This is quite interesting, it seems Valve are actually doing some more curating on their store now ahead of the SteamOS launch.
A user on reddit posted about ~35 titles having their SteamOS icons vanish. To quote the user:
I've checked myself, and I can see that Ticket to Ride, Anodyne, Lume, WAKFU, Starbound, Evoland, Oniken, StarMade and Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten have had their icons removed. I'm not sure what other games have seen the change, as that's a lot of games to go through to find out.
I spoke with the developer of StarMade who said this:
I spoke with other developers, but some are still looking into why, and some asked me not to mention them here.
It makes perfect sense, you wouldn't want a new SteamOS user to find out a game that advertised SteamOS support needed some outside launcher/installer for something like adobe air, or flash or anything else that needs a fair bit of manual interaction not directly possible in the SteamOS interface.
I guess the minor issue for us here, is that people on desktop Linux can't get these games on Steam now, but they do still show in my library, and are installable. It's probably a good thing though, as it means any game with a SteamOS icon should install on desktop Linux without the hassle of hunting down extra's. I wonder how far this will go though? Will they remove all games that have a launcher that doesn't work in fullscreen? It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
They aren't removing the games from your library, so let's not go ringing alarm bells. However, I did say a long time ago I was worried about SteamOS becoming separated from Linux and people thought Valve wouldn't do it, I thought they wouldn't, but this could be the start for all we know.
A user on reddit posted about ~35 titles having their SteamOS icons vanish. To quote the user:
QuoteMy last three data points are:
25/09/15 - 1521 games
09/10/15 - 1555 games
16/10/15 - 1535 games
I've checked myself, and I can see that Ticket to Ride, Anodyne, Lume, WAKFU, Starbound, Evoland, Oniken, StarMade and Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten have had their icons removed. I'm not sure what other games have seen the change, as that's a lot of games to go through to find out.
I spoke with the developer of StarMade who said this:
@gamingonlinux It is because the game requires Java. When the new launcher comes out this should be resolved!
— StarMade (@star_made) October 17, 2015
I spoke with other developers, but some are still looking into why, and some asked me not to mention them here.
It makes perfect sense, you wouldn't want a new SteamOS user to find out a game that advertised SteamOS support needed some outside launcher/installer for something like adobe air, or flash or anything else that needs a fair bit of manual interaction not directly possible in the SteamOS interface.
I guess the minor issue for us here, is that people on desktop Linux can't get these games on Steam now, but they do still show in my library, and are installable. It's probably a good thing though, as it means any game with a SteamOS icon should install on desktop Linux without the hassle of hunting down extra's. I wonder how far this will go though? Will they remove all games that have a launcher that doesn't work in fullscreen? It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
They aren't removing the games from your library, so let's not go ringing alarm bells. However, I did say a long time ago I was worried about SteamOS becoming separated from Linux and people thought Valve wouldn't do it, I thought they wouldn't, but this could be the start for all we know.
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The games that have external launchers (mostly unity display options screens) already have notices on them that additional hardware is required.
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QuoteIt's probably a good thing though, as it means any game with a SteamOS icon should install on desktop Linux without the hassle of hunting down extra's.Nope, it only means that they run on SteamOS and that if you run another Linux distro, you're screwed about the support.
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Quoting: abelthorneQuoteIt's probably a good thing though, as it means any game with a SteamOS icon should install on desktop Linux without the hassle of hunting down extra's.Nope, it only means that they run on SteamOS and that if you run another Linux distro, you're screwed about the support.
I'm afraid I disagree, even on Ubuntu I've been annoyed by a few titles not including things I have to end up getting myself, can't remember any right off the top of my head, but it's a nuisance.
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I own StarMade and it worked without installing any extra software...
Did they remove it because it requires Java? Java is required by a lot of things, I don't really see how this is an issue.
Also, the Steam client automatically installs required frameworks on Windows. They should bring that to SteamOS too (but not to other desktop distros - or at least not by default)
Last edited by 1mHfoksd1Z on 16 October 2015 at 5:18 pm UTC
Did they remove it because it requires Java? Java is required by a lot of things, I don't really see how this is an issue.
Also, the Steam client automatically installs required frameworks on Windows. They should bring that to SteamOS too (but not to other desktop distros - or at least not by default)
Last edited by 1mHfoksd1Z on 16 October 2015 at 5:18 pm UTC
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Anodyne and Lume have also had their SteamOS icons removed. Sokobond, Blueberry Garden and NEO Scavenger still have their icons though, so it's not all Adobe AIR games. At least not yet.
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Thanks, added to the list, and added some more thoughts to the article.
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Quoting: HoriI own StarMade and it worked without installing any extra software...
Did they remove it because it requires Java? Java is required by a lot of things, I don't really see how this is an issue
I don't think so. Puppy Games and Orangepixel's games all run on Java, as far as I can recall, and they still have the SteamOS icon.
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Well, I had SteamOS on my machine to test it out. I can confirm that star-made did not launch. But I think this is because it does not have a full screen launcher.
Last edited by edve98 on 16 October 2015 at 5:36 pm UTC
Last edited by edve98 on 16 October 2015 at 5:36 pm UTC
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Ticket to Ride has had its SteamOS/Linux Icon removed. That's a game that works with Java.
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Quoting: fleskAnodyne and Lume have also had their SteamOS icons removed. Sokobond, Blueberry Garden and NEO Scavenger still have their icons though, so it's not all Adobe AIR games. At least not yet.
Blueberry Garden uses XNA/FNA now, so that's why it still has the SteamOS icon. Not sure about Sokobond and NEO Scavenger though.
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