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Note: This is an editorial, all of this is my personal opinion, it seems some people in the comments forget what editorials are for.
It's always fun when I see lots of websites talking about how many games Linux now has on Steam, as the number itself doesn't really mean all that much. So, I have decided to do my take on it.
It's true that it's a milestone (1505 right now), but the truth of the matter is that it's just a number. It may sound like a lot, but the vast majority of the games are very niche, mobile ports and not all that many high quality AAA titles that will actually push Linux and SteamOS adoption properly.
Put any fanboy tendencies you have aside for a moment (as hard as it may be for some people, myself included), and think about what other people see. We're already massive Linux gaming fans, but not everyone is because of the lack of AAA games.
Looking at it, Windows has 6478 games right now, so while it looks like we are gaining ground, plenty of games still release without a Linux version. I don't see this gap being filled any time soon, but hopefully with the release of Steam Machines it might pick up a bit.
It has gotten better thanks to Aspyr, Feral, VP and a few others, but it simply isn't enough right now. I am eagerly awaiting the many ports still to come, as we do still have some decent games to come.
On a very positive note - what I do like to see though, is that 7 out of 10 of the highest rated games on Steam are available for Linux, now that's something that pleases me more than the overall number of games that we have available.
Long live Linux. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
It's always fun when I see lots of websites talking about how many games Linux now has on Steam, as the number itself doesn't really mean all that much. So, I have decided to do my take on it.
It's true that it's a milestone (1505 right now), but the truth of the matter is that it's just a number. It may sound like a lot, but the vast majority of the games are very niche, mobile ports and not all that many high quality AAA titles that will actually push Linux and SteamOS adoption properly.
Put any fanboy tendencies you have aside for a moment (as hard as it may be for some people, myself included), and think about what other people see. We're already massive Linux gaming fans, but not everyone is because of the lack of AAA games.
Looking at it, Windows has 6478 games right now, so while it looks like we are gaining ground, plenty of games still release without a Linux version. I don't see this gap being filled any time soon, but hopefully with the release of Steam Machines it might pick up a bit.
It has gotten better thanks to Aspyr, Feral, VP and a few others, but it simply isn't enough right now. I am eagerly awaiting the many ports still to come, as we do still have some decent games to come.
On a very positive note - what I do like to see though, is that 7 out of 10 of the highest rated games on Steam are available for Linux, now that's something that pleases me more than the overall number of games that we have available.
Long live Linux. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I had a look at the top 100 (which actually is a top 99 if I didn't count wrong twice) for Linux support.
In the first 50, I found an astounding 29 games with Linux support.
I wondered if it's mostly Valve's own games which make Linux overrepresented in the top 10, but that's not the case.
In the first 99 games, 37 games support Linux. Many of the games not present for Linux in the second half are older ones.
I think that looks quite good for Linux, better than I expected before counting, to be honest!
In the first 50, I found an astounding 29 games with Linux support.
I wondered if it's mostly Valve's own games which make Linux overrepresented in the top 10, but that's not the case.
In the first 99 games, 37 games support Linux. Many of the games not present for Linux in the second half are older ones.
I think that looks quite good for Linux, better than I expected before counting, to be honest!
4 Likes, Who?
Indeed - the lack of AAA games on Linux is a big problem. And let us be honest - even the ports that are released are not exactly amazing. AMD performance aside, most ports, if not all simply provide sub par game performance compared to Windows. Even the better ports see 10 to 30, even 40% performance hit. That is a lot even in the best case scenario. Not to mention horrible releases like Dying Light.
The 1500 games sure can be used as a marketing trick by Valve but the sad truth is at this point Linux/SteamOS just has nothing to offer on the purely gaming front. In fact I'd go as far as say, that the Nvidia DX12 fiasco that will obviously stall DX12 game development with up to half an year, is probably the best thing to happen to Linux gaming this year. With the performance gains we've seen on Xbox One with Gears of War you can imagine the improvement on PC, thus adoption rate. Fortunately, for Linux games, it's unlikely we'll see any DX12 games/patches before Pascal cards.
In short - what appeal does a Steam Machine have at the moment? There is worse performance, a small library, lack of AAA games and Directx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point. And they're expensive. Like - very expensive. Not to mention the front runner of the litter cannot even upgrade its GPU (I'm looking at you Alienware). With things at their current state - console gamers will stick to consoles and PC games will just build something on their own and put Windows on it, just forcing it to boot in Big Picture mode.
The 1500 games sure can be used as a marketing trick by Valve but the sad truth is at this point Linux/SteamOS just has nothing to offer on the purely gaming front. In fact I'd go as far as say, that the Nvidia DX12 fiasco that will obviously stall DX12 game development with up to half an year, is probably the best thing to happen to Linux gaming this year. With the performance gains we've seen on Xbox One with Gears of War you can imagine the improvement on PC, thus adoption rate. Fortunately, for Linux games, it's unlikely we'll see any DX12 games/patches before Pascal cards.
In short - what appeal does a Steam Machine have at the moment? There is worse performance, a small library, lack of AAA games and Directx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point. And they're expensive. Like - very expensive. Not to mention the front runner of the litter cannot even upgrade its GPU (I'm looking at you Alienware). With things at their current state - console gamers will stick to consoles and PC games will just build something on their own and put Windows on it, just forcing it to boot in Big Picture mode.
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Quoting: maodzedunIn short - what appeal does a Steam Machine have at the moment? There is worse performance, a small library, lack of AAA games and Directx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point. And they're expensive. Like - very expensive. Not to mention the front runner of the litter cannot even upgrade its GPU (I'm looking at you Alienware). With things at their current state - console gamers will stick to consoles and PC games will just build something on their own and put Windows on it, just forcing it to boot in Big Picture mode.
