Minecraft creator 'Notch' is the latest to speak out against Windows 8

Shawn Knight

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Minecraft fans might want to think twice about upgrading to Windows 8 next month. According to tweets from creator and developer Markus “Notch” Persson, Microsoft asked him to help certify the game for Windows 8. Persson declined in a roundabout way, telling Redmond to instead stop trying to ruin the PC as an open platform.

A few minutes later, he fired off another tweet saying he’d rather have Minecraft not run on Windows 8 at all than to play along. He further hopes that he can convince a few people not to switch to the new operating system by doing this.

This isn’t the first time he’s spoken out against Microsoft and Windows 8. Last month during an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit, Persson said he hopes to keep a lot of open and free platforms around and if Microsoft decided to lock Windows 8 down, it would be very bad for indie games and competition in general.

Minecraft’s creator isn’t the only prominent gaming figure to voice an opinion concerning Windows 8. A few months ago, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell told those in attendance at a video game conference that he believes the operating system is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. He predicts some of the top tier PC/OEMs will exit the market and margins will be destroyed for a lot of people.

Rob Pardo from Blizzard commented on Newell’s statement shortly after on Twitter, saying it wouldn’t be very good for them either if his predictions about Windows 8 come true.

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Yikes! What's this stuff of Win8 being locked down and so bad for game dev's in a comparative light to Win7 or XP?
 
Its simple. people use a pc to get away from their phones. if it becomes a larger screened version of a phone, then its pointless and people will abandon their pc's. have fun dealing with that one microsoft (and I personally have defended microsoft for YEARS). apparently windows ME and vista haven't taught them a single thing (also again, I defended vista in its day).
 
Woah, now that's a narrow-minded person; if Microsoft called him it means they care to give a good product, just go along. I'm personally anti-Apple but I don't go out telling people not to buy its products because I think they're overpriced, I just won't buy it, but still I cared about compatibility with Mac OS X when I developed a Sudoku game in Java last semester as of a final project so that a friend of mine with a Mac could use it and work as well as intended in Windows (the look and feel, file managment for Excel files, saving the progress in files, etc.).

If people buys and uses an OS and you care about giving them the best experience possible on what you develop despite what they choose on where to run it, just give them the required support and leave your opinions as opinions; and let the OS choice be their own problem.

I own W8 RTM [didn't pay for it - got it through university's MSDN academic program] and as it is I don't like it and despite I have it on double boot I'm still using W7 as my main system 95% of my time. But I'm not telling people not to use W8, if they like it, cool; if not, is the company's problem on taking that risk for desktop, you can't know if you don't try. Being a faster system overall may be a strong reason for most people to stick with it, we don't know, average people don't care the way we do unless there are serious problems like a new gadget with a bubble effect on its touchscreen or any other real concern. Vista had serious concerns from the beginning, W8 being objective... don't, and still don't like it.
 
I don't quite get this, when people talk about Win8 being locked down are they talking about the Metro side of things or the RT version or what? because everything I have installed so far, while it may not integrate fully with Metro works fine on the Win8 desktop, and that includes my games. I'm even playing ArmA2 on Win8 so wtf are they on about.
 
I have great respect for Notch for creating a great game. However I do love Windows 8 and I believe it will sell well due to the fact that it's more efficient than 7, has better built-in security and has a better performance than 7. Also the Start Screen has proven (in more ways than one) that it's better than the Start Menu and I would wish that Notch would get it through his thick skull that Windows 8 is going to sell and if he wants more people buying & playing his game then he'll have to either accept it or get out of the gaming field and do something else.
 
@TekGun

the lockdown comment is about MS only allowing MS approved software being installed on the RT version, by approved meaning paying them a cut

although this hasent been implemented to the other versions...yet, but the fear is there

personally I think its highly doubtful they'll implement lockdown on desktops, it would fall foul of the EU for one, plus we pc users would never allow it
 
Okay, I'm going to set this straight because no one's pointed it out here.

What all these (3) publishers dis approve of is what they define as a "lock-down." They see Microsoft having their own Windows Store on the new start-up menu as the bane to their existence and Microsoft will not allow any 3rd party stores into the Metro-experience. All the publishers that want to publish something outside the Microsoft Store are forced to use the Classic View, while games published on the MS store directly embedded into the Metro interface.

