The Next Great Desktop Gaming Platform?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 15, 2012

It’s no secret to regular readers that I am a desktop gaming junkie. Computer games have always held a higher place in my heart than console games, even when I was a full-time professional making the latter.  That’s not to say I disliked the latter — I was jealous of my friends’ Ataris and Colecovisions, played plenty of NES, and really loved my Playstation. Still do. I still have quite the collection of old consoles (and emulators) that I still actively play.

One of the reasons I preferred desktop gaming was that even though they had their share of arcade game ports – and in the early days, these ports were often much closer to the arcade experience than the consoles – you did get much deeper games intended for audiences with a longer attention span. In the 8-bit world, computer RPGs were far superior (IMO) to their console cousins, for example. Later, as Nintendo and Sega still emphasized “twitch” gaming and level repetition in most of their games (but with some fabulous exceptions), I was happily playing games that just did not translate well to the consoles, like Civilization, X-Com, Ultima 7, Wizardry 7,  and early RTS titles (not that these didn’t borrow from console inspiration…). And nowadays, the boundaries are getting about as smudged as they ever were. Consoles are as much for grown-ups as for kids, high-definition TV makes text readable (even though games tend to use as little text as possible), and aside from input devices are today just as capable as their desktop counterparts for gaming. But I still prefer the mouse to the thumbstick (especially for making headshots…)  If given the choice, I’ll usually* take the PC version of a game over its XBox 360 counterpart.

So while many consoles have come and gone, I still consider my “primary” gaming platforms to be three desktop environments: The Commodore 64, DOS, and Windows.

Commodore was awesome, and this was where I spent my formative years gaming. I’d have spent more time in the arcades if I could have afforded it, and I spent plenty of time gaming on friend’s consoles and computers, but the good ol’ C-64 was my gaming “home” for much the the 1980s. But I left it behind when I left for college, and it was plenty obsolete when I went shopping for a new computer again.  While I was enticed by the Amiga, most of the games I wanted to play were on DOS. I went where the games were.

Microsoft was already beginning to deprecate DOS by this time, and was in their third major revision of Windows.  But Windows sucked for gaming. It wasn’t until Chris Hecker and the “skunkworks” of Microsoft produced the WinG API, with a port of Doom, that the gaming world began to believe that Windows could be a viable gaming platform for high-performance gaming. Then, with Windows 95, everything shifted. There were still a few legacy games in development that still released DOS-only. Windows 95, which was no longer built on DOS, still supported them – but their days were extremely numbered by then. Windows 95 not only allowed high-performance gaming, but they made a real effort to improve upon it, getting rid of (most of) the configuration woes and massive hardware support needs that DOS games had been saddled with. It was still not quite “plug & play” the way console gaming is, but it was a massive improvement for both gamers and game developers.

Once again, I went where the games were. Now I was a Windows gamer. And that’s been where I’ve been ever since. Again, I go where the games (and other software I want to use) are, and I prefer the desktop. Windows has been the clear choice.  It’s generally been a pretty comfortable transition from upgrade to upgrade – at least every-other upgrade – as a developer and as a gamer. It’s gotten tough on the compatibility front from time to time. My main desktop system is still running Windows XP, simply because it’s easier to get some older software & drivers to run on XP than on Windows 7.  But overall, as a desktop gamer, Windows is where I’ve wanted to be.

At least until now.

In a couple of weeks, Windows 8 is hitting the market.  And it looks like it is trying to be as big a change as Windows 95. Or Windows 3.0. While the desktop experience will still be there, much like DOS was still there in Windows in the 1990s, it’s clearly getting deprecated. And unlike Windows 95 (but a lot like Windows 3.0 and 3.1), I really can’t see much that will be of benefit to gamers.

Gabe Newell, head of Valve,  stated, “I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space.”

Rob Pardo, chief creative officer at Blizzard, has publicly admitted that its “not awesome for Blizzard either.” Many other developers have expressed similar concerns, publicly and in private.

Many older games are incompatible with Windows 8 with the final release version. As a complete non-surprise, games protected by certain kinds of copy protection schemes (like Starforce) are frequently broken under Windows 8, with no available fixes. Except getting a “crack,” I guess. Which is all kinds of dangerous.

