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Here's something interesting, Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games has been chatting on Twitter again and what he said is quite interesting.

In reply to a user on Twitter who said about users not liking change, Sweeney said this:

Actually I think WINE is the one hope for breaking the cycle. If most PC games were automatically compatible with Linux, it would greatly increase the viability of Linux as a consumer platform.

This is as a result of this article on Wccftech, which highlights a number of other interesting statements made by Sweeney recently. The funny this is, Valve themselves are helping to improve Wine (which Sweeney touches on below) with Steam Play (which is all open source remember) and a lot of the changes make it back into vanilla Wine.

Another very interesting statement for Linux gamers, was a mention of Easy Anti-Cheat:

No, that was a misleading article. The Easy Anti Cheat team is continuing to work on Linux support. Native support is in a beta state and works for some games, however we’re quite a ways from the ideal of a WINE/Proton solution for emulated games.

Note: Not sure what article he is referring to, as he didn't link to any.

Easy Anti-Cheat support in Wine really would be quite something, it would overnight make a huge amount more games work on Linux so fingers crossed something actually comes out of it. What I get from all this, is that Sweeney does seem to be keeping a close eye on Steam Play/Proton and Wine, to the point of even replying on Twitter about the Ubuntu situation:

The problem isn’t Steam 64-bit support - Valve is working prodigiously to advance Linux and Proton - the problem is that Ubuntu dropping 32-bit support breaks all 32-bit Linux and Wine/win32 games, which comprise a huge fraction of the legacy game library.

There's a lot of other things Sweeney talked about recently too, naturally exclusive games being a hot topic and something Sweeney certainly doesn't shy away from. Here's one such statement that actually did genuinely make me stop and think for brief moment:

I’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

Let's take Feral Interactive as an example of this, I've seen a lot of comments from people saying they buy directly through the Feral store, so Feral gets the full cut and that's just one of many such examples. However, the difference of course is the majority of the time the games are available across multiple stores, you still have the choice.

I'm personally torn on it all. I don't particularly like exclusives, as I don't like any kind of lock-in but I don't blame developers for doing it. Good games take a lot of time and money to produce and support after release. Offering developers the chance to earn more money from a smaller store cut, plus limited-time exclusive funds to help them finish their game and improve it, developers are obviously going to take it.

It's just a huge shame for Linux users, since the Epic Store is not available on Linux and it sounds like they still have no plans to change that any time soon. There's been a few times a game was announced with Linux support, to then later became an Epic Store exclusive which means they won't even be doing a Linux version until the exclusive time is over. For us, that really sucks and it's part of the reason I don't like it.

I do hope all of that changes eventually but I am glad that Sweeney seems to be quite positive about things like Wine and possible EAC support in future.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Cmdr_Iras Jun 24, 2019
While its nice to see EPICs Tim Sweeney show interest in Linux, I am sceptical as his own store doesnt have a Linux client and they seem to be making little visible progress towards one.

QuoteI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

On the above, I have no problem with developers trying to maximise their takings from the games they sell especially Indies who can struggle with revenue in a crowded marketplace. My problem wth the EPIC store, other than the obvious lack of Linux support, is that it is currently vastly inferior when it comes to feature parity with Steam or even GOG Galaxy (Though again it lacks a Linux client) and instead of working to improve the store and let consumers choose to support games at a place where they also have a good service but allow developers to get a bigger cut (I will often buy Feral games from their website) they have instead worked to make games exclusives by paying developers to ditch steam releases.

The moral principle I have is the manner by which EPIC has gone about this.
Koopacabras Jun 24, 2019
QuoteI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

yeah right the moral principle that you don't promise bs, remember? Phoenix point was announced for Linux, we had some builds tested on this site.
Koopacabras Jun 24, 2019
it's not a tax, it's a commission, a cut for doing their fair share of the business. States tax ppl, business take a cut, it's not morally deplorable also to have a high cut, especially if you are doing your part of the business in an outstanding way like Valve does.
Mal Jun 24, 2019
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QuoteI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

That has never been the issue. In fact pretty much everybody cheered when Epic announced EGS.

The main issue is him using his outrageous amount of money to actively degrade the PC experience of gamers instead of using it to produce a superior product that wins customer affection (something that shouldn't be that hard with all that cash).

I'm growing tired of all these bullshit articles made by bribed journalists who carefully avoid to pursue questions and arguments that might be uncomfortable for their hidden masters and instead help them establish their narrative.

