Today will go down in the history books of Linux gaming that’s for sure. Sadly, this release has been pretty quiet. I was hoping for a much bigger bang like we were given with the original announcement, as this release day is a bit of a let-down. We haven’t seen any major new games released with it today, I was expecting at the very least one of the Saints Row games and Rocket League, or just something with a bit of oomph to it.
However, there has been a vast amount of activity on SteamDB’s page of Linux game hints, so it’s probable that a few developers have sped-up a bit.
It remains to be seen how Steam Machines will affect our market share, while I am sceptical about it all I am remaining excited and positive about it. It’s the only thing that has ever truly pushed Linux gaming, and I will be forever thankful to Valve for their efforts.
We probably won’t see any real activity in the Steam Hardware Survey for our market share moving for a good few months, and we still don’t have a clue how Valve will show it. It will be foolish of them not to show it at all in their survey, so we will just have to wait and see. It is a real concern of mine though, as I've never seen anyone get a survey in Steam's Big Picture Mode (does it even exist there?).
I officially have a Steam Controller in my hands right now (FINALLY), so you can expect some real thoughts from me on it soon. I also have a dedicated Steam Machine I have been testing and playing games on for the last few days, so I will also have some thoughts up on SteamOS soon too.
The weird thing is, they haven't announced an official release of SteamOS. Their news about SteamOS is pretty much non-existent. I would have assumed it would have been given official release status today too, but apparently not. If it is, they are being quiet about it. I'm starting to think they won't ever give SteamOS a "final" release status, but keep it as an ongoing development with small milestones.
You can find the Steam Sale right here. You can buy a Steam Controller here, a Steam Link here or just view their new hardware page here.
How do you feel about today? The best thing to takeaway from it is that hopefully we will have a continuing steady pace of new Linux games. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
However, there has been a vast amount of activity on SteamDB’s page of Linux game hints, so it’s probable that a few developers have sped-up a bit.
It remains to be seen how Steam Machines will affect our market share, while I am sceptical about it all I am remaining excited and positive about it. It’s the only thing that has ever truly pushed Linux gaming, and I will be forever thankful to Valve for their efforts.
We probably won’t see any real activity in the Steam Hardware Survey for our market share moving for a good few months, and we still don’t have a clue how Valve will show it. It will be foolish of them not to show it at all in their survey, so we will just have to wait and see. It is a real concern of mine though, as I've never seen anyone get a survey in Steam's Big Picture Mode (does it even exist there?).
I officially have a Steam Controller in my hands right now (FINALLY), so you can expect some real thoughts from me on it soon. I also have a dedicated Steam Machine I have been testing and playing games on for the last few days, so I will also have some thoughts up on SteamOS soon too.
The weird thing is, they haven't announced an official release of SteamOS. Their news about SteamOS is pretty much non-existent. I would have assumed it would have been given official release status today too, but apparently not. If it is, they are being quiet about it. I'm starting to think they won't ever give SteamOS a "final" release status, but keep it as an ongoing development with small milestones.
You can find the Steam Sale right here. You can buy a Steam Controller here, a Steam Link here or just view their new hardware page here.
How do you feel about today? The best thing to takeaway from it is that hopefully we will have a continuing steady pace of new Linux games. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Mountain Man Nov 10, 2015
Quoting: Storminator16And I'm pretty underwhelmed by the Steam controller as well. It's really not a big deal, just like this launch. The writing is on the wall.What? The Steam Controller is awesome! One of the most innovative products to come to the PC in years.
6 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ChuckDaniels87I really think this is long distance race.
So few people seem to understand this. They wanted some magical overnight conversion of the entire gaming industry, and then when it doesn't happen, they're upset... Valve has done a hell of a lot more for Linux gaming than virtually anyone since Loki, and they're not done. Linux gamers ought to have more patience than this; right now, a lot of them are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Rome wasn't built in a day.
And for the people saying the Steam Controller sucks, I have no response. Different strokes, I guess. But I've used it for nearly a month, and it's the best, most-flexible, most-compatible gamepad I've ever used. I think this also goes back to a lack of patience. It's different, and change takes time.
We all ought to stop expecting everything to be instantaneous and whining like petulant children about it.
10 Likes, Who?
Quoting: supermonkey77edited.
Edited, all good.
Last edited by ricki42 on 11 November 2015 at 11:48 pm UTC
5 Likes, Who?
Luke_Nukem Nov 10, 2015
You know, the lack of punch in the release is all down to developers and publishers not doing what they should.
Blame them, not Valve.
Blame them, not Valve.
3 Likes, Who?
OK, I agree that the launch was lackluster, and completely overshadowed by the Fallout 4 release. I can't imagine Bethesda currently looking to break into the Linux platform...time will tell, but really skeptical...
However, I am happy that at last it's official, SteamOS is out!
Hopefully, we will soon be getting some more games. Let's also look back at these last 3 years. When I started on Linux, there was nothing in the way of commercial games...And now...well, there is much more.
Of the 866 games I have, 413 are for Linux. That's quite amazing!
EDIT- Please bring me rocket cars...
