Quite a number of people have asked me to talk about where to buy Linux games, how to make sure developers are supported and so on, so here I am.
First of all, I am fully aware there will likely be a small backlash in the comments on certain points. We do seem to have a small minority of very vocal people who like to boast about buying dirt cheap games from places like G2A, which makes me sad. We also have a few who like to advocate piracy, which is not only sad, but makes us look really bad in the eyes of developers. For the most part though, the people commenting here are fantastic to talk to.
To make this a point: I am not aiming to single anyone out, nor am I aiming to be hostile towards anyone. Read this as if we are all sitting around the table having a *insert favourite drink* and discussing the best way to support our platform. That’s what this is all about, everything I do is to help Linux gaming progress somehow.
To get this out of the way; I flat out do not recommend buying from places like G2A and Kinguin, Samsai already wrote about that here. Read that as a starting point if you please. Basically, don’t pre-order, don’t buy from random reseller stores.
While Samsai touched on some dubious stores in his linked post, I wanted to talk about Steam key resellers in general. I would completely steer clear of all of them, that’s the single safest option here. I actually already wrote about this before here.
As you can see, we’ve already written about all of this before in various places, so it’s time to bring it together under one roof. Instead of having the information scattered across various previous articles.
So, how do you know if your purchase is counted as a Linux sale? Most of the time it’s actually pretty simple. I’ve come up with some general guidelines and information for you, it’s your call on how to act upon it. I don’t want to seem like I am forcing anything on anyone, these are my personal thoughts as always. As someone who is a gamer at heart who firmly believes in supporting developers, as well as an editor.
Cheap games & Resellers
If you’re extremely strapped for cash, rather than go to some dubious key reseller, try to wait out for spring/summer/autumn/winter sales. Most major stores now do massive sales for each season like Steam and GOG do. Sales happen so often, you really have no reason to go to some random reseller where your purchase is not just likely to count for Windows, but feed the pocket of none of the actual developers or publishers.
Steam rather often does specific Publisher or Developer sales, weekend sales, free weekends to test games and more. You have so many chances to get legitimate cheap games. If money really is the issue, you’re just not being patient enough. You are in full control of your own wallet, be smart with it. There's nothing wrong with waiting for a sale, that's not the issue here at all.
I’ve seen so many people worry about how little Linux games sell in comparison to other platforms, and buying your games dirt cheap on reseller stores only does one thing: Weaken our sales statistics even more and reduce the possibility of future ports happening.
Seeing people say things about their financial situation, well, I have news for you, you’re not entitled to anything. It’s a shame if you can’t afford it (and I feel for you!), but why should that entitle you to pay sometimes 90% less than the rest of us from a store that supports no one but itself? You know what I do if I can’t afford something? I wait until I can, I don’t buy it for 90% off the price from the back of a truck. That’s essentially what key resellers do. Not all of them mind you, but most use dubious methods of acquiring their keys.
I admit there are reasons why you may want to seek other sources, like region locking, bad dubbing of the audio in certain versions and other reasons I haven’t thought of. I don’t mean to lump everyone under the same umbrella here. The same thing, sadly, still applies to you. You’re not entitled to it, it’s best to voice your opinion to the developer directly. By going to these questionable stores, you’re still possibly hurting Linux gaming.
I really hate the word “entitled”, it sounds terrible, but it’s an accurate way of portraying some of the attitudes I’ve seen. If this offends you somehow, you should realize it’s probably a perfect description of your attitude.
If you’re still going to buy cheap games from random places, remember who you’re supporting by doing it (certainly not the developer), and remember when developers and publishers talk down Linux ports, you’re probably at least a small part of the problem. This may sound a little unfair, but it’s the honest truth of the matter. A small amount of sales being cut down even smaller is good for no one.
To quote Edwin from Feral Interactive:
I've spoken to numerous other developers who all say a similar thing. I linked to this before, but Bundle Stars is a good example of this when I asked them if they have Linux keys or just Windows keys a while ago:
Steam - Buying directly from Steam on Linux is a Linux sale. That’s a fact, so long as the game has a playable Linux version. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a SteamOS icon, if it has a Linux version, the developers will see a sale for it.
