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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.
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One thing I want you guys to keep in mind, the entire Steam machine concept was born out of rebellion to "Windows Store" which never materialized. The full out war that would of ensued and all the Linux goodness that could of been was just a fart in the wind compared to the hurricane that was coming down the pike. Microsoft kowtowed to Valve and no more Windows lock down (ironically it probably would of finally made Windows computing a safe affair without having to run AV all the time). So now the whole thing is just a concept to remind Microsoft to not mess with the cash cow that is the biggest game retailer on the only platform where Microsoft has the most (or really any* remaining) sway.
*People maybe too young to remember MS having to buy its way into the console wars and losing billions doing so, only in the last few years of xbox360 did MS even start to see a profit from all that work, and now the XBONE is dying and they're slowly losing whatever power they once had even here.
*People maybe too young to remember MS having to buy its way into the console wars and losing billions doing so, only in the last few years of xbox360 did MS even start to see a profit from all that work, and now the XBONE is dying and they're slowly losing whatever power they once had even here.
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Mohandevir Nov 11, 2015
I think Vulkan is the key in Valve's scheme:
A crossplatform api to replace DX12 with better performances will make it easier for game publishers to port their games to SteamOS. Once gamers see the performance gained with it, they will start to convert.
Be carefull, I'm not saying this is going to happen. I think, it's what Valve is hoping for.
Edit : Have you noticed the "Optimized for SteamOS" label on a couple of games? Alien: Isolation being one of them... Interresting marketing strategy.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 11 November 2015 at 12:07 am UTC
A crossplatform api to replace DX12 with better performances will make it easier for game publishers to port their games to SteamOS. Once gamers see the performance gained with it, they will start to convert.
Be carefull, I'm not saying this is going to happen. I think, it's what Valve is hoping for.
Edit : Have you noticed the "Optimized for SteamOS" label on a couple of games? Alien: Isolation being one of them... Interresting marketing strategy.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 11 November 2015 at 12:07 am UTC
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Quoting: liamdaweI was expecting at the very least one of the Saints Row games and Rocket LeagueReally? You yourself just four days ago, [reported that Rocket League was not ready (that's what almost means right?)](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/rocket-league-linux-port-is-almost-ready.6182).
Anyways, I'm off to buy some games to support all that Valve (and the games devs) have done so far. ^_^
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It's a long-term attempt. The real attempt is not SteamOS / SteamBox but the SteamLink. They're trying to get into the living room market attrachting the Windows & XBox users. By streaming, not by SteamOS. SteamOS is just the playground for a bigger picture of them providing their own console. It's the playground to show off the market, before they go on their own. SteamBox has the same issue as PCs: Different specs. And that gap is gonna close some day if you ask me. They will allow others to produce, but sooner or later, we'll see a Valve SteamBox if the concept of SteamLink somehow shows off.
I guess this to happen a year after Vulkan. Let's see what Valve has in shelve.
Last edited by STiAT on 11 November 2015 at 12:52 am UTC
I guess this to happen a year after Vulkan. Let's see what Valve has in shelve.
Last edited by STiAT on 11 November 2015 at 12:52 am UTC
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well at least we already have the 358 driver series from nvidia that has some Vulkan support, also Intel's vulkan driver has been released. I'm not sure about AMD yet, but this is good to see things are moving along at a steady pace. I'm sure we won't be seeing anything ground breaking for 3 to 6 months at least. I just can't wait to see Wayland and Mir gain Vulkan support, which that will be awesome.
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I scooped up Victor Vran during the sale. Pretty dang fun so far, more action game than your standard Diablo-esque loot em up. I also appreciate how much of a ****sucker the narrator is.
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The only thing that really disappoints me is Rocket League. It's not my most anticipated game, but how are you gonna offer it with steam machine pre-orders (advertising it with the SteamOS icon no less) and then they can't bothered to finish by time of release. Just seems unprofessional to me :/
Don't get me wrong, I was also hoping for some big releases; especially after you lot kept building the anticipation ;) But the more I think about it, people buying Steam Machines today already have a fairly large library to look at, and if they're from a console background there's bound to be some titles they have played yet. Some devs might also be avoiding launching the same week as Fallout 4.
Don't get me wrong, I was also hoping for some big releases; especially after you lot kept building the anticipation ;) But the more I think about it, people buying Steam Machines today already have a fairly large library to look at, and if they're from a console background there's bound to be some titles they have played yet. Some devs might also be avoiding launching the same week as Fallout 4.
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I'm disappointed that Witcher 3 wasn't released today. But really I didn't expect it much. It probably won't come out for another year or so.
Last edited by Shmerl on 11 November 2015 at 2:49 am UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 11 November 2015 at 2:49 am UTC
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Quoting: Mountain ManI know from personal experience that Steam for Linux throws up the survey request far less frequently than it does on Windows. I went nearly two-years without a single survey request in Linux, but I would get one every couple of months in Windows, which was ironic considering that at the time, I booted into Windows only occasionally and used Linux almost every single day. I've heard from a number of other people who have had the exact same experience.
I'm starting to wonder if the bolded is exactly the reason. For a bit over a year, I've been running Steam almost daily on my gaming PC, I got the survey once early on. Today, I started Steam on my laptop, just to check out the sale, I don't use it much to play anymore. And of course, the survey pops up. Both run Linux, Ubuntu on PC, Fedora on laptop. Maybe the hardware survey has a higher chance of coming up when Steam notices some change compared to your usual setup, rather than polling people completely at random. Valve anyway knows what OS you're using to connect, they don't need a survey for that.
Don't know, just a suspicion I have. If anyone here has a second Linux machine that they don't usually use for Steam, maybe even with a different distro, try starting Steam a few times to see if you get the survey, would be interesting if this is reproducible.
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Quoting: ricki42Quoting: Mountain ManI know from personal experience that Steam for Linux throws up the survey request far less frequently than it does on Windows. I went nearly two-years without a single survey request in Linux, but I would get one every couple of months in Windows, which was ironic considering that at the time, I booted into Windows only occasionally and used Linux almost every single day. I've heard from a number of other people who have had the exact same experience.
I'm starting to wonder if the bolded is exactly the reason. For a bit over a year, I've been running Steam almost daily on my gaming PC, I got the survey once early on. Today, I started Steam on my laptop, just to check out the sale, I don't use it much to play anymore. And of course, the survey pops up. Both run Linux, Ubuntu on PC, Fedora on laptop. Maybe the hardware survey has a higher chance of coming up when Steam notices some change compared to your usual setup, rather than polling people completely at random. Valve anyway knows what OS you're using to connect, they don't need a survey for that.
Don't know, just a suspicion I have. If anyone here has a second Linux machine that they don't usually use for Steam, maybe even with a different distro, try starting Steam a few times to see if you get the survey, would be interesting if this is reproducible.
This seems to be exactly the reason. I had never got the survey, until I switched daily gaming to Linux and very few times that I went back to windows I got asked to do the survey. Not sure how "time" plays in this, but anyway, last month I changed my graphics card and sure enough, in the beginning of this month I got asked to do the survey on Linux. It does actually make sense for valve to be interested in knowing your "new" hardware, not just random sampling.
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