Quoting: dannielloBut some data are sure without surveys - Linux gaming market is very small (almost no AAA new native titles plus abandon Linux port by many Indie developers means that even this virtual 648000 monthly Linux users it is not worth native port).

Linux native games even with Steam Proton is simply not enough to convince "average Windows/Mac user" to learn how to install Linux on his/her computer. Without some "big company" involved (Dell Steam Machines 2?) - I do not think that situation will change...

Lets face the truth here...

How many people actually switched to linux because they are an avid gamer and want the best games? Unless you are trying to be funny, or are completely delusional, I am sure the answer is none; even on this site dedicated to linux gaming.

You switched to linux for a different reason; whether that is you didn't want to pay for a windows license, or were fed up with telemetry, or crashes, viruses, or had a crash and no install disks. You may be using linux for educational or work reasons as well. Or, someone that helps you with computers decided to install linux for you. Possibly some specific app might have caused you to use linux. But as I said, you did not come to linux for games...

That being said, regardless of your reason for coming to linux, you want to use it now, and play games on it.

WINE/Proton will never in itself cause people to migrate to linux. NEVER. Why would someone on windows which can run all the windows games without the need for WINE switch to linux to use WINE? As wonderful as WINE/Proton is, it does not work with everything and you have a better chance of support with native windows than with WINE under linux.

However, WINE/Proton does help in one very big aspect... It allows people who choose to switch to linux to minimize any need to go back. It allows people to play games they already have without needing to reboot to windows. But even with this, the point is that some other reason caused someone to switch to linux, not linux gaming.

This is not likely to change any time soon either... The big AAA titles draw people to gaming, but the publishers are not going to limit themselves to a market so small. Until something else creates a mass migration to linux, the big game companies will be supporting windows.

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Quoting: Edgarins29Could it be that Steam beta doesn't trigger survey?

Its just as likely that the release branch doesn't trigger it as well. :P

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Quoting: elmapulservers are different from desktop computers, servers has an ridiculous ammount of ram and most of the time they are just copying/moving data instead of processing it, so their current infra structure will not fit.

This is not true at all. In fact I would argue there are only 3 markets for high-end processors... gamers, developers, and servers; and not necessarily in that order.

Quoting: elmapulvalve has some streaming capability since they use it for home streaming and their video service, so they may try it solo instead of with an partnership

Yet the second line of your same post said "valve may try to stream, but i dont think they have enough infra structure to do that."

Quoting: elmapulin any case the good news for us is, linux is better at servers and developers may target servers since they will be able to sell their games for windows, mac, linux and android all at one shoot.

As much as I would like to agree with this, I doubt you have real data to back it up. In most cases, businesses will deploy servers based on their existing support people and availability of additional personnel if needed. i.e. windows shops generally deploy windows servers, linux shops deploy linux servers, mixed development shops truly look at their needs and make a determination based on how well the hardware/software fits their needs. What client platform they are targeting may make a impact in that decision based on protocol support, but in general does not matter. e.g. Webservers are more likely to be linux(around 80% last I checked), yet they serve web pages to mostly (over 80%) windows clients. In fact I know that a few of the large stock trading companies use mainframes (OS/390) to serve webpages and I doubt many people surf with a mainframe client.

Quoting: elmapulandroid promissed a lot, but android apps and games were not compatible with desktop linux neither the opposite, and most android games are crap anyway.

Trying to compare this seems meaningless... Due to limitations with you phone, the games are much different. Phones do not have the processor, RAM, or storage capacity of your computer... heck the first few years of Android, GPUs didn't exist. Tablets came in, but they just seem to be a large phone... with possibly more RAM, CPU, screen size, but even they can not compete with an actual computer. The biggest distinction between Android and a computer is the input method. Android primarily uses a touchscreen interface (including tablets) and have a limited screen size as well. In order to control a game, large portions of the screen must be allocated for the player to hit with their fingers, which in turn leaves less of a screen available to show game information. Can you even imagine playing a game like Civilization on a phone? You would never be able to see all the information you want to at once, let alone be shown all the options available to do on your turn for a unit/city. That is why casual games are much more popular on android, and while hardcore gamers use computers/consoles. It is also why certain games do well on Android, like tower defense games.. which you usually only need to select tower types and upgrade them; something that can fit on a small screen.

Quoting: elmapulgoogle is trying to enter the desktop operating system market and they will have an bad time convincing people to buy their games all over again, so they might make an partnership with valve to solve that, or just make it easier to install steam on chromeOS so they solve the problem with old games while still try to stream new games.

Actually Google has already taken strides to allow linux programs to run on Chromebooks. I am not sure what the exact status is because I do not have a chromebook.

Quoting: elmapulhtml5 promissed a lot of things, but instead of geting good games on the browser, all i found is a bunch of crap games (at least sketchfab was borned), the games from the flash era were much better [External Link], back then it was possible to fund good games with only the budget from the ad's.