It doesn't really matter what operating system you buy your game on when it's directly on Steam, the main thing that counts is where it's first installed and played on for the first two weeks.
If you buy a key from elsewhere and don’t activate it until that particular game gets ported to Linux, that’s still a Windows sale. Why? Your key would have been generated before a Linux version existed, it would be part of a set of keys designed for a specific platform. The developer may see a Linux download, but not a Linux sale. I’ve had this confirmed from multiple different developers.
GOG - My GOG contacts have been unable to tell me how Linux games are tracked. I refuse to believe in 2016 a store as big as GOG don’t have something in place, and I don’t take their refusal to be open about it as a “we don’t track them”, but more as they are a business not wanting to divulge private business information.
It’s most likely that they track the number of downloads per-platform for each game.
I’ve tried asking developers about their stats from GOG, but no one is talking about it. It’s possible GOG specifically prohibits this.
Humble Bundle/Store - Humble as mentioned above in our quote from Edwin usually have keys for each platform.
Humble track the platform that was used to purchase each game, which is how they do their pie chart. So, if you buy it while on Linux, it’s generally a Linux purchase. The same applies as before though, if you buy it on Humble before it has a Linux version, prepare to be a Windows customer.
I am unsure how buying it from a mobile will count, as that’s never been mentioned anywhere. They most likely have a default set on it, which would probably be Windows for mobile sales. It’s possible they may wait to see what desktop system tries to redeem them, but we can’t be sure here.
Originally, Humble had a checkbox to tick which operating system to be counted for, but that hasn’t been around for some time. I did some test purchases today for researching this and never saw anything like it.
Itch.io (updated)- A statement from their head:
Games Republic - Their answer to me from last time:
Developers stores
One major way to support developers is to buy directly from their own store or website. Like the Feral store, Aspyr Media store, Virtual Programming store as some examples. That way, you are guaranteed to not only count as a Linux sale, but support developers directly with more of your money (Steam gets no cut then for example).
Final note, please try to remain respectful in the comments. There's no need to be rude or disrespectful to others. Disagreements are fine and part of life, insults and bad attitudes are not needed here.
With thanks to Samsai and Flesk for giving their input on this article. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
First of all, I am fully aware there will likely be a small backlash in the comments on certain points. We do seem to have a small minority of very vocal people who like to boast about buying dirt cheap games from places like G2A, which makes me sad. We also have a few who like to advocate piracy, which is not only sad, but makes us look really bad in the eyes of developers. For the most part though, the people commenting here are fantastic to talk to.
To make this a point: I am not aiming to single anyone out, nor am I aiming to be hostile towards anyone. Read this as if we are all sitting around the table having a *insert favourite drink* and discussing the best way to support our platform. That’s what this is all about, everything I do is to help Linux gaming progress somehow.
To get this out of the way; I flat out do not recommend buying from places like G2A and Kinguin, Samsai already wrote about that here. Read that as a starting point if you please. Basically, don’t pre-order, don’t buy from random reseller stores.
While Samsai touched on some dubious stores in his linked post, I wanted to talk about Steam key resellers in general. I would completely steer clear of all of them, that’s the single safest option here. I actually already wrote about this before here.
As you can see, we’ve already written about all of this before in various places, so it’s time to bring it together under one roof. Instead of having the information scattered across various previous articles.
So, how do you know if your purchase is counted as a Linux sale? Most of the time it’s actually pretty simple. I’ve come up with some general guidelines and information for you, it’s your call on how to act upon it. I don’t want to seem like I am forcing anything on anyone, these are my personal thoughts as always. As someone who is a gamer at heart who firmly believes in supporting developers, as well as an editor.
Cheap games & Resellers
If you’re extremely strapped for cash, rather than go to some dubious key reseller, try to wait out for spring/summer/autumn/winter sales. Most major stores now do massive sales for each season like Steam and GOG do. Sales happen so often, you really have no reason to go to some random reseller where your purchase is not just likely to count for Windows, but feed the pocket of none of the actual developers or publishers.
