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Now that getting games that use BattlEye for anti-cheat working on Linux (either native or through Proton) is much easier, an Ubisoft rep suggests people post in their forum to show demand for it.

In response to a post on their official forum asking about Ubisoft hooking it all up, the rep mentioned they can pass the feedback onto developers and that hopefully "other players will reply here in favor of Proton support and the development team may then look to implement it". It's not exactly much and a pretty bog-standard response but it's a reply nonetheless and isn't being ignored.

The thing is, this is just about playing Rainbow Six Siege on Linux with Proton, and it's not likely the developer would do it just for that. Now though, with the Steam Deck that uses SteamOS 3, developers will have to get it working if they want their players to be able to access their games on it. Right now though, like everything else, it all depends on demand from users and how well the Steam Deck sells.


Pictured - Rainbow Six Siege on Steam.

In other Ubisoft related news, it appears that a new "Ubisoft Connect PC Client" has appeared as found by SteamDB's Pavel Djundik on Twitter so it appears that more Ubisoft games may come to Steam.

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45 comments
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Lofty Nov 30, 2021
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Lofty
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Lofty
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Lofty
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Lofty
Quoting: GuestIt's all about money to all of them, There's nothing wrong with that.

Disagree.


Quoting: GuestIf Ubisoft really wanted to do something, they'd stop internal employee abuse. Let's not forget what they put the actual devs through to make these games, or just because they can. Ubisoft has to earn my support, starting with removal of company culture of abuse. Then they can talk about earning my support for their games.

Agree.


Doesn't matter if you disagree or not, it's fact of the matter.

In your opinion. I agree companies exist to make money, that much is obvious. I don't agree with your added assessment that there is nothing morally wrong with the endless pursuit of money over everything else.

When it comes to you playing games on an OS that isn't really important to the world. You're trying to compare charity to supporting a game on an OS. They're not at all the same thing.

I understand your perspective, Im merely pointing out that i don't agree with your statement that there is 'nothing wrong' with only existing to make money..regardless of this thread's topic. That maybe the way of the world but you made the claim (and you are free to do so) that there is nothing wrong with that, i disagree.

What I'm saying is that you're taking my comment out of context. My comment was in regards to this game being supported on Proton. You can paraphrase words and add them to what I said to make it seem like I said something I didn't. But that's just you making things up in your head about what I said.

Im just replying to what you wrote. But if i missed or took your comment out of context then my apologies.

Here is my actual quote: "It's all about money to all of them, including Valve. Valve thankfully is building out Proton the right way, but it's due to money, not simply a love of Linux. There's nothing wrong with that."

This is in direct relation to games being ported to Linux. It had nothing to do with any other industry or situation. I feel I was pretty specific about what I meant by what I said.

I still stand by what I wrote. But at this point I have no desire to cludge up the forum going round & round in circles, and as i already offered apologies for missing any other context then there's nothing more for me to add.
Lofty Nov 30, 2021
Quoting: GuestWhy are you getting so defensive? I was explaining. I only had the desire to cludge up the forum because you said I said something I didn't.

If you expand my last reply to you i placed in bold your exact quote and still stand by what i said, in full exactly as you have written without any editing. Not defensive, it just seems silly to continue at this point.
elmapul Nov 30, 2021
supporting steam deck is not so simple.

sure they can fill in an e-mail and send, but then what happens if the anti cheat for linux isnt that good and the game get flooded with cheaters as result?
or if it cause aditional bugs that they have to fix?

if they arent sure about the demand, there is no point in supporting it, its a harsh reality.

and no, asking people to ask then in a forum is not to meassure the exact demmand for it, most of people dont interact with the foruns of every game they play.

its just to get an sample base.

as for stadia, not only google paid then for stadia, but stadia by nature is almost cheat proof.


Last edited by elmapul on 30 November 2021 at 11:44 pm UTC
randyl Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: randylYou know what's silly? The 1 - 2% asking for any game support or accommodation at all, while feeling entirely entitled to being treated equally.
Of course they should be treated equally. Are games companies charging Linux users 94% less than Windows users? Or Mac users 90% less than Windows users? And the idea that minority groups should be treated worse because they're a minority is... like... really bad.
Okay, let's not conflate choices in tech platforms with bona fide minority demographics and coopt those social struggles. This issue is not even in the same realm and it is incredibly disingenuous to imply such. This demand for equal treatment is a business case not a social marginalization case. And we're also talking about entertainment software not life critical systems. These are first world problems we're dealing with.