Most of these publishers are NOT concerned about gamers, they are concerned about their profit margins. With Microsoft presenting their own store, MS takes a 30% cut on games for the first $25,000 MS make and 20% cut every sell after that. That's not a bad deal considering big box retailers generally take a 30-40% cut. Since the MS store is embedded directly into the OS, there is even a smaller likelihood that new users would track down other alternatives that may not work with the new OS natively.

Notch doesn't want to make Minecraft Windows 8 Certified because it would require the game to be on the Microsoft store. I personally disagree with Notch's perspective in this regard because I believe the MS Store is a great way for Indie developers to get better facetime since it's directly integrated into the operating system, rather than having to rely on underground news sources. Notch is one of a lucky few indie developers that can do whatever he pleases regardless of what the public says because he made millions off his one game.

Valve & Blizzard on the other hand believe this effort undermines their individual stores.

Blizzard charges full price for games and gets the full cut, which is why I buy their products directly from Big Box Retailers because they are undermining my local economy and putting hundreds out of work through their digital sales.

Valve charges a price set by developers and takes a 35% cut of profits off the top. This puts Valve at a disadvantage to MS (whose fees are lower) and Steam is not compatible with the Metro interface. Valve is merely looking out for their best interests despite Windows 8's major overhaul of optimization in PC performance.
 
There's no lockdown, the Windows Store is an ADDITIONAL download source. This claim is as absurd as saying that Amazon killed off all department stores worldwide. Things do exist side-by-side.

The greatest irony is that it is Notch who is closing off his Minecraft distribution, restricting options for consumer. That's hypocritical.
 
I have been running minecraft on my evaluation copy of Windows 8 for months. Haven't had any problems. So he can decline to certify it all he wants. It still works.
 
I was really considering staying with Win7 anyway, It's so fast and works great...this news just puts the icing on the cake and sets win8 up for failure because I'm sure many people feel as I do. I wasn't really aware of this news till I saw a recent posting and I think its crazy that windows of all people are going this route. I mean, there still doing great against Apple, even tho its a giant powerhouse of money, why do sumthin like this? I know Apple has a big lock down on things that can go to their OS, are they going that route because of them?
 
I was really considering staying with Win7 anyway, It's so fast and works great...this news just puts the icing on the cake and sets win8 up for failure because I'm sure many people feel as I do. I wasn't really aware of this news till I saw a recent posting and I think its crazy that windows of all people are going this route. I mean, there still doing great against Apple, even tho its a giant powerhouse of money, why do sumthin like this? I know Apple has a big lock down on things that can go to their OS, are they going that route because of them?

They are not locking down normal-desktop apps, if that's what your thinking. All their saying is that the new Metro apps that are going to be developed specifically for the Metro interface, will require Microsoft Certification. This will not affect the average person downloading/installing normal/standard apps. That will be unrestricted as it has always been: You can install whatever you want. Basically, normal apps will be installable in the same way as in Windows 7.
 
I agree Microsoft is just seeing $$ and not thinking clearly or we wouldn't have the cluster**** called Windows 8! They did some good things with Windows 8 but the Metro interface integrating is just plan not good. They could of left the start button where it was...and had the metro interface come up etc...They just got lazy and wanted one interface for everything and I think that's going to bite them in the *** on the desktop because people will not be able to figure that mess out. Sorry Microsoft but hopefully you make Windows 9 work better for regular desktop people.
 
So this is how Microsoft is going to cut prices on their operating system, by getting a percentage off the top of selling third party apps in their own personal Windows 8 certified store. I think it is absurd wanting a Windows 8 certification and then have to pay royalties because when you do, your app will be placed in the app store which has a fee.
 
There are a couple of reasons why developers aren't happy about Windows 8, and why you need to understand.

#1 Windows 8 RT on ARM is terrible. While Windows 8 on x86 has all the freedoms you'd expect from a Windows OS, you don't get that with RT. That means the only way to get software is through the Windows app store.

#2 The Windows app store takes 30% of sales. If you don't need to use the app store then why lose 30% of your sales? With the RT version of Windows 8 you have to go through the app store, and developers like MINECRAFT are forced to part with 30% of sales.
 
Dont really know why somebody who makes a game with 1980 atari sytle graphics thinks that he so important people will listen to what he has to say.
 
Dont really know why somebody who makes a game with 1980 atari sytle graphics thinks that he so important people will listen to what he has to say.
go back to your call of duty. no one gives a crap about graphics, and if you cant see past that, you are quite unintelligent.
 
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