Without popular games, Linux gaming won't grow to a point where it will be noticeable. Once again, this is a big reason why Steam Play is going to help in the long run. First we get games, then we get players, then we hopefully get developers wanting control with their own supported Linux builds.

Thank you, these are exactly my thoughts on how to break the chicken and egg issue we have with our tiny market share. And unfortunately I don't see much alternatives.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

What a messy situation. Lets start that I get the sentiment for the decision, I tried to keep my system 64bit only before I recognized that gaming actually works on Linux. But now this will hurt, even if I'm not directly affected with running Fedora.
From what I read the decision to ditch all 32bit thingies was initiated more than a year ago. Unfortunately Valve and SteamPlay really took off in the last year and now that decision has much wider implications than a year ago. New users, developers and Valve plus GoG will (heavily) suffer with this new heavy fragmentation in the Linux Desktop market. The timing is really bad as stated earlier here. I guess especially for Valve this feels like a stab in the back. Even I feel like this.
I really hope that someone at Ubuntu will stand up and scream: "Boys and Girls, that decision seemed sensible a year ago but Linux on the Desktop has changed quite significantly since then. We really should reconsider...".

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: gradyvuckovicFor Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.

The Valve servers would have to run on Windows, though and I highly doubt Valve would want to pay for those licenses.

No they wouldn't, not with Steam Play once it's mature enough.

I suspect SteamStreaming, or SteamCloud (who knows how they will call that), might happen the day SteamPlay/Proton leaves beta and become official. Simultaneous announcements is my guess.

Edit: It can't be too far away, because Valve risks long term damages, if they let users get accustomed to the competitions' solutions (Xcloud or Stadia).

I wonder if Valve is legally allowed to offer everything in your library as a streaming service just like this. I could imagine that existing contracts would need at least some review. This might also be the reason that official Steam Play whitelisting isn't happen that often, even for games that work perfectly well (e.g. TW3). I'm just speculating here though.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Wishlisted!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: Avehicle7887

Quoting: F.UltraHowever 0.84% vs 3.26% of Steams 90M users results in 756000 vs 2934000 potential customers and close to 3M potential new users is probably above some threshold for publishing houses to plan to put resources into support. Where exactly that threshold is I don't know but so far it seams to be above 0.84% for at least Linux.

I always found those percentages to be a bit misleading, primarily because Linux is a much better gaming OS than Mac. It is quite obvious why Mac appears more popular since the OS is sold with the hardware and Linux is not as widely marketed. For every new Linux user, you get 10 more Apples right off the shelf and the % starts going higher right away.

Quoting: F.UltraSo I would still argue that with or without hype we are still a bit too few for game publishers to care.

Chicken and egg situation sort of, the publishers not caring is part of the reason why we're still a bit too few, how are we supposed to do that without them feeding us games? I've seen quite a few people around saying they would try Linux if game x and y ran. The situation has improved over the years, but we need a bigger push to fix those last few issues with Multiplayer anti cheat software.

Yeah it's a bothersome situation where our platform came after the market already decided that it was Windows (PC) or Mac that defined a computer (after Commodore, Atari and so on died) coupled with the anti competitive business practice by Microsoft that enabled them to take the 95% market share.

So it will be an uphill battle for many years to come and during that time we simply have no leverage to demand native games like Swiftpaw thinks that we can.

Steam Play might not be the magic bullet that helps our market share grow to the needed threshold but at least it allows us existing users to enjoy a far wider variety of modern games.

We have no leverage to demand games? Right, that's why we have thousands of games with Linux support. All those developers who made those thousands of games with Linux support are responding to a demand for that, otherwise they never would have supported Linux. So, clearly that "leverage" did work. We need more demand so that we'll have more games, and the way we get it is more Linux gamers demanding Linux support.

No, that "leverage" only works with small titles with very small studio, but not for anything bigger. If you are only here for indie games, sure, go ahead, your tactics may convince a small developer. The big boys really don't care about no-tux-no-bucks. Really, I'm convinced they don't care at all for less than 1% market share.

