Sad, but not unexpected news as the Technical Director on Frostbite at Electronic Arts has said seeing their games on Linux is unlikely.
When asked why he had a simple answer:
That's fine, and completely understandable. The only reason we are getting some bigger games right now is Aspyr, Feral and a few others are hoping on a good future with Steam Machines, so it's not unexpected for a huge company like EA to not do Linux right now.
It's a shame, as before a member of DICE said they strongly wanted to get into Linux, so I guess it never worked out for them.
It is yet another reason why I really hope Steam Machines get included in the Steam survey somehow, I mean Valve want to show the market share for it has grown after release right? I do wonder how they will do this. I haven't seen them talk about this anywhere, so we will have to wait and see. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
@HeavyHDx very unlikely
— Johan Andersson (@repi) September 12, 2015When asked why he had a simple answer:
@HeavyHDx less then 1% of the potential audience, even Mac (which we don't support) is more than 3x larger. http://t.co/o6DCeTCh4E
— Johan Andersson (@repi) September 12, 2015That's fine, and completely understandable. The only reason we are getting some bigger games right now is Aspyr, Feral and a few others are hoping on a good future with Steam Machines, so it's not unexpected for a huge company like EA to not do Linux right now.
It's a shame, as before a member of DICE said they strongly wanted to get into Linux, so I guess it never worked out for them.
It is yet another reason why I really hope Steam Machines get included in the Steam survey somehow, I mean Valve want to show the market share for it has grown after release right? I do wonder how they will do this. I haven't seen them talk about this anywhere, so we will have to wait and see. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Well, the last EA SimCity was a mess only them are able to produce.
On the other hand Linux has Cities: Skylines which completely outclasses their poor attempt at doing again what's already there. See, everything's not so sad :p
On the other hand Linux has Cities: Skylines which completely outclasses their poor attempt at doing again what's already there. See, everything's not so sad :p
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Just by the fact than Frostbite will support Vulkan is great. We are not only wanting the success of Linux as a gaming platform, we want Vulkan to be successful too, and Frostbite will help to achieve that last point. Its great than they are looking forward that too.
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Why is it that some small time developer from some indie house can port their game
to opengl/cross-plat but the big studios with multi million dollar budgets and 75 employees
can't be bothered?
to opengl/cross-plat but the big studios with multi million dollar budgets and 75 employees
can't be bothered?
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Quoting: srlsboyWhy is it that some small time developer from some indie house can port their game
to opengl/cross-plat but the big studios with multi million dollar budgets and 75 employees
can't be bothered?
Most indies don't build their own engines. Unity, Unreal, and now Cryengine have Linux support. Someone else already did the bulk of the work porting the engine, so the dev has less work. It's still extra work, but not the same as having to support the engine on several platforms themselves.
On the other hand, smaller studios that use their own engines seem to have a far harder time with native Linux support, like Larian and CDPR. I guess the Serious Engine (Talos Principle, Serious Sam 3) by Croteam is a counter-example, don't know how those studios compare in size, or how their engines compare in complexity and reliance on middleware.
In addition, for a less known indie dev it may well be a bigger advantage to tap into the less crowded Linux market. Just write something nice about Linux on some blog or twitter, and every Linux gaming site will talk about you and your game.
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Forget about EA. Who cares about them except for the old games they own (like the Neverhood)? As for the rest, EA can get lost. What else is new?
Last edited by Shmerl on 13 September 2015 at 1:44 am UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 13 September 2015 at 1:44 am UTC
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TheRiddick Sep 13, 2015
The tide will change for the underdog OS. Once AMD/NVIDIA have drivers that are more stable and easier to get working without crazy workarounds, and Vulkan comes out, then SteamOS. Yes EA may not care atm, but within a year that %1 is likely to grow, hopefully larger then Mac.
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EA, the EA who fucked up so many beloved studios? I think I will do quite fine without their games.
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LinuxGamesTV Sep 13, 2015
Quoting: TheRiddick...As you still get to the 1%?
Yes EA may not care atm, but within a year that %1 is likely to grow, hopefully larger then Mac.
I and others have written often enough, that's are the 1% a fairy tale number is.
Even if you repeat the 1% here, a scattered lie is not true.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 13 September 2015 at 2:47 am UTC
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For EA games the only way to run on Linux remains emulation or 3rd party reverse engineered ports. Same old same old, not surprising.
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Quoting: BdMdesigNQuoting: TheRiddick...As you still get to the 1%?
Yes EA may not care atm, but within a year that %1 is likely to grow, hopefully larger then Mac.
I and others have written often enough, that's are the 1% a fairy tale number is.
Even if you repeat the 1% here, a scattered lie is not true.
Even if that number is a lie there is no other reliable survey to check. So to all world Linux games are less than 1% and even this number is false and we are two times more still Linux games do not generate a lot of profit for companies who actually port fames. I do not think EA will ever support Linux it could support SteamOS (if many people would bought it) but as support goes never Linux as whole.
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