Targem Games just announced their racing game BlazeRush is getting a big upgrade for the tenth anniversary but they're going to sunset their Linux, macOS and SteamVR support.
In an announcement on Steam they didn't go into detail on the exact reasons other than some vague note about issues. Here's what they said:
Hello, intergalactic racers!
Due to technical difficulties, support for the game on Linux and Mac systems will be discontinued and the SteamVR version will also become unavailable.
Unfortunately, downloading and running BlazeRush on Linux, Mac and SteamVR will soon be impossible.
This will not affect players who use Windows systems. In addition, we are happy to announce that a major update for the Windows version will soon be released to celebrate the tenth anniversary of BlazeRush! Stay tuned!
Currently, the game has a Native Linux version and it is Steam Deck Verified. Valve's verification for Steam Deck was done on the Native Linux version too, so Valve will end up being forced to re-test this one on Proton if it's to keep the Verified sticker.
What the developer said above is technically incorrect though. Even if they entirely removed the Linux version, all you'll need to do is use Proton, so it won't be as "impossible" as they say. If they do plan to just entirely remove them, that's a whole 'nother problem though which just shouldn't be a thing. Delisting so they're not advertised and updated? Fine, but completely removing is incredibly anti-consumer.
Still a shame to see this happen at all though, as I've played it a good few times over the years in local multiplayer and it's an absolute riot. It's a really fun game. So I'm thankful Proton from Valve exists yet again.
The game is available to buy from: Fanatical | Humble Store | Steam
I did a video of this one a whole 5 years ago:
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Update 24/05/24 - The developer has released another Steam news post to clarify the situation a little. Here's what they said:
In the last news we indicated that the version for Mac and Linux systems will become completely unavailable. This message was incomplete and contained an error!
We would like to correct ourselves and make things clear: the version for Linux and Mac OS will not receive the upcoming update. However, users of these operating systems will be able to continue to download and play the current version of BlazeRush.
We apologize for our mistake and wish you the wildest interplanetary races!
At least on Linux / Steam Deck, you will be able to just run the updated Windows version with Proton. But still, Valve will need to re-verify it for Steam Deck now too, which the developer did not mention.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: Liam DaweArticle updated, see the bottom.Wow, I had no idea that outright stating that it will be impossible to download it after the update is an erroneous way of stating that it simply won't get the update and you actually can continue to download it!
"Sorry guys, you're right, we should just leave the old version up and that's what we'll do." would've sounded a whole lot better - it's obvious they didn't want to deal with being stung by a bunch of refund requests, as people have been discussing, especially since the recent Helldivers 2 issues proved that Valve will make exceptions to the usual refund-window if there's a change to what the product was originally sold as.
I do wish that devs like this would just own it when they make a goof. I'd have a lot more respect for that!
4 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje May 24
Quoting: LoudTechieWe're talking gaming here, right? There isn't any government enforced rootkits here... unless you're buying games from CCP sponsored companies... of course they're target specific.Quoting: slaapliedjeNah, any government enforced rootkit will support Linux and Mac, unless it is target specific.Quoting: MamboThink this option is on the developers though, right?Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: StoneColdSpiderQuoting: kokoko3kSo, let me understand.Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......
I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?
Does this feel right to anyone?
Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......
This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.
They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.
Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.
Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.
The game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkit, which won't work on Linux and mac, so they're just ditching those platforms?
Basically all journalists, rich businessmen and activists use Mac.
Basically all valuable servers run Linux.
The low level Iphone jailbreak bugs mostly come from discovered government malware.
Against Linux source code poisoning is popular.
"Write your first rootkit" is a training exercise for mediocre kernel developers.
Just, because ransomware writers don't have standards and are willing to settle for Windows, because it has the less capable admins and has the security of an open door doesn't mean governments don't.
Edit:
In this rant I'm assuming they can get super user permissions from their users, but with the "anti-cheat" claim for a native game this could work.
I don't know about journalists and rich businessmen using macs. I'm sure most activists do. The first two likely use a mix of Linux/mac/Windows. A lot of proper journalists are going to be stuck on MS or be more about openness of Linux. 'Creative' types are likely to be using Macs. Not game players though.
