The Window's operating system has always had its critics, but it is rare for a software developer to stick the boot in quite as definitively as Valve has done this week.

Gabe Newell is the boss at the company that brought us much loved franchises Half Life and Left4Dead, but he has not been very impressed with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 product.

He believes the latest version of the world's most popular PC operating system will cause myriad problems for games developers.

"Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," said Mr Newell. "We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well."

He said this will hedge against the loss of some top-tier original equipment manufacturers and PCs.

"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."

Concept art for the hotly anticipated Half Life 3 was leaked last month, once again raising the profile of Valve as fans of the franchise begin clambering for more details about the game.

However, Valve has come in for criticism itself of late, with Half Life 2 artist Viktor Antonov explaining that he quite the company when it turned away from epic, triple-A titles.

Speaking to Eurogamer, he said: "Valve is a great place, but I'm interested in projects, not in companies. I went to Valve specifically for Half-Life 2. I went and I collaborated with Arkane to do The Crossing and Dishonored. I put the project above everything else."

This is unlikely to put hardcore fans off the next instalment in the epic franchise, though. Many were thoroughly impressed with the episode format that followed the main Half Life 2 game.ADNFCR-1220-ID-801416486-ADNFCR
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