Steam rather often does specific Publisher or Developer sales, weekend sales, free weekends to test games and more. You have so many chances to get legitimate cheap games. If money really is the issue, you’re just not being patient enough. You are in full control of your own wallet, be smart with it. There's nothing wrong with waiting for a sale, that's not the issue here at all.
I’ve seen so many people worry about how little Linux games sell in comparison to other platforms, and buying your games dirt cheap on reseller stores only does one thing: Weaken our sales statistics even more and reduce the possibility of future ports happening.
Seeing people say things about their financial situation, well, I have news for you, you’re not entitled to anything. It’s a shame if you can’t afford it (and I feel for you!), but why should that entitle you to pay sometimes 90% less than the rest of us from a store that supports no one but itself? You know what I do if I can’t afford something? I wait until I can, I don’t buy it for 90% off the price from the back of a truck. That’s essentially what key resellers do. Not all of them mind you, but most use dubious methods of acquiring their keys.
I admit there are reasons why you may want to seek other sources, like region locking, bad dubbing of the audio in certain versions and other reasons I haven’t thought of. I don’t mean to lump everyone under the same umbrella here. The same thing, sadly, still applies to you. You’re not entitled to it, it’s best to voice your opinion to the developer directly. By going to these questionable stores, you’re still possibly hurting Linux gaming.
I really hate the word “entitled”, it sounds terrible, but it’s an accurate way of portraying some of the attitudes I’ve seen. If this offends you somehow, you should realize it’s probably a perfect description of your attitude.
If you’re still going to buy cheap games from random places, remember who you’re supporting by doing it (certainly not the developer), and remember when developers and publishers talk down Linux ports, you’re probably at least a small part of the problem. This may sound a little unfair, but it’s the honest truth of the matter. A small amount of sales being cut down even smaller is good for no one.
To quote Edwin from Feral Interactive:
QuoteIf you buy from a third party and they don't explicitly say they are selling Linux or Mac keys then you've bought a Windows key. Bundle-star for example sell Windows keys.
Doesn't matter where you play the game on third party stores the sale is based on the steam keys they have purchased. Humble Bundle for example have a set of keys tagged as Windows, Mac and Linux and hand out the correct ones based on your platform so that the correct platform sale is recorded.
I've spoken to numerous other developers who all say a similar thing. I linked to this before, but Bundle Stars is a good example of this when I asked them if they have Linux keys or just Windows keys a while ago:
Bundle StarsHi Liam, Sorry for the delay in responding over the weekend. I can confirm that we have not been sent new keys for Shadow of Mordor since the Linux release and only Windows is mentioned on the page. However, where we promote games as being available for Linux, these will all activate correctly for the platform.
Steam - Buying directly from Steam on Linux is a Linux sale. That’s a fact, so long as the game has a playable Linux version. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a SteamOS icon, if it has a Linux version, the developers will see a sale for it.
It doesn't really matter what operating system you buy your game on when it's directly on Steam, the main thing that counts is where it's first installed and played on for the first two weeks.
If you buy a key from elsewhere and don’t activate it until that particular game gets ported to Linux, that’s still a Windows sale. Why? Your key would have been generated before a Linux version existed, it would be part of a set of keys designed for a specific platform. The developer may see a Linux download, but not a Linux sale. I’ve had this confirmed from multiple different developers.
GOG - My GOG contacts have been unable to tell me how Linux games are tracked. I refuse to believe in 2016 a store as big as GOG don’t have something in place, and I don’t take their refusal to be open about it as a “we don’t track them”, but more as they are a business not wanting to divulge private business information.
It’s most likely that they track the number of downloads per-platform for each game.
I’ve tried asking developers about their stats from GOG, but no one is talking about it. It’s possible GOG specifically prohibits this.
Humble Bundle/Store - Humble as mentioned above in our quote from Edwin usually have keys for each platform.
Humble track the platform that was used to purchase each game, which is how they do their pie chart. So, if you buy it while on Linux, it’s generally a Linux purchase. The same applies as before though, if you buy it on Humble before it has a Linux version, prepare to be a Windows customer.