When TS says that EGS allows small developers studios to avoid "steam tax" for instance, one should point out what actual guarantees are there that when a publishers gets higher revenues because of EGS this money goes to actual developers and not entirely to publisher shareholders. And when it comes to transaction fees I like the argument and I always have defended it (I genuinely think it would be better if CC fees were payed by CC users). But then you point out how it comes that Steam 30% tax is not 30% anymore if it eats up a 8% of transaction fee. And then you go on by uniting the points above and tweet him if it is better for PC gaming to make gamers pay more for less just so publishers can pay higher dividends.

I understand that gaming is not politics or finance, but it's not that gaming journalism couldn't use some actual journalists working in it.


Last edited by Mal on 24 June 2019 at 1:46 pm UTC
pb Jun 24, 2019
QuoteI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

It's quite simple really. Valve gets 30%, yes, but only on Steam Store purchases. Every developer or publisher are welcome to generate keys for free and sell them in their own shop or other stores. So effectively Valve's cut is significantly less. And with all that Steam provides (infrastructure, community, marketing) it's really just about right. Does Epic allow devs/pubs to sell Epic Store keys elsewhere? If not, why?
Ehvis Jun 24, 2019
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Quoting: pbDoes Epic allow devs/pubs to sell Epic Store keys elsewhere? If not, why?

There are Epic codes on Humble. Whether they can be generated free of change remains to be seen though.

At the end of day, it seems that Sweeney doesn't get it or tries very hard to make it look different to what it is.
finaldest Jun 24, 2019
The biggest issue with any PC exclusive is that the game in question is locked to a specific launcher. If I could use any launcher or no launcher at all to download and play the game then the affect would be minimal. With EPIC for example, All Linux users are locked out before even entering the gates.

Back in the day you would buy a game on disk so you were not reliant on store fronts. Once you had the game in your possession you were free to do as you wish whereas now you are relying on a launcher to just play the game.

with the recent events with EPIC and Canonical as well as all these new steaming services appearing I am reviewing my purchasing habits as I have grave concerns that I may soon loose access to a lot of my games. If SHTF I will have no option but to sail the high seas and try to salvage every game that I own to archive which at present is nearly 400 games. I really don't want to have to deal with that.

We do need competition in the marketplace and I welcome it but I would ask all publishers to play fair and put the gamers interest first. Why not work together to create a free, open and universal store front and share the burden in exchange for a lower cut.
1xok Jun 24, 2019
The elephant in the room that Sweeney and others don't see: Windows is no longer a growth market. Otherwise, Epic wouldn't have to deal with PC exclusive titles to take Valve's customers away.

Linux-based games, on the other hand, will grow very strongly in the next 20 years due to streaming. Nobody will want to work with compatibility layers like Wine in this area in the long run. Every percent loss in performance costs hardware.

The switch to Linux is a huge effort. You can do that by taking millions of dollars into your hands like Google or you can do it like Valve bit by bit.

Windows hangs to 100% on Windows desktops. Linux is independent of the desktop. And the classic desktop will disappear from most households in the next 20 years. Maybe there will be separate gaming machines for VR. But most things will run on mobile/new devices and via streaming.
Nanobang Jun 24, 2019
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Quoting: TimmyI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake. If it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store, why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?

What. The. Actual. FUCK?

Quoting: TimmyI’d like to challenge critics to state what moral principle you feel is at stake.


What moral principles do you think exist, Tim? There's no Universal list of axiomatic Moral Principles issued by a cosmic HR department that everybody can look to, so you'll have to present them if you want to talk about them.

How about you tell us what you think you're being criticized about, and give us some examples. People who don't like you or your company store, or whatever, are under absolutely no obligation to meet your "challenge" or prove anything at all to you or anyone. What? If you don't feel like they've made a worthy case then they'll have to like you?

Quoting: TimmyIf it’s okay for one company to avoid the 30% Valve tax by selling exclusively through their own store...

Which company Tim? GoG? Itch? Walmart? All of these are avoiding Valve's "30%" fee (a tax may be a fee, but a fee isn't a tax; Valve isn't a government, Tim). First you make us play "Guess the Moral Principle," and now we have to play "Guess the Company?" This isn't a very good challenge, Tim.

Quoting: Timmy... why is it wrong for multiple companies to work together to achieve the same goals?


You mean like price fixing? That's a legal thing that depends upon what is being sold and where, it seems. You need to---again---say what is being called wrong, here, and then say why it isn't, Tim, or is "Guess the Wrong," the last game?

Timmy doesn't want to argue with his/Epic Store's critics or detractors. He doesn't care what their complaints are. He just wants to be right, or at least to be seen as right by others as he sees himself.


Last edited by Nanobang on 24 June 2019 at 11:40 am UTC
Eike Jun 24, 2019
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QuoteThe Easy Anti Cheat team is continuing to work on Linux support. Native support is in a beta state and works for some games

That sounds good.
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