Valve's Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a "catastrophe"

Like it? Share it!

Valve’s Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a “catastrophe”

Windows 8 isn’t coming out til October, but already reactions have been very mixed. Some people like it, others hate it. In the haters column, you can now add Valve founder Gabe Newell, who says Windows 8 will be a catastrophe for developers (developers developers), because the Windows Store will bring smaller profits for developers and kill off open distribution systems.

Mr Newell, who worked for Microsoft for 13 years on Windows, said his company had embraced the open-source software Linux as a “hedging strategy” designed to offset some of the damage Windows 8 was likely to do.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well,” said Mr Newell.

“Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.”

The arrival of Windows 8 would be likely to drive some PC makers and others out of the business because it put so much pressure on their sales margins, Mr Newell added.

He said the success of Valve, known for its Half Life, Left4Dead and Portal titles, had been down to the open nature of the PC.

“We’ve been a free rider, and we’ve been able to benefit from everything that went into PCs and the internet,” he told the conference. “And we have to continue to figure out how there will be open platforms.”

“There’s a strong temptation to close the platform,” he said, “because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors’ access to the platform, and they say, ‘That’s really exciting.’”

This is seen by commentators to be a reference to the inclusion of a Windows Store in the Microsoft operating system.

This is a shop through which users will be able to buy apps for their Windows 8 device.

On some versions of Windows 8, it will be the only way to get downloadable software such as games.

Microsoft takes a cut, up to 30%, of every sale made through this store.

This could be a significant threat to the massively successful Steam online game store that Valve runs and which gives it a commission on every title sold through the online market.

A Windows Store closed to everyone but Microsoft might reduce the range of games available for sale through Steam.