I am unsure how buying it from a mobile will count, as that’s never been mentioned anywhere. They most likely have a default set on it, which would probably be Windows for mobile sales. It’s possible they may wait to see what desktop system tries to redeem them, but we can’t be sure here.
Originally, Humble had a checkbox to tick which operating system to be counted for, but that hasn’t been around for some time. I did some test purchases today for researching this and never saw anything like it.
Itch.io (updated)- A statement from their head:
QuoteWe don't have a metric to associated purchases to a platform. But we do monitor what files are downloaded with a purchase so we could calculate what purchases result in Linux downloads.
Games Republic - Their answer to me from last time:
QuoteWe work directly with developers & online retailers like Nexway, which work directly with publishers too. We got that information on our About Us page: https://gamesrepublic.com/service/about-us.html
We sell only legitimate and authorized keys received directly from the publishers
Developers stores
One major way to support developers is to buy directly from their own store or website. Like the Feral store, Aspyr Media store, Virtual Programming store as some examples. That way, you are guaranteed to not only count as a Linux sale, but support developers directly with more of your money (Steam gets no cut then for example).
Final note, please try to remain respectful in the comments. There's no need to be rude or disrespectful to others. Disagreements are fine and part of life, insults and bad attitudes are not needed here.
With thanks to Samsai and Flesk for giving their input on this article. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
buenaventura Oct 10, 2016
So, short answer to mountman (again) - I have never argued that everything should be free or that I am entitled to free stuff or whatever. I am happy about all the nice free options and good pricing systems there are. Please read again - hint, issue is "relevancy of bashing people in current article".
1 Likes, Who?
Oct 10, 2016
Quoting: vfjWhat about steam and wine?That probably will count as a Windows sale if you buy through the windows steam client on wine.
0 Likes
As toward piracy, I don't think it's an issue on linux honestly, if there is game hacker on linux, it must be a very small minority, and I think they just do it for the challenge (the challenge itself must be very limited due the number of game protection...) The only problem I have nowadays when buying games is with DRM. When I was a kid, there was a Demo for every single game in the market, and you could try everygame before you decide to buy one. Every month, every magazine had a free game on top of that, sometime two, and sometime some very good ones. Some of them were offered like 6s cd with like 50's of demos.
With my cousin, and a school friends, at the end of the month we all used our demo cd, and we exchanged them, so we could try as much games as possible. And when someone will get birthday, their parents eventually will buy the game wanted. And one month later we could lend each other one game. Exemple, you lend me kingpin, I lend you quake 3. So it was how things were going. Studios were making big money, and we could even sell those game on secondhand shop. For instance half life is the game everyone ended to purchase for the multiplayer, same of call of duty united offensive, same as age of empires 2.
But nowadays with the online purchase entitled to an account. There no such thing, there is no more demo (or like one every 200games), you have the 2 hours try from steam, but it is very different than an unlimited time on a demo.
I think digital copies should be our property and that's why I try to buy as much game on gog. Unfortunalty their linux release are often late, if no release at all, so I have to go on steam or linux porter shop when they have one.
GOG offers the possibility with my friends for everyone to buy different games, and "lend" digitaly each other some of them. For instance last year I bought witcher 3 on release, and went to my friends' house to copy it on their PC. And the ones who played the game end up buying it with the extensions. Last month, a friend of mine bought everspace the other day and bring it to me on usb so I could try it. And as soon it is released on linux I will buy it cause I like that kind of game. But the contrary would never have happened. I would not have bought it cluelessly.
The prices of games should not be an issue for anyone nowadays with the constant offers. But it's just that most of digital shop are taking our purchase away from our hands. Microsoft is doing the same now with it's OS windows 10. How will people react if they had to log in into the elecricity supplier before turning on or off any light in the house when coming back from work? How will they react if they had to do the same with their car, and that one important morning of work, the servers of the supplier are down and they could not start their car because of that. I think it is not acceptable.
So we have to continue to support linux and drm free game. Buy it when we can afford it, and as said by Liam in this order of preference:
-GOG/Humble store
-Porters (Feral, VP, Aspyr...)