Last edited by OZSeaford on 10 November 2015 at 10:14 pm UTC
However, I am happy that at last it's official, SteamOS is out!
Hopefully, we will soon be getting some more games. Let's also look back at these last 3 years. When I started on Linux, there was nothing in the way of commercial games...And now...well, there is much more.
Of the 866 games I have, 413 are for Linux. That's quite amazing!
EDIT- Please bring me rocket cars...
Last edited by OZSeaford on 10 November 2015 at 10:14 pm UTC
0 Likes
Can we stop being so insecure about Steam Machines? Seriously. No new AAA games? I personally rather have well working current ones, not rushed out of the gate ports with broken things. We all knew it will be low key, slowly moving, gathering pace effort. Let's celebrate it! I have about 10 games untouched on my Steam list, and I want to play all of them.
Enjoy what we got.
Enjoy what we got.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Segata SanshiroWell, there go my extremely unrealistic hopes of a Fallout 4 release :(I was at least hoping for a surprise Witcher 3 or Mad Max announcement since those are two games that were originally slated for Linux.
I'm not really disappointed about Fallout 4, to be honest, because Bethesda games are traditionally hellaciously buggy, and Fallout 4 appears to be no exception. It also sounds like it has been dumbed down from Fallout 3, which was already dumbed down from the orginal Fallout games.
Yeah, yeah - the grapes are sour. Face it, people - the Fallout 4 release completely outshone Steam Machine day. People care about the Controller and the Link, but they don't care about a system that can't run Fallout 4, the Witcher III or GTA V. Plain and simple.
0 Likes
Quoting: maodzedunQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Segata SanshiroWell, there go my extremely unrealistic hopes of a Fallout 4 release :(I was at least hoping for a surprise Witcher 3 or Mad Max announcement since those are two games that were originally slated for Linux.
I'm not really disappointed about Fallout 4, to be honest, because Bethesda games are traditionally hellaciously buggy, and Fallout 4 appears to be no exception. It also sounds like it has been dumbed down from Fallout 3, which was already dumbed down from the orginal Fallout games.
Yeah, yeah - the grapes are sour. Face it, people - the Fallout 4 release completely outshone Steam Machine day. People care about the Controller and the Link, but they don't care about a system that can't run Fallout 4, the Witcher III or GTA V. Plain and simple.
Wii U also don't run any of these games. I find Fallout kinda interesting, but is it killer game? Not really. Gaming is huge. All these games are big but they aren't whole gaming.
Said that, I will buy Witcher III at same minute they release it on SteamOS, as for Fallout 4 and GTA V - strangely, they don't get my heart going (Saint Row IV is another matter).
1 Likes, Who?
The release wasn't exactly a big bang and I was hoping Half Life 3 would be released. But then again, this is a long term vision that Valve has so I'm guessing there's a few surprises down the track.
0 Likes
Quoting: PeciskCan we stop being so insecure about Steam Machines? Seriously. No new AAA games? I personally rather have well working current ones, not rushed out of the gate ports with broken things. We all knew it will be low key, slowly moving, gathering pace effort.I don't think we knew that at all. While it sure seems to be low key, and while Valve may be able to get away with that, and while there is some potential for a slow build on this, that doesn't mean we should have been expecting a low key launch or that that's the best idea.
Valve is a big company with a lot of muscle. There are reasons why big companies with a lot of muscle tend to use it when they're releasing a new product. The iphone would not have succeeded without the hype--it was just a smartphone, with really good fit & finish but a very high price; from a certain perspective it brought nothing really new to the table, and some of the glitz of the iphone actually comes with practical problems (eg it's slippery, easy to drop). It took big hype from a big company to turn it into <b>the phone</b>, the yardstick by which all other phones would be measured. They built a mystique, almost an ideology for the dang things, so now any feature they have must be good and any feature they don't have must have been part of Great Jobs' Plan.
There are tons of products which sell big even though they're mediocre, or even crap, because the hype worked. There are tons of products that are good but never sold because they had no hype. People will evaluate things more positively if they seem to be popular. People will buy the things other people are buying. Relentless hype makes it seem like other people are buying it. And in the case of Steam Machines, a fast hard launch with big resources would have the potential to juice the numbers, and the projected numbers, enough to solve the games problem once and for all--if Steam Machines looked like the next competition for PS 4, suddenly all the AAA companies would be releasing their games for Steam OS. Then the one serious knock on the Steam Machine with Steam OS would be gone, and it would likely be the beginning of the end for Windows domination of computer gaming. So a big splashy launch, a big push at the beginning putting everything behind it, has a very big potential upside.
Of course there is a downside. If Steam pushed the opening hard and it <b>didn't</b> do so well it would be seen as a huge flop, a disastrous mistake, and a long game would be far less workable. They may be thinking that, given the lacklustre pre-reviews by people who maybe in their opinion don't understand what the point or the intended audience are, a big push might be torpedoed by resistance from the typical hype-machine channels, and so they're better off taking their time, letting the things establish themselves and get accepted by the kind of people they think will actually like them, and then they'll be in a better position to push them forward once their niche is a bit better understood. Or something.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 10 November 2015 at 11:50 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me