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GDC Europe ran a survey of 800 games industry professionals who attended a previous GDC event and about 17% stated they plan a game for Linux.

It's a really weird survey, as it pulls Windows/Mac together, but has Linux by itself. It would make more sense to have all three separated. They also say PC when they mean Windows, which is always annoying to see. Still, it's a pretty healthy percentage considering only a few years ago it would have probably been 0-1%.

It's also amusing to see them do the survey, have Linux as an option which beats out multiple other platforms, yet they don't mention anything about Linux in the text.

See the full article on it here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial
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21 comments
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Beamboom Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: JOndra91Also note that only 61 percent of developers will release on Win/Mac.
So if we consider that these are all PC developers then 27.8 percent of PC developers are developing for Linux.

Ah, but of course! That is a significant point.


Last edited by Beamboom on 18 July 2016 at 8:45 pm UTC
STiAT Jul 18, 2016
That is .. more than I expected. I rather thought it will be lower than 10 %.

But maybe that is the rising support by engines. A pretty good amount anyway. It will not solve my issue though (too many games, too few of them played).
Luke_Nukem Jul 18, 2016
"PC when they mean Windows" This annoys the living shit out of me. We need some sort of meme or gif to post whenever we see this shit.

Like https://imgflip.com/i/17lkis
Or https://imgflip.com/i/17lksi


Last edited by Luke_Nukem on 18 July 2016 at 10:38 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: EikeHm. We've got 25% on Steam, probably with more old than new games. 17% would, well... not be more than that.
Steam has very little presence in games outside the desktop/laptop form factor. This survey included consoles and phones, which are huge markets. So its face value before you add the needed big chunk o' salt is that if you take all the game developers on both computers (where Linux is an option) and consoles and phones (where it basically isn't), 17% of that whole field have Linux plans. Presumably if you removed the people concentrating on consoles or phones from the sample, the Linux percentage in the remaining group would be significantly higher.

Edited to add: Oh. Yeah, like JOndra91 already said.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 July 2016 at 11:09 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jul 18, 2016
Side question: It seems like Chromebooks have been selling surprisingly well lately. Is anyone writing games for them? Would such games run on normal Linux? If they don't, could a library be written to make a normal Linux run them (or vice versa, to make a Chromebook run games for SteamOS as long as they were lightweight enough for the little thing)? Would any or all of these things be useful for general Linux gaming?
sarmad Jul 19, 2016
17% is pretty good considering the lack of marketting or interest on Valve's side, but it's most probably less than it used to be a year ago. I remember seeing roughly 20% or more of the latest released titles on Steam supporting Linux, but at this moment out of the latest 100 games released on Steam only 13 of them support Linux.
JudasIscariot Jul 19, 2016
Well, let's just hope that 17% of developers don't join the ranks of the article below this one http://i.imgur.com/J7mSTwI.png :P
sub Jul 19, 2016
I'd be even ok with just 5% IF this includes the AAA games.
I'm not sure many of them are included in the 17% stated.
Finn Jul 19, 2016
Quoting: Purple Library GuySide question: It seems like Chromebooks have been selling surprisingly well lately. Is anyone writing games for them? Would such games run on normal Linux? If they don't, could a library be written to make a normal Linux run them (or vice versa, to make a Chromebook run games for SteamOS as long as they were lightweight enough for the little thing)? Would any or all of these things be useful for general Linux gaming?

You can already play Steam Linux games on a Chromebook via a crouton chroot. I've done some gaming on my Toshiba Chromebook 2 2014 via an Ubuntu chroot and it plays stuff like Nuclear Throne, Risk of Rain and Binding of Isaac fine. I mean, it's not ideal (don't expect anything 3D to run), but for simple 2D games it's adequate. I've actually been thinking of trying out some VNs on it.
Guest Jul 19, 2016
Quoting: Finn
Quoting: Purple Library GuySide question: It seems like Chromebooks have been selling surprisingly well lately. Is anyone writing games for them? Would such games run on normal Linux? If they don't, could a library be written to make a normal Linux run them (or vice versa, to make a Chromebook run games for SteamOS as long as they were lightweight enough for the little thing)? Would any or all of these things be useful for general Linux gaming?

You can already play Steam Linux games on a Chromebook via a crouton chroot. I've done some gaming on my Toshiba Chromebook 2 2014 via an Ubuntu chroot and it plays stuff like Nuclear Throne, Risk of Rain and Binding of Isaac fine. I mean, it's not ideal (don't expect anything 3D to run), but for simple 2D games it's adequate. I've actually been thinking of trying out some VNs on it.

I don't think that was what he was asking. It was not can you technically put Ubuntu on a weak chrome book and play Steam games. I think it was more can chrome games work on Linux with some fiddling/api easy on an existing dedicated gaming PC with Ubuntu on it.. because they are both Linux.


Last edited by on 19 July 2016 at 4:17 pm UTC
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