In a sad turn of events, but not exactly surprising, the President of Blizzard responded to the petition calling for Blizzard to support Linux, the answer is obvious, but what's sad is the response from the petition creator.
Here's the official response to Blizzard not being on Linux:
QuoteI certainly appreciate your passion and enthusiasm around this. Those are some great comments that you have included below, but the numbers just aren’t there right now. Linux usage represents less than 2% of installed desktop operating systems browsing the web, and I would assume most of those people also have access to a Windows or Mac device capable of playing Blizzard games.
We will continue to monitor the growth of Linux, but it is very unlikely that this will be something that we pursue in the near future.
I think we all saw that coming, but here's the sad part, in public directly below this the petition owner said this:
QuoteI am not sure just what the hell Morhaime is smoking but obviously he needs to stop or change to a different plant. How can he say we are under 2% when there is no concrete evidence to prove it. He also can not seem to grasp the fact that the reason why some of use are stuck using Windows is because of Blizzard and not because we love using Windows.
One thing is for sure, I am gonna have to work harder if I am going to break through that thick head of his.
Will keep you posted.
That's a perfect way to make sure Blizzard never respond to that petition again. This also gives them fuel to continue to not support us, if that is the attitude of people who try to represent us.
I think we all need to ask ourselves what Andrew (the petition creator) "is smoking". It was a perfectly reasonable response from Blizzard, and I didn't even expect Blizzard to respond until the petition was much bigger.
Blizzard, we aren't all like this, and please do not think that person speaks for us, as they do not. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Saw that coming from a million miles away. If they wanted to support Linux they would have a long time ago. At one point they had a working WoW client for Linux that some of the employees used internally. I don't know if it is still up to date or not but if it worked at one point I would think it would be trivial to make work now if it happens to be out of date.
It would be nice to see them bring their games to Linux as they are popular games, but they really have not made anything good (IMO) since Warcraft 3. I own Diablo3, played through it one time, it was just "meh", I also own the original SC2 and it was "meh" as well and I didn't even bother with they other SC2 "DLC". Blizzard lost its soul the minute they let Activision buy them out.
Honestly I think support is probably their biggest hold up. I'm sure support is already swamped with all the people they have playing on windows and adding Linux would probably be a nightmare for them. Like everyone else they would need to choose one distro to support and sorry to the others. Those WoW kiddies already get their panties all in a bunch when they have problems.
If Valve succeeds in turning Linux into a really viable gaming platform then maybe Blizzard will change their tune. Until then this is all we are going to get out of them.
It would be nice to see them bring their games to Linux as they are popular games, but they really have not made anything good (IMO) since Warcraft 3. I own Diablo3, played through it one time, it was just "meh", I also own the original SC2 and it was "meh" as well and I didn't even bother with they other SC2 "DLC". Blizzard lost its soul the minute they let Activision buy them out.
Honestly I think support is probably their biggest hold up. I'm sure support is already swamped with all the people they have playing on windows and adding Linux would probably be a nightmare for them. Like everyone else they would need to choose one distro to support and sorry to the others. Those WoW kiddies already get their panties all in a bunch when they have problems.
If Valve succeeds in turning Linux into a really viable gaming platform then maybe Blizzard will change their tune. Until then this is all we are going to get out of them.
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O-Oh no...
Please, petition owner. We need a professional response, not a knee-jerk emotional one.
Please, petition owner. We need a professional response, not a knee-jerk emotional one.
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Quoting: fleskIf I need a Diablo "fix" I can play Torchlight II insteadDin's Curse is another worthy alternative to Blizzard's offering, and it has a few unique concepts not seen in Torchlight or Diablo.
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Note: Andrew doesn't represent me.
That said, there _is_ a way to settle this. How about all of us who want a Linux client stop playing blizzard games for a few months, say from May 1, 2015 (or the release of Legacy of the Void, whichever comes first) to August 1, 2015, so the company can actually measure the impact?
