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PayPalPeople keep asking me to highlight this issue, so I will. There is a growing number of games that have at some point said a Linux port will happen and then we wait and nothing happens.
We have a wiki page setup for a while that is need of some love to keep it up to date, but not many people even realise we have a wiki so an article to highlight some is a good idea.
I'm only going to highlight a few, as to be honest, there's a lot and the wiki page doesn't even cover half of them right now.
This is the status of a few choice picks and what we currently know about them.
The one that is really getting on my nerves personally at the moment is Carmageddon: Reincarnation. It released into Early Access on March 27th 2014, over two years later the developer is still claiming we will one day get some sort of announcement. Their level of commitment to Linux has been a bit shocking.
My next annoyance is of course The Witcher 3. It was announced by a big homepage image on Steam and then included in the big SteamOS sale. Over two years since the initial image on Steam and they still aren't confirming anything. My emails go completely unanswered too. We have a forum post that has been going for a while talking about it, where some people do seem to get replies. I fully believe they at one point intended to, and they changed their minds on it. Considering the developers never publicly confirmed it, I'm leaning more towards Valve acting without gaining absolute certainty on the port as they wanted another big name for SteamOS.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is another annoying one. It was promised in Humble Indie Bundle 11, then it was due in 2015. They then took the port in-house and most recently (April 2016) they said they still want to do it. Looks like it just went to the bottom of their list when they took it back for themselves.
Mad Max is another odd tale that was announced in a Press Release in March 2015, but since then we have heard nothing. However, it February this year it was spotted on SteamDB and still in the last week continues to show progress according to the SteamDB page.
Total War: Warhammer was confirmed to be coming to Linux in April of last year, as it listed SteamOS as an official platform on the official website. Then in March of this year it was stated Linux was still a platform, but probably not at the same time as the others. I've seen lots of posts asking for a status update over the last few months, but no developer has been replying.
An "honourable" mention to the always delayed Rocket League. It has blown way past all the previous release windows and still no sign of it. Most recently, 16 days ago (30th of June 2016) a developer noted it was still nearing a release window.
Edit, Rocket League have since sent us a message on twitter
@gamingonlinux For sure. Saw your article. We're working on getting it optimized and will send out an update when we have a firm date.
— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) July 19, 2016
It's always frustrating when developers just don't deliver, but always remember to be respectful. You are talking to humans after all and being rude is a good way to get ignored. There was a game a while ago that was delayed due to abuse/trolling towards the porter, so don't be a fool about it. Being frustrated is only natural, but you need to think about how you come across, get your wording right before posting a message to a developer.
I say it time and time again: If you genuinely care about playing games on Linux and want to support Linux gaming, never buy a game until the Linux port is actually out and confirmed to be playable.
I personally don't fund and will never fund anything on services like Kickstarter unless they have a working Linux build and even then I remain sceptical. It would have to be truly amazing to get my support.
Feel free to comment about others, and remember to help keep the wiki page updated. Keeping that updated and letting others know that page exists should help keep track of this growing port-mess we have.
Quoting: LinasI am still upset about The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. It was already in beta when suddenly it just... stopped.I suspect on that one, they released the beta thinking everything was more or less done, and they'd just have to make a few minor fixes. Then when the feedback was that everything was completely broken, my guess is that they decided not to invest in fixing it.
slaapliedje Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: HalifaxWitcher 3 was the most disappointing for me. Both a really good AAA game I want to play, and a game that looked in the bag for a Linux port, for a while.
Valve giving up on SteamVR for SteamOS and pretty much giving up on SteamOS, at least for now, sure does seem like they decided to not power through and fix/try again after a poorly received Steam Machine release.
But, at least Valve has started things rolling for gaming on Linux, they are not taking away anything - the Linux client is still seeing regular patches - which I suppose of all of it, is the most important thing as a Linux gamer.
We have way more than we ever would have had before, and there are still games being ported for Linux. My only real thought is AAA titles will likely remain largely Windows only titles, if Valve never tries to make Steam Machines running SteamOS a more attractive option than they are today. Which certainly won't happen if Valve doesn't work on it.
How has Valve given up on SteamVR for SteamOS. From what I understand a full third of people at Valve are working on SteamVR. I see get constant updates on Linux for SteamVR (still doesn't actually do anything though).
I kind of funny that we have a list of a few games that haven't come out or are being canceled for Linux. I lived through the days of the Atari Jaguar, where there were a ton of incredibly potential games coming out for it, and then it just died. Some developers had taken Atari's money and ran. Some were left in almost complete states and then completed many years later.
So while I'm bummed that Mad Max hasn't made it's way to Linux yet (I've stopped playing it on Windows after finding out they decided to port it again... but then I think by the same publisher, tried Batman Arkham Knight earlier and couldn't even get it to recognize the steam controller or xbox 360 controller...)
I've got so many great games now to play under Linux, I don't know if I'd ever get around to playing Witcher 3 anyhow (I do have it already, but haven't even had time to beat the first Witcher)
Quoting: hardpenguinI kinda believe that the story behind Mad Max is the lack of Denuvo on Linux...
Wait, you're telling me the reason of a lack of a port is a totally superfluous piece of crap DRM software? You know, the reason number one that some game does not work on some machines (or on wine)?
No sympathy at all in that case.
Quoting: dlfWith Witcher 3 getting a GOTY edition I'd assume since it's (witcher 3) is pretty much final code it'd be easier to port to Linux . . . .Porting is exactly when you find all the bugs, even ones that also affect all other platforms. Because porting is also quality assurance. So no, "final code" is what you'll have after porting. See Neverwinter Nights, they fixed hundreds of bugs in the Windows version they found while porting to Linux
Last edited by cprn on 18 July 2016 at 8:37 am UTC
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