I agree with you that the number of bigger titles seems to decrease lately. But as stated earlier, I think that was already the case before Proton arrived. Actually I think that happened when OpenGL was no longer sufficient for a port of a modern game. The only way to convince developers and publisher to invest into Linux and actually to release for is market share, market share and again market share. I sincerely hope that Stadia is a driver for companies to invest into Linux and Vulkan, Steam Play might be a driver for getting better market share. In my opinion no-tux-no-bucks won't get you anywhere (except if you want to torture yourself) because very few people care for the very small money (if any money at all) that can be currently earned with native Linux games.

Don't get me wrong. I know that Proton is not perfect, performance is somewhat lower, some essential features aren't there yet and support is completely Valve driven. But it attracts people and brings Linux on the table. This is more worth in my opinion than a few lost native Linux games (that even might run better in Steam Play over time anyway).
I would also wish that Linux was a first class gaming platform and that every title was a first day release with Feral quality. But lets face it, that is completely unrealistic in the current situation.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: rustybroomhandleAn aside. Loosely related. We've been waiting quite long for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Said game has now shown up on the Stadia launch titles list. I'll be over here with my tin foil hat on.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I have small hopes that Stadia could result in more work for Feral ;) Using their knowledge to "linuxify" and "vulkanize" for both Linux Desktop and Stadia sounds hopefully appealing ;)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestWe have lots of games with great support. All platforms have some shitty developers, and of course I'm completely against that. Support good games and good developers that provide/come with good Linux support, is always the qualifier there. :3

Actually no, linux does not have a big number of really good AAA games. Actually just the Feral games come to my mind. Anything else is either small Indie or a rushed port that doesn't stand the test of time. I know that I'm exaggerating a bit. I love to play my e.g. Civ VI game and I'm grateful to have it on Linux but regarding quality it can't compete with e.g. Rise of the Tomb Raider. The only porting house that did the investment to switch to Vulkan is Feral who are still able to produce a good port of current games. VP and Aspyr more or less left, their way with ports using OpenGL won't work with modern games and they didn't seemed the investment into Vulkan worth it (mostly speculation from my side).
Sorry, but currently we have either Feral or Indie. Not much more.

Quoting: GuestNo gamer should ever be up shit creek without a paddle is the point. Linux gamers shouldn't be abused just as gamers on other platforms shouldn't be.

I agree on this, but it will take some time (and a lot more Linux users) to get there. I see Steam Play as one of the better tools on this long journey. Stadia could also be helpful on this journey to get more users on Linux but that remains to be seen.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: jensIf you want more (bigger) gaming studios and publisher to support Linux, you'll need people that play on Linux. Actually a lot more than now. Really a lot more than the current tiny 1%.

Nobody, nobody at all is going to care for what you're playing on. They care for what you're paying for. If you're playing on Linux and paying for (a) Windows (game), "Windows" is the answer to all their questions.

Well, what I meant to say was: Publishers need to see that people using Linux are paying for their games. If a Windows game sells well on Linux due to usage of Steam Play I would forecast that Linux is taken into consideration with their next game. May be with even better Steam Play compatibility? May be with even support for? Linux Steam Play? May be with even with a native version if Linux user number are still rising in their statistics?

It's a long term thingie..

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestIn order to do that, more Linux gamers need to start demanding it, and the way that happens is when the number of us who demand Linux support goes up.

And where do you want to get more linux gamers from?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: GuestI feel contrary, I like how many options we have now, the broad community support, the option to use Vulkan for hundreds/thousands of games and I like how our infrastructure improved since then!

Yeah, exchanging Linux binaries with Windows binaries and company + community support with community support only sure is a big win...

In other words, losing support like a 2nd class gamer, and supporting the Microsoft monopoly. Fully agreed. No Linux gamer in their right mind would ever beg for abuse like that, that's insane. Only shills, M$ fanboys, and greedy sociopaths would advocate for abusing Linux gamers, so I hope that's not being advocated for by raneon.

Please stop the childish wording/ranting, you only disqualify yourself from this discussion.

View this comment - View article - View full comments