This Gabe Newell interview is making the rounds these days. Because he said:
We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It’s a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.
So right, it’s FUD time because Gabe has a lot to lose with the Windows 8 store (also, Xbox Live integration). No one is pointing this out? In the interview he also says that touchscreen is a short term fad. I wish people would debate around this -it’s a big statement and very interesting- but no, people are focusing on Windows 8 being a catastrophe for Valve and everyone else.
Don’t you think it’s not that surprising to have digital distribution’s leader talking trash about upcoming competition? Don’t you think that Gabe could have started and invest Linux way before store competition forces him to do so? Don’t you think that knowing that Gabe is an ex-Microsoft employee who built his empire on top of Windows, you can take these declarations with a grain of salt?
Why am I in an industry that wishes new distribution channels to fail? Why wouldn’t you be interested in a new platform, touch more users, when making games is so hard and unpredictable as for the outcome’s success? I don’t get it. More options, what’s so bad about it? Unless they really screw us, there’s no need to wish them the worst when they are not even available yet. It just doesn’t seem professional at all.
Here’s the news: there is no perfect platform and there will be no perfect one. The only way for platforms to get better for developers is them competing to get us. We, developers need to push them to compete (by doing this p 58/66), this is how we can get leverage. Ouya is on its way to allow us to change the console area and that’s good. I don’t wish them to fail even if I see many obstacles on their road as well if not more than Microsoft’s Windows 8. They’re both shaking competition. That’s good for us. Apple disrupted our world, punched Nintendo/Sony’s handheld businesses. Now they’re sitting on their ass. Google didn’t change the market as deeply neither Amazon but whatever, let’s encourage players to play shall we? It’s Microsoft’s turn, no need to be a dick we need this competition. For example, it’s great that they included a trial mode in their marketplace for apps and games, a thing still missing in GooglApple ecosystems. That’s good for us. Let’s take advantage of this dynamic.
Platforms are gardens and we create seeds. No seeds, no garden. No garden, no people. Then, how creating seeds in an overcrowded walled garden where they will slowly die is better than creating seeds in a new, relatively more open environment where they can grow? And when your seed (game, IP) is strong enough port it in a crowded garden (I never thought Minecraft would come on Xbox AND be a massive hit on it).
At the end, you never know which one will succeed. So keep an eye on all of them and be honest about what they are/can do.