Editorial: Linux Gaming Will Be Fine Even Without Steam Machines Succeeding
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I decided to write down some thoughts on Steam Machines, and Linux Gaming in general as I've seen quite a few articles on other publications about the imminent demise of Steam Machines and Linux Gaming that are rammed full of annoyances from writers who seem to want it to fail.
Let's get this straight, the Streaming feature of Steam and SteamOS is not the main aim of Steam Machines, but it is a complementary feature designed to help Windows gamers who can't get their entire catalogue on SteamOS right away. I've seen some writers mention the Streaming feature as if that is what SteamOS was mainly designed for, but it’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s certainly a nice feature, but there’s a lot more to Steam Machines.
Steam Machines
The main problem right now is the watered-down term "Steam Machine" thanks to the hardware manufacturers that jumped-ship early, and they released what would have been a SteamOS machine as a customized Windows machine. We can't blame them due to how long Valve has taken, and it certainly hasn't helped our cause. This doesn't mean Steam Machines will fail as soon as they arrive though, but if they do fail, we will still be fine.
It has always been my opinion that SteamOS & Steam Machines were never going to be an overnight success, and that's as simple as I can put it. They haven't even been released, but that hasn't stopped a tsunami of people claiming it's already dead!
Like all things Valve, they are taking their time, and the end results should be good for all of us.
SteamOS and Steam Machines are complementary to Linux Gaming, but they aren't Linux Gaming. Either way, Linux Gaming is strong, and will continue being strong, and here’s why.
Let's look at the games
Look at how many games Linux/SteamOS now has on Steam alone (946 going by Steam's own counter), and you have to remember this is before any official Steam Machine has ever been released. We have many more games due to be released soon, and tons more in development for our platform, it isn’t about to stop or slow down. If anything, the amount of ports we are getting is speeding up, and our many many pages of news can attest to that.
That’s just a number though, and some of the games (being honest here) are terrible mobile ports placed onto Steam with no additions, poor controls, and this leads into the next part.
We haven't had developers like Aspyr Media and Feral Interactive support us for very long, and with their commitment to our platform with their current catalogue and teased future games, we still have a lot of higher-budget games to look forward to. For the short time they have supported our platform we have already gained some massive games, and they haven’t even been supporting us for a year yet. Both of their first Linux games came to us last summer, so that’s a bit premature to call Linux/SteamOS gaming dead or dying when in the last part of 2014 we gained some huge releases.
Who could honestly say at the start of last year they would think Linux would see a same-day release for a game like Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel? No one, Linux gaming improves month after month with not just the number, but the quality of games we are seeing.
We are a small platform, and no one should think that pumping out a Linux version is suddenly going to make them rich. It's all about understanding the market, we pay well for good-quality games that are fun to play. We are still starving for certain game genre's like MMORPG's or more realistic shooters, to which we have hardly any.
Porting games to Linux can also help to make your code cleaner, and help the overall portability of it to other platforms.
For one example, the developer of hit game “Octodad” spoke to us directly on twitter, and they mentioned that porting the game to Linux actually made it easier to bring their game to the PS4.
Valve has shown zero signs of halting their support for Linux, and SteamOS is still being worked on. Anyone who says otherwise either doesn't have all the facts from their research, or likes to help spread speculation. We have to remember that Valve is the company that has been paying developers to look into improving our drivers.
We have a very healthy list of games coming to Linux this year, and this list seems to just keep growing.
When it comes to game engines, Godot, Unity 4/5, Unreal Engine 4, CryEngine, Construct 3 and many more will/do fully support Linux games, and we imagine many more engines will support us in future too.
Next we move onto how developers have flocked to Linux, and what they have been up to.
Feral Interactive have been teasing at least two more ports for Linux on their radar, and going by that it looks like one of them will be released soon. We can be easily excited by this, as it won’t be some small indie game, but a game with a much higher budget as usual from Feral.
Some bigger developers have also ported their own in-house engines to bring their games to Linux, like Techland with their Chrome Engine that powers Dead Island and Dying Light.
Yeah, I realise Dying Light isn't an amazing example right now, but hopefully the performance will be fixed up.
We also have Virtual Programming (a touchy subject for some, I realise this), who have their eON porting technology, which has seen incredible improvements in performance, and they will most likely bring us more ports. Considering how far The Witcher 2’s port has come along, I think their next port will be pretty solid at release. Every bug fixed in their porting technology will mean that future ports will be even better at release.
Let’s not forget we have new indie games being released almost every day, and with new developers appearing constantly this is also a very healthy sign. A healthy sign for PC gaming in general, but especially good for Linux to see wave after wave of indie games announce day one support for Linux.
GDC
The Game Developers Conference is next month, and it will bring with it much more information about the new OpenGL dubbed "glNext". This next-generation API could hopefully help solve a lot of performance problems we have with OpenGL for future games on Linux.
We expect either during, or after GDC more developers will announce or release Linux ports as well. We know that Stardock has something in store for us.
Final Note
Right now is the healthiest Linux Gaming has ever been, remember that. If anyone ever claims Linux (and/or SteamOS) gaming is pointless, or dying, we hope we have given them some things to think about.
