The creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang recently expressed concern about Microsoft Windows 8.
According to Markus “Notch” Persson, Redmond’s plans for its next-gen operating system could very well threaten the concept of “open and free” platforms.
“If Microsoft decides to lock down Windows 8, it would be very, very bad for Indie games and competition in general,” Persson said during an interview with the Reddit community.
“If we can keep open platforms around, there’s going to be a lot of very interesting games in ten years, mixed in with the huge AAA games that we all love.”
Persson is hardly the first industry heavyweight to publicly voice his trepidation about Windows 8. Indeed, Valve founder Gabe Newell recently claimed the upcoming OS was a “catastrophe” for everyone in the PC space.
“There’s a strong temptation [for Microsoft] to close the platform. [This is] because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors’ access to the platform, and they say, ‘that’s really exciting,'” Newell explained.
“[So] I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.”
Rob Pardo, Blizzard’s executive VP of game design, recently said he agreed with Newell’s controversial comments – tweeting that the upcoming OS was “not awesome” for his company.
It should be noted that both Blizzard and Valve are in unique positions, as each developer offers customers the ability to directly purchase their titles over the Internet.
So it comes as little surprise that both industry heavyweights have expressed concern over Windows 8, as Microsoft prepares to make its own major push in the lucrative storefront space. Of course, Redmond also plans on taking a 30 percent royalty cut from every sale made through the store, which will clearly restrict third-party profits and further dampen industry enthusiasm.
