Monday, November 6th 2017
Driven by Chinese PUBG Players, Windows 7 Now Most Popular OS on Steam
Steam's October survey has brought with it some interesting tidbits and reversals regarding the state of the world's OS shares. The latest such survey from the company shows Windows 10 lose its crown as the most popular OS for gamers, shadowed by a resurgence of Windows 7. Microsoft may be looking for increased Windows 10 market share throughout the world, but there's one country that has been the most troubling for the company's efforts: China. Remember that Microsoft had to introduce its own China Government edition of Windows 10 to the Chinese government, or otherwise risk the country not to transition to its new OS. However, it seems that that fact has led Chinese people's trust in the Microsoft OS to decrease even more; and absent of access to the China Government edition for regular customers, they're simply choosing to stay within the confines of Windows 7.
All of this seems pretty academic, so let's get some numbers here: Windows 10 shed 17.38% points in October, down to a 28.6 percent share, with the 64-bit version accounting for 28.23% of that share. At the same time, Windows 7 has gained 21.47% points in the same month, climbing to 65.46% of share (63.60 percent for the 64-bit build, and 1.86 percent for the 32-bit edition). Where's the connection to Chinese users here though? Well, take a look at the Steam OS language stats for the same month: simplified Chinese rose by 26.83% up to 56.37%, against a decrease in practically all other languages, and a very considerable 13.4% drop in English.But where's PUBG in all of this, though? Well, that slight piece of the puzzle you can glean from Steam Spy's analysis of PUBG's player base, which shows an adequate (roughly) 600% percent increase in player count from around 1 million players in August to around 6 million as of October. Around 3.1 million of those entered the scene starting in September. PUBG is simply a phenomenon in China, and Chinese users really seem to be trying to make the most of it while they still can: reports peg the game as being in line for a ban from the Chinese government, as a Chinese Gaming Association has deemed PUBG to go "against Chinese values and ethical norms."
Sources:
Steam Hardware Survey, via TechSpot, Steam Spy, CGICG
All of this seems pretty academic, so let's get some numbers here: Windows 10 shed 17.38% points in October, down to a 28.6 percent share, with the 64-bit version accounting for 28.23% of that share. At the same time, Windows 7 has gained 21.47% points in the same month, climbing to 65.46% of share (63.60 percent for the 64-bit build, and 1.86 percent for the 32-bit edition). Where's the connection to Chinese users here though? Well, take a look at the Steam OS language stats for the same month: simplified Chinese rose by 26.83% up to 56.37%, against a decrease in practically all other languages, and a very considerable 13.4% drop in English.But where's PUBG in all of this, though? Well, that slight piece of the puzzle you can glean from Steam Spy's analysis of PUBG's player base, which shows an adequate (roughly) 600% percent increase in player count from around 1 million players in August to around 6 million as of October. Around 3.1 million of those entered the scene starting in September. PUBG is simply a phenomenon in China, and Chinese users really seem to be trying to make the most of it while they still can: reports peg the game as being in line for a ban from the Chinese government, as a Chinese Gaming Association has deemed PUBG to go "against Chinese values and ethical norms."
86 Comments on Driven by Chinese PUBG Players, Windows 7 Now Most Popular OS on Steam
Tablet running with 8.1 and for it, it's fine. But 7... meh.
Switch off windows recognition of Cameras, microphones and the likes and turn off location awarness.
There is control over your personal data.
The rest is telemetry data used to track global e regional threats.
The strong stance of privacy and digital security shared by myself and others is not paranoia. It is practical prudence and wisdom based on experience and knowledge.
You are implying that the typing and inking data is correlated in some ways to the context on the user screen to produce a breach in user security.
So MS somewhere has a big text file that reads: "user A visiting site B typed "user" in username field and "password" in password field"
That's what you really think it's doing.
Even if, IF, MS detains some kind of correlation between the specific user (as in physical persona) and is typed data, that has to be proven that that data is of some use to an attacker.
As before with iOS and ANDROID you drift completely out of context getting EQUIFAX into the discussion. That is a completely different scope int terms of motivations, data correlation, and data collection modality. It has nothing in common other than the word "breach".
Yes, I trust Microsoft. So does millions of companies around the world, companies bigger than Microsoft, with people as smart and experienced as those working in MS. Yet nothing has been found.
Do you have any proof that I shouldn't? Real proof, from courts with facts?
Illegal, yet nothing is done? Oh, tell me more about this crime for which MS hasn't been brought to justice! /s
You said to the other poster that this is not about paranoia. I am not so sure. Search? For what? Here is publicly available document from Microsoft about telemetry and what data does it collect at various setting levels:
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/
It's not exactly beyond what I "believe".
P.S.
I do wonder how people expect bugfixes to happen without MS not knowing about errors or things like personal assistants to work without data collection. Probably with magic.
And I did read that statement. Or are you telling me that MS put up those documents and expected no one to do that? xD
P.S.
Beta testing for millions upon millions of hardware/software combinations? Do you even grasp the scope? Apple has very limited hardware set in comparision, Google has mostly it's own software, while Microsoft has everything. This has been discussed to death. Yes, I know MS QA has sucked lately, but it never has been perfect.
We've gotten off topic a little bit. Whether you choose to accept Microsoft's flawed scope and focus is unacceptable and even unlawful is up to you. But the facts remain that Windows 7 is far less offensive to one's privacy and easy to configure in the ways that it is. The Chinese people aren't stupid, they know what they are doing. You clearly don't understand it.
Why would I need to reread that?
Chinese are controlled by their goverment, which is saying what they should actually know or believe or think. Not the best example.