A small minority of desktop tech platform users desire a business to spend money and time on them as the other 98% who are footing the bill. This isn't social justice, it's business.

These companies are selling a product on supported platforms and that is it, just like all other commercial software or services. What these businesses like Ubisoft are asking is that this small Linux gaming minority to make a case that doing business with them will make sense. They want to know the revenue and success will outweigh the risks and costs. Linux Land is a very fluid and variable platform. Windows, Xbox, iOS, PlayStation, and Switch are stable, predictable, and fairly slow to change while providing fairly decent legacy support. Linux doesn't have an OS face (distro) that is a default that offers those features. It makes developing for the Linux desktop a lot less attractive and certain than those other platforms.

By all means ignore their request if it doesn't sit right with you, but I think that will just end up with them declining to participate. The question they're asking is "Why should we support this?". So ask yourself that and try and give them an answer they don't want to refuse. That's all I'm really saying. Be more inviting and accommodating and try working with these companies if you want to do business with them.
elmapul Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: MohandevirIn the meantime, a quick check showed me that Ubisoft got 14 pages of upvotes in 3 days... Don't know if that mean much, though, for such a big company...
just compare to other things in their forum to see if its a big deal or not
randyl Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: ObsidianBlkHere's the funny part, to me...
By merely making this statement, Ubisoft is admitting they're seeing potential that a lot of gamers could be buying the Steam Deck. The stupid part is, I'm betting a vast majority of gamers that get Steam Deck are not going to be Linux users, and, therefore, may have no idea that BattleEye isn't enabled for Linux/Proton and, by extension, Steam Deck. The average gamer may not even equate the two. You'll get a bunch of people buying the awesome looking Steam Deck "console" and be utterly flummoxed when their BattleEye-using Ubisoft game won't run at all because Ubisoft basically only asked Linux users (those paying the closest bit of attention) to post in their forums.

In the end, it's going to look like, to Ubisoft, that virtually none of their player base wants this game on the Steam Deck while the reality is, the vast majority of players that'd be playing on the Steam Deck won't even realize BattleEye and Proton are an issue they need to care about at the moment.

So, I'm not sure of Ubisofts game here. Is their intention to hurt the Steam Deck (and/or Valve) by explicitly setting up something that's going to make the demand seem low... or are they just stupid?

That said, it's all academic to me. I won't knowingly touch Ubisoft or Activision with a 50 foot pole at this time, so...
Ubisoft hasn't released FarCry 6 or any of their recent titles on Steam at all. They have released some DLC for UNO and For Honor, but not a base title. Their last Steam release was October 2020. Maybe they're in a disagreement over Valve's fees and policiies?

Maybe they're just trying to push gamers to their own platform. They do have enough name recognition to do so. They haven't released any of their games on Microsoft Game Pass or sell them in the Windows Store so it isn't just Valve they're giving the cold shoulder. They do still heavily promote their presence on Xbox and PlayStation. I find their marketing and business tactics puzzling lately.

I think they might have a deal with Epic, Stadia and/or Amazon Luna, so maybe that's why they're not making much noise about the Steam Deck as it's a direct competitor to those platforms.
elmapul Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: randylA small minority of desktop tech platform users desire a business to spend money and time on them as the other 98% who are footing the bill. This isn't social justice, it's business.

not to mention that PC is just an small % of their profits, most of it come from consoles or even mobile.

Quoting: randylWhat these businesses like Ubisoft are asking is that this small Linux gaming minority to make a case that doing business with them will make sense.

actually is not even about us, but steam deck users, that is, if they are even following the situation.

in any case, if supportint the deck was indeed as easy as sending an e-mail, then in the worst case scenario for they, people will receive the deck, complain that the game isnt working, then they will send an e-mail and the game will start working.

they lose nothing by waiting.
on the other hand , if its not so simple they do lose, a lot of cheaters/bots entering their game due to an thing that didnt even had this big demmand to begin with, then a lot of customers asking for refund because they purchased the game expecting it to be supported and it was not...
BlooAlien Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: randyl
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: GuestIt's an email to Battleye to turn it on. Unless they're really going to "actively" support it, which I question, why all the theater? Just send the damn email.
There's quite a few reasons actually.

