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After curiosity got the better of me, I decided to have a little fun checking out just how many popular games are available officially on Linux.

We’ve tracked before how many Linux games there are, we often give our opinion on various games in reviews, thoughts posts and so on. However, what about looking at how many Linux games there are as a whole when compared with the most highly rated games on Steam? Interested in the figure myself, I’ve taken a look over it all tonight. Thanks to the efforts of the Steam 250 website which tracks it automatically, we can find this out reasonably easily.

Before getting into it, just a note: I’m only counting games that are officially supported with a Linux icon. There may be some that have a Linux version but they’re not advertised on the Steam store for whatever reason, just to keep it simple.

As it turns out, there’s quite a lot! A lot higher than I was personally expecting it to be, it’s one of those times where I’m happily wrong. Overall, out of the 250 most highly rated titles on Steam as reviewed by users, 132 of them have official Linux support. Compared with Mac which has 156, we’re not far off there at all. Let's just remember how small the Linux gaming platform is compared to Windows, over 50% there really is impressive.

There are a couple titles like Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter and Left 4 Dead where we have the later versions officially. We have all the Serious Sam games on the revamped Fusion version and Left 4 Dead 2, so there’s possibly others like that.

Now, let’s take into account the titles in that top 250 list that do not have official Linux support, what about Steam Play? When comparing titles to their rating on ProtonDB where they have a Platinum rating overall (meaning they should “Just Work”™) that’s an additional 21 titles. These include games like Castle Crashers, Beat Saber, Orcs Must Die! and so on.

To put it all together then—Linux titles that are officially supported plus Steam Play titles with a “Platinum” rating together make 153 out of 250 of the most highly rated Steam games. Overall, that's a pretty decent number of highly rated games available to play on Linux.

There could be even more there, some titles on ProtonDB didn’t have enough reports to have a rating. I’m still surprised DOOM only has a “Gold” rating there, as it’s basically flawless for me outside of one windowing issue that was solved with a simple ALT+Enter to re-do the fullscreen.

The list is subject to change obviously, that’s just the state of things in January 2019. I will probably take another look at the end of the year to see how far things have moved either way if anyone is interested in me doing so.

Ps. By doing this it seems I helped the Top 250 website find a bug too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam
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14 Jan 7, 2019
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Quoting: wvstolzing
Quotei am curious which games will work in the future and if developers already adjust their games to work with proton at least.... especially ubisoft

As soon as we have a solution for uplay under wine, I'm nuking my windoze partition. I'm not terribly hopeful, though. For every fix, there's an upcoming uplay update to break it. Also, the drm isn't the only problem with their titles.
There is a solution to Ubisoft. It's called PS4. IMO, it's worth it if that's the last thing holding you to Windows. There are a few exclusives that are really excellent as well, like Uncharted, Bloodborne, and The Last of Us that will never come to PC. Also, a lot of Ubisoft games are third-person, so you shouldn't miss the KB + mouse. (But if you do, the PS4 accepts KB + mouse as well.)


Last edited by 14 on 7 January 2019 at 3:02 am UTC
ageres Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: mylkais there a way to sort protondb by release date?
rage 2 uses same engine as just cause 4 and should also work with proton
doom eternal should be the same as doom and work with proton
These games won't be sold on Steam, so no Proton for them. I'm sure Bethesda will try to shove as much DRM into them as they can, and it could prevent from running in Wine.
Quoting: 14There is a solution to Ubisoft. It's called PS4. IMO, it's worth it if that's the last thing holding you to Windows. There are a few exclusives that are really excellent as well, like Uncharted, Bloodborne, and The Last of Us that will never come to PC.
I'd rather play on Windows than get a console. Linux is all about freedom, and you have much much less freedom when using PS4 than Windows PC. And exclusives are bad for gaming. People have to buy a gaming device because there are games which aren't available elsewhere, not because said device is better than others. Paid online, more expensive games, worse graphics and performance, and for what? For those clones of Tomb Raider and Dark Souls?


Last edited by ageres on 7 January 2019 at 4:30 am UTC
Shmerl Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: mylkahavent they said, that they finished cyberpunk already and are just bugfixing?

