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Today, CryTek's Brand Manager, Marcel Hatam was kind enough to push this announcement in our direction, outlining a "small, but important" update to the EULA for their Engine as a Service platform, confirming that the long awaited Linux client release of the CryEngine is near on the horizon.

Details are scarce at the moment, but the announcement does state that there won't be extra royalties involved with deploying to Linux and that they won't be offering Linux support for the editor at this stage. We also have confirmation that this will be landing in a 3.x release, which hopefully means that we'll see an easier migration path for existing CryEngine 3 games than would exist if Linux support were landing in CryEngine 4.

One thing worth noting, is that with the announcement being specifically about updates to the the EaaS EULA , it's unclear at this point in time whether or not full licence holders will be getting access at the same time.

Below is an excerpt from the full news update:
QuoteLet's talk about the pengui... elephant in the room If you read the above paragraph, it might not come as a major surprise to you, but we are proud to announce that we will add an Open GL implementation and support for running your EaaS games on Linux with one of our next updates. For now, Linux support will be limited to the game launcher, and the Sandbox editor will still require Microsoft Windows. And of course, Linux support will be subject to the same developer-friendly terms as on Windows: Your monthly subscription fee will allow you to sell your games for Linux in addition to Windows, with no additional fees or royalties required.

While we can't pin an exact date on this update, we wanted to give you an early heads-up so you can start planning your Linux ports today!


It's nearly been 2 years since Crytek advertised for a Linux developer, and in the meantime, developers of games such as Evolve, StarCitizen, SNOW, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and CryTek themselves with Homefront: The Revolution have shown signs of interest in supporting Linux.

It's going to be exciting to see how this unfolds across the rest of the year! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: CryEngine
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8 comments

Beamboom May 8, 2015
So this means that eventually also the dev tools / IDE will be ported to Linux as well (and not just the engine)? Cause that's not been confirmed before, has it? Either way, that's *great* news!
sigz May 8, 2015
Quoting: BeamboomSo this means that eventually also the dev tools / IDE will be ported to Linux as well (and not just the engine)? Cause that's not been confirmed before, has it? Either way, that's *great* news!

Well they said "For now, Linux support will be limited to the game launcher," I think this means only the engine.
Beamboom May 8, 2015
Quoting: sigzWell they said "For now, Linux support will be limited to the game launcher," I think this means only the engine.

With me empathizing, "for NOW". Ergo it's coming, but not now. What other way can it be interpret?
EKRboi May 8, 2015
Yay! Honestly don't know if I've played any games other than Crysis2&3 running on this engine, but both of those games ran well and looked good IMO. That is about as much as I could ask for as a consumer in an engine. Hope to see some good stuff. I was interested in that Snow game until I saw it was going F2P, which we all know what that likely means. I was hoping for something along the lines of 1080 snowboarding on the N64. Then obviously there is Star Citizen.. but that game will never be completed just kidding. (I hope)
drmoth May 9, 2015
Yesssss! I was worried this might not eventuate..
pd12 May 9, 2015
Woooo! Star Citizen represent! =P

Also, on the note about engine dev tools and IDE coming to Linux - I never expected it (because UE4's pretty behind in that department too, and Unity's editor ain't coming), but "for NOW" does give a certain ... sliver of hope! =)
Cheeseness May 9, 2015
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: sigzWell they said "For now, Linux support will be limited to the game launcher," I think this means only the engine.

With me empathizing, "for NOW". Ergo it's coming, but not now. What other way can it be interpret?

It is pretty vague and noncommittal. I think it suggests that it's something they're going to be considering for the future, but it's a long way from anything solid. Fingers crossed :)
coryrj19951 May 16, 2015
I hope this engine brings Linux many great games ^_^
and also a game called Umbra , CryEngine game, was launched on kickstarter with a promise of a Linux version too :D
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