THE END OF WINDOWS GAMING

THE END OF

WINDOWS

GAMING

Microsoft hasn’t offered gamers a reason

to upgrade Windows for years, giving

Valve an opportunity to take over

I’m about to write a column that will either result in a future me
smugly proclaiming I was right all along, or a future me that
pretends I said no such thing, a little like my 2007 column where I
predicted that the iPhone will flop. My prediction is that in the future,
say in five years, most PC gamers will no longer be using Windows.
Whatever you think of Windows 8, it’s been a disastrous launch for
Microsoft. Personally, I don’t hate Windows 8 – I think it was a bungled
launch, and the Metro interface is useless on desktops, but you can
get it to behave with a little tweaking. For gamers, though, and for
most desktop PC users, in fact, there’s simply no reason to upgrade
from Windows 7. That’s a problem for Microsoft.
I’ve often said that Microsoft needs a
Windows Gaming Edition in its arsenal – a
64-bit version of Windows that has the latest
DirectX version, supports large amounts of
memory, so it’s worth developers pushing
the boundaries, but doesn’t include
the enterprise features often found in
professional editions. I’d like to think it would
cost around £50, and that it would also come with a Media Center-style browser for launching and playing games on a TV.
Maybe Microsoft thought it would be too niche, or it didn’t want the
PC to interfere with the Xbox. It missed the boat, though, and now Valve
is hoping to fill this niche. Its new Steam OS (see p16) will not only run
on the company’s Steam boxes, but you’ll also be able to run it on a PC.
I currently have an HTPC that uses Windows 7 Media Center, but it
has its issues – you still have to resort to the desktop to launch games,
there’s no Media Center app for Netflix UK and so on. If Valve gets this
right, and its many years of experience with Steam suggests it knows
what it’s doing, my future HTPC will be running Steam OS.
Being based on Linux, Steam OS won’t natively support the whole
Steam back catalogue natively, at least not yet. The current idea is that Steam OS will be able to effectively stream games from your Windows
PC to run these games, but you’ll then be able to sit on the sofa and
control them using the new Valve controller – a nifty device that has
touchpads instead of the analogue sticks on console gamepads.
I’m still not entirely convinced by the controller. Even if it accurately
mimics a mouse, it will still at least take some time to get accustomed
to it. But Valve won’t have announced these ideas without doing some
serious testing first. What’s more, Valve will have tested with people
who lovePC games. It’s an OS and controller made for people like us.
Steam OS will need good support for various media files, as well as
decent driver support, if Valve wants it to take off. Valve is going to have
its work cut out, undoubtedly, but it’s now
clearly committed to this idea.
Which brings me back to my point. In five
years, when new games might support
Steam OS natively as standard, and PC
games are effectively playable in the living
room in the same way as console games,
why would I use Windows for gaming?
For web browsing and email as well? Nope, a tablet will do that fine.
That isn’t to say that Windows has definitely had its day – the
keyboard and mouse is undoubtedly the interface of choice for offices,
and I don’t see anything else threatening that. But, for gaming, the
idea of a flexible, TV-orientated OS with access to the whole Steam
back catalogue and a decent control system is very appealing indeed.
After all, the PC is just a personal computer – my first PC didn’t run
Windows, and there’s no reason why future PCs should either.

"custom PC"  (p:8)