Opinions on games dropping Windows XP support.

[Smokey911]

It's simply moving with the times. How many games do you see still supporting 95 or 98 or even 2000? It really is finally time to move on folks after almost 10 years of a good operating system to a better one. 7 is better then XP and I say this even though still am an avid XP fan.

I also agree with the original poster about development limitations due to having to make it compatible with DX9, this severely limits what a developer can do with their software

My final word is move with the times, XP was great but now it is becoming obsolete. Stop flogging your horse and move to the motorcar people

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

you know... the argument for keeping support for XP because you still own it is like saying "But my Xbox is perfectly fine, why do I need a 360 to play next-gen games"
Yes I know the hardware in the consoles is a difference, but think on this. The hardware that XP supports does not include most newer hardware capabilities. Yes some companies still write XP drivers for their hardware, but you're still not getting the full range capabilities of said hardware because XP's architecture DOES NOT SUPPORT IT. Meaning, you've put a governer on your POTENTIAL for output by remaining in an inferior (yes it is inferior) O/S.

 

[mattttherman3]

Well I have vista but after 2 operating systems, time to move on.

 

[Super Toast]

It's about time.

This. If people don't have Vista or 7 by this point, it's their own damn fault.

 

[ManiacEskimo]

I still use XP, but I did pick up Win7 Pro from Microsoft last winter during a student discount

However, I've yet to get a new hard drive to install it on, I've got more pressing issues.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I don't really have a problem with it. If you are unable to upgrade because of a lack of money then you probably won't be in any position to have a computer that is capable of playing the games that will be coming out without the support for XP.

Pretty much exactly what I was thinking, and I'm glad it didn't take long for someone to say it. At this point, forget software: there's mainstream hardware that isn't supported in XP. For a year or two already, there have been some laptops that will at best only boot into XP with difficulty, and even then they don't have drivers for everything. If you have an old computer and can't afford to upgrade or replace it, you're probably not going to run the latest high-end game very well (if at all) anyway, even if it did run on your OS.

It's not like this is something new, either. It's very unusual that XP was around for so long, so younger people may not be used to it, but normally support for old stuff gets dropped eventually. That's just how the world works. To take advantage of new hardware/software advancements, sometimes there's just no good way to do it while still supporting what it's replacing if the differences have become big enough, because it sucks up so much extra time and money developing and testing multiple versions of the same thing.

For some games, it's not a big deal to keep support for XP and older video cards and whatnot, because they don't use or need fancy new features. I would be very surprised if those kinds of games dropped XP support. For others that depend heavily on "look at all the shiny stuff we have that is still barely playable on a computer from two years from the future" kinds of stuff, though, they will be thrilled to not have to support multiple extra render paths and be limited in terms of what they can use.

And just as far as my personal opinion goes, I absolutely can't wait for XP to die. I tolerated it on my gaming/media PC, because it did what it had to, but I could never stand it on my daily use computer. Similarly, I was fine with NT4 and Win2k at work, but not at home. Win7 is the first MS OS I can honestly say I like and mostly don't have a problem with for normal use (although it could really stand to have a proper Unix(-like) layer like every other OS). I will be thrilled to not have to put up with the security nightmare XP is and the crazy bullshit apps written for it think they can get away with. As an added bonus, when extended support for XP finally ends in 2014, maybe IE6 will finally die with it...

 

[Pain_Inflictor]

Not everyone lives in a first-world country and has the capabilities to update their computer every four years. I know I must seem like a whiny *****, but it's true; I personally am going to have to wait two years before my parents are willing to buy me a new computer. So I'd definitely be pissed about losing XP support.

get job, acquire currency, purchase things yourself.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

XP is old. I mean, it's oooooold. It needed replacing eventually. Aaand I'm on Windows 7, sooo... Don't care!

This. It was a good OS but it is now holding us back. Time to move forward. Windows 7 seems to be decent.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I'm currently running Vista on my laptop, and I'd like to get a new gaming desktop soon, so it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Zedar0]

I made this topic as a sort of companion topic to my (opinions on Windows 7 topic in off-topic disscussion, but this more focuses on this one specific thing.)

So what's your opinions on games dropping Windows XP support.

Well not many games have yet though it seems like in the coming years, less and less games will support XP, such as Battlefield 3, Just Cause 2, and shattered horizon (probably more but I don't know) and so what do you guys think? Is it a bad more or good move?

