Quoting: rstrubeCDPR was rumoured to have been actively working on the Witcher 3 for Linux, but because the community backlash to the Witcher 2 port was so toxic they decided it wasn't worth it. Frankly I don't blame them.

A little off topic but there's not much to point at that the Witcher 2 backlash was/is the reason for the Witcher 3 port being canceled. Witcher 3 for Linux was still planned a year after Witcher 2's release for Linux (Witcher 2 release was around May 2014, Witcher 3 got a "Coming to SteamOS" banner March 2015). It's more likely the port didn't make it because SteamOS wasn't what most expected it to be (Quote from the CEO of CD Projekt:

If Steam will deliver a constant Linux environment, call it SteamOS or anything like that, we would love to have our game there, because the more people play our games, the better for us.

More infos here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/wiki/The_Witcher_3_Linux_port ).
Quite a few other games were announced for Linux/SteamOS during the SteamOS hype but didn't make it.
This is of course just my impression on that matter. Again, sorry for going off topic :)

Quoting: Colombo

but because the community backlash to the Witcher 2 port was so toxic

because it was horrible in quality. Or you expect me to order food, get something rotten and then not complain about this? Similar hate on bad quality is in every other platform and to almost every other type of merchandise with the exception of Apple. They somehow can afford to release a shitty product and be loved for it in their community.

I can certainly sympathize with the frustration people felt with the port being very low quality. You spend your hard earned money on a game that's bug-ridden and broken, it's extremely disappointing. I'm not arguing that people should just shut up and take it, but I think as a community of people passionate about Linux, we need to be more careful with the way our criticisms are registered. Windows users can be very hateful and vindictive if a game is broken upon launch, but because their platform is so dominant, they tend to get a pass. It's unfair I agree, but because we have so few developers taking a chance on Linux, we need to be extra careful with the way we respond.

Here's a quote from somebody claiming to have worked on the Witcher 3 port (not verified). https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7xl762/kickstarter_projects_breaking_linux_promises_how/duao75y/?context=3

It was indeed being worked on.. and several things happened mid 2016 which influenced their decision to cancel the port. ONE of those things was the hate campaign they got for W2. Another was Steam Machines showing signs of not being successful.

I can't say more without violating NDA. I've probably said enough already.

The point I am trying to make is that the poor behaviour of the Linux community has, and continues to cost the platform dearly. I have spoken to developers who, when you mention Linux, reply with things like "we're not interested in supporting a small, particularly spiteful market"

The legitimacy of the individual is unverified, but it seems to align with other rumours about the cancelled port.

Your point about the response to Blizzard is well taken. I know Liam ran a piece on this, but I can't remember all the details. Wasn't the person who responded to the CEO the same person that organized the petition in the first place? If this is the case, even if it was just one person, it certainly casts all Linux gamers in a bad light.

I want to be clear that my comments are not meant as a explicit criticism of the Linux community. I've actually been using Linux (exclusively) for about 2 years and stopped dual booting into Windows because I believe so strongly in the platform. My comments were intended to be constructive and to hopefully get some people to soften positions that might drive off further game developers.

Quoting: rstrubeAt the end of the day, if we want Linux to have a thriving gaming ecosystem, I believe we need to be more flexible and we certainly, without question need to support the few companies that are releasing games on Linux!

That's really not a solution. I, for one, simply don't have enough money to buy every Linux game that is released, and that's probably true for most of us. I buy Linux whenever possible, but that's only a handful of gaming purchases a year.

The problem here is that there simply aren't enough Linux gamers to turn most publishers' heads. The only way for Linux to take off is if we have 100% software parity with Windows, but that would require developers to support Linux at a loss for the next decade until the platform is able to entice enough users from Windows to make it a financially viable market, and that's simply not going to happen because few if any publishers support our ideology of making Linux a viable and attractive competitor to Windows. They're in it for the money, and Windows is where the money is, and unfortunately, I don't think that will ever change.

I'm not willing to call Valve's Linux experiment a failure, but things are certainly not encouraging at the moment.

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: rstrubeAt the end of the day, if we want Linux to have a thriving gaming ecosystem, I believe we need to be more flexible and we certainly, without question need to support the few companies that are releasing games on Linux!

That's really not a solution. I, for one, simply don't have enough money to buy every Linux game that is released, and that's probably true for most of us. I buy Linux whenever possible, but that's only a handful of gaming purchases a year.

I think you misunderstood my comment. I also don't have the financial resources to purchase all released Linux games, nor would I expect others to be able to do so. I was responding to a previous post related to not purchasing Linux games solely because they are only being released on Steam. If you can afford to purchase a game or two, but choose not to because it's only being distributed on Steam, that contributes to the problem.

I would agree that things are looking somewhat discouraging. If Valve is serious about making Linux a viable gaming platform, they really need to pony up and subsidize game development on the platform. Valve is presumably swimming in money, if they were to invest some of this money into the subsidization of Linux ports we could begin to see things change. For example, if they went to Bethesda and said, "What do you need to bring your AAA titles (e.g. Skyrim, Fallout 4, Doom, etc.) to Linux?", and made it happen, we would begin to see a shift in perception of Linux as a gaming platform.

More Linux gamers vs more Linux games is sort of chicken and egg problem: more games on Linux will decrease purchases for each individual game before our userbase increase enough to make a difference...

On Steam we may have an opportunity to make a difference even if we are a small community: the user review system seems to be involved in the visibility of games on the platform ("quality" of the reviews - i.e. proportion of good vs bad reviews - and their quantity). If we, as Linux gamers, write more reviews in proportion than the other OS gamers (in fact, few people seem to take time to write reviews) our weight will increase in the reviewing system and we may give good Linux supported games more traction leading to more purchase even outside Linux community. Just writing positive reviews for good Linux supported games (even very short reviews) specifying that the game is well supported on Linux (i.e. "Works fine on Linux (tested on xxx, version xxx, with xxx GPU and xxx drivers)") and marking those reviews as "useful" (well, it's always useful to know that a game works on Linux) we will give our community more visibility... and I think also a more positive image (I think that it's always better to insist on positive aspects than on negative ones). Well, just my last thinking on the subject... :)

Edit: as an example SOMA has now a bit more than 11 000 reviews on Steam, and on September 23, 2016 Linux was accounted for around 5000 direct sales (that was between 1 or 2% of the market for Linux as global numbers included PS4 sales). If all Linux gamers write a positive review for the game we would represent 30% of SOMA reviews on Steam even if we represent 1 or 2% of the market (I know that not everyone is on Steam and not every buyers of SOMA has enjoyed the game, but that gives some rough numbers).