Apple because of gaming. Steam still doesn't offer all the big name releases on OS X and even some games that should run smooth on the barest of hardware end up running like crap compared to a Windows computer.

And to think that MS would drop functionality in their newest OS and replace it with a gaming oriented mindset is just retarded.

Chris H. · Dec 28, 2010

I'll believe it when I see it…but if Apple is making headway here into Microsoft Windows…look at the Mac App Store coming up…game developers (such as EA) surely aren't going to ignore that because Windows 8 is geared towards gaming.

Village Idiot · Dec 29, 2010

Chris H. said:
I'll believe it when I see it…but if Apple is making headway here into Microsoft Windows…look at the Mac App Store coming up…game developers (such as EA) surely aren't going to ignore that because Windows 8 is geared towards gaming.

Unfortunately the big announcement of gaming coming to OS X a while back by EA was about EA using emulation to get games to run correctly on OS X. Emulation is not substitution for native code, it's never going to work the same as the original.

The reason companies make multiplatform console games (not including the Wii, as it's quite a different beast), is that the 360 and PS3 both share large shares of their market. OS X was never big enough for developers to concentrate on writing code so that their games would run natively after already developing their games to run for Windows. It's just so far behind in developer support, not to mention cutting edge games aren't really good canidates for the OS X platform, because honestly, when you need a top of the line video card (Crysis anyone?) to basically get a game running smooth, you have to look at how many people are likely to own a computer that will be able to run your game. Mac Pro vs. the rest of the line of Apple computers.

ZachUSAman · Jan 2, 2011

I think Microsoft is trying to bring more games back to the PC, as well as knit xbox live and windows live gaming together.

Imagine buying a copy of Mass Effect 2 and being able to enjoy it on both your PC and console.

the8thark · Jan 2, 2011

ZachUSAman said:
Imagine buying a copy of Mass Effect 2 and being able to enjoy it on both your PC and console.

That will never happen without hacking. MS will make sure you have to buy the game 2x to enjoy it on your Xbox and your PC. Mind you if the same disc ran on the PC and Xbox, and you could wirelessly link the save games of the xbox and PC versions so you could pick up where you left off from the Xbox but on the PC or vice versa that'd work really well.

But would MS be smart enough to do this? I do not think so.

Village Idiot said:
OS X was never big enough for developers to concentrate on writing code so that their games would run natively after already developing their games to run for Windows. It's just so far behind in developer support, not to mention cutting edge games aren't really good canidates for the OS X platform, because honestly, when you need a top of the line video card (Crysis anyone?) to basically get a game running smooth, you have to look at how many people are likely to own a computer that will be able to run your game. Mac Pro vs. the rest of the line of Apple computers.

You forget one thing. Target audience. The people who are interested in running games like Crysis with max fps already own their own gaming PC. There is a lot of room for growth in gaming on OS X. But I feel it won't come from the cutting edge graphics games. It'll come from the casual games and games without such a high gpu requirement. World of Warcraft is one very good example. Almost any Mac of the last 5 years with a dedicated gpu can play it well and it's insanely popular. Even with mac users.

Just remember games don't need to be cutting edge graphics wise to be a hit and have a lot of sales.

ZachUSAman · Jan 2, 2011

the8thark said:
That will never happen without hacking. MS will make sure you have to buy the game 2x to enjoy it on your Xbox and your PC. Mind you if the same disc ran on the PC and Xbox, and you could wirelessly link the save games of the xbox and PC versions so you could pick up where you left off from the Xbox but on the PC or vice versa that'd work really well.

But would MS be smart enough to do this? I do not think so.

You forget one thing. Target audience. The people who are interested in running games like Crysis with max fps already own their own gaming PC. There is a lot of room for growth in gaming on OS X. But I feel it won't come from the cutting edge graphics games. It'll come from the casual games and games without such a high gpu requirement. World of Warcraft is one very good example. Almost any Mac of the last 5 years with a dedicated gpu can play it well and it's insanely popular. Even with mac users.

Just remember games don't need to be cutting edge graphics wise to be a hit and have a lot of sales.

Minecraft and DF agree with you whole heartily.
But I'm thinking moreso of people being able to game on their PC and be able to talk and play with people on the xbox as well.

Mamajag · Jan 5, 2011

idrinorbarsaku said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but people aren't ditching Windows because of their lack of gaming...LOL. I don't think making gaming better, will fix the problems that made people ditch Windows in the first place! And as long as bootcamp exists, they'll also be helping Apple.

This exactly. I wanted something quick and stable that would get out of my way and let me get my work done. OK, so I might still have a bit of a Sims addiction, but that did not figure at all into my decision to leave Windows. My PC experience has gone down hill over the last few years both due to increasing problems with both hardware and software.

I especially hate the headaches that came with the networking changes in Windows 7. Yeah, it works great if all of your PCs run 7...but not so much in a mixed XP, Vista, and 7 environment. I was amazed when I rearranged things to share through the iMac how much easier it was. I think it took 10 minutes to share 3 printers and 2 external drives, which is great considering I had owned a Mac for less than half an hour.

. When I can't figure something out in OS X, I find I am usually overthinking things. Most Windows users would kill for the level of inuition and simplicity in OS X. If Windows wants to stop the slide, they need to focus on that, not catering to a small portion of the Windows computer market.

Hubby just said that maybe Windows 8 is trying to woo gamers because they usually buy the expensive rigs, upgrade faster, and are most likely to be willing to shell out the money for a Mac because they understand the difference between value and price. He may have a point there. He spends much more on his computers than I do.