It’s no secret that gamers are living on the edge of PC technology, driving the need for improved graphics, RAM and overclocked CPU’s. It is therefore somewhat of a concern for Microsoft that very few seem to have made the transfer to the new operating system, Vista
Valve, the company behind massive gaming hits such as the Half Life franchise and Counterstrike, has surveyed its users over Steam, an online engine used to distribute games and patches.
In the survey, 430,000 gamers were asked about the specifications of their systems, and a staggering 93 percent prefer XP over Vista. It is also worth noting that very few of Valve’s customers have made the jump to DirectX10, the new standard from Microsoft, with about one percent of users having installed the new graphics cards.
Despite always chasing the latest and greatest in technology, both software and hardware, gamers belong to a group of people that are inherently hostile to Microsoft. The monopoly in the game space, with little game support for Mac and Linux, means there is little choice for serious gamers.
The gaming community will eventually come around the new operating system, but it will be a move forced by the new DirectX10 standard and tailor-made games for Vista. Gamers will undoubtedly remain unsympathetic to Microsoft, and the inevitable move will come as a result of necessity and not appreciation for the new operating system.
