And bad for business

Aug 27, 2007 13:10 GMT  ·  By

Windows Vista exclusive DirectX 10 is simply bad for business. With the introduction of Windows Vista, Microsoft also evolved the DirectX graphics technology from version 9.x to 10.0. However, in the process, the Redmond company revealed that DirectX 10 would be made available exclusively on its latest Windows operating system. To this day, seven months after the consumer launch of Vista, Microsoft is still firm and does not even consider backporting the technology to Windows XP. However, while the move seems to have paid off for Microsoft, members of the gaming industry are less keen on the intimate connection between Vista and DirectX 10.

Gabe Newell, president of Valve Software, lashed at the Redmond company, accusing a marketing error with the Vista exclusive DirectX 10. Newell revealed to HeiseOnline that Microsoft's decision had repercussions throughout the gaming industry, impacting developers, and that the company should have never excluded Windows XP from the DirectX 10 equation. In order to support the perspective, Newell cited an online survey put together by Valve which concluded that only one player out of every fifty visitors accessing the Steam download service did it from a Windows Vista installed on a system complete with a DirectX 10 graphics card.

Newell commented that since only a very small number of players can actually use the DirectX 10 technology, developers are staying away from the benefits and going for the largest market share, which means that they are stuck building games for Windows XP. In addition, Microsoft is already hard at work on DirectX 10.1 which will be included into Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

The company explained that current DirectX 10 graphics cards will support DirectX 10.1, but without the latest features added. According to estimates from Microsoft, Windows is the gaming platform of choice for over 200 million operating system users worldwide. Out of that figure, in excess of 10 million have already upgraded to Windows Vista. In this context, it is clear that Microsoft benefited from tying DirectX 10 only to Vista, as the company shipped only 60 million licenses to its latest Windows platform in the first six months.