If HTML5 is going to take off as a gaming platform, it will only be with the success of cloud gaming. A web browser is another layer between programs and access to the hardware on the computer. Right now, I have only 8 tabs open on my browser. It is using about 2.5GB of memory. I use scriptsafe to whitelist javascript and I am primarily uses sites that are mostly text based. USA Today, Soylent News, NPR News, Gaming On Linux, and the Humble Store (which is probably the biggest memory allocation.) That is a huge amount of memory for just a bunch of text. It adds an extra layer of bloat to any game that you may want to play making it slower than a native game. I am a web developer... trust me, you do not want to program any complex game in those languages. I have built complex web applications, but other than some simple javascript, I do not need to deal with real time feedback like a game. Unless games are streamed from the cloud, the HTML 5 games will never be on par with native. Flash and Java games can be played in a browser but they are sandboxed as well and can usually be played without the browser as well.

In short, don't plan on anything replacing native games anytime soon. While older games can work in certain situations or through emulators, as computers get more powerful so do the expectations of the gamers and native gaming gives them the most to work with. Casual games can easily be found on lesser platforms but anything needing raw horsepower will stay native until it is so old its system requirements become an afterthought.

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Think about how many games, even single-player games are connected to the net now in some way with various features.

The problem with this in the past is quite evident... and one of the major companies involved in the new cloud effort (EA) was the worst offender.

Other than possibly a high score board, what features are actually wanted from the internet?

There are racing and FPS games that have been known to contact the internet in order to download new billboard graphics regularly. Of course these are used to sell in game advertising... ok if a title is free to play, but it has been used in purchased games.

We all know of the hundreds of games that require "activation servers" in order to check the licenses while playing. But the reality is that people that pirate games apply a patch to remove the activation code, while the people that are legitimate users are screwed when they have internet connection issues and can't play the game they want to legally use. In addition, if the company decides to turn off activation servers, there is nothing you can do (other than get the pirated version.) There have been titles that EA in particular has turned off one year after a release leaving a player unable to play... (usually after a sequel is released.) In some cases people buying old titles from "bargain bins" are unable to play the game due to buying after the servers were taken down.

And lets just say that the less said about the remake of Simcity [External Link] the better. It "required" constant internet access from even the single player content. The game servers were overloaded at launch making it a horrible experience. It was later revealed that the online requirement was a forced requirement having no actual bearing on playing the game. (Thanks EA!!)

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Quoting: LomkeyAs for myself I don't see cloud gaming going take off so well. People internet not up to code or so many with a limit cap does not make cloud gaming to much a go as right now.

Exactly, even if you have a internet connection capable of streaming 1080p content at 60fps, it would very quickly fall victim to download caps.

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Defense Grid 2 no longer supports linux as well. https://steamcommunity.com/games/221540/announcements/detail/1647632012675672973 [External Link]

And Ticket to Ride which was mentioned here last year.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-developers-of-ticket-to-ride-have-abandoned-linux-support-for-their-game.9397

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I don't know... its pretty expensive... Maybe I will wait until it goes on sale. :wink:

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While I currently do not have much I am looking to buy a big sale always has a way of separating me from my cash.

However, one thing that I know for sure is that despite Steam Play, I will not be spending a single penny on any title that is not linux native.

Despite proton sales and time in game being calculated as a linux purchase; it does not send the message that there is interest in the game from linux users... the clear message is that they can sell the game and make money without the need to develop a port.

WINE, Proton, DXVK are all wonderful technological achievements. I do think they help the linux community and can aid in making it grow. However, I think it is best used as a tool used to allow people to switch to linux and not leave their existing software library behind. Essentially, it can be a big investment that no one wants to lose by changing OS's.

While I know this can be a controversial topic for some, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I will not decry others for having a different viewpoint. However, I personally will only be using Proton to play games that I already have in my library from my past life in windows (which is quite a long time ago) and some things that I received as part of bundles.

There are plenty of good products out there for linux whose developers deserve our support... More than enough to satisfy even the most ravenous gamer... I have plenty of titles that I have yet to even play... No need to support people that will not support the platform I use.

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If my memory is correct...

The Halloween is not a big steam sale, but the winter sale is just as big as the summer sale.

iirc... The Halloween sale is primarily themed for the season with anything zombie, ghost, or horror related.

Don't get me wrong... Halloween is a significant sale event... just don't get upset if the title you are waiting for doesn't get a discount. I'd expect something like Darkest Dungeon and/or Graveyard Keeper during the sale... (assuming Graveyard Keeper isn't too new) But things like Transport Fever, or Oxygen Not Included to be passed during this sale.

That being said, having the normal publisher weekend sale, or mid-week madness sales will still continue at Steam and may include non-Halloween themed titles. But I would still expect the Autumn(Thanksgiving) sale and Winter(Christmas/New Year) sales to be larger events.

One other thing to remember... when steam has their sales, it is not unlikely for other game stores like Humble or GOG to try and compete with sales of their own.

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I also received a 20% off coupon from Steam. (valid for 1 week.)

I assume that they sent them to people that own the first Kingdom Rush. (maybe Kingdom Rush Frontiers too, but I do not own that one.)

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