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Feral Interactive have no plans to put their Linux ports on GOG

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Recently, GOG added the Windows version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to their store and since it has a Linux version on Steam, I reached out to the porter to see about their plans for the Linux version.

We've seen a lot of speculation in the past, with people wondering if Feral Interactive will ever get their Linux ports onto a store other than Steam. Here's their official stance, which they sent me this morning:

We don't have any plans to distribute our games through GoG. If this changes, we'll make announcements through our usual channels. 

We can speculate all we like as to why they're not doing it, even if the decision does strike me as a little odd. Hopefully they will reevaluate this stance in future, considering it's not exactly a new game and the Linux port from 2014 isn't exactly new either.

A shame for everyone who prefers their games on GOG.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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221 comments
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Adamfx990 Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: GuestTry as you might, there's nothing to indicate Feral's DRM stance one way or another.

If that's not clear still, I'll repeat but one last time, since I said it several times already. If Feral have an issue with GOG in particular, they can release the game through other means DRM-free, smaller companies than them do it just fine, it's not an insurmountable task. Feral aren't interested. Argue all you want, but until I'll see their games DRM-free anywhere, I'll consider them being pro-DRM.

Quoting: GuestIn fact, if Feral even talked to GOG, that indicates Feral are ok without DRM - they have to be, if they're willing to even talk to GOG.

Talks in such case are initiated by GOG, since GOG naturally don't like making crippled releases. GOG Linux team said so explicitly. But talks didn't lead anywhere as we can see.

The thing is, I never said it wasn't user friendly. I said its anti-consumer. As in, there a lots of aspects, like DRM and the fact that they just let literally anything onto the platform. User friendliness is a different matter all together. Though I'd still argue GOG is better in that regard as well.
Sputnik_tr_02 Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: GuestI don't care anymore for GOG, bought way too many games there in the hope that there will be a Linux client. But so far I cannot see that GOG is in any way committed to Linux. Valve and Feral continue to invest in Linux and I'm quite happy to support both companies.
Yes my thoughts exactly. Both Valve and Feral do more than just selling Linux games; they contribute to the open source drivers and Vulkan api and other cross platform solutions, but somehow they are the bad guys just because they use DRM and GOG is the good guy despite doing nothing but sell some games. I would also prefer DRM free where it is available but I do not live in Europe or USA and that makes GOG not viable because they do not support my local currency and because of that games on GOG are 3-4 times more expensive than on Steam. That would be another factor for some developers not putting their games on GOG because of user base being smaller.
bolokanar Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: TheSHEEEPYeah, I also don't get the problems people have with Steam.
"You need to have Steam open and running to play the games!" - So I open Steam and run the game. No problem here. In addition to an inbuilt chat, I also get an inbuilt browser, community, workshop... all of which is optional, of course.

You fail to see the technical side of things. Like the requirement to have 32bit, just to play your 64bit games.
And I know you have nothing against that. No need to tell me.

Time and again, I've seen sheepies do unreasonable stuff only on the will of the shepherd.
when they have realised what had happend, they would probably swear the shepherd if they could.
But what does it matter? In the end we ate The sheep.

By the way, you all have forgotten that you could actually play all this games on Windows… to begin with.
I see no one condemning, all the demand to get game X on GNU/Linux.


Last edited by bolokanar on 19 June 2018 at 9:18 am UTC
johndoe Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: HamishWhat a horrifyingly narrow world you must live in if the only games you feel comfortable playing are new. I don't know about you, but I fully intend to still be playing the games I buy today for at least as far into the future as the childhood favourites I still find myself coming back to year after year. That is why anything that is specifically designed to block me from doing so is completely unacceptable to me.

Technical challenges can be overcome. DRM legally cannot.

No, you misunderstood me. The most important word in my phrase is MORE.

"It makes MORE sense to play games when they are new and active." does not mean that I don't play old games or that I'm not comfortable with them.
I earn my money with Linux.

WAITING for a game that might never release DRM-FREE but is available for my beloved OS does also make not MUCH sense to ME.
Whitewolfe80 Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: orochi_kyoIt so easy to come here and sound like a popular guy between these selfish human beings who thinks devs doesnt have the right to have a minimal protection of their intellectual property.

I'm not interested disproving this nonsense for the Nth time already. I'll just sum up key points:

1. DRM doesn't protect any property, but it violates users' rights because it's unethical overreaching preemptive policing.
2. Reasons for using DRM aren't related to increasing sales, because in practice DRM only decreases them.

