Valve Chief Opens Floodgates of Criticism Against Windows 8

Whatever loyalty Gabe Newell may have had to the company that made him his first millions seems to have evaporated. Now the founder of Valve is going medieval on Microsoft's upcoming new operating system, Windows 8, calling it a "catastrophe," no less. "My suspicion is that he's not talking about the OS but the balance of power in the mobile and desktop marketing space," said tech analyst Scott Steinberg.

Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle this week, Gabe Newell, chief executive and cofounder of Valve, had some harsh words about Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

The award-winning game publisher is also the creator of the Steam digital distribution service for games, and Newell seemed rather "steamed" himself about what Microsoft's new OS could mean for the PC market.

During an interview conducted by Ed Fries, the former head of Microsoft Games Studio, Newell suggested that Windows 8 would be "a catastrophe" for PC users.

Strong words from someone who actually owes his fortunes and success to his days at Microsoft. Newell, who reportedly was a producer on the first three releases of Windows, left Microsoft to found Valve in 1996, which in turn developed Steam as a way to combat piracy and provide a distribution tool for games from large publishers as well as independent developers.

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