Quoting: const

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Xakep_SDKIf they don't release gnu/linux version of game, there is actually zero profit for gnu/linux gaming.
Why should regular gnu/linux gamer care about what google made and whom pays to get games working on *their* machines? It's not my computer, it's google's.

Actually, if this Stadia thing is successful, there is an advantage even if it doesn't (directly) lead to a single desktop Linux game release. The point is, it's a completely platform-agnostic source of games. If it's accepted as a normal adequate way to do gaming, that means Linux boxes (including piddly little ones like Chromebooks) are first class gaming citizens; that barrier to adoption is toast. That would make it easier for the Linux desktop share to grow, and if the Linux desktop share grows, more games will be made for Linux because it's a bigger market.
Stadia will also make more developers familiar and comfortable with both Linux and Vulkan. Those skills won't disappear when it comes time to make new projects; they are likely to make things more cross-platform from the get-go.

This, plus the "not a single one" scenario is totally unlikely. No, not every Stadia port will be released on Linux, but certain percentage will.

That is my expectation as well.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: GuestActually, some devs have explicitly said that MAC ports were not worth it because MAC users were making much more support requests. To the point half of their support costs were eaten up by roughly 5% of their market. So support costs matter. This is probably why the Linux builds of DOOM and WoW have been kept internal and not released to the public.

You would have to build another team of tech support, complete with low level people who answer trivial questions to full blown techies. And for a very small part of your public. Depending on the public you have it may not make sense economically.

As Linux users, we can help by helping each other trough sites/forums such as this one so as not to overburden the tech support teams of studios making Linux builds.

Still... The Stadia build will be a Linux build... id will have to build a Linux support department anyway.

The problem I see is the multiplication of hardware confgurations; the Stadia build is Intel CPU + Vega GPU. They only need to support that configuration to make it work on Stadia. "One hardware config to rule them all!"

In that sense, Stadia is a lot like a console--one standard thing.

As for the distro fragmentation, they only need to stick to the official Steam support page (Ubuntu/SteamOS). This argument has always been a really bad excuse to me.

Edit: What I'm personnally afraid of, on the long run, is that big AAA companies could decide to stop supporting PC gaming in general (not just Linux) in favor of Stadia. It will make it a lot more easier to support all paltforms with one Stadia build by making the OS/hardware, on the client side, irrelevent.

Yeah, I'd be unhappy if it goes that way. We'll see--Google Docs hasn't killed the desktop office suite yet.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Xakep_SDKIf they don't release gnu/linux version of game, there is actually zero profit for gnu/linux gaming.
Why should regular gnu/linux gamer care about what google made and whom pays to get games working on *their* machines? It's not my computer, it's google's.

Actually, if this Stadia thing is successful, there is an advantage even if it doesn't (directly) lead to a single desktop Linux game release. The point is, it's a completely platform-agnostic source of games. If it's accepted as a normal adequate way to do gaming, that means Linux boxes (including piddly little ones like Chromebooks) are first class gaming citizens; that barrier to adoption is toast. That would make it easier for the Linux desktop share to grow, and if the Linux desktop share grows, more games will be made for Linux because it's a bigger market.
Stadia will also make more developers familiar and comfortable with both Linux and Vulkan. Those skills won't disappear when it comes time to make new projects; they are likely to make things more cross-platform from the get-go.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Patola

Quoting: Purple Library GuyArguably not the only reason. I've heard that modern snazzy art makes content much slower to design. Thus, for the same investment of developer time, a retro-art game can be much "bigger"--have way more places to go, give you more hours of entertainment.

And throw immersion out of the window. Our body has millions of years of evolution preparing us to process lighting, context, real shapes and the such, half the brain genes we have have a function on image processing, and somehow skipping good graphics is justified because realist, smooth graphics take time (duh).

I feel annoyed when I see a big percentage of titles released for Linux being pixel graphics. It seems like a regression.

BTW, this is not a complaint about this game particularly. From the description it seems to be quite good. However, I can't see pixel graphics as "charming", instead they simply look outdated to me. I think it would benefit greatly from proper hi-res graphics.

All no doubt very true. I wasn't making a general argument for pixelated games, just saying old school aesthetics isn't necessarily the only rationale for retro art.
Although personally, I don't think I'm as sensitive to artistic issues as a lot of people. I'm not charmed by the pixelated look, but as long as it's not muddy and low-contrast I'm more interested in gameplay than appearance. When I am charmed by art it's usually not pixelated, but it's usually not photorealistic either, and whichever way it isn't gonna be enough to make me impressed by a boring game.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: TermyWhile the artstyle surely has its charm, i somehow can't stand if the UI is deliberately made "bad" just to fit the "old times" :/

Arguably not the only reason. I've heard that modern snazzy art makes content much slower to design. Thus, for the same investment of developer time, a retro-art game can be much "bigger"--have way more places to go, give you more hours of entertainment.
You can get around that by going procedural, but that has its difficulties too.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

All in all, I hope this Stadia thing does well enough to get lots of developers making their games for it, but not well enough to eat normal gaming.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: fedotixAccording to you, what will be the price for a month membership for stadia ??:huh:

They have yet to announce this.

Also, something I only really thought of until just now replying to HP on Twitter:

Not only does it lower the barrier to entry for Linux desktop gaming, since it's mostly the same. I do wonder if it becomes massive, how it might influence Linux adoption? You wouldn't need to pay for a Windows license so pick up a cheapo Linux laptop -> Stadia gaming -> more Linux users?

I'd be amazed if this didn't have a tie-in with Chromebooks.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Ehhh, I don't give a fig.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

If they're going to say they're like Sunless Sea, I'm going to nitpick the writing.
Trailer: "Terrible beings entered through the cracks in the tapestry of reality"--lousy metaphor. Tapestries don't have cracks. They can have rips or tears, moth-holes and so forth, but not cracks. If you're going to say things came through cracks, say reality is something that can have cracks. Also just pretty bland.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

So according to the trailer, very little happens at universities except sports. Very American.

View this comment - View article - View full comments