Ha, all 'useful' servers are running some form of *nix at this point, with few exceptions running Windows.
Ha, no clue where you're getting the iphone Jailbreaks from, they're just vulnerabilities in Apple's somewhat shitty software.
Source code poisoning... has happened like once or twice ever... at least that has been found/noticed. It is far from 'popular'.
Haha, I wonder where you find info on writing your own rootkit, there have literally only been a small few of those ever found in the wild.
There aren't even that many ransomware writers. There is literally a black market where people buy said things.
I actually work 'in the industry' to know most of these things, so there is that...
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: slaapliedjeOn the presence of governement enfroced rootkit.Quoting: LoudTechieWe're talking gaming here, right? There isn't any government enforced rootkits here... unless you're buying games from CCP sponsored companies... of course they're target specific.Quoting: slaapliedjeNah, any government enforced rootkit will support Linux and Mac, unless it is target specific.Quoting: MamboThink this option is on the developers though, right?Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: StoneColdSpiderQuoting: kokoko3kSo, let me understand.Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......
I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?
Does this feel right to anyone?
Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......
This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.
They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.
Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.
Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.
The game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkit, which won't work on Linux and mac, so they're just ditching those platforms?
Basically all journalists, rich businessmen and activists use Mac.
Basically all valuable servers run Linux.
The low level Iphone jailbreak bugs mostly come from discovered government malware.
Against Linux source code poisoning is popular.
"Write your first rootkit" is a training exercise for mediocre kernel developers.
Just, because ransomware writers don't have standards and are willing to settle for Windows, because it has the less capable admins and has the security of an open door doesn't mean governments don't.
Edit:
In this rant I'm assuming they can get super user permissions from their users, but with the "anti-cheat" claim for a native game this could work.
I don't know about journalists and rich businessmen using macs. I'm sure most activists do. The first two likely use a mix of Linux/mac/Windows. A lot of proper journalists are going to be stuck on MS or be more about openness of Linux. 'Creative' types are likely to be using Macs. Not game players though.
Ha, all 'useful' servers are running some form of *nix at this point, with few exceptions running Windows.
Ha, no clue where you're getting the iphone Jailbreaks from, they're just vulnerabilities in Apple's somewhat shitty software.
Source code poisoning... has happened like once or twice ever... at least that has been found/noticed. It is far from 'popular'.
Haha, I wonder where you find info on writing your own rootkit, there have literally only been a small few of those ever found in the wild.
There aren't even that many ransomware writers. There is literally a black market where people buy said things.
I actually work 'in the industry' to know most of these things, so there is that...
I was reacting to your:
Quoting: slaapliedjeThe game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkitThe only situation I could see nationality mattering was if the government was the one forcing.
I'm a student in the field and I told you only about things I had found on the net, so you're probably more right, but here's where my (mis)information came from.
At a certain point I picked up an interest in syscall interception for writing a patch to Darling.
I found that
that had been made harder in a semi recent Linux release, because it was very suspicious behavior(I really hadn't thought of that, I felt so stupid).I can't find the exact article anymore, but here's a tutorial: "how to write your own rootkit".
Qua source code poisoning:
This was my most recent source of takeover attempts(no this isn't only the xz attack) as far as I understand it, it's more common among front end stuff.
Here's a forum post of maintainers discussing some stories.
There was also a highly publicize one in the linux kernel where a check did UID =0 instead of UID == 0 and some javascript library that replaced the whole screen with some angry post.
On the Iphone jailbreak exploits.
Government involvement is only true for the most recent.
A.K.A I was wrong.
The KTRR bypass comes from the kaspery findings.
About the number of ransomware writers. I didn't know that, but yeah, the amount of bottlenecks in cyber crime is always surprisingly big. You would think that a profession under permanent attack would scale down to a point with very little bottle necks, but it's nearly as bad as with normal infrastructure. For ransomware it's tool building and for game piracy it's cracking, for media piracy it's key extraction.
As far I'm aware call center scamming is quite resilient.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 25 May 2024 at 11:28 am UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: LoudTechieAs far I'm aware call center scamming is quite resilient.Too resilient, unfortunately. Please support the folks using a combination of comedy and education to raise awareness, sometimes in ridiculous ways.
