Ori and the Blind Forest developer clarifies why a Linux port is up to Microsoft

Many indie games on Steam are developed as hobby projects, and only a few actually make a profit on their games. I can't blame anyone for taking an opportunity such as this when one arises, even though in this case, it sucks for us.

Bagging microsoft? You must be crazy, lol. I would rather forget this port and focus on the others.

I understand the developers. When you sign with somebody like Microsoft, they basically own you, and your firstborn child. It is not going to happen unless at some point they can get their IP back from Microsoft. It is not even about Microsoft somehow conspiring against Linux. If they could make a nice truckload of money from a Linux version, I am sure they would do it.

If I'm a developer, I want my game everywhere possible so that my games can be played by as many people as possible. If Linux users are asking me to port it, the least I can do is ask my publisher about it, not tell the users to fire off an email to /dev/null.

This is not the first time I've seen a developer say to potential customers to ask the publisher. And every time, it comes off as lazy or at least indifference. I bet Microsoft would OK the port if they asked, and I bet they know that but don't really want to do the work (hence the whining about Unity and such in the post). And they know that there's far less a chance of Microsoft receiving enough emails from Linux users to make them actively pursue us, and commission a port that likely won't break even.

Oh well, time to move on to other games and put this one out of my memory.

I would be fine with a vita port :D


Last edited by sunbeam4 on 2 Jan 2016 at 1:42 am UTC

I think asking Microsoft Studios might not be the worst idea here. There are already some Microsoft Studios titles available for Linux, and if Ori would be easy to port (Unity...), it might actually pay off for them, financially.
Of course Microsoft are still trying to push their own platforms, but they recently also published software for other platforms as well - they actively developed Android Apps, and they released several programs for (desktop) Linux, the most notable being the Visual Studio code editor.

"...you [guys] should reach out to Microsoft themselves - Maybe they'll hear your voices and ask us to do the port."

Fat chance. I think Microsoft is (finally) starting to see Linux as a legitimate long-term threat. Why do you think they made Windows 10 a "free" uprgrade?

Fat chance. I think Microsoft is (finally) starting to see Linux as a legitimate long-term threat.

Unless they can make a buck out of it, in which case "Microsoft <3 Linux"... Amarite? :) And all that praise for opensourcing decaying tidbits of their code or porting to other ecosystems, as if all of a sudden they'd lost their vested interest in promoting their own platform, give me a break. It's going to take much more than throwing a few bones for me to not be wary of their long term plans.

Enough off-topic bashing for now, because I actually felt the original article's title was overdramatic anyway. Ori not coming to Linux is no more MS's fault than the devs taking the easy short-term route with the exclusivity contract.

It's too bad, since I would have liked to have seen this native. I haven't tried it in WINE yet, but bought it because a friend has been nagging me to play it.

Some people - even software developers - need to feed themselves or even a family. Not everybody has the time or the ressources to wait for a successful Kickstarter campaign or have a butter yielding real job or live at mum hostel or anything. They needed money, Microsoft gave it to them, they created a game (said to be very good). That's it. Of course, a good game developer wants as many people as possible to be able to play his game, but feeding comes first.


Last edited by Eike on 3 Jan 2016 at 4:15 pm UTC

Microsoft studios games coming to linux? It's happened before, and with a somewhat similar title, not sure if humble were involved in the porting/negotiations, might be worth contacting them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust:_An_Elysian_Tail

Companies have experimented with opening things up before. Between 1995 and 1997, Apple officially allowed manufacturers like Compaq to produce Mac clones. It can be argued that changes in management at Apple allowed that experimentation to take place. It's not out of the realm of possibility that management changes at Microsoft could change the way they operate at some point in the future. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they would consider a Linux port today.

Microsoft studios games coming to linux? It's happened before, and with a somewhat similar title, not sure if humble were involved in the porting/negotiations, might be worth contacting them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust:_An_Elysian_Tail

I just made an account here to point this out because I didn't see the previous comment, lol.

Maybe the developer of Ori could talk to the developer of Dust and ask how that was done.

I think Microsoft is (finally) starting to see Linux as a legitimate long-term threat. Why do you think they made Windows 10 a "free" uprgrade?

Microsoft always made the bulk of their money with Microsoft Office, business licensing and OEM hardware bundles, actual end user Windows purchases are only a smaller part of the revenue.

The free OS is more a reaction to other closed source OS's going free like Apple did with iOS then OS X. They have noticed by doing this companies have gained a massive upgrade pickup reducing the support burden on older OS's allowing for quicker implementation of new features and reduced resources in supporting older releases which saves money meaning the revenue potentially lost in sales is actually saved through simpler support and maintenance paths internally.

I have noticed this on OS X development where the free OS upgrades mean we can focus on using the latest functionality of the OS as you know people can upgrade (and do upgrade) to the latest version as it is just a click away.

Just my view :)