Let's get this straight, the Streaming feature of Steam and SteamOS is not the main aim of Steam Machines, but it is a complementary feature designed to help Windows gamers who can't get their entire catalogue on SteamOS right away. I've seen some writers mention the Streaming feature as if that is what SteamOS was mainly designed for, but it’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s certainly a nice feature, but there’s a lot more to Steam Machines.
Steam Machines
The main problem right now is the watered-down term "Steam Machine" thanks to the hardware manufacturers that jumped-ship early, and they released what would have been a SteamOS machine as a customized Windows machine. We can't blame them due to how long Valve has taken, and it certainly hasn't helped our cause. This doesn't mean Steam Machines will fail as soon as they arrive though, but if they do fail, we will still be fine.
It has always been my opinion that SteamOS & Steam Machines were never going to be an overnight success, and that's as simple as I can put it. They haven't even been released, but that hasn't stopped a tsunami of people claiming it's already dead!
Like all things Valve, they are taking their time, and the end results should be good for all of us.
SteamOS and Steam Machines are complementary to Linux Gaming, but they aren't Linux Gaming. Either way, Linux Gaming is strong, and will continue being strong, and here’s why.
Let's look at the games
Look at how many games Linux/SteamOS now has on Steam alone (946 going by Steam's own counter), and you have to remember this is before any official Steam Machine has ever been released. We have many more games due to be released soon, and tons more in development for our platform, it isn’t about to stop or slow down. If anything, the amount of ports we are getting is speeding up, and our many many pages of news can attest to that.
That’s just a number though, and some of the games (being honest here) are terrible mobile ports placed onto Steam with no additions, poor controls, and this leads into the next part.
We haven't had developers like Aspyr Media and Feral Interactive support us for very long, and with their commitment to our platform with their current catalogue and teased future games, we still have a lot of higher-budget games to look forward to. For the short time they have supported our platform we have already gained some massive games, and they haven’t even been supporting us for a year yet. Both of their first Linux games came to us last summer, so that’s a bit premature to call Linux/SteamOS gaming dead or dying when in the last part of 2014 we gained some huge releases.
Who could honestly say at the start of last year they would think Linux would see a same-day release for a game like Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel? No one, Linux gaming improves month after month with not just the number, but the quality of games we are seeing.
We are a small platform, and no one should think that pumping out a Linux version is suddenly going to make them rich. It's all about understanding the market, we pay well for good-quality games that are fun to play. We are still starving for certain game genre's like MMORPG's or more realistic shooters, to which we have hardly any.
Porting games to Linux can also help to make your code cleaner, and help the overall portability of it to other platforms.
For one example, the developer of hit game “Octodad” spoke to us directly on twitter, and they mentioned that porting the game to Linux actually made it easier to bring their game to the PS4.
Valve has shown zero signs of halting their support for Linux, and SteamOS is still being worked on. Anyone who says otherwise either doesn't have all the facts from their research, or likes to help spread speculation. We have to remember that Valve is the company that has been paying developers to look into improving our drivers.
We have a very healthy list of games coming to Linux this year, and this list seems to just keep growing.
When it comes to game engines, Godot, Unity 4/5, Unreal Engine 4, CryEngine, Construct 3 and many more will/do fully support Linux games, and we imagine many more engines will support us in future too.
Next we move onto how developers have flocked to Linux, and what they have been up to.
Feral Interactive have been teasing at least two more ports for Linux on their radar, and going by that it looks like one of them will be released soon. We can be easily excited by this, as it won’t be some small indie game, but a game with a much higher budget as usual from Feral.
Some bigger developers have also ported their own in-house engines to bring their games to Linux, like Techland with their Chrome Engine that powers Dead Island and Dying Light.
Yeah, I realise Dying Light isn't an amazing example right now, but hopefully the performance will be fixed up.
We also have Virtual Programming (a touchy subject for some, I realise this), who have their eON porting technology, which has seen incredible improvements in performance, and they will most likely bring us more ports. Considering how far The Witcher 2’s port has come along, I think their next port will be pretty solid at release. Every bug fixed in their porting technology will mean that future ports will be even better at release.
Let’s not forget we have new indie games being released almost every day, and with new developers appearing constantly this is also a very healthy sign. A healthy sign for PC gaming in general, but especially good for Linux to see wave after wave of indie games announce day one support for Linux.
GDC
The Game Developers Conference is next month, and it will bring with it much more information about the new OpenGL dubbed "glNext". This next-generation API could hopefully help solve a lot of performance problems we have with OpenGL for future games on Linux.
We expect either during, or after GDC more developers will announce or release Linux ports as well. We know that Stardock has something in store for us.
Final Note
Right now is the healthiest Linux Gaming has ever been, remember that. If anyone ever claims Linux (and/or SteamOS) gaming is pointless, or dying, we hope we have given them some things to think about.
). While i still have my windows partition, I cannot remember the last time i went in windows. I just wish Blizzard would start to embrace us. Diablo3 runs great in Wine, but how much better would it be native? I can imagine quite a bit. 
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