Tricia Duryee for All Things D:

“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.”

Valve recently revealed plans to make its Steam game service run on Linux (it’s been on OS X since 2010). He sees Steam on Linux as a positive way to make Linux appealing to mainstream users, suggesting that games drive “consumer purchasing behavior.”

Newell thinks Windows 8’s Windows Store — Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Mac App Store — is a threat to the long-term viability of game developers. But more than that, he sees Microsoft’s efforts heading towards a “closed platform,” which he says couldn’t have resulted in businesses like his flourishing.