(Those links are just a few of my favourites - there are plenty more out there, with all sorts of approaches.)
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje May 26
Quoting: LoudTechieHa, my comment about Russia forcing a rootkit in there was very 'tongue in cheek'.Quoting: slaapliedjeOn the presence of governement enfroced rootkit.Quoting: LoudTechieWe're talking gaming here, right? There isn't any government enforced rootkits here... unless you're buying games from CCP sponsored companies... of course they're target specific.Quoting: slaapliedjeNah, any government enforced rootkit will support Linux and Mac, unless it is target specific.Quoting: MamboThink this option is on the developers though, right?Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: StoneColdSpiderQuoting: kokoko3kSo, let me understand.Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......
I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?
Does this feel right to anyone?
Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......
This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.
They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.
Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.
Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.
The game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkit, which won't work on Linux and mac, so they're just ditching those platforms?
Basically all journalists, rich businessmen and activists use Mac.
Basically all valuable servers run Linux.
The low level Iphone jailbreak bugs mostly come from discovered government malware.
Against Linux source code poisoning is popular.
"Write your first rootkit" is a training exercise for mediocre kernel developers.
Just, because ransomware writers don't have standards and are willing to settle for Windows, because it has the less capable admins and has the security of an open door doesn't mean governments don't.
Edit:
In this rant I'm assuming they can get super user permissions from their users, but with the "anti-cheat" claim for a native game this could work.
I don't know about journalists and rich businessmen using macs. I'm sure most activists do. The first two likely use a mix of Linux/mac/Windows. A lot of proper journalists are going to be stuck on MS or be more about openness of Linux. 'Creative' types are likely to be using Macs. Not game players though.
Ha, all 'useful' servers are running some form of *nix at this point, with few exceptions running Windows.
Ha, no clue where you're getting the iphone Jailbreaks from, they're just vulnerabilities in Apple's somewhat shitty software.
Source code poisoning... has happened like once or twice ever... at least that has been found/noticed. It is far from 'popular'.
Haha, I wonder where you find info on writing your own rootkit, there have literally only been a small few of those ever found in the wild.
There aren't even that many ransomware writers. There is literally a black market where people buy said things.
I actually work 'in the industry' to know most of these things, so there is that...
I was reacting to your:Quoting: slaapliedjeThe game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkitThe only situation I could see nationality mattering was if the government was the one forcing.
I'm a student in the field and I told you only about things I had found on the net, so you're probably more right, but here's where my (mis)information came from.
At a certain point I picked up an interest in syscall interception for writing a patch to Darling.
I found that
I can't find the exact article anymore, but here's a tutorial: "how to write your own rootkit".
Qua source code poisoning:
This was my most recent source of takeover attempts(no this isn't only the xz attack) as far as I understand it, it's more common among front end stuff.
Here's a forum post of maintainers discussing some stories.
There was also a highly publicize one in the linux kernel where a check did UID =0 instead of UID == 0 and some javascript library that replaced the whole screen with some angry post.
On the Iphone jailbreak exploits.
Government involvement is only true for the most recent.
A.K.A I was wrong.
The KTRR bypass comes from the kaspery findings.
About the number of ransomware writers. I didn't know that, but yeah, the amount of bottlenecks in cyber crime is always surprisingly big. You would think that a profession under permanent attack would scale down to a point with very little bottle necks, but it's nearly as bad as with normal infrastructure. For ransomware it's tool building and for game piracy it's cracking, for media piracy it's key extraction.
As far I'm aware call center scamming is quite resilient.
You can blame IBM for the rootkit stuff, according to this; https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/trace/kprobes.html :P
Last edited by slaapliedje on 26 May 2024 at 3:10 am UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: LoudTechieHa, my comment about Russia forcing a rootkit in there was very 'tongue in cheek'.Quoting: slaapliedjeOn the presence of governement enfroced rootkit.Quoting: LoudTechieWe're talking gaming here, right? There isn't any government enforced rootkits here... unless you're buying games from CCP sponsored companies... of course they're target specific.Quoting: slaapliedjeNah, any government enforced rootkit will support Linux and Mac, unless it is target specific.Quoting: MamboThink this option is on the developers though, right?Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: StoneColdSpiderQuoting: kokoko3kSo, let me understand.Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......
