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[Ceebs]

I mainly game with console and only doing Football Manager on my pc (due to my crappy specs laptop). I'm accustomed to steam but not GFWL. Why do most people hate GFWL? How does it differ from steam?

Noob question I know LOL

Think of how slow the console dashboards can be and how long even minor updates can take.

Now add those together and slap that in the background of every GFWL game and throw in stupid long login times. Oh and it eats your saves and causes games to randomly not work with your hardware.

Updating them is the worst though. It updates like 360 games did back at the launch of the system, only with GFWL you have to restart the game and go back through the sign in process every time.

 

[fantomena]

His top priority is to officially kill GFWL.

 

[Valnen]

Why is Valve just letting all their important people go like this? Hubris? Do they not care about Steam anymore?

 

[diggmcbadass]

I don't see microsoft doing anything beyond DirectX for PC gaming as they are essentially competing against themselves. The only way they would get busy would be if another OS was competing for the gamer audience, but I don't realistically see that happening for years and years.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Why is Valve just letting all their important people go like this? Hubris? Do they not care about Steam anymore?

They'll have no problem getting someone else just as smart. He accomplished something, but now its time for others to come in and do more.

 

[alexandros]

Why is Valve just letting all their important people go like this? Hubris? Do they not care about Steam anymore?

Maybe Holtman is a double agent, sent to destroy Microsoft from within.

 

[Coldsun]

Why is Valve just letting all their important people go like this? Hubris? Do they not care about Steam anymore?

People eventually need to be refreshed. In this case it could be a case of Microsoft offering an incredible set of perks in an attempt to headhunt... it could be that he has done all that he can (or wants) to do with Steam, it can be tons of issues.

Valve really isn't letting all that many important people go. The past firings which people occasionally remember overall was just trimming fat from projects they were no longer interested in or removing those who didnt blend well with their work environment.

 

[BanGy.nz]

Maybe Holtman is a double agent, sent to destroy Microsoft from within.

Microsoft have been doing a fantastic job at destroying themselves for well over a decade now.

 

[alexandros]

Microsoft have been doing a fantastic job at destroying themselves for well over a decade now.

Fair enough

 

[Htown]

Shame he's not a part of the Xbox group. I would love to see Steam like holiday sales hit consoles.

not a chance

 

[sixteen-bit]

smart acquisition imo, especially if they're leaning for a digital platform

 

[BajiRav]

Better drop the GFWL label, as that is pretty toxic in people's minds. There's lots of damage to undo, before PC gamers are willing to give MS another shot again.

Given how clueless MS seemed with the Xbone launch, I would not all of a sudden expect them to be any less out of touch when it comes to PC gaming.

His top priority is to officially kill GFWL.

Didn't they already?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/windows/games?xr=shellnav

 

[Drek]

Hire former Steam boss, put him on the Windows team. Way to Britta that one MS.

When are we just going to start using "Microsoft" as a verb for when someone does something inexplicably dumb?

 

[HK-47]

People eventually need to be refreshed. In this case it could be a case of Microsoft offering an incredible set of perks in an attempt to headhunt... it could be that he has done all that he can (or wants) to do with Steam, it can be tons of issues.

Valve really isn't letting all that many important people go. The past firings which people occasionally remember overall was just trimming fat from projects they were no longer interested in or removing those who didnt blend well with their work environment.

Dat PR speak

 

[Woo-Fu]

His top priority is to officially kill GFWL.

It was never really alive, just like every other Microsoft pc gaming initiative.

 

[ElbowRocket]

He wont accomplish anything because Microsoft thinks it is omnipotent.

 

[Valnen]

They'll have no problem getting someone else just as smart. He accomplished something, but now its time for others to come in and do more.

You don't just get rid of the people who made you a success. I'm worried about Steam. Valve isn't giving it the care it deserves. And many senior people at the company seem to be leaving or being forced out. People here seem to be under the impression that Valve is invincible and can do no wrong, but things look pretty bad to me lately.

 

[Hellsing321]

I hope his first order of business is to completely kill GFWL and make sure they never ever do something like it again. Ideally the only thing he'd have to say is, "Just put Steamworks in everything, you numbnuts!"

 

[Burt]

This is a shitty job to get. Everyone knows what's wrong with GFWL and how to make it better, and it doesn't take the former Steam boss coming over and saying "Make it more like Steam" for them to figure it out. The fact of the matter is that the corporate culture and direction at Microsoft is absolutely awful nowadays, and he'll have to change that before getting any leeway to make the substantive changes to GFWL that could make it a contender in the PC market.

 

[harSon]

not a chance

They just had one in the Summer...

 

[Orca]

They just had one in the Summer...

The last two sales were extremely good.

 

[Azih]

The fact of the matter is that the corporate culture and direction at Microsoft is absolutely awful nowadays.

