Despite the push Valve have been making the past year to bring gaming to Linux, the release of penguin-friendly games has done little to grow the Linux audience on Steam. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS is running on more than 12% of Steam users machines.
Erk.
If you dig into the stats behind the latest IDC report into PC shipments, there’s some startling data and a stark situation. PC shipments (i.e. PC’s delivered to retailers worldwide) declined at their fastest rate ever. In the first three months of 2013, they dropped by 13.9%. That’s way more than the 7.7% predicted, and the fourth consecutive quarter they’ve declined.
That’s pretty dismal news. So what’s going on? And should we PC gamers start sweating?
You may remember that Valve released Half-Life for Linux and the Mac a few weeks back, including the classic version of Counter-Strike with it. Well, now Counter-Strike: Source is now available for both operating systems too and I’m sure we’ll soon be seeing games like Half-Life 2 and Day of Defeat: Source (both already available for the Mac) also making the leap to Linux.
Speaking at the Ubuntu Summit in Copenhagen last year, Valve engineer Drew Bliss said that Valve were interested in developing for Linux and were “now looking into doing Steam for Linux and supporting as many of our Steam games for Linux as we can." Valve had just launched beta applications for a Linux version of Steam.
“Xbox games on Windows" is the way Microsoft are pitching this, which is a bit silly. Go looking for Gears of War or Halo here and you’ll come up clutching Mahjong or Minesweeper. What is interesting about new online shop Play is that you’ll be able to play any of its games across multiple Windows 8 devices. Read on for more on what’s available.
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Microsoft has reversed its decision to not sell 18-rated games through its marketplace and has begun selling games for adults.
Previously they had announced that games like Mass Effect 3, GTA, and Far Cry 3 wouldn't be available because of reasons. This decision was quickly overturned but the games still hadn't appeared in the store. This is no longer the case.
Blimey. Gabe Newell may have labelled Windows 8 “a catastrophe", but that hasn’t stopped his platform benefitting from its users. Steam stats for November have revealed that nearly one in 20 Steam users is running the client on Windows 8. That’s more than use the service on Mac.
More good news for Windows 8, as well as running 90% of GOG games, in its first month since release the new operating system has sold over 40 million copies, according to Microsoft's finance and marketing head of the Windows business, Tami Reller.
More on this below.
Windows 8 currently supports 90% of GOG's catalogue and that number will only rise as the code ninjas over at GOG continue to work into the night.
More on this below.
Here's another pin for your Windows 8 voodoo doll: Neowin reports that DirectX 11.1 will be exclusive to Windows 8. And while DirectX 11 was initially a Windows 7 exclusive that eventually found its way back to Vista (and DirectX 10 was a Vista exclusive never made available to XP users), there are currently no plans to make DirectX 11.1 available to users of older operating systems.
“Gabe Newell did not overreact," says Croteam CTO Alen Ladavac. He’s referring to the Casual Connect talk in which Newell declared Windows 8 a closed ecosystem and a “catastrophe" for PC developers.
“What you don’t see here is that, under the hood, the new tiled UI is a means for Microsoft to lock Windows applications into a walled garden, much like the one on iOS."
Microsoft want to encourage game publishing on the Windows 8 Store, and so are looking to shower developers with gifts as they come through its pastel-coloured gates. The top prize includes a month’s promo from Train2Game and mentoring from UKIE chairman Andy Payne, Eidos life president Ian Livingstone and Rebellion head Jason Kingsley.
When Valve set up their digital distribution service nine years ago, Microsoft were in a very different place. At the time they had “no issue" with Steam, says Valve engineer Drew Bliss, but “Steam nowadays would probably be impossible to do".
“If you look at the way the world is going, where you see Apple completely in control of their system, and at least part of Windows 8 entirely controlled by the Microsoft App Store, Steam is going to be a little bit harder to do - both in the store aspect and in the content delivery aspect."
That’s why Valve have turned. They want to make Linux the best little gaming platform it can be.
Windows 8 launched yesterday, and with it the new Windows Store. Of all of the major and minor gripes PC gamers have had with the new OS, it’s the refusal of the Windows 8 Marketplace to stock PEGI-18 rated games that’s proved gripiest. The Windows App guidelines effectively banned games including Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3 and Dishonored from appearing on Microsoft’s stall in Europe.
Which is why it’s my great pleasure to announce that the Windows 8 Marketplace will sell 18-rated games after all. Though not just yet.
While it would be fair to say that PC gamers and developers alike are wary of what Windows 8 might mean for a medium which regularly celebrates openness and freedom among its chief virtues, the wheels continue to turn and a very different Windows rolls into place ready for its release this weekend. Doing their bit are graphics card types AMD, whose latest drivers are compatible with Windows 8.
If you haven’t yet taken a leisurely perusal through the Windows 8 App guidelines, you won’t know that Section 6.2 states that “Apps with a rating over PEGI 16, ESRB MATURE, or a corresponding rating under other ratings systems as described in the table below, are not allowed". Not a problem for word processors, of course - but it now transpires that the rule also stands for the most consistently adult-rated apps there are - PC games.
Bringing it up to speed in line for the release of Microsoft's new operating system, Yoyo Games have released a patch allowing GameMaker: Studio to export games directly to the Windows 8 marketplace (where they'll be vetted by Microsoft folk before appearing for sale). The patch will be applied to the Standard, Professional, and Master Collection editions of the software, so those of you who have been dabbling with the free edition won't be able to make use of this update.
If the patch isn't enough to push you into laying down money for one of the GameMaker releases, Yoyo Games and Microsoft are hoping to tempt you with $500. More on that below.
Microsoft recently approached Notch to offer their assistance in ensuring Minecraft is 'certified' to run on Windows 8, their latest, maligned, walled-garden operating system. Notch, not one to hesitate in slamming tweet-fists on internet-tables, resisted the big brotherly interference: "Got an email from microsoft wanting to help "certify" minecraft for win 8," the developer tweeted. "I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform ... I'd rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to win 8 that way."
When Tim explained to us all why he was uninstalling Windows 8, one of the recurring points of frustration was its tablet-focused design - from the big white spaces designed to have a finger podged into them, to the often convoluted mouse gestures.
Microsoft have signed a deal with cloud gaming service Agawi which should enable streaming of PC games to Windows 8 PCs and tablets. This will reportedly allow for users to have access to thousands of PC games - if they have a fast enough connection to support it.
Forty games have been announced for this first wave, available from October 26th through the both the pre-installed Xbox Games app and the Windows 8 Store. They come with leaderboards, Xbox achievements and multiplayer modes, and you can find out more about several of them on playXBLA. Click through to see the list in its entirety.