Where did you hear that?
Beamboom Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: x_wingMany games that works flawlessly with proton are reported as just "gold" or "silver"][...] the game works flawlessly after running the windows workaround .

That's not flawless, that's "working after applying workarounds", that's gold or even silver.

See, that's the problem with those reports, claims of platinum status, claimed by experienced wine users. That's what leads to disappointment after disappointment by newbies who can't even get to the main menu screen before something shitty happens.
This is in fact why wine is given up by so many, myself included.
Purple Library Guy Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: x_wingMany games that works flawlessly with proton are reported as just "gold" or "silver"][...] the game works flawlessly after running the windows workaround .

That's not flawless, that's "working after applying workarounds", that's gold or even silver.

See, that's the problem with those reports, claims of platinum status, claimed by experienced wine users. That's what leads to disappointment after disappointment by newbies who can't even get to the main menu screen before something shitty happens.
This is in fact why wine is given up by so many, myself included.
Hang on, though--it's the same problem you'd have under Windows, and the same workaround you'd have to use in Windows. How can something whose behaviour is identical to the Windows version not be platinum?
kuhpunkt Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: ageres
Quoting: mylkais there a way to sort protondb by release date?
rage 2 uses same engine as just cause 4 and should also work with proton
doom eternal should be the same as doom and work with proton
These games won't be sold on Steam, so no Proton for them. I'm sure Bethesda will try to shove as much DRM into them as they can, and it could prevent from running in Wine.

Well, we don't know that yet. Quake Champions was once a Bethesda Launcher only title and later came to Steam. So it's possible they will still use Steam at a later date. If not... well... they won't be seeing any of my money.
wvstolzing Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: 14There is a solution to Ubisoft. It's called PS4. IMO, it's worth it if that's the last thing holding you to Windows.

I *did* have a PS4 briefly, so I'm familiar with the advantages (and the disadvantages) of having such a device. When my current graphics card no longer 'cuts it' (gtx970 -- it's keeping up remarkably well at 1080p), I'll have to decide between upgrading it, or getting a playstation.
cprn Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe[...] I’m still surprised DOOM only has a “Gold” rating there, as it’s basically flawless for me outside of one windowing issue that was solved with a simple ALT+Enter to re-do the fullscreen.

Well, as @Beamboom said - that's Gold, not Platinum. Any issue (apart from reasonably lower fps, I think) drops status from Platinum to Gold. Gold means it's easily fixable or doesn't affect the game, though, so maybe we should consider that "fully playable" or "same as Windows" since AFAIR it's perfectly normal and very common on Windows to mingle with game settings, launchers, GPU drivers and/or installation process for the game to run properly. And if so, Platinum means "better than on average Windows install".
ageres Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: kuhpunktWell, we don't know that yet. Quake Champions was once a Bethesda Launcher only title and later came to Steam. So it's possible they will still use Steam at a later date. If not... well... they won't be seeing any of my money.
Rage 2 is available for pre-order on https://bethesda.net/en/game/rage2 where there are logos of Xbox, PS and Bethesda launcher only, no Steam. No Steam store pages as well. Fallout 76 is not on Steam too. I think it's obvious that Bethesda have left Steam.
kuhpunkt Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: ageres
Quoting: kuhpunktWell, we don't know that yet. Quake Champions was once a Bethesda Launcher only title and later came to Steam. So it's possible they will still use Steam at a later date. If not... well... they won't be seeing any of my money.
Rage 2 is available for pre-order on https://bethesda.net/en/game/rage2 where there are logos of Xbox, PS and Bethesda launcher only, no Steam. No Steam store pages as well. Fallout 76 is not on Steam too. I think it's obvious that Bethesda have left Steam.

At the moment for sure. We just don't know if it's a permanent thing. If sales will be crap on their own store they might see themselves in a position where they "have" to go to Steam to reach the people over there.

Pete Hines explained that Fallout 76 is a "particular case" in the decision to launch only on Bethesda.net, so he didn't say it's a general rule. Might seem like I'm grasping at a straw... I just don't like any definitive word, because things change all the time. And I don't care that much about their games. And wasn't Elder Scrolls Online also a Bethesda.net only game as well for a while? It's now on Steam, too.

So we'll see what the future bringe.
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