A half of a year, almost to the day, passed since Valve removed two dozen employees. Jason Holtman, then Director of Business for Valve, was among those released. Despite the flat-by-design corporate structure, with even game credits listed alphabetically versus title and department, Holtman is considered key to the success of Steam.
And now Microsoft acquired him.
Games for Windows has not been a success. Microsoft Game Studios, and even Microsoft Hardware, had high respect in the PC gaming industry with extremely popular franchises and lines of peripherals. Their image has since regressed far enough for Microsoft to give up, two years ago, and roll Games for Windows into the Xbox brand.
As Microsoft fell, Valve climbed. Steam, largely credited to efforts by Jason Holtman, distributes games for basically every major publisher. It has a respected position on the hard drive of gamers which is an enviable feat. The Windows Store has not received any uptake. Microsoft feels the need to change that and, it would seem by accepting the job, Holtman believes he can accomplish that.
I do wonder how Microsoft will be influenced by this hire. The major concern with Windows Store is its certification process and I doubt anything will change on that front. I expect the hope is his contributions to publisher relationships but he might also, on the side, induce change in visible ways.
I thought Microsoft was
I thought Microsoft was trying to convince us that the PC was dead.
They should rename their
They should rename their marketplace WindX and give us a shiny new interface and a responsive client that will not cause streaks down the page as you drag the scrollbar.
Or Windscreen, for all the
Or Windscreen, for all the bugs it accumulates.
Maybe he could develop the
Maybe he could develop the game of BallmerKong, where the gamer attempts to rescue princess 7 from the evil Ape’s tower of non-productivity! Gamers could be taken through the 8 levels of hell, as they dodge flying executive chairs and buckets of smelly ape sweat, all while trying to get productive work done on their smudge screen fondle slabs!
interesting – just read today
interesting – just read today that they were closing this operation- so i imagine he will be coming up with microsofts next solution
Microsoft’s trying to salvage
Microsoft’s trying to salvage an obsolete vehicle they drove into the ground with a single person?> they assumed their consoles would outperform the PC gaming market for decades with no direct vision for the pc platform,they let the PC fall into obscurity. The landscape has changed considerably for Game develeopers> it used to take a team of 100’s to release a title, not to mention that Microsofts monopoly and policy on who made game titles for them required licensing approval from big name game developers, in order to be allowed to produce the game title, now a more liquid team of developers can raise funds to produce the game without expensive operating costs that used to be associated with games> Better engines are now more developer freindly and require less time to produce dramatic results. I can’t see microsoft taking PC gaming seriously enough to compete with Steam.