14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 put the future of PC gaming at risk and that was the moment when Valve’s Steam Machines started gaining ground, with several large manufacturers announcing their support for SteamOS, an operating system that was specifically supposed to replace Windows as the top gaming platform.
Alienware was one of the companies that stepped away from Windows at a time when Microsoft looked like it became confused with the purpose of its desktop operating system, so the company started adopting Steam Machines as part of a “just in case” strategy in order to be prepared for the moment when gaming shifts away from Windows.
“I think the landscape two years ago was very different to what it is today,” Azor said. “The catalyst for the Steam Machine initiative was really around what Microsoft’s decisions were with Windows 8, and if you remember that operating system, it really stepped away from gamers in a big way. We were concerned as an industry that we were going to lose PC gamers on the Windows platform to any other platform that was out there,” Alienware co-founder and current general manager Frank Azor was quoted as saying by PCGamer.
Azor explains that Alienware couldn’t afford to lose PCs as a gaming platform and was ready to invest in Steam machines, while Microsoft itself was still struggling with its desktop OS.
But what followed next was a mix of Microsoft understanding that it was losing ground in PC gaming and Valve not playing its cards right.
Microsoft realized it was going down
The Alienware executive says Valve delayed the Steam controller and, at about the same time, Microsoft introduced Windows 10, a significantly reworked operating system that also put the focus on PC gaming, bringing back manufacturers from rival platforms.
“I think Microsoft learned a very valuable lesson - a lot of valuable lessons - with Windows 8 and tried to correct those with Windows 10. It’s more gamer focused, I would say. Every subsequent release has focused on gamers. Although their execution isn’t perfect, it’s definitely improved compared to Windows 8,” Azor noted.
Microsoft is indeed betting big on gaming as part of the Windows 10 push and the simple fact that it offered the new OS as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 users contributed to the new operating system being more widely adopted across the world. Furthermore, technologies such as DirectX 12 make Windows 10 a more compelling product for gaming, while features like Xbox Play Anywhere that connect the PC and the console drive more users to the platform.
Valve’s statistics for the Steam platform show that nearly 50 percent of gamers are already running Windows 10 and that’s an important win for Microsoft, especially given the fact that its operating system was launched 16 months ago.