Looks like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is being ported to Linux by Feral Interactive

every 6 or 7 days there has been "movement" in the steam database for DoWII en retribution, i can hardly wait to play these games again

i really really really wanna play these games again

all hail to Feral
(and hurry up feral)

i wish they also port SpaceMarine to linux

that would be so awesome

XCOM2? Someone did a lazy copy-paste.

You may now begin throwing your money

No! Wait for release so Feral actually gets paid, dammit.

You may now begin throwing your money

No! Wait for release so Feral actually gets paid, dammit.

It was meant as a figure of speech which obviously didn't translate well, I have edited it.

Neat, it doesn't work too well in WINE for me.

The single player is actually fine, and the game runs well, but multiplayer disconnects after a few minutes.

again good job Feral but one question Will it be Cross-platform multiplayer ?

i wish they also port SpaceMarine to linux

that would be so awesome

Me too, especially since it doesn't work with wine.

this is cool, I've played it before back when it came out on windows. nothing like seeing a 2004 title get ported :P
I would rather see Total War: Warhammer to be honest. but I'm not complaining, I'll maybe give Dawn of War a test run since I already own it.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II works great in Wine already, so can't imagine they have to do much other than package and test it.

It's so frustrating that we keep seeing games that work perfectly in Wine already get ports months or years after the original release. If it was a day one release with a native port and also happened to work great in Wine, that I could understand. But when it's already been out for over a year and everyone knows it works great with Wine, what's the point?

Instead, I'd be happier if they spent some time porting the other Warhammer games that have known problems. eg.

Kill Team:
https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22762

Space Marine:
https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32515

Although probably Kill Team isn't too far away from working at this point, after having waited all this time.

I'll find a way to support Feral if they do release it.

It's really not difficult to "find a way" to support Feral... Just buy it (or anything, preferably Linux) from their own storefront. You will get a Steam key in your email, which you can just give it to someone (preferably a Windows user, so there is one less potential Windows sale) or mark it as spam, or whatever. It really doesn't matter at that point, as Feral has been paid.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II works great in Wine already, so can't imagine they have to do much other than package and test it.

I don't think you understand how porting games actually works.

It's so frustrating that we keep seeing games that work perfectly in Wine already get ports months or years after the original release.

It's so frustrating that I keep seeing Linux users buying Windows games to run in Wine so when we get ports months or years after the original release, the sales are pitiful and discouraging.

Not all of us use Wine, bucko. Those of us who actually want more games to be ported actually spend our money on the games that get ported, and do our best to not add to the Windows sales figures.


Last edited by adolson on 7 April 2016 at 3:57 am UTC

I LOVE the fact they do port the game native to Linux. No wine packacking - c'mon man, it's feral! They don't deliver wine crap.

I had no problems playing Dawn of War II under Windows in Multiplayer in the past.

They don't deliver wine crap.

They deliver "native" crap, which is worse than Wine.

I don't think you understand how porting games actually works.

Ha.

It's so frustrating that I keep seeing Linux users buying Windows games to run in Wine so when we get ports months or years after the original release, the sales are pitiful and discouraging.

That's too bad but to be expected. I've ended up with so many games from bundles over the years, generally mixed with GNU/Linux games.

Further, when a title is so old, of course most people even remotely interested in the game would have picked it up on a sale. If you're really excited about something, why not pick it up on a Steam sale for $5 after a couple of years and take a chance with Wine. After all, the vast majority of games don't get ports, so the chances are very slim of a native build ever being released.

Developers need to factor these considerations into deciding which games to port and writing contracts, and I'm certain they do.

Not all of us use Wine, bucko. Those of us who actually want more games to be ported actually spend our money on the games that get ported, and do our best to not add to the Windows sales figures.

That's your prerogative of course, but I would argue that the large Wine and CrossOver userbase (and Transgaming before that) is one of the reasons GNU/Linux gaming is as big as it is today - because it demonstrated a need for a market. For example, I've been gaming using Wine on GNU/Linux well before GNU/Linux Steam builds were ever available.

