Europa Universalis V from Paradox will only support Windows, no Linux or macOS this time

RIP end of an era

Their former business guy who ran their podcast was one of their main advocates for the push to Linux. If I remember correctly, he had mentioned that it might be difficult for them to justify long term if the market didn't support that option, but that they did have a solid % of Linux users and had good bug reports from them. However, with him gone for a while now and Paradox moving onto new projects, it seems his prediction has come true.

I've always enjoyed Paradox games, and they were one of the few companies I pre-ordered from and tried to buy early and at full price, because of the quality of the games and their Linux support. However, their quality has dropped and I'd already begun buying and playing them less due to that. The removal of native Linux support doesn't mean I'll ignore their games, but the accompanying issues with bugs and many DLCs being a bit sparse for the price means that no native Linux pushes them even more into ones that I will likely only buy later in a heavy sale.

No Tux, no bucks

Ok.

Let's see if with this unpopular move they can finally produce some occasional release that is not a complete bugfest. That is one of the main reasons I stopped playing their games. Even though on linux it was less annoying than windows due to much faster loading times.

EUIV is my favorite game from all time. I waited so long for EUV.
I love EUIV and Victoria 3. I played a lot of Victoria 2, CK II, CK III and Hearts of Iron IV.
I bought the games and all DLCs, but I won't do this anymore now that they are dropping Linux support.
I'll of course play EUV, maybe from an "alternative way", maybe I'll buy if I find a great sale, but this move is very disappointing.

In the end steam has popularized that Windows games can run on Linux thanks to Proton. So let's say that it has done good in the sense that Linux is an excellent platform to play, but bad because it has killed native support.
For my part I am in favor of having a single executable that works on any OS, at the development level it is very difficult to justify native support for OS with so little market share.

Oh, well, that's unexpected and sad. :(. I won't say that I won't buy the game or anything, but I will probably wait for a good sale instead of preordering...

If PDX is switching engines for the game, that would explain why they dropped Mac + Linux and also give me hope for a more optimized game client.

It's odd seeing Paradox not supporting Linux - especially now that Steam Deck is a thing (and it's a success). Go figure...

If PDX is switching engines for the game, that would explain why they dropped Mac + Linux and also give me hope for a more optimized game client.

They probably are using a bumped version of Clausewitz.

But if in 2025 the boardroom approves a new engines that does not support linux it doesn't bode well for PDX long term. They are in full short term cashgrab to appease the stock market. Which btw is the signal they are giving since quite a few years already (as I said before, I grew tired of them sistematically not delivering what promised time ago). They are regularly offsetting poor DLC quality with more aggressive commercial campaigns.

It will work until it breakes. When it does, there will be no fallback. It sucks because there aren't many grand strategy alternatives of this magnitude around. So one virtually has to give up the genre entirely.

On the bright side, should EU4 be somehow decent on its last patch, I might buy the last DLCs on some post eu5 release sale and have illimited playtime on EU4.

It's in line with what most of the industry is doing lately. With Proton now being able to run pretty much any game on Linux, they don't see a solid reason for a native Linux port anymore. "Linux support" is now equivalent to making sure it runs smoothly in Proton.

Personally, I can live with it. If a game runs on Linux I don't care about what makes it run.

Proton is a blessing and a curse. More games than ever can run on Linux, but developers and publishers are more then happy to focus on Windows and consoles while shifting the burden of Linux support to Valve

The goal of Proton is not to shift more developers to native Linux ports. It is to move more consumers (i.e. gamers) from Windows to Linux. A side-effect absolutely is that 'Linux support' means 'it runs on Proton'.
The question is: what if Proton ever succeeds in bringing a critical mass of gamers to Linux? Then suddenly it will make sense for developers to support Linux. One can dream...

To be honest I am actually ok with it now that proton is well established.

As mentioned above by others, Linux runs practically any game through proton. The only issue now that needs addressing is the Anti-cheat DRM.

I suspect when Linux adoption passes the 10% mark we should start to see native Linux ports again. Lets get the Market-share up first. With W10 being killed of by MS we now have a good opportunity to grow.

Yes, I want native ports but I am happy with Proton as things stand.