we knew about this months ago…

Fingers crossed the truely mean to help the PC regain ground because its fast becoming a disappearing format from the high street.
Walk into a Game or HMV and your lucky to find one stands width if at all. Tescos is one retailer that I would have though big enough to press the price down to a level that would allow sales in stores.

<3 Stevie B's presentations.

There is one reason that PC games are disappearing from shops. They can't compete with Valve and their awesome Steam platform. Just one look at this holidays steam sales screams win! To be honest I believe Valve is the last bastion of computer gaming. I hope Microsoft try to join in pushing the market forward, rather than launching a product to compete with Valve, which will ultimately fail.

Micrososft DID try to compete with Valve .. subscription based Games for Windows Live.

What Microsoft is basically trying to say in the article is that we will release HALO 3 on PC.:woowoo:

Didn't they promise same for windows 7

Astridax93
There is one reason that PC games are disappearing from shops. They can't compete with Valve and their awesome Steam platform. Just one look at this holidays steam sales screams win! To be honest I believe Valve is the last bastion of computer gaming. I hope Microsoft try to join in pushing the market forward, rather than launching a product to compete with Valve, which will ultimately fail.

And you need an internet connection to use it. One of many pointless restrictions which means they won't be getting my custom.

k3vst3r
Didn't they promise same for windows 7

And Vista. And XP. And 98…

k3vst3r
Didn't they promise same for windows 7

They gave you DX11

Google should buy valve

although it doesn't fit it could boost the PC gaming industry considerably

Astridax93
There is one reason that PC games are disappearing from shops. They can't compete with Valve and their awesome Steam platform. Just one look at this holidays steam sales screams win! To be honest I believe Valve is the last bastion of computer gaming. I hope Microsoft try to join in pushing the market forward, rather than launching a product to compete with Valve, which will ultimately fail.

True. I just won't move from Steam now. I have too big a collection (Thanks christmas sales). It would take something amazing to even compliment moving let alone do it.

Also I think the PC is dead in the highstreet - I can't remember the last PC game I got in the highstreet. I just purchase through play.com, amazon or steam and laugh at the prices in game/gamestation.

miniyazz
And you need an internet connection to use it. One of many pointless restrictions which means they won't be getting my custom.

In this age of always on internet and 3G it is a rare scenario for me when I can't get enough internet together to launch a game on Steam.

Downloading the game at home or office is hardly a chore…

Oh dear, so now Windows 7 is pants/not cool and we gotta upgrade to Windows 8 to play the games? Wonderful new “experience” here we come. Sod you Microsoft! :)

miniyazz
And you need an internet connection to use it. One of many pointless restrictions which means they won't be getting my custom.

You can start Steam in offline mode so you dont need the internet.

I'd prefer it if they focused on Xbox alone.

/switches to Maximum armour.

This reminds me of what we were told around the launch of Windows Vista. We would get Games Explorer to go with Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. The new Windows Experience Index meant even techno-illiterate grandmothers could read system requirements. DX10 was so advanced it couldn't possibly be backported to Windows XP.

The new Games for Windows certification system meant PC games would be as bug free and user friendly as console games, and Microsoft would ensure GfW games would get plenty of prime shelf space in game stores. If PC gamers would just pay their GfW Live subscription they could even play Shadowrun with those cool guys at Xbox Live.

And to really show off their support for PC gaming, Microsoft shut down Ensemble Studios and Microsoft Flight Simulator. I don't think Microsoft has published a single PC games since the two Vista “Launch Titles”: Shadowrun and Halo 2.

If this new push for PC gaming is as good as the last I should probably figure out how to update my graphics drivers in Linux.

OilSheikh
Micrososft DID try to compete with Valve .. subscription based Games for Windows Live.

What Microsoft is basically trying to say in the article is that we will release HALO 3 on PC.:woowoo:

Lol, yes. But you had to pay before they shut that side down, also the emphasis should be TRY since it was a paltry effort at most, a downright fail at least :puke:.