I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?
Does this feel right to anyone?
Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......
This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.
They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.
Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.
Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.
The game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkit, which won't work on Linux and mac, so they're just ditching those platforms?
Basically all journalists, rich businessmen and activists use Mac.
Basically all valuable servers run Linux.
The low level Iphone jailbreak bugs mostly come from discovered government malware.
Against Linux source code poisoning is popular.
"Write your first rootkit" is a training exercise for mediocre kernel developers.
Just, because ransomware writers don't have standards and are willing to settle for Windows, because it has the less capable admins and has the security of an open door doesn't mean governments don't.
Edit:
In this rant I'm assuming they can get super user permissions from their users, but with the "anti-cheat" claim for a native game this could work.
I don't know about journalists and rich businessmen using macs. I'm sure most activists do. The first two likely use a mix of Linux/mac/Windows. A lot of proper journalists are going to be stuck on MS or be more about openness of Linux. 'Creative' types are likely to be using Macs. Not game players though.
Ha, all 'useful' servers are running some form of *nix at this point, with few exceptions running Windows.
Ha, no clue where you're getting the iphone Jailbreaks from, they're just vulnerabilities in Apple's somewhat shitty software.
Source code poisoning... has happened like once or twice ever... at least that has been found/noticed. It is far from 'popular'.
Haha, I wonder where you find info on writing your own rootkit, there have literally only been a small few of those ever found in the wild.
There aren't even that many ransomware writers. There is literally a black market where people buy said things.
I actually work 'in the industry' to know most of these things, so there is that...
I was reacting to your:Quoting: slaapliedjeThe game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkitThe only situation I could see nationality mattering was if the government was the one forcing.
I'm a student in the field and I told you only about things I had found on the net, so you're probably more right, but here's where my (mis)information came from.
At a certain point I picked up an interest in syscall interception for writing a patch to Darling.
I found that
I can't find the exact article anymore, but here's a tutorial: "how to write your own rootkit".
Qua source code poisoning:
This was my most recent source of takeover attempts(no this isn't only the xz attack) as far as I understand it, it's more common among front end stuff.
Here's a forum post of maintainers discussing some stories.
There was also a highly publicize one in the linux kernel where a check did UID =0 instead of UID == 0 and some javascript library that replaced the whole screen with some angry post.
On the Iphone jailbreak exploits.
Government involvement is only true for the most recent.
A.K.A I was wrong.
The KTRR bypass comes from the kaspery findings.
About the number of ransomware writers. I didn't know that, but yeah, the amount of bottlenecks in cyber crime is always surprisingly big. You would think that a profession under permanent attack would scale down to a point with very little bottle necks, but it's nearly as bad as with normal infrastructure. For ransomware it's tool building and for game piracy it's cracking, for media piracy it's key extraction.
As far I'm aware call center scamming is quite resilient.
You can blame IBM for the rootkit stuff, according to this; https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/trace/kprobes.html :P
Really they had to add a feature for it?
I feel a lot less stupid now.
I understand that in theory wirting a rootkit should always be possible if you've root, but adding a feature specially for syscall interception is kind of over the top.
Edit:
This seems to be deeper and an actually part of the POSIX standard in the shape of ptrace.
POSIX has it there for debugging.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 26 May 2024 at 10:52 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje May 27
Quoting: LoudTechieHa, yeah as I was looking into the documentation, it seemed more like 'sure you could use this to take over the kernel, but it's purpose is for debugging and tracing code around to see what went funky'Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: LoudTechieHa, my comment about Russia forcing a rootkit in there was very 'tongue in cheek'.Quoting: slaapliedjeOn the presence of governement enfroced rootkit.Quoting: LoudTechieWe're talking gaming here, right? There isn't any government enforced rootkits here... unless you're buying games from CCP sponsored companies... of course they're target specific.Quoting: slaapliedjeNah, any government enforced rootkit will support Linux and Mac, unless it is target specific.Quoting: MamboThink this option is on the developers though, right?Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: StoneColdSpiderQuoting: kokoko3kSo, let me understand.Welcome to the state of gaming in 2024........ Over priced DLC........ Microtransactions out the warzoo..... Out of control in game gambling........ Gaming as a service....... Changing account requirements after purchase........ And now...... Changing OS support after purchase....... What a time to be a live......