-Steam
and boycot the rest (in fact we don't have much choice :p)
I completly agree with this article.
The shops like G2A and stuff are barely legal. The authorities are too slow, and now people promote these shops, they even sponsors some gamers or twitch. They pretend to be marketplace with people selling individually keys, but they always have thousands of it.
Please linux people don't go that way. Editors will turn their back on us if we don't play the game. It is very hard to make a port even for a big editor, they can't put as many ressource that on windows. And if we linux user buy from discutable providers, then editors and porters on long term will just give up their efforts. It will be all wasted for linux.
I have seen previously user that did not know if their buy will count as linux sale (for instance physical buy), it's not the case. So good stuff to remind those who did not know about it, and for those who thinks this has no consequence.
Also I am probably preaching convinced users on GOL, but just wanted to point that again.
With my cousin, and a school friends, at the end of the month we all used our demo cd, and we exchanged them, so we could try as much games as possible. And when someone will get birthday, their parents eventually will buy the game wanted. And one month later we could lend each other one game. Exemple, you lend me kingpin, I lend you quake 3. So it was how things were going. Studios were making big money, and we could even sell those game on secondhand shop. For instance half life is the game everyone ended to purchase for the multiplayer, same of call of duty united offensive, same as age of empires 2.
But nowadays with the online purchase entitled to an account. There no such thing, there is no more demo (or like one every 200games), you have the 2 hours try from steam, but it is very different than an unlimited time on a demo.
I think digital copies should be our property and that's why I try to buy as much game on gog. Unfortunalty their linux release are often late, if no release at all, so I have to go on steam or linux porter shop when they have one.
GOG offers the possibility with my friends for everyone to buy different games, and "lend" digitaly each other some of them. For instance last year I bought witcher 3 on release, and went to my friends' house to copy it on their PC. And the ones who played the game end up buying it with the extensions. Last month, a friend of mine bought everspace the other day and bring it to me on usb so I could try it. And as soon it is released on linux I will buy it cause I like that kind of game. But the contrary would never have happened. I would not have bought it cluelessly.
The prices of games should not be an issue for anyone nowadays with the constant offers. But it's just that most of digital shop are taking our purchase away from our hands. Microsoft is doing the same now with it's OS windows 10. How will people react if they had to log in into the elecricity supplier before turning on or off any light in the house when coming back from work? How will they react if they had to do the same with their car, and that one important morning of work, the servers of the supplier are down and they could not start their car because of that. I think it is not acceptable.
So we have to continue to support linux and drm free game. Buy it when we can afford it, and as said by Liam in this order of preference:
-GOG/Humble store
-Porters (Feral, VP, Aspyr...)
-Steam
and boycot the rest (in fact we don't have much choice :p)
I completly agree with this article.
The shops like G2A and stuff are barely legal. The authorities are too slow, and now people promote these shops, they even sponsors some gamers or twitch. They pretend to be marketplace with people selling individually keys, but they always have thousands of it.
Please linux people don't go that way. Editors will turn their back on us if we don't play the game. It is very hard to make a port even for a big editor, they can't put as many ressource that on windows. And if we linux user buy from discutable providers, then editors and porters on long term will just give up their efforts. It will be all wasted for linux.
I have seen previously user that did not know if their buy will count as linux sale (for instance physical buy), it's not the case. So good stuff to remind those who did not know about it, and for those who thinks this has no consequence.
Also I am probably preaching convinced users on GOL, but just wanted to point that again.
0 Likes
Quoting: liamdaweDevelopers stores
One major way to support developers is to buy directly from their own store or website. Like the Feral store, Aspyr Media store, Virtual Programming store as some examples. That way, you are guaranteed to not only count as a Linux sale, but support developers directly with more of your money (Steam gets no cut then for example).
Quoting: edddeduckferalcc'dI would absolutely start using the Feral store over Steam if you tightened up the T&Cs surrounding returns. At present it is very hazy as to whether you'd refund a downloaded product if it turns out not to run correctly. The refund policy is what keeps me buying from Steam over the Feral store. Would love to send all of the money your way.
0 Likes
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