Windows 8 was uninspiring but it was fine / worked. It was just overshadowed by how great Windows 7 was. Windows ME seem to be just unstable for most people - I was using Windows 2000, which was far superior. The two best versions are Windows 7 and 2000

I don't think ME was that bad. The stability issues were mostly caused by drivers. This was when the switch from vxd to wdm was happening. The other complaint was not being able to shut down into DOS anymore which was silly with XP right around the corner.

As much as I hated Windows 8, although I never used it personally on any of my own machines, I think Windows Me was hands down the worst OS from MS. I have Windows 11 on 2 unsupported machines and haven't had any issues and I actually kind of like it. Still hate how slow Windows updates are though.

Why do you think they whol industry would be done? Agree a lot has shifted around the launch with devs moving their dates to avoid the timeframe around the launch. But if this fails, it'll be talked about, analysed, Rockstar will likely be ridiculed but people will move on. Others devs might be more cautious about these large games but I don't think one game will change the entire industry