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Is Microsoft giving the big FU to game devs?

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Izron September 06, 2005 12:27 PM

26 comments, last by Nitage 18 years, 7 months ago

742

September 07, 2005 01:42 PM

Quote:Original post by drarem
Quote:Right now Microsoft has 4 main competitors, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP for the new OS

What do you mean, competitors? MS owns them - and MS no longer supports win98 - no more new win98 updates.

You missed the point. Microsoft doesn't have to work hard at making people switch from Linux to Windows, they have to work hard to get people to UPGRADE Windows. They only get money when they sell new versions of the software, their market share alone doesn't generate revenue. I would guess that there are more people using Windows 2000 than Linux, and those are the people Microsoft would like to get to upgrade.

Turring Machines are better than C++ any day ^_~

drarem

100

September 07, 2005 03:25 PM

Quote:You missed the point.

Berate me for that, will you?

Quote:Microsoft doesn't have to work hard at making people switch from Linux to Windows, they have to work hard to get people to UPGRADE Windows.

MS won't have to work hard to sell it, they'll do what they've always done which is stop supporting win2k, winxp, etc in a few years they'll have a compatibility mode for win2k, win me, etc, especially when the 64-bit becomes the new thing.

It wasn't too hard to upgrade to XP back then, despite the doomsayers like me.

intrest86

742

September 07, 2005 03:29 PM

Quote:Original post by drarem
Quote:You missed the point.

Berate me for that, will you?

Quote:Microsoft doesn't have to work hard at making people switch from Linux to Windows, they have to work hard to get people to UPGRADE Windows.

MS won't have to work hard to sell it, they'll do what they've always done which is stop supporting win2k, winxp, etc in a few years they'll have a compatibility mode for win2k, win me, etc, especially when the 64-bit becomes the new thing.

It wasn't too hard to upgrade to XP back then, despite the doomsayers like me.

I didn't berate you, I told you. Anyway, it isn't the difficulty of the upgrade. And it isn't whether or not Microsoft still supports it. There are still workplaces that use Windows 3.11 and people at home using Windows 95. For these people it isn't so much the technical considerations that keep them from upgrading, its whether or not they feel it is worth it. Upgrading Windows isn't cheap, and the cost is hard to justify because their isn't a clear cut improvement like "My scretary will type twice as fast".

Turring Machines are better than C++ any day ^_~

stimarco

1,071

September 07, 2005 03:35 PM

Quote:Original post by Nitage
C++ is the language of choice for most game developers.

Not... strictly... true. It's fair to say that most game developers tend to use C or C++ for low-level development work, but higher-level languages are starting to creep in. There's a lot more scripting going on than there used to be, for example.

Renderware 3.x is written in C, not C++. So there are large chunks of plain old C code sitting in many games out there on the shelves today.

Oh yes: Chris "The Nutter" Sawyer, of "Rollercoaster Tycoon" fame, writes his games in -- wait for it, wait for it! -- x86 assembly language.

*

I'm also unconvinced that it's truly a meaningful "choice" when the available tools for this trade limit your options. It's not as if the PS3 and XBox 360 devkits include a full-on, super-optimising COBOL compiler.

--
Sean Timarco Baggaley

Sean Timarco Baggaley (Est. 1971.)Warning: May contain bollocks.

k0ns0l3

118

September 07, 2005 03:42 PM

Quote:They are giving the Yuck Fou to everyone, regardless of their job, sex or political beliefs :)

Hey! Nobody talks about my mamma like that! :P

ttdeath

100

September 08, 2005 03:09 AM

Quote:Original post by k0ns0l3
Quote:They are giving the Yuck Fou to everyone, regardless of their job, sex or political beliefs :)

Hey! Nobody talks about my mamma like that! :P

The M$Zilla does. And they probably have a patent to protect that too. lol

Again, any timeline at all given at that conference?

-------------------My Company My RentACoder's Profile

Nitage

1,107

September 09, 2005 08:44 AM

Quote:Original post by Saruman
Quote:Original post by Nitage
At a time when MS is losing serious ground to Linux (many government organisations and coporations are switching to open source) why would Microsoft make want to make software for their OS more difficult to write?

Umm Microsoft hasn't lost any actual marketshare to Linux as of yet, and I highly doubt that could ever happen. Right now Microsoft has 4 main competitors, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP for the new OS. Anything else like Linux, Apple, etc are just a drop in the bucket and don't amount to much. Maybe when there are more Linux users than a 10 year old OS by Microsoft they might begin to worry.

Serious ground? .. lol slashdot?

The US and Western Europe are saturated with MS products. MS cannot gain market share in those countries, but has everything to lose - like the state of Massachusetts (planning to switch to open source office suite) and the European Union government (currently investigating the potential savings from switching to open source).

They have to look to places like India for growth - but the Indian government has openly declared it's preference for open source software.

Nitage

1,107

September 09, 2005 08:46 AM

Quote:Original post by stimarco
Quote:Original post by Nitage
C++ is the language of choice for most game developers.

Not... strictly... true. It's fair to say that most game developers tend to use C or C++ for low-level development work, but higher-level languages are starting to creep in. There's a lot more scripting going on than there used to be, for example.

Renderware 3.x is written in C, not C++. So there are large chunks of plain old C code sitting in many games out there on the shelves today.

Oh yes: Chris "The Nutter" Sawyer, of "Rollercoaster Tycoon" fame, writes his games in -- wait for it, wait for it! -- x86 assembly language.

*

I'm also unconvinced that it's truly a meaningful "choice" when the available tools for this trade limit your options. It's not as if the PS3 and XBox 360 devkits include a full-on, super-optimising COBOL compiler.

--
Sean Timarco Baggaley

C++ is the language of choice for MOST game developers.

Of course there are some who right in assembly - but they're ... unusual.

Is Microsoft giving the big FU to game devs?

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