Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

CD Projekt RED Considering The Witcher 3 For Linux If SteamOS Takes Off

By - | Views: 82,700
Followers of the Penguin, Marcin Iwiński, one of the founders of CD Projekt RED, has spoken out about why the developer of The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 has not yet shown any support towards Linux.

Citing an issue deemed a myth by many, especially by Ryan "Icculus" Gordon who took to busting this myth during the Steam Developer Days of 2014, Iwiński believes that if you are going to support Linux, you cannot simply pick one distribution to support. Instead, he feels that CD Projekt RED would have to take to supporting at least five.

Marcin Iwiński, CD Projekt REDFirst of all, we have a lot of respect for Steam and we think they are very, very good business guys and good gamer friendly guys and that's really, really important. We like what they are doing and with the Steam Box, if they will be able to deliver a cool console, definitely, we are interested in having a game there.

You know, one of the reasons we have not released The Witcher on Linux is that we most probably have to address five different versions of Linux and this is always terrible to support the quality of the games afterwards. The patches, the updates, and everything. If Steam will deliver a constant Linux environment, call it SteamOS or anything like that, we would love to have our games there because, you know, the more people play our games, the better for us.


Source (from 1:29:16).

There you have it. SteamOS will somehow negate having to support five Linux distributions and defeat the beast that is distro fragmentation once and for all.

How do you feel about CD Projekt RED's reasoning? Will SteamOS bring the desired changes? I, personally, can only keep on hoping and ask you kind folks to keep on voting for GOG, sister company to CD Projekt RED and reseller of its games, to finally add Linux support. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Action, RPG, Steam
0 Likes
The comments on this article are closed.
47 comments
Page: 1/5»
  Go to:

Guest Feb 16, 2014
These guys have no clue. I've already had my meltdown when TET was spewing the same BS over here so I'm not going to start again...

Good thing is that they did not outright say "no". At least they gave a reason, even if it's a dumb one.
rick01457 Feb 16, 2014
The idea that SteamOS finally delivers us all from the blight that is distro fragmentation is a tedious one.
The single best thing that Valve have done with bringing the steam client to Gnu/Linux is to pick a single distro and say that it will offer support on that distribution only (is it Ubuntu 12.04? I forget). By doing this, standards are introduced for any distro maker that wants to appeal to gamers. Introducing standards in this way negates the possibility of distro fragmentation causing problems to gamers.
There is no need to look to the future to wait and see if SteamOS will succeed because the Steam client has already nullified the problem that CD Projekt RED are stating exists.
Anyway, I would be happier if this was an actual announcement that Witcher 3 is definitely coming to Linux as I've loved the previous 2 games but have now cut all dependency on Microsoft software.
Guest Feb 16, 2014
I don't think that Steam being on linux fixes the different ways distros do things, name things, etc... It carries around the "runtimes" which is basically a big ball of various libraries you would find on any linux system and which they expect developers to compile/link against. This is the standardisation Steam brings.

The cool things we get are driver support because Valve has the pull to nudge the likes of Intel, nVidia and AMD in the right direction and tools that were not previously available on Linux because nobody needed them that much, like the upcoming VOGL.

Hopefully, the companies involved, not just Valve, will realise that working together on production tools will help all of them to stay free of platform lock-in.
adolson Feb 16, 2014
Quoting: SilviuIt carries around the "runtimes" which is basically a big ball of various libraries

Didn't a lot of Windows games do the exact same thing? I haven't touched it since 2002, but back then I recall almost every game I had shipped with some version of DirectX, maybe the MSVC runtimes, VB runtimes, etc.
manny Feb 16, 2014
if steamOS takes off everyone will be on it duhh.

anyway send them this video ;):

View video on youtube.com
linux_user_pl Feb 16, 2014
prepare your servers for big load, big traffic from Polish users is coming
http://www.wykop.pl/link/1869416/eng-cd-projekt-red-rozwaza-wypuszczenie-wiedzmina-3-na-steamos/
Hamish Feb 16, 2014
Quoting: rick01457The idea that SteamOS finally delivers us all from the blight that is distro fragmentation is a tedious one. The single best thing that Valve have done with bringing the steam client to Gnu/Linux is to pick a single distro and say that it will offer support on that distribution only (is it Ubuntu 12.04? I forget). By doing this, standards are introduced for any distro maker that wants to appeal to gamers. Introducing standards in this way negates the possibility of distro fragmentation causing problems to gamers.

Personally, I would rather people choose SteamOS as a standard than Ubuntu, as it is based on Debian and closer to upstream. Also, because it is gaming focused, it would be much better analyzed as a model for other distributions to follow in this regard.

That being said, most distributions already ship SDL as Gordon says, so that basically defeats the problem anyway, making this whole argument for the most part moot.

Maybe in game system requirements they should just say "requires at least SDL 2.x" like they used to say about DirectX back in the day?
FutureSuture Feb 16, 2014
Quoting: linux_user_plprepare your servers for big load, big traffic from Polish users is coming
http://www.wykop.pl/link/1869416/eng-cd-projekt-red-rozwaza-wypuszczenie-wiedzmina-3-na-steamos/
I hope they weck Liam's servers. That would be hilarious.
Liam Dawe Feb 16, 2014
Quoting: FutureSuture
Quoting: linux_user_plprepare your servers for big load, big traffic from Polish users is coming
http://www.wykop.pl/link/1869416/eng-cd-projekt-red-rozwaza-wypuszczenie-wiedzmina-3-na-steamos/
I hope they weck Liam's servers. That would be hilarious.

Bring it on! *game face*
Speedster Feb 16, 2014
QuoteThere you have it. SteamOS will somehow negate having to support five Linux distributions and defeat the beast that is distro fragmentation once and for all.

It is rather amusing, but if having Valve put together the needed libraries in SteamOS, rather than having to collect together the dependencies themselves, is what it takes to for some developers to be sensible about Linux... then we've got another thing to thank Valve for. I'm sure these guys aren't the only ones who need Valve's support as confidence-builder.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.