For starters, enabling it would require sign-off by different people in the company. This would also need thorough testing, to ensure they're actually happy with the protection it provides. Mechanically simple for them to enable by asking, sure, but big online games have a lot to think about when enabling a new platform.

Asking for people to post in a forum to show support is simply silly. Look at the numbers and the fact that Valve's money did all the porting work for them. I get them not wanting to support us because we're small and it was too much work, but at this point, asking for forum posts is nothing short of pathetic.
You know what's silly? The 1 - 2% asking for any game support or accommodation at all, while feeling entirely entitled to being treated equally. Why is it so much for a company to ask for a little show of public support from their user base? Linux gamers are asking this company to spend time and money on something that most likely will be a financial loss. There is a risk involved with taking this sort of support on and some people could be on the hook for the decision. The safest way out here is for them to just ignore the anti-cheat support request. The question Linux gamers should be asking themselves is why should Ubisoft support the platform and what can they do to encourage them? If it were me and this were important I would start a positive social media campaign, get messages on their forum, and on Twitter, Facebook, Hacker News, Reddit, and other social news/discussion platforms and make our collective voice loud in a friendly way.

It's too much to ask because in the past this same company has actively ignored all requests no matter how polite or friendly, regardless of how many people are in the requesting group. Some of us have zero faith that any amount of posting in their stupid fucking forum is going to have the slightest bit of effect, because this company has traditionally been excessively hostile to Linux users in general. Why would they suddenly change their stripes now?

Quoting: randylLinux Land needs to be a lot less hostile and a lot more welcoming and embracing of change and acceptance if they want to see the adoption it's long been asking for. The buzz around Linux adoption through Proton and the Steam Deck is an opportunity that may not come again for a while and it would be a shame for it to be wasted. If Linux gamers and users keep up their hostile attitude people probably aren't going to adopt the platform and a backlash could occur instead.

"Less hostile" in the way that Windows users have been "less hostile" to people like me? Harassing, trolling, stalking, making endless hateful comments, using every stereotypical insult in the book? That sorta "less hostile"? So sick and tired of being labeled as "toxic" literally just because I use Linux when most of my life I've actively gone out of my way to help people with computer issues regardless of which operating system they chose to use, yet it's literally never labeled as "toxic" to literally stalk me (or other Linux users) across multiple forums to endlessly harass us, because we're "a minority group" among computer users.

Just makes me positively sick that people will endlessly harass a group (or an individual) in the most hateful fashion, but then when some folks in that group finally start to get sick of the abuse enough to speak up about it, they're "toxic" for not just shutting up and accepting their abuse and begging for more. Funny how they're always suddenly all polite and your best friend in the world when their computer's all broken though… Y'know, when they think they can take advantage of you as their "free tech-support guy".


Last edited by BlooAlien on 1 December 2021 at 4:01 am UTC
damarrin Dec 1, 2021
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Well, it's only natural Ubi will want to gauge interest in their own community instead of some other like Steam or, even more randomly, current Linux users. They want to know what their existing userbase thinks of this.


Last edited by damarrin on 1 December 2021 at 8:42 am UTC
Mohandevir Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: MohandevirIn the meantime, a quick check showed me that Ubisoft got 14 pages of upvotes in 3 days... Don't know if that mean much, though, for such a big company...
just compare to other things in their forum to see if its a big deal or not

Sure, but my "balloon" got deflated when I realised it was a player request that triggered the answer. I don't know why, probably bad reading from my part, I tought it was a Ubisoft initiative to gauge interrest in its user base... Nope! Another "Please add Linux/Proton support" thing that we have already seen a thousand times... At least, they took the time to answer, instead of flatout ignoring it, like they usually do, but it puts more doubt in Ubisoft's motivations to go forward. Maybe, because of the Steam Deck, it will be different this time, but...

Oh well, time will tell... I think I'm exhausted... When are the Holidays, this year?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 1 December 2021 at 2:39 pm UTC
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