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: SamsaiI highly disagree here. We should ensure the devs get as much money back from their investments now (provided the ports are good enough, don't support bad products) because there is absolutely no telling how big the impact of Steam Machines will end up being. If Steam Machines end up not being all that successful for a year or two, these guys might end up reconsidering their porting efforts.
I agree somewhat, I do try my best to purchase many of the games at a fair price so Linux is well represented. But in the long run if the Steam Machines are a flop, then we won't see much development either way, just because the sheer market share is so small. We may not see quite as many AAA titles anymore, but only certain developers that aren't greedy and see an extra ~$500k to ~$1 million as a worthwhile deal in the short term. Mostly will be indie developers like it is now. Which is fine with me, because I've found a lot of very fun indie games.
This is why I say I wouldn't worry about it, because the absolute only reason we are seeing so many games on Steam for Linux right now is all because of the work Valve has done. And like most investments it will take time before we see any real headway. And the greatest part about Steam is the games will be there for many years to come, so all the developers porting and making games for Linux right now will reap the rewards more-so in the long term.
But I digress and will remain optimistic that Steam Machines will be at least decent on sales to the point we are at the very least higher than Apple on PC market share. So companies won't have much of an argument on that front.
But other than Valve there is also Vulkan that is partly because of a push Valve has made to get Vulkan ready around the time of the Steam Machine launch. I'm guessing but I'd wager we will see a public release sometime in December maybe sooner.
I just hope we start to really see more of a AAA developer presence in Linux that way we will see some really nice advancements when it comes to Linux computing in general. Because for years I've always heard complaints about how Linux doesn't have certain nuance apps or programs... But maybe with enough developer support we may see even better applications than proprietary software. This is the era of open source and I think Epic Games understands this more-so than most other companies. Google and Android has shown people a taste of what can happen with open source software.
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