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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, November 19 2012 @ 12:48 AM EST |
Microsoft can limit it to Windows 8 if they want, but that just means game
developers will mostly ignore it until their metrics tell them that a big enough
chunk of gamers have adopted Windows 8.
Most Windows gamers are currently on Windows 7, with a smaller contingent of
Vista users (and a dwindling population of XP users). The vast majority of
Windows gamers now have DirectX 10.1- or 11-class graphics cards, and their OS
supports both of those well via DirectX 11.
So game developers will just target DirectX 11 for Windows PCs for now. If
Microsoft releases updates to DirectX that are available on Windows 7 and have
benefits with the existing 10.1- or 11-class graphics cards, then developers
will take advantage of that. If they restrict it to an OS that few players
actually have (Windows 8), either for sound technical reasons or because of some
business or marketing reason... then developers will not bother targeting it.
So there won't be many games that need it, so most gamers will not see any
reason why they should upgrade.
I expect Windows 7 and DirectX 11.0 to be the de-facto standard in PC gaming for
the next 2-3 years, by which point either Valve will have stolen the show with
some sort of open linux game console initiative, or Microsoft will have come to
their senses and buried Windows 8 in the desert and put out a Windows 9 that is
a genuinely-improved desktop OS, along with DX13 or something, which
standardizes great new features for a whole new generation of ever-more-powerful
graphics cards which all the gamers will want anyways.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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