A recent apparent full-throated defense of Glenn Beck hasn't left Stardock CEO Brad Wardell with a shortage of vehemence. He lashed out at Games for Windows Live, its certification process and the payments it requires to keep games patched and running.
In an interview with Shacknews, Wardell was asked if he knew why Microsoft wasn't "showing more leadership" on the PC. Wardell - well, just let the man speak for himself. He's quite comfortable with doing so, after all.
I started out as a big Games for Windows Live advocate. I intended for Elemental to be on Games for Windows Live, but then as we got closer, the Xbox group took it over more and more. And they have things where, oh, if you want to use Games for Windows Live to update your game, you have to go through [their] certification. And if you do it more than X number of times, you have to pay money. It's like, "My friends, you can't do that on the PC."
On the console, I don't have to update my game because an anti-virus program got an update and is now identifying my VB scripts as viruses and I have to apply an emergency patch. That would just add insult to injury. We've had to upgrade our games plenty of times over the years, not because we found some bug, but because some third-party program, or driver, or whatever screwed it up. If Games for Windows Live maintains that strategy and they take over, I'm done. I'm not making PC games. I would be done.
Is he impertinent? Impolite? Merely exaggerating? Maybe, but the man does have a point.
Stardock Interview Part 2: Brad Wardell on PC Gaming [ShackNews via Maximum PC]