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Since I see a lot of confusion about where to buy Linux games from, I decided to write up some information for you on how to make sure you're counted for Linux.
I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Thankfully our Samsai excellently covered nasty buying habits already, so my addition to his article is mostly about bundle websites.
I know people are torn on this issue, as you want to support the developer, but there are times when you see a deal that looks so good for a game you want that it's really hard to resist. I totally understand that, as money is a precious thing, but you should be aware of exactly what platforms stores and bundle websites state.
I'm going to use Bundle Stars as my main example here, as they are currently selling Shadow of Mordor with a bunch of DLC for extremely cheap. When SoM was released, this bundle was already going and many people were confused on if they could buy it there.
I would like to highlight Bundle Stars answer to me when I asked them openly about how it would count for Linux:
For people who need it cut more clearly: It's a Windows sale. Keys work differently to direct Steam purchases, as key purchases can be for a specific paid-for platform.
Feral Interactive also confirmed this directly in another of our articles here:
For those of you who don't care about counting as a Linux sale, buy away, but for those who do want to fully support our small platform should always pay careful attention to the exact list of supported operating systems. If a store or bundle website doesn't specifically state Linux, then you shouldn’t really buy from them. Even better, you could pop them a message asking first and if Linux is actually supported properly with their keys they may update their website.
Take for example all the developers I speak to personally about their sales, some developers don’t feel it’s worth it right now to support Linux, and it certainly won’t seem like it if masses of Linux gamers flock to these low-cost bundle sites that don’t get picked up as a Linux sale.
This may all sounds pretty obvious, but after seeing people repeatedly question it, I thought it should be worth mentioning properly. If only a few extra people take this to heart in future, mission complete. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Thankfully our Samsai excellently covered nasty buying habits already, so my addition to his article is mostly about bundle websites.
I know people are torn on this issue, as you want to support the developer, but there are times when you see a deal that looks so good for a game you want that it's really hard to resist. I totally understand that, as money is a precious thing, but you should be aware of exactly what platforms stores and bundle websites state.
I'm going to use Bundle Stars as my main example here, as they are currently selling Shadow of Mordor with a bunch of DLC for extremely cheap. When SoM was released, this bundle was already going and many people were confused on if they could buy it there.
I would like to highlight Bundle Stars answer to me when I asked them openly about how it would count for Linux:
QuoteHi Liam, Sorry for the delay in responding over the weekend. I can confirm that we have not been sent new keys for Shadow of Mordor since the Linux release and only Windows is mentioned on the page. However, where we promote games as being available for Linux, these will all activate correctly for the platform.
For people who need it cut more clearly: It's a Windows sale. Keys work differently to direct Steam purchases, as key purchases can be for a specific paid-for platform.
Feral Interactive also confirmed this directly in another of our articles here:
QuoteIf you buy from a third party and they don't explicitly say they are selling Linux or Mac keys then you've bought a Windows key. Bundle-star for example sell Windows keys.
Doesn't matter where you play the game on third party stores the sale is based on the steam keys they have purchased. Humble Bundle for example have a set of keys tagged as Windows, Mac and Linux and hand out the correct ones based on your platform so that the correct platform sale is recorded.
For those of you who don't care about counting as a Linux sale, buy away, but for those who do want to fully support our small platform should always pay careful attention to the exact list of supported operating systems. If a store or bundle website doesn't specifically state Linux, then you shouldn’t really buy from them. Even better, you could pop them a message asking first and if Linux is actually supported properly with their keys they may update their website.
Take for example all the developers I speak to personally about their sales, some developers don’t feel it’s worth it right now to support Linux, and it certainly won’t seem like it if masses of Linux gamers flock to these low-cost bundle sites that don’t get picked up as a Linux sale.
This may all sounds pretty obvious, but after seeing people repeatedly question it, I thought it should be worth mentioning properly. If only a few extra people take this to heart in future, mission complete. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: CpukillerSorry but i wont just buy my games on specific sites to be counted as a Linux sale. If they want to have reliable statistics they need to change something on there sites. Its the work of the PR guys to check who (or better which platform) buys the game and not mine. This is like if you buy product A at B they will order more of product C to compensate the demand.
Sorry, but it's nothing to do with PR folk if store systems are designed this way.
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Mblackwell Oct 13, 2015
For larger publishers or established developers they can afford to look at their usage trends, but for smaller developers especially porters who only get paid at point-of-sale they get screwed.
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Segata Sanshiro Oct 13, 2015
That's very interesting... I think if companies like Aspyr and Feral knew about this then they'd be tempted to have some strong words with these companies maybe because this would no doubt take a healthy chunk of their profits away. That, or they already know about it and are trying to sort it out.
Bundlestars accounts for around 4% on the survey, but there's plenty of other ones on there which I'm not sure if they count as Linux sales or not, then there's the "other" category which I assume contains plenty of "key resale" websites.
Bundlestars accounts for around 4% on the survey, but there's plenty of other ones on there which I'm not sure if they count as Linux sales or not, then there's the "other" category which I assume contains plenty of "key resale" websites.
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroThat's very interesting... I think if companies like Aspyr and Feral knew about this then they'd be tempted to have some strong words with these companies maybe because this would no doubt take a healthy chunk of their profits away. That, or they already know about it and are trying to sort it out.
Bundlestars accounts for around 4% on the survey, but there's plenty of other ones on there which I'm not sure if they count as Linux sales or not, then there's the "other" category which I assume contains plenty of "key resale" websites.
Feral already know about it, as they talked about it in our comments and on reddit. The problem is, they don't control what the publisher does before their ports exist of course, and probably still don't control all that much after release.
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Beta Version Oct 13, 2015
Anyone know if GOG counts Linux purchases?
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroThat's very interesting... I think if companies like Aspyr and Feral knew about this then they'd be tempted to have some strong words with these companies maybe because this would no doubt take a healthy chunk of their profits away. That, or they already know about it and are trying to sort it out.
They totally know, AFAIR someone from Feral even said this about Bundlestars explicitely. There's just nothing they can do against it.
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Quoting: Beta VersionAnyone know if GOG counts Linux purchases?
AFAIR that's one of the companies (Humble is another one), that does count them separatly.
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: Beta VersionAnyone know if GOG counts Linux purchases?
AFAIR that's one of the companies (Humble is another one), that does count them separatly.
But how?
HumbleBundle has a checkbox to select OS on purschase.
GoG.com doesn't.
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Quoting: IvancilloBut how?
HumbleBundle has a checkbox to select OS on purschase.
GoG.com doesn't.
By user agent, like Steam? Dunno...
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Segata Sanshiro Oct 13, 2015
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: Segata SanshiroThat's very interesting... I think if companies like Aspyr and Feral knew about this then they'd be tempted to have some strong words with these companies maybe because this would no doubt take a healthy chunk of their profits away. That, or they already know about it and are trying to sort it out.
Bundlestars accounts for around 4% on the survey, but there's plenty of other ones on there which I'm not sure if they count as Linux sales or not, then there's the "other" category which I assume contains plenty of "key resale" websites.
Feral already know about it, as they talked about it in our comments and on reddit. The problem is, they don't control what the publisher does before their ports exist of course, and probably still don't control all that much after release.
Yeah, figured as much. Publishers should really ensure that porters are getting paid for the work they've done... If that means calling up a few retailers and ensuring they count their sales properly then so be it. At the moment the situation to me seems like porting houses are essentially being cheated out of their revenue. It does seem like the kind of thing that will get sorted in due time though (hopefully).
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