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Valve’s head Gabe Newell has called Windows 8 “a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space”.
According to IGN, Newell stated that the release of Windows 8 would mean that the channel would “lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people.”
Apparently, Newell has concerns around the shift to a Windows App Store, which he sees as an example of IT companies following the closed-platform approach favoured by Apple.
As a result, Valve has been working hard to create a version of Steam that can be hosted on a Linux Ubuntu platform, in the belief that one of the only things holding Linux back is the lack of games.
“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,” said Newell.
“I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PCs, and 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.”