Imho, its a good thing? Why? Becuase if games keep supporting XP, sure it will have a longer life-span but it is holding back development and so games need to include DX9 support, BF3 will only support DX10/11 most likely then it will be a game that really pushes the limits due to it not being pulled back by the limits of a 10 or so year old OS and DX.

its a dumbass move, I mean, LOOK AT THE VALVE STATS FOR PEOPLE WHO USE XP!!!! I think its over half the people.

XP users actually make up less than half of all Steam users, as of quite some time ago (I don't remember the exact date, but it's definitely been a while). So the percentage has likely shrunk even more by now.

Anyway, yeah, it needs to go. 7 is inexpensive, and much better than either XP or Vista. There's no REAL reason not to upgrade.

 

[yamitami]

Well while people who are smart ignore the existence of Vista, XP is still technically two systems ago so it makes sense that they'd start dropping backwards compatibility for it.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Was accutaly going to make an analogy using the PS2 and PS3, basicaly:

It would be like asking to play PS3 games on a PS2 and why they don't support them, its becuase of the better hardware...

This is actually quite an apt analogy, because the PS3 sold so poorly in the early days that an unprecedented number of titles offered both PS3 and PS2 versions. Windows XP is like the PS2 of operating systems: outdated, but still supported because people hated its successor so much.

When did they stop supporting Windows 98? The last game I can find is Myst IV.

Released in 2004. Six years later.

XP, on the other hand, is 9-10 years old. Time to move on, folks.

This is a perfect illustration of the problem we're facing, actually. When XP was six years old, Vista had only just come out and was still the wretched hive of bugs and BSODomy that most have come to remember it as. To say nothing of choking on a surprising amount of XP-era software. Hence, almost nobody who had a choice upgraded to it, ever. Windows 7, meanwhile, is but a year old, whereas in 2004, XP was three years old and 2000/Me were four.

Blame Microsoft for taking so bloody long to make Vista compared to all their previous versions, and then making it into something nobody wanted.

 

[Dys]

Not everyone lives in a first-world country and has the capabilities to update their computer every four years. I know I must seem like a whiny *****, but it's true; I personally am going to have to wait two years before my parents are willing to buy me a new computer. So I'd definitely be pissed about losing XP support.

If you're not living a relatively wealthy country with plenty of disposable income, I don't see how you could justify buying games. Also, there are windows 7 starter and basic OS, which are developed specifically for third world countries (I have heard that starter is free).

I'm probably somewhat strange, what with my ability to remember windows 2000 (which, for those of you who care, is like windows XP before it was dumbed down), but why anyone actually likes windows XP is completely beyond me.

At any rate, developing for old systems tends to quash innovation, as more time is spent porting the game backwards/forwards. As others have said, with every step forward people have complained and bitched about how unfair it is. Get the fuck over it, I don't remember hearing sony fanboys crying about how their PS2 couldn't play PS3 games. Windows XP has been supported for 10 fucking years, which is a long time for even for a good OS, much less a re-skinned, dumbed down version of an older OS...

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

XP is old. I mean, it's oooooold. It needed replacing eventually. Aaand I'm on Windows 7, sooo... Don't care!

This is more or less my standard. I mean, I could qualify it further, but really it shouldn't be necessary. Besides, Vista launched more than four years ago. It's time to let it go guys.

 

[tobi the good boy]

I can see why they would do it, better hardware = more options and greater result, i am however saddened because i do not have any means to obtaining windows 7 so it would harm me greatly

 

[Space Spoons]

XP was a solid OS, and we all know Vista was anything but, but 7's shaping up to be nearly as good, if not more so. There's no longer any excuse to hang back. In my opinion, it's time to move on. I mean, hell, no one expected Nintendo to keep supporting the NES in any real capacity when the leap was made to the SNES, right? This is no different.

 

[Korolev]

XP's going out man. It just is. You can't fight the march of progress, even if Windows 7 wasn't all that much better than Vista, which in turn, wasn't all that much better than XP.

That's the way of the world. My new HDTV doesn't accept the red/white/yellow cables from my PS2 or Wii. I had to buy an adaptor. That's just the way it is, and there ain't nothing I or you can do to stop it.

 

[Kranay]

No. Just no. XP is still the best, IMO. I've used 7 and I just didn't think it was as good as XP. Sure, 7 may have 64-bit (or not, depending on which you want) but the fact that I couldn't run Clear Sky on 7 pissed me the hell off. Besides, why would I want an OS that's LIKE XP when I have a perfectly good copy of XP right here?

 

[Hashime]

The OS is like 10 years old. Even Ubuntu does not have support distributions that old.
If you have a computer running XP and can play modern games, upgrade, otherwise you don't factor in.