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Less than one month from now, the Game Developers Conference - GDC - kicks off in San Francisco. Aside from the reveal of Sony's Project Morpheus VR concept last year, the show has been short of game-changing announcements in recent times - but this year's event promises to be different. A revitalised Microsoft will continue its drive to promote Windows 10 for gaming, while Valve is set to relaunch its delayed Steam Machine platform. We will be presented with two very different visions for the future of PC gaming, and while the specifics of the upcoming clash remain shrouded in mystery some nuggets of information are starting to come to light.Valve's pursuit of a truly open PC platform led to the beginning of the Steam Machine initiative, prompted by Microsoft's plans to erect a massive walled garden in Windows 8 in the form of the Windows Store. Nothing stopped users from running their own code on the OS of course, but the introduction of a Microsoft app store with Redmond in complete control was a warning shot to Valve, whose Steam platform relies on Windows remaining an open platform. Its response? To put serious resources into a Linux-based PC gaming alternative.
"The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don't realise how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behaviour," Valve's Gabe Newell said. "We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It's a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. 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."
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