I have far too many games on steam to switch too.

Besides the way Steve Ballmer is, I think his idea of innovation will be some sort of cloud based save system. Scratch that, he probably thinks that games using the internet is innovation :clapping:.

Terbinator
I'd prefer it if they focused on Xbox alone.

/switches to Maximum armour.

Me too, and to do that whilst still including the PC would be to make the XBox games run on a normal PC if it has sufficient hardware.

It'd be a good thing for Microsoft too, by selling people like nVidia and ATi the right to put “XBoxE” stickers on their compatable products

kingpotnoodle
In this age of always on internet and 3G it is a rare scenario for me when I can't get enough internet together to launch a game on Steam.

Downloading the game at home or office is hardly a chore…

Agreed, but it's a bit more of a chore if your uni firewall blocks steam, meaning you can't register the game you've just bought, to play in offline mode.. even if you actually bought it on disc from Game. Not everyone can use 3G on their computer.

miniyazz
Agreed, but it's a bit more of a chore if your uni firewall blocks steam, meaning you can't register the game you've just bought, to play in offline mode.. even if you actually bought it on disc from Game. Not everyone can use 3G on their computer.

Not sure why but I have got a picture of Zakk ranting about steam in my head :mrgreen:

spoon_
Oh dear, so now Windows 7 is pants/not cool and we gotta upgrade to Windows 8 to play the games? Wonderful new “experience” here we come. Sod you Microsoft! :)

Par for the course given that I've just replaced my Windows XP system with a Win7Pro (64bit!). Sigh!

That said, as far as I'm concerned it makes total sense for Windows8 to focus on making gaming easier - since that's really the only area where I can't use a Linux box. There's plenty of scope to make it easier to drop in games - how about a way you could easily transfer your settings, scores, etc from one machine to another - be a nice way to slot in a possible use of this “cloud computing” that everyone's dribbling at length about. Or an API slot that would allow game updates to be received via Windows Update (or a similar mechanism).

By the time Windows 8 comes around, Google OS will have been out for a while and possibly challenging Microsoft.

Its too early for Microsoft to make these comments as in 12 months time they could have to rethink everything if Google gets there way with PC's

I've just recently had the most horrible experience with GFWL that I would never buy another game that uses it if I know about it.

It would flat out refuse to connect at all in game.. I ended up having to do some convoluted vpn in to my own network to get it to work.

miniyazz
Agreed, but it's a bit more of a chore if your uni firewall blocks steam, meaning you can't register the game you've just bought, to play in offline mode.. even if you actually bought it on disc from Game. Not everyone can use 3G on their computer.

Either pay for a proxy server. Or get a bog standard pc at home, create your own proxy. Memorise the ip or buy a domain (an ip address would be more flexible since if they filter it, you just change the ip at home).

Pay parents for extra data usage at home. Sorted, you can now register games through steam and according to your Uni it is a custom non filtered ip. Get it to route traffic through the standard web browser port too… 8080. I think that'd work.

Only bought 1 game on the GfW market, AoE3 and that was only because it was 10p. Steam all the way.

Astridax93
Either pay for a proxy server. Or get a bog standard pc at home, create your own proxy. Memorise the ip or buy a domain (an ip address would be more flexible since if they filter it, you just change the ip at home).

Pay parents for extra data usage at home. Sorted, you can now register games through steam and according to your Uni it is a custom non filtered ip. Get it to route traffic through the standard web browser port too… 8080. I think that'd work.

I'm off campus now btw, and don't use Steam anyway ;)

But I regard myself as quite a techy person, and if I knew where to start coming from (which I really wouldn't have prior to your suggestion), it'd still take me quite some time to get it working. I reckon 95%+ of university students wouldn't have a clue where to start about doing something like that, it's really not a viable solution to Steam's problem. Just because it can be done (for some people), doesn't mean it's reasonable to expect people to do that if they want to play a shop-bought game.

Anyway, 'nuff said :)

Is Windows 8 still expected to launch in 2013?