Gaming under the new interface – in fact all software, period – is restricted to the Microsoft Store. They want a piece of Apple’s “App Store” action. And this is the default interface. This is where Microsoft believes the non-power-users should live. The desktop is still there, but it seems to me it’s really there as a “legacy” platform. Like DOS. Oh, and it’s got even more invasive warnings if you try to install anything that’s not digitally signed and recognized by Microsoft – which will delete unapproved software by default.

Ugly. Particularly for indies. Making software as a small, independent developer just became a little more complicated and expensive. Not that this is a new problem. Just… a little bigger.

It was this article by Casey Muratori that really drove it home. Open, desktop gaming under Windows, as we’ve known it, is dead. Or at least, Microsoft wants it dead right now. Dead like DOS. Microsoft is positioning itself to be all-powerful gatekeeping middleman for the new, online world. And it sees the future in mobile devices, and a shrinking world for desktops.  Windows 8 is not only an expression of belief in that trend, but a way to help fulfill that prophecy to Microsoft’s advantage.

Are the correct? Will they succeed?  Who knows. Will Windows 8 be an immediate game-changer for gamers? No, doomsaying notwithstanding… I suspect it will be closer to a Windows 3.x event than a Windows 95 event in this respect. But the writing may be on the wall. Especially for indies. As TechRadar puts it, the real threat is not in Windows 8, but Windows 9.

And, more interestingly, I believe it may provide an opening for other operating system vendors to exploit that hasn’t really been there for seventeen years. In effect, Microsoft is moving on to fight new battles – something it will have to devote most of its attention on, if it wants to challenge the imposing lead that iOS and Android currently enjoy. Could this be an opportunity for Mac? For a major Linux vendor? For … hey, for Android?

As a gamer, I go where the games are. For PC gaming, for the future… I can no longer assume that’s going to mean Windows.

As a game developer, I’ve assumed that multiple platforms are “nice to have” but not a priority. I was pissed off that after all this effort working with a game engine that I chose in significant part for its promise of an easy port to Mac that the port was no longer at all easy, and has proved in fact to be incredibly frustrating. But lacking a Mac port hasn’t – until now – caused me to lose any sleep. I’ve been doubtful that the cost of the port would be worth it in sales. Ditto for Linux.

Now that I’ve changed engines to something that is inherently multiplatform (Unity), with a promise of Linux support on the near horizon, this makes my new focus a lot easier to implement. To you, as a gamer, it may be of trivial importance. But as a developer, it feels like a big deal.

In short – I’m with Gabe Newell on this one. As a gamer and game developer, I’m going to have to plan for an alternative. While I won’t call Windows 8 a catastrophe (yet), it’s clearly a fork in the road that I don’t feel I can commit to following. But if I want alternatives to be there, I’m going to have to commit to supporting them. Gamers will go where the games are. So I’m going to try and make sure my games are there.

Windows will no longer be a primary platform for me.  While I doubt I’m going to lose my emphasis on “desktop” gaming anytime soon, that no longer means Windows. Inasmuch as it is possible / reasonable, I’m going to be shooting for simultaneous release on Windows, Mac, and Linux from here on out. I’m exploring web-based, console, and mobile gaming options too. But if somebody is going to be gaming on a desktop environment, I want my games to be there.

I know. In the words of John McCain, “Welcome to the party, pal.” I’m late. All the Mac guys and Linux guys who have been trying to recruit me to their camp – you’ve finally succeeded. I’ve been content in my own little world, making and playing games and assuming a level of persistence that may or may not be valid. But as a child of the 80s, I remember all too clearly when it seemed like there was no way in hell that a tiny upstart company like Microsoft could ever topple giants like IBM and Apple. But it happened. It may happen again. Or it may not. But as a game developer, I can no longer feel safe “banking” on Windows. I expect that for the kinds of games I play and make, Windows may remain a viable platform for many years.

But will it remain the dominant one?  I’m becoming doubtful.

 

* Unless said PC game has really ugly DRM, in which case I’ll either not get the game at all, or get the console version and further contribute to the marketing belief that gamers “prefer” console gaming.

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