I know it would be hard not to play, but we can make a point. If Blizzard observes a 2% decline in players and decides that it cannot care less, so be it. However, if they see a 10% decline and decide that's something they have to address, we may just see that Linux client developed.
If you are with me, please spread the word (otherwise the whole thing would be useless).
That said, there _is_ a way to settle this. How about all of us who want a Linux client stop playing blizzard games for a few months, say from May 1, 2015 (or the release of Legacy of the Void, whichever comes first) to August 1, 2015, so the company can actually measure the impact?
I know it would be hard not to play, but we can make a point. If Blizzard observes a 2% decline in players and decides that it cannot care less, so be it. However, if they see a 10% decline and decide that's something they have to address, we may just see that Linux client developed.
If you are with me, please spread the word (otherwise the whole thing would be useless).
1 Likes, Who?
This relating forum post: http://us.battle.net/en/forum/topic/16543665086
1 Likes, Who?
Crazy Penguin Mar 12, 2015
Quoting: tobiushirogeriSo now i've got to find a way to use my nVidia card and driver under a Virtual machine (virtual box) to play Diablo III
I don't think that will work with Virtualbox, you might be better off with KVM.
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activate2010 Mar 12, 2015
I for one even felt no desire whatsoever to state a response after that condescending reply from no one other than the president...
Give the guy some media training!
For a president to use an assumption instead of an actual fact/statistic is really sad. Even more so since he states the nice 2% fact right before that. And that even without giving the source where he got the actual percentage from.
Then again, like most people in this thread, I gave up on believing they would ever support Linux. As said over and over, they have all the resources available. They just choose not to.
Which I would think would have been a far more fair response to the Linux community. Just tell us you are not interested in Linux as a whole without telling us we are a minority and will most likely have more than 1 computer with different OS's.
But as also stated by loads we have loads of titles available and other great ones coming. So nothing lost here.
Maybe when hell freezes over it can change.. but that would take a mighty strong Blizzard ;)
Just my 2 cents...
Give the guy some media training!
For a president to use an assumption instead of an actual fact/statistic is really sad. Even more so since he states the nice 2% fact right before that. And that even without giving the source where he got the actual percentage from.
Then again, like most people in this thread, I gave up on believing they would ever support Linux. As said over and over, they have all the resources available. They just choose not to.
Which I would think would have been a far more fair response to the Linux community. Just tell us you are not interested in Linux as a whole without telling us we are a minority and will most likely have more than 1 computer with different OS's.
But as also stated by loads we have loads of titles available and other great ones coming. So nothing lost here.
Maybe when hell freezes over it can change.. but that would take a mighty strong Blizzard ;)
Just my 2 cents...
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Blizzard, like many other corporations out there are just simply greedy. this is why we don't see any ports of EA or any other major game company. Not that EA really matters that much, but they do have some games that are hugely popular. I'm sure this is all about money in the end. The one aspect of Blizzard that I do appreciate is that they do make it a point to try and make their games playable in wine.
It's one of those situations where IF Valve where to start to gain some major traction with SteamOS/Linux with Steam, like above 20% of the market within a year then we might start to see newer games from these companies ported over. Until then, I'm under the assumption those of us that are 100% Linux users are just SOL. and have to deal with using wine. As it stands Blizzard is the only company with games that I like to play that are not ported, so for me it's not a major deal.
It's one of those situations where IF Valve where to start to gain some major traction with SteamOS/Linux with Steam, like above 20% of the market within a year then we might start to see newer games from these companies ported over. Until then, I'm under the assumption those of us that are 100% Linux users are just SOL. and have to deal with using wine. As it stands Blizzard is the only company with games that I like to play that are not ported, so for me it's not a major deal.
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Quoting: tobiushirogeriSo now i've got to find a way to use my nVidia card and driver under a Virtual machine (virtual box) to play Diablo III
One thing I love about playonlinux is you are able to setup mulitple wine environments easily, the one setup that was automatically created by playonlinux for Hearthstone has worked really well for Diablo 3 as well. The one change i've made is that I removed the dpghelp override.
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