Epic has less than a promise of supporting Linux. Discord gave us a very solid promise, but still didn't deliver. I personally think we should refrain from supporting them (especially Epic) until they show something concrete... and even then, it should depend on how good their support is. GOG for example has some decent Linux support, but it is still severely lacking compared to Windows and their promises in this direction didn't mean much.

Those stores want to compete with Steam? The bar is set quite high, even with Valve's many flaws. Competition could be good, having options could be good... but only if those options are any good. Frankly, Steam losing space to stores that don't support Linux would be a quite bad thing for us.

Regarding SteamPlay, it is impressive and has a lot of potential. I am expecting new steam machines at some point, though not necessarily soon. Hopefully Steam can cut itself a good share out of consoles, which have super-terrible practices, while being forced to improve by competition on PC.

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Quoting: mylka

Quoting: eldakingThat is great (much better than Epic). Particularly good to hear that they already have working versions and that they use Linux. Makes up for the delayed release and no word so far. Now we just wait until it actually happens, because by now we are already too used to promises without results (GOG, cough cough).

doesnt Tencent own discord?
they also own 40% of epic

discord = epic ??????

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_Games [External Link]

so maybe epic comes for linux, as they said they will support a free OS

Well, that's capitalism for you. Even when you have "competition" (still an oligopoly even if they manage to get a good share of the market) it ends up that the same people own everything. And due to network effects and other barriers, there is no chance to get a competitor who isn't already a giant monopolistic corporation that will use exclusives or screw its users as needed.

But in this case, "owning" doesn't mean they control both stores. They will get a share of the revenue regardless of where you buy a game, and they might even influence some policies on occasion, but it isn't like they are setting up two competing stores or they are coordinating both stores for their interests.

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That is great (much better than Epic). Particularly good to hear that they already have working versions and that they use Linux. Makes up for the delayed release and no word so far. Now we just wait until it actually happens, because by now we are already too used to promises without results (GOG, cough cough).

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Now, this is a store that actually holds any interest for us Linux gamers. Unlike Epic's, which is Windows-only, full of exclusives that only run on Windows, but maybe might be considering Linux if we interpret a vague and non-commital reference to "other open platforms" as meaning Linux.

Unfortunately, the smaller scale of this kind of store has some disadvantages... for example, lack local pricing/local payment methods, which are a big thing to some of us. And it might be a minor inconvenience to not use the same platform, though I don't think it is a big deal. But still better than moving into bigger but inferior and annoying platforms like Origin or UPlay.

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And I thought this was going to be a pretty normal week…

Steamplay has been moving so fast I'm not sure if a normal week is one where it doesn't make a major change or one where it does.

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: x_wingPeople will really piss off for having such a huge number of stores in order to have their games. All this stupidity will just benefit console gaming in the end...

Number of stores is not a problem (or do you prefer oligopoly?), as long as they won't start pushing the sick exclusives approach.

Number of stores isn't a problem, but number of store clients is. In an ideal world you would be able to use a single FOSS client to install and update all your games (plus install mods, connect to multiplayer, achievements and other social features, etc) regardless on who you buy it from. But we are far from that reality. Buying a game on GOG often means missing out on mods only available on Steam, for example. Buying from some stores means terrible DRM and launchers. And so on.
Also, if the stores are filled with exclusives, the competition is severely limited - you can't choose who you want to buy each game from, just what games you want (which is competition between developers, and shouldn't be the competition between the stores...).

Regarding this new Epic store... this company has a single product so far, which isn't available on Linux. I would not call this promising for us.

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Dungeon of the Endless, yay! One of my essential games to run through wine, now officially supported by valve. Hope the other games by the studio (Endless Legend and Endless Space 1 and 2 ) also make it eventually.

Also excited about steins;gate, lack of Linux support has held me back from buying and playing so hopefully this might be one of the first proton games where I count as a Linux sale (so far I have only played games I already owned, mostly from before I switched to Linux full time).

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That's a little worrying, but it doesn't mean they will suddenly stop having Linux ports of their games

Well, not suddenly. inXile had a solid track with Wasteland 2 and TToN, but with Bard's Tale 4 they already stopped developing for Linux and decided to make a delayed port, despite the crowdfunding promises. Obsidian has released games without Linux support before.

Anyway, Microsoft might not be very invested in sabotaging Linux gaming, but we certainly can't hope they will be supportive. Things like DirectX, Xbox live and the windows store are probably higher in their priority list than "helping that insignificant competitor".

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Hmm, Civ 5 works perfectly on Linux for me (faster than on Windows, even). I had some issues with mods, but the base game was great. I didn't know that people had problems with the port. Civ 6 is unplayable for me on Linux, but my integrated graphics is bellow minimum specs on Windows and unsupported on Linux so I can't really complain.

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I saw this on my feed right after a post about the game finally getting a release date and got really hopeful that this time it would be day-1 Linux support. Alas, it was too much to hope for.

Well, considering it will be many years before I get a PC that can run a recent Total War game, I don't really care for the delay.

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