Yes but i can tell you immediately why DRM exists, Companies like money staff are fond of being paid too. If you release a game drm free on gog i can tell you for a fact it is up on torrent sites day and date and yes even the linux version have been going up lately too. I know this as one of the parts of my job is to monitor several torrenting severs to see what has been uploaded and how often and when gog launch a new game it typically gets uped exactly 5 hours after being avilable for purchase.


Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 19 June 2018 at 9:35 am UTC
Imants Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: Whitewolfe80
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: orochi_kyoIt so easy to come here and sound like a popular guy between these selfish human beings who thinks devs doesnt have the right to have a minimal protection of their intellectual property.

I'm not interested disproving this nonsense for the Nth time already. I'll just sum up key points:

1. DRM doesn't protect any property, but it violates users' rights because it's unethical overreaching preemptive policing.
2. Reasons for using DRM aren't related to increasing sales, because in practice DRM only decreases them.

Yes but i can tell you immediately why DRM exists, Companies like money staff are fond of being paid too. If you release a game drm free on gog i can tell you for a fact it is up on torrent sites day and date and yes even the linux version have been going up lately too. I know this as one of the parts of my job is to monitor several torrenting severs to see what has been uploaded and how often and when gog launch a new game it typically gets uped exactly 5 hours after being avilable for purchase.

Does DRM really prevents games from pirating? Or it just helps them not to be pirated after 5 hours or so but little bit longer?
FutureSuture Jun 19, 2018
I can only hope that that changes. I was looking forward to getting the Tomb Raider and XCOM games that have Linux clients provided by Feral on GOG.
Cyba.Cowboy Jun 19, 2018
That's a shame... These days I rarely buy games on Steam, and buy them almost exclusively on GOG.com (mostly because of the DRM-free/standalone game thing).

Hopefully Feral change their mind at some point, because they have a number of games I wouldn't mind purchasing...
Jahimself Jun 19, 2018
I also prefer DRM free games in general. I think it is the best for consumers. It is quite similar to owning a DVD, or music CD, which you can carry anywhere, and copy for yourself to avoid damaging the CD. You can also lend it to someone. For me the GOG way is what suit the best what you do in reality with objects that you purchase.

Nontheless, for now Feral can not cover the cost of doing so. Even releassing a game on steam with all the advantages of it is not always worthy to cover the salary of their engineers. For instance they could not release F1 2016, probably because F2015 was not viable financially.

For them, choosing the game must be quite a bargain, because the game has to please the community as much as possible, but also to sell enough to pay the porter a wage.

Don't forget that they port a game with a team that is often 100 time smaller than the big editors. It is huge lot of work, and honestly the work is of incredible quality.

In France we have a saying which says: "Little by little, the bird makes its nest" and I think that is exactly what Feral Interactive is trying to do, and the best they can. So for now, indeed the situation is not perfect, we have to get our community growing in order for them to later be able to reach the DRM goal.

It's a personnal explanation, but I'm quite confident they are linux lovers as we all are here., and that they probably agree with what the majority of us think of DRM-free games.


Last edited by Jahimself on 19 June 2018 at 11:28 am UTC
adamhm Jun 19, 2018
Quoting: Whitewolfe80Yes but i can tell you immediately why DRM exists, Companies like money staff are fond of being paid too. If you release a game drm free on gog i can tell you for a fact it is up on torrent sites day and date and yes even the linux version have been going up lately too. I know this as one of the parts of my job is to monitor several torrenting severs to see what has been uploaded and how often and when gog launch a new game it typically gets uped exactly 5 hours after being avilable for purchase.

Steam's DRM does next to nothing to prevent piracy either, especially in the form as implemented by most developers (i.e. without using CEG, but even when that is used it still doesn't slow the hackers down much). A common way to neuter it is to simply create a custom steam_api.dll/libsteam_api.so that implements a fake version of the Steam API.

This method actually seems to be used quite regularly for GOG re-releases of former Steamworks titles and from what I've read about the GOG version of XCOM:EU I'm guessing it's also the method used for that.

The real question though is: does DRM actually help sales? Because from all of the information I've seen, even when it's effective at stopping piracy for long periods like Denuvo has been this does not translate into an improvement in sales figures.
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