The corporate culture at Microsoft has been completely revamped recently, especially with Sinofsky being turfed. It's very unclear what the 'new MS' culture will be at this point.

I really don't think MS will be bringing GFWL back at this point. They seem to be going more hands off especially with giving up on providing an IDE of their own with the death of XNA and officially turning to the 3rd party Unity as a replacement.

The bigger question for me is whether MS brought Jason Holtman in to focus on Windows Store type games, desktop games, or both?

 

[Crawl]

The bigger question for me is whether MS brought Jason Holtman in to focus on Windows Store type games, desktop games, or both?

My bet is to secure exclusive content / games for the windows 8 storefront to help drive operating system sales, And the majority of the exclusives wont be what we traditionally see as 'hardcore PC games'.

 

[Azih]

Apparently my guess was right and MS seems to be well on the way to ditching GFWL:

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/20...etplace-unlocks-the-achievement-for-retiring/

At the very least PC games won't be sold on xbox.com very soon.

 

[Mr. X]

This is a late realization, only time will tell if it's too late.

 

[ThaiGrocer]

I really want him to bring new ideas other than just building the necessary services surrounding DD platform. It would be awesome if he can strike a deal with other DD services to interoperate in a way that makes customers happy while still getting their fair share of whatever money is thrown at DD category. Watching platforms build artificial barriers between each other is getting kind of old-fashioned.

 

[Durante]

I don't know. What I do know is that people who have been reporting everything about Microsoft for many years, like Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley, have stated multiple times that Microsoft wants the desktop to go away. Maybe they're wrong, but it still worries me.

It's obvious. They now have their own little closed, tightly controlled "App store" environment, and if they can somehow manage to get everything through that they can get a cut of all PC software.

That seems to be the one thought driving MS' strategic decisions lately. Well, that, and turning products into services.

As such, I expect them to direct all efforts to the Windows 8 app store.

 

[alexandros]

Yeah, there's basically zero chance that Holtman's position has anything to do with desktop games.

 

[Interficium]

Why is Valve just letting all their important people go like this? Hubris? Do they not care about Steam anymore?

Holtman was part of the wave of layoffs at Valve back in February that were never fully explained. Beyond some comments from Jeri Ellsworth last month nobody totally knows why a bunch of fairly high profile staff (Holtman, OG Portal peeps, art directors) were let go.

Never really bought the "they didn't fit the culture" and "trimming fat" explanations.

 

[Lazaro]

This sounds as if Valve is sending Trojan horse to Microsoft in order to infect them and take over. Gabe as Microsoft CEO would be interesting.

 

[inm8num2]

I know the press release quotes are the usual business, but Windows is already a great gaming platform. I certainly have no issue with anyone wanting to make it better.

As for GFWL, I have a couple games there which I obtained for very cheap, like AoE III complete for $0.10 about three years ago. Hopefully I can still access those in the future.

 

[Raist]

Maybe Holtman is a double agent, sent to destroy Microsoft from within.

Phil Harrison needed reinforcements. Well I guess posting on GAF takes up a lot of his time.

 

[Kifimbo]

Sorry to bump this (especially if it's old) but... It didn't last long.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ture_of_PC_games_evangelist_Jason_Holtman.php

 

[Zoned]

lol

 

[jayu26]

lol

I concur.

 

[Azih]

Any word from the guy on what went down?

 

[JaggedSac]

Lol

 

[kadotsu]

Next stop (hopefully) Oculus!

 

[inky]

Think about it guys. Go in, kill GFWL, get out. This man is a hero.

 

[KaOTiK]

I truly did lol

 

[Netherscourge]

That ended quickly...

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Sorry to bump this (especially if it's old) but... It didn't last long.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ture_of_PC_games_evangelist_Jason_Holtman.php

Did he see the writing on the wall?

 

[DoubleTake]

No doubt he was brought on as a last ditch effort to salvage GFWL and then when they realized it was too late both sides decided to cut ties.

 

[Nocturno999]

His ideas were probably too pro consumer for MS.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Nadella making some changes already?

 

[BlackBuzzard]

His ideas had too much consumer value.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Think about it guys. Go in, kill GFWL, get out. This man is a hero.

Gaben's sleeper agent. Doesn't fuck around.

 

[Tobor]

I expect him to leave in 1-2 years after realising that he can't get anything significant done. IMO if Microsoft was malleable by a single good employee then they wouldn't be making misstep after misstep.

Give this man a hand. He called it, but his timetable was too conservative.

 

[GalacticaN7]

Obviously he must have been......the Cboat!!!

Dun, dun, dun

 

[JaseC]

No doubt he was brought on as a last ditch effort to salvage GFWL and then when they realized it was too late both sides decided to cut ties.

I doubt that: the GFWL shutdown notice was posted on the AoE Online site just a few days after this thread was made, so it would have been set in motion before Holtman jumped on board.