Despite the ad which briefly appeared on the Steam front page announcing that Witcher 3 is coming to SteamOS, we now received an official answer that it is not confirmed.
In the interview on Gamescom 2014 which consisted of questions collected from the Witcher community on CDPR forums, Environment Art & Level Design Producer Michał Stec of CD Projekt Red was asked whether Witcher 3 is coming to Linux and the answer was not very encouraging:
QuoteQ: Will Witcher 3 be coming to Linux?
A: It’s too early to say, we’re focusing on releasing it on PC, Xbox One and PS 4, same quality, same experience to all the players. We’ll see after that, Linux, Mac I guess it might be planned but I do not know about it yet.
Source (at 06:29 in the interview):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QTzMelOeKEw#t=6m30s
Unfortunately no reason was given for the SteamOS ad on Steam that caused a lot of confusion, and no details about whether any work on supporting OpenGL in REDengine has started so far.
The Witcher 3 is a highly anticipated action RPG developed by CD Projekt Red and scheduled to be released in February 2015. While the question about Linux support was raised many times, CD Projekt red never gave a definitive answer about their plans before, until the confusing SteamOS ad appeared on the front Steam page. It was removed within a day and many were left wondering whether it was legitimate or not. Neither Valve nor CD Projekt Red officially commented on that event, but it is clear that Linux users should not expect the Linux version at release time if they are to make any pre-orders now.
If you want to show your interest in the Linux version of the Witcher 3 you can add your vote to this entry in the GOG wishlist.
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The Linux/Mac version is planned after the Windows release, i'm completly sure and it's absolutely certain. Why ? Because instead of to say "No Linux version planned for this game" to , Michał Stec said "It’s too early to say", "We’ll see after that" -> CDPR wants to take out a version but has not begun the development yet.
I'd say they are simply avoiding answering the question. It's better than straight no, but it doesn't guarantee anything really.
Just started the download too. Is it playable or beta option or a 0 byte executable?
But why GoG (which is a branch of CDPR) release a Linux version of GoG and why CPDR release The Witcher 2 (by Virtual Programming) on Linux too if they don't want to release TW3 on Linux ?
And why not? GOG added Linux support because many users and developers asked for it. They earn money on selling Linux games. Linux support in the Witcher 2 was added by reusing the eON port from Virtual Programming which was already done for OS X. They thought it will be easy to reuse. It came out not so good, so VP are working on fixing it now. Releasing Witcher 3 for Linux is a whole different beast to deal with. So I wouldn't measure TW3 efforts by anything else. Of course the fact that GOG started supporting Linux means that general attitude towards Linux in CD Projket Red has improved. But TW3 is a big project and whether it will get a Linux version would depend on their efforts with REDengine.
And now they changed there mind?
Hmm... Well Im glad I didnt pre-order, and no linux no buy :P.
Hopefully its gets a linux client later after the game has been released.
Linux is moving already towards OpenGL 4.5, although Intel drivers is a huge problem (Intel IGPs getting very good for gaming on Windows).
That said ... I personally hope Linux is going to get native OpenGL 4.5 version. Time to drop legacy and open source driver support for now if Linux wants to be competitive with consoles and Windows. Open source drivers are improving fast and will catch up eventually anyway, but I don't think now is good time to wait them.
Yet another wrapped or OpenGL 3.3 port would be very big disappointment.
Read the article carefully. SteamOS ad was never confirmed, or to be precise Valve / CDPR didn't comment on it at all.