After having just come across this piece of news, it is rather interesting to see further updates from Blizzard. Somehow, I was expecting more….
It was not very long ago when Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, stated that “Windows 8 is a catastrophe” for the PC gaming community. Since then he has been extending his company towards broader compatibility with Linux as a dodge against the much hyped Windows 8. However one computer video game entity doesn’t comply by the same. Blizzard Entertainment appears to have changed their skeptic views regarding Microsoft’s Windows 8 and also confirmed that its forthcoming “World of Warcraft” extension will be supporting Microsoft’s new version of Windows, although the work has not yet been started up until now.
Darren Williams, the senior software engineer at Blizzard Entertainment, disclosed in an interview, “We put our games on platforms our players are already on, so yeah, it will be available on Windows 8.”
The owner of video game company Mojang, Markus Persson initially commented regarding Windows 8 that it is possibly “very very bad for indie games and competition in general” by elaborating his concerns about the Windows 8 potential as a closed system. The reason for opposing Microsoft’s new OS from the viewpoint of a major developer is totally fair considering that all the applications for the new version of Windows will be distributed via Microsoft’s closed software distribution hub.
Realistically, Blizzard Entertainment is the first gaming company to have conceded the fact that all these oppositions ultimately crank up out of paranoia. Windows still remains a fair choice if the objective is to design something that would interest the customers.
So long as Microsoft Windows 8 would interest the users, which is where even the games are required being available. Darren Williams while talking about Blizzard’s plans for shifting to Window’s 8, summed up in a CVG interview- “We haven’t worked with Windows 8 directly yet, but we’ll certainly switch over to it. I think that we’ll go with the platforms that the most people are on. There’s no particular fear we have of Windows 8.””