So how about you? Are you telling me you've never played an EA game, or a Blizzard game or a Telltale game? Even if you played on console or any other platform, you're a hypocrite since that too wouldn't be a GNU/Linux sale. So stop knocking Wine.

Sorry Feral, already have it from some bundle :/

So how about you? Are you telling me you've never played an EA game, or a Blizzard game or a Telltale game? Even if you played on console or any other platform, you're a hypocrite since that too wouldn't be a GNU/Linux sale.

Buying a game for Windows not only steals one sale from Linux in the case that a port eventually happens, but it also adds one to Windows. That puts us down by two for every one Windows game purchase by a traitor.

What about me? I still own all of my Loki and LGP games from the first time Linux gaming happened. Then Transgaming swooped in with their WineX bullshit, which I was also against - not at first, but swiftly convinced by the guys in the icculus.org and LGP IRC channels at the time. And whaddyaknow, Transgaming fucked off to Mac (nice dedication, there), and Linux gaming essentially died for like a decade. I fully expect them to come crawling back to the Linux bandwagon any day now, and as far as I am concerned, they can take their "technology" and shove it.

Indeed, rather than wait years between game releases (still waiting for Disciples 2...), I did what any sane Linux using gamer would do - I went to consoles. I still bought Linux games, but I could count on my digits how many came out after the first crash.

Hypocrite? This is not about "you shouldn't play games!" It's about what happens with my money, in terms of the PC market (the only market where Linux is actually competing, and devs are paying close attention). I went to consoles; I did NOT go back to Windows, nor to Windows games. Developers are not saying "we get far more sales from PlayStation users than Linux users, so we won't bring the game to Linux." They are essentially two different markets, and for you to try lumping them together is a bit disingenuous. Steam Machines would be your ONLY argument in that vein, and to that end, I would actually agree. I don't advocate gaming on a console instead of Linux anymore, either. I was planning to get a PS4, but once Valve committed to Linux and games started coming out, those plans went right out the window. So too should Wine. I have also re-bought any and every PS3 game I had when a port eventually came to Linux, and I will continue to do so if/when more arrive, and I am more than happy to do so.

I stand with Linux.

So stop knocking Wine.

Stop killing the Linux game market.

There was a time for a lot of us when Windows was all we knew, or what we mainly used, or even now dual-boot as we like the idea of Linux but it's not just there yet.

Wine comes in handy for all of those people, and it's quite a large amount of people in reality.

Having older games ported means it's more native games that don't need to be configured with Wine, it just makes it easier, and any future sales can be properly counted for our platform. For dual-booters, it would mean one less game again to reboot for keeping them on Linux for longer.

Wine is an amazing bit of software, and I think people who totally shun it are a bit silly. There was a time when it was really all we had. You don't need to cut out your favourite series of games just because you use Linux thanks to it.

Any porting company will be fully aware of any crossover with people who already own it, they wouldn't go into it if they didn't think it would be worth it.

We're talking about a positively received game, and a popular series coming over to Linux natively, what's not to love?

Any porting company will be fully aware of any crossover with people who already own it, they wouldn't go into it if they didn't think it would be worth it.

Yes, we're quite lucky that Feral and Aspyr keep on bringing old games to us, as they certainly do realize their sales are going to be pretty low. It's actually pretty amazing that they do it at all... I sure wouldn't, if I were in their shoes. I'd be shooting for as many current and future titles as possible in order to stay afloat.

However, it wasn't third-party porters that I am concerned about, but the actual game devs themselves. Look at Jon Blow's recent comments about how they figure they know how many Linux sales they would have got for The Witness based on Braid's Linux sales, a game that came a year and a half later than the Windows version (not even factoring in the years-later Steam release). We'll be lucky if we get a port of The Witness at the end of the day, but again the sales will be low because Linux users are impatient and care more about playing a game than supporting their platform.

Soooo - are we there yet? :)