It seems you try to judge the appeal to console gamers by comparing Steam Machines to Windows PCs.
For a PC, a Steam Machine has sub par performance and few games and GPU on some cannot be replaced.
For a console, it has good performance and a huge amount of games on day 1 and on some you even can change the GPU!
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I definitely agree with this article. While there are many titles, many of them are just simply not something I'd want to play since I'm not really much of a fan of indie games that were crapped out in a month or two for a quick cash grab. Not to discount some indie games which are decent games, but since a lot of the indie games on steam are pretty terrible in my eyes, looking through the indie games to find something good is a chore I avoid most of the time.
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It depends on how you look at it. From the perspective of Linux gaming as a whole, there is a long way to go. From the perspective of Steam Machines set to launch in a month or so, they're looking pretty good compared to consoles. Xbox One, for example, had about 22 titles available at launch.
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: maodzedunIn short - what appeal does a Steam Machine have at the moment? There is worse performance, a small library, lack of AAA games and Directx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point. And they're expensive. Like - very expensive. Not to mention the front runner of the litter cannot even upgrade its GPU (I'm looking at you Alienware). With things at their current state - console gamers will stick to consoles and PC games will just build something on their own and put Windows on it, just forcing it to boot in Big Picture mode.
It seems you try to judge the appeal to console gamers by comparing Steam Machines to Windows PCs.
For a PC, a Steam Machine has sub par performance and few games and GPU on some cannot be replaced.
For a console, it has good performance and a huge amount of games on day 1 and on some you even can change the GPU!
No, actually I'm comparing them to both a Windows PC and a console. The Steam Machines in the console price range just plain suck. You don't get a much better performance, you get a slightly improved one with a hardware that is basically dated out of the box. If you're on a console budget and you need a gaming device - get a PS4. Truth is you need about 50% bigger budget for a good gaming PC to last you some time.
And also - I'm well aware there are some Steam Machines that can have their GPU's replaced. But the one we already have, that will most likely be the most popular - cannot. I never said there were no Steam Machines that cannot have their graphics cards replaces.
Last edited by mao_dze_dun on 22 September 2015 at 11:36 am UTC
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lucifertdark Sep 22, 2015
Steam was Windows only for quite a while before either Mac or Linux got support & it's only taken a year for Linux to get almost a quarter of the total number of games that Windows has taken 10 years to get on Steam.
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Quoting: maodzedunIndeed - the lack of AAA games on Linux is a big problem. And let us be honest - even the ports that are released are not exactly amazing. AMD performance aside, most ports, if not all simply provide sub par game performance compared to Windows. Even the better ports see 10 to 30, even 40% performance hit. That is a lot even in the best case scenario. Not to mention horrible releases like Dying Light.
The 1500 games sure can be used as a marketing trick by Valve but the sad truth is at this point Linux/SteamOS just has nothing to offer on the purely gaming front. In fact I'd go as far as say, that the Nvidia DX12 fiasco that will obviously stall DX12 game development with up to half an year, is probably the best thing to happen to Linux gaming this year. With the performance gains we've seen on Xbox One with Gears of War you can imagine the improvement on PC, thus adoption rate. Fortunately, for Linux games, it's unlikely we'll see any DX12 games/patches before Pascal cards.
In short - what appeal does a Steam Machine have at the moment? There is worse performance, a small library, lack of AAA games and Directx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point. And they're expensive. Like - very expensive. Not to mention the front runner of the litter cannot even upgrade its GPU (I'm looking at you Alienware). With things at their current state - console gamers will stick to consoles and PC games will just build something on their own and put Windows on it, just forcing it to boot in Big Picture mode.
So much complaining, so little facts.
QuoteNot to mention horrible releases like Dying Light.
Growing pains. Port was done by few guys with little time on their hands. They got their stuff together eventually. While not named WB game is still getting repaired 3 months after release.
QuoteEven the better ports see 10 to 30, even 40% performance hit.
Again, let's talk facts. Different cards have different performance. Classic recent Nvidia card like 760 GTX works reliably well, with good performance. Older cards and AMD is big issues vendors need to tackle.
QuoteIn fact I'd go as far as say, that the Nvidia DX12 fiasco that will obviously stall DX12 game development with up to half an year, is probably the best thing to happen to Linux gaming this year.
Errr what. Seriously this is your argument for success or failure of DirectX12? First of all, DX12 is a buzz word, as Vulcan. For Windows to use low level APIs require seriously restructure how things are done on that platform. Due of how young Linux is to gaming, Vulcan will clearly give more benefits to Linux. There's also lack of pull to do DirectX12 ports - Windows 7 is still out there, Windows 8 is still out there. Vulcan will be available to all those platforms.
QuoteDirectx 12 is obviously way ahead of Vulcan at this point
You know all major developers had access for Vulkan for all this time, don't you?
Seriously. Do some fact checking.
1 Likes, Who?
YoshiTheFox347 Sep 22, 2015
Now we need some Lego games ????.
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Quoting: pbQuoting: liamdaweI would rather not click-bait a random milestone like other websites do, this is meant as a more serious point that it really isn't enough right now. There's no need for me to fanboy every single random milestone we hit, and we need to keep pushing for more ports, and not be complacent with what little we still have right now.
Then why write about it at all?
I felt the need to write about it, like I do with everything. To make it a point that it's not as great a milestone as other sites seem to think + giving it my own view, you know, like I do with everything?
Edit: To make my point some more, I often write about things others feel are important, but I don't. This is a prime example of it, and it's seeing some good discussion going. Do I need any other point?
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 22 September 2015 at 1:49 pm UTC
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