loaded up the launcher and downloaded the new snapshot and as soon as it said " you don't need to have this launcher open to play the game" or whatever the Minecraft window popped up for a moment then crashed.
Environment
OS: Windows 8 (ver 6.2, arch amd64)
Java: 1.7.0_17 (by Oracle Corporation)
Launcher: 0.7.1 (Dev) (bootstrap 2)
Based on a crash report provided in this issue, I believe with high certainty that this report may be a duplicate of MC-15423. You can view all information known about this specific crash at MCX-524.