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Tin Foil Hat Mode: Engage. Is Linux Gaming being sabotaged?
gradyvuckovic Feb 27, 2019
Alright folks, you are fully forewarned, this is a TIN FOIL HAT THREAD.
(Do not take this thread too seriously..)

Want to know an interesting stat about ProtonDB right now? At the time of posting, there's only ONE game in the top 100 that is rated 'Platinum'.

Guess which game it is?

If you haven't checked yet, you might think, "Oh it must be an older game that we've had plenty of time to fix up and get right in Wine."

Nope. It's BRAND NEW. A brand new AAA game, and it's PLATINUM. From DAY ONE.

7 reports, all Platinum, and the game has 7k players right now, and is in the top 100.

It's the kind of glorious success story that we would all hope for with Proton, AAA games being available to play on Linux on the first day of their release, and Linux gamers able to buy them and show their userbase numbers and enjoy a flawless gaming experience identical to their Windows cousins.

Only there's just one problem.

You can't buy the game.

If you can play it, it's only because you pre-ordered it.

It's Metro Exodus.

[Make sure you're wearing your tin foil hats!]

Isn't it just a really curious coincidence, that the best performing Proton game, the one that would really vindicate the whole Proton vision.. is ripped from Steam's store just barely before launch by Epic.

Isn't it also curious that Epic bought EAC, and that talks between Valve and EAC have been stalled ever since that happened.

What am I implying?! .. I don't know, draw your own conclusions...

[X-FILES THEME]
beniwtv Feb 27, 2019
I am not surprised - I had some success previously with Proton / Wine etc... on games launch day. Unless they have DRM and / or anti-cheat or run on DX12, there's a good chance they might just work (tm) these days.
Avehicle7887 Feb 27, 2019
Pretty sure Epic's target wasn't the Linux community with Metro, what better way to force people to shop at your store by making one of this year's most anticipated titles an exclusive. They want a piece of that Steam cake and they want it in a very aggressive and barbaric way.

Most likely many people will still buy the game even if their client sucks compared to Steam, if players want to talk to their friends they can still use Steam and Discord etc, adding to that this a singleplayer only game. So at the end there will be achievements left which players may ignore as long as they can play the real game.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention about this thread's title, I don't think Linux gaming is being sabotaged but more likely affected by current events. Valve cares about Linux and cross platform (including Apple / MoltenVK), Epic does not and indirectly that creates problems for us such as EAC.
darthbasselope Mar 6, 2019
The original post said don't take this too seriously so I wont but here are some things to consider. https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9mne1j/epic_games_acquires_easy_anticheat_company/ This reddit post was 4 months ago so Epic bought EAC over 4 months ago. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/apparently-valve-are-working-with-easy-anti-cheat-to-get-support-in-steam-play-updated-yup.13573 This post was less than a month ago so it appears Valve has been talking (at least some kinda stalled right now) but not out of the question EAC support wont come to Proton. So we may see Games wiht EAC work in Proton or not but at least they have been talking and it doesn't sound like a conspiracy. It would be great if Epic brought Proton to their game store because isn't the Proton code on Github? I wish the discord store would too and any other winblows only store did too.
tonR Mar 8, 2019
Come on people, don't y'all not watched the Mixed Reality 2.0 glasses launched few days ago? Whose the engine maker invited to give speech at stage? The one who hates "walled garden", now standing in same stage together.

Also, in last 1-2 months, many pro-Win websites now supporting that "pro-devs" store.

So, tell me what's going on? Do you see anything here?
gradyvuckovic May 6, 2019
In light of recent events... With Epic pulling a popular native Linux title off Steam and now *rumoured* "pausing" Linux EAC development support.. I'm giving this one a bump for people's consideration again.
razing32 May 6, 2019
So far I am under the impression we are collateral damage.
Will change my opinion as new data emerges.
So far Epic seems to want to piss in everybody's pot just to get their way.
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