Quoting: ShabbyX

Quoting: jensFeral stopping supporting Linux is in my opinion the end of AAA games on Linux.

I can't say anything due to NDAs, but rest assured that that's not true.

Thanks a lot! I'm looking forward for what is to come :)

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Quoting: ShmerlThe difference is, that Linux users will more likely buy a supported game.

I hope so, though I'm less optimistic here.

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Quoting: ShmerlThe way it's all heading is, that porting would become easy enough that most will be doing it in house.

I very much doubt that we see more in-house porting. But let's see and hopefully I'm wrong.

Quoting: ShmerlAnd the rest will be using engines with cross platform support to begin with (i.e. native games).

I doubt this too, it is still a long way until studios will keep Linux in mind from the beginning on. This long way will be disturbed when statistics claim that earning money on Linux ain't possible (since Linux gamers will buy the windows versions of games anyway due to wine/dxvk progress).

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Quoting: ShmerlI wrote above. Officially supported version is still better than unsupported one, so there is added value.

Yes, but it wont be enough value to let the average Linux gamer wait for a Linux release when the Windows version is already available.

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: jensThere is simply no market anymore for (Linux-) games (wrapped or native) on Linux.

You can make the same claim about current closed wrappers from Feral and VP, i.e. they supposedly hurt the market of native games. Yet we see the opposite, major game engines are improving Linux support, and increasing amount of native games are coming out these days.

This is may be true for a few indie titles, but certainly not for the big productions.

We can stop here when you claim that Feral is hurting the market for Linux games :)

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Quoting: ShmerlAnd you are wrong, the progress is very welcome, since it actually makes porting (wrapper style one at least) a lot easier for developers. Feral and Co. can adapt to this shift in the technology. They can as well compare their wrappers to Wine and dxvk, and if the later are better (and I see no reason why they can't become such), they can just use them, instead of reinventing the wheel. That's the power of FOSS.

You are missing my point. Sure, porting would get a lot easier. But no game dev/pubslisher will do this anymore because they won't make any money with it anymore. Most Linux gamers will buy the windows version of the games when wine continues to progress in this rate. There is simply no market anymore for (Linux-) games (wrapped or native) on Linux. Like stated by others, devs will just redirect Linux questions to wine and community support. Very easy for them, they got the (windows-) sale and don't have to offer support. In the end this will only strengthen windows as a gaming platform. The only solution for this would be day-1 releases on Linux, but this is just wishful thinking, it will never happen with bigger titles for the current very small number of Linux users. For that Linux would need a much stronger market share, but this won't happen when nobody would buy (later-) ported games anymore.

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Quoting: HadBabitsHowever, I can't see that impacting porting decisions. Most Linux users probably don't use WINE on a daily basis. Most game devs probably won't even be familiar with it.

I think you are wrong here. I guess you are correct that wine is not used on a lot of Linux boxes, but I'm sure that most people that play games on Linux are familiar with wine. Every dev with common sense will first investigate how people play on a certain platform before investing resources into it.

I do use dosbox occasionally to fire up a retro game, I'm all in that wine should provide a way for people to move some of their loved games over to Linux or to play games that will never see the light in Linux land. Unfortunately wine is progressing a little bit to well, especially with initiatives like dxvk. I guess Feral will stop porting games to Linux once their (upcoming) games are somewhat playable on wine with the windows version before Feral's release dates:(. No matter if they offer support and a better performance, most people will then buy the windows version earlier.. Feral stopping supporting Linux is in my opinion the end of AAA games on Linux.

While wine (and dxvk) are technically astonishing I do share the anxiousness that we, the Linux community, are shooting ourselves in the foot when trying to compete with the few companies that are earning money with games on Linux..

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Very cool, my wallet is ready :)

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: Kimyrielle"Related", eh?

Same parent company, different people run them.

Your response is not really related to question how strong the ties are from the parent company. Do you have any insights how "free" the CEO's at GOG are in their decisions?

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: jens

Quoting: Shmerl"Done right" or not, it means removing user's choice.

I prioritize "done right and just works" far above "complete freedom of users choice". Time is much to precious for me to spend hours into setting up my environment.

Because those two things are antithetical, and openness makes things work badly. Got it.

For this specific case here my assumption is that supporting the Steam Controller (for Steam games) the FOSS way would, as also stated by others, take considerably more time. The overall experience for Steam games i.c.w. the controller would be in the short time, my assumption, not as good as it is now. This does not exclude that the final result of both approaches can be of the same.

-> "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." (African Proverb)
There are situation where going fast is a valid alternative, imho.

Just to be sure: FOSS and drivers upstream is cool and definitively the better way, just not the only way. There are different ways leading to Rome. I'm more pragmatic than others it seems, that's just all. Since Linux is supposed to be so much about freedom, why isn't Valve free to support their products te way they want? Valve is not forcing anybody to use their products. It works for them (and for me). People should simply choose different products and move on if they don't agree instead of cursing Valve continuously for their approach.

(English is not my native language, could be that I got your statement and the irony in it completely wrong. If my response makes no sense, then this is most likely the case.)

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: jensThat's fine for me. Enjoy your DRM-free games. Though not every thread about Valve/Steam/Feral is about DRM (well most aren't :)), thus just saying nothing is also an option.

This thread wasn't about DRM really, it was about developers who don't release games with SP because of MP requirement. Not sure what DRM has to do with it, so you talking about DRM was the actual off-topic :)

I can't imagine that you weren't able to follow this conversation, I guess you know what I wanted to say. :)
Anyway, indeed time to stop here. Everybody should stick to their favorite store and enjoy their games. We should stop to annoy friend of others stores by constantly rubbing presumably shortcomings into their faces.

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