I've this game on native Linux on steam and after the update i will not have the possibility to download it anymore?
Does this feel right to anyone?
Quoting: jams3223I am blacklisting this studio, and I'll never buy a game from them.Targem Games has made...... The list...... I will do doing the same.......
This is Valve enforcing game updates vis Steam.
Blaze Rush is a lightweight title that works on an old netbook which is unable to run Vulkan, unable to run Proton via dxvk, I don't want even imagine what would happen via wined3d.
They are reducing my possibility to play it, and I've paid for it.
Instead, people pirating games are FREE from all of that, really, this time shame on you, Valve.
Steam supports beta branches, which are often used to keep around old versions before disruptive changes. That publisher should still take the responsibility and face demands for refunds though.
The game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkit, which won't work on Linux and mac, so they're just ditching those platforms?
Basically all journalists, rich businessmen and activists use Mac.
Basically all valuable servers run Linux.
The low level Iphone jailbreak bugs mostly come from discovered government malware.
Against Linux source code poisoning is popular.
"Write your first rootkit" is a training exercise for mediocre kernel developers.
Just, because ransomware writers don't have standards and are willing to settle for Windows, because it has the less capable admins and has the security of an open door doesn't mean governments don't.
Edit:
In this rant I'm assuming they can get super user permissions from their users, but with the "anti-cheat" claim for a native game this could work.
I don't know about journalists and rich businessmen using macs. I'm sure most activists do. The first two likely use a mix of Linux/mac/Windows. A lot of proper journalists are going to be stuck on MS or be more about openness of Linux. 'Creative' types are likely to be using Macs. Not game players though.
Ha, all 'useful' servers are running some form of *nix at this point, with few exceptions running Windows.
Ha, no clue where you're getting the iphone Jailbreaks from, they're just vulnerabilities in Apple's somewhat shitty software.
Source code poisoning... has happened like once or twice ever... at least that has been found/noticed. It is far from 'popular'.
Haha, I wonder where you find info on writing your own rootkit, there have literally only been a small few of those ever found in the wild.
There aren't even that many ransomware writers. There is literally a black market where people buy said things.
I actually work 'in the industry' to know most of these things, so there is that...
I was reacting to your:Quoting: slaapliedjeThe game is developed by Russians, maybe they are being forced to add in a rootkitThe only situation I could see nationality mattering was if the government was the one forcing.
I'm a student in the field and I told you only about things I had found on the net, so you're probably more right, but here's where my (mis)information came from.
At a certain point I picked up an interest in syscall interception for writing a patch to Darling.
I found that
I can't find the exact article anymore, but here's a tutorial: "how to write your own rootkit".
Qua source code poisoning:
This was my most recent source of takeover attempts(no this isn't only the xz attack) as far as I understand it, it's more common among front end stuff.
Here's a forum post of maintainers discussing some stories.
There was also a highly publicize one in the linux kernel where a check did UID =0 instead of UID == 0 and some javascript library that replaced the whole screen with some angry post.
On the Iphone jailbreak exploits.
Government involvement is only true for the most recent.
A.K.A I was wrong.
The KTRR bypass comes from the kaspery findings.
About the number of ransomware writers. I didn't know that, but yeah, the amount of bottlenecks in cyber crime is always surprisingly big. You would think that a profession under permanent attack would scale down to a point with very little bottle necks, but it's nearly as bad as with normal infrastructure. For ransomware it's tool building and for game piracy it's cracking, for media piracy it's key extraction.
As far I'm aware call center scamming is quite resilient.
You can blame IBM for the rootkit stuff, according to this; https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/trace/kprobes.html :P
Really they had to add a feature for it?
I feel a lot less stupid now.
I understand that in theory wirting a rootkit should always be possible if you've root, but adding a feature specially for syscall interception is kind of over the top.
Edit:
This seems to be deeper and an actually part of the POSIX standard in the shape of ptrace.
POSIX has it there for debugging.
1 Likes, Who?
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