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People keep asking me to highlight this issue, so I will. There is a growing number of games that have at some point said a Linux port will happen and then we wait and nothing happens.

We have a wiki page setup for a while that is need of some love to keep it up to date, but not many people even realise we have a wiki so an article to highlight some is a good idea.

I'm only going to highlight a few, as to be honest, there's a lot and the wiki page doesn't even cover half of them right now.

This is the status of a few choice picks and what we currently know about them.

The one that is really getting on my nerves personally at the moment is Carmageddon: Reincarnation. It released into Early Access on March 27th 2014, over two years later the developer is still claiming we will one day get some sort of announcement. Their level of commitment to Linux has been a bit shocking.

My next annoyance is of course The Witcher 3. It was announced by a big homepage image on Steam and then included in the big SteamOS sale. Over two years since the initial image on Steam and they still aren't confirming anything. My emails go completely unanswered too. We have a forum post that has been going for a while talking about it, where some people do seem to get replies. I fully believe they at one point intended to, and they changed their minds on it. Considering the developers never publicly confirmed it, I'm leaning more towards Valve acting without gaining absolute certainty on the port as they wanted another big name for SteamOS.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is another annoying one. It was promised in Humble Indie Bundle 11, then it was due in 2015. They then took the port in-house and most recently (April 2016) they said they still want to do it. Looks like it just went to the bottom of their list when they took it back for themselves.

Mad Max is another odd tale that was announced in a Press Release in March 2015, but since then we have heard nothing. However, it February this year it was spotted on SteamDB and still in the last week continues to show progress according to the SteamDB page.

Total War: Warhammer was confirmed to be coming to Linux in April of last year, as it listed SteamOS as an official platform on the official website. Then in March of this year it was stated Linux was still a platform, but probably not at the same time as the others. I've seen lots of posts asking for a status update over the last few months, but no developer has been replying.

An "honourable" mention to the always delayed Rocket League. It has blown way past all the previous release windows and still no sign of it. Most recently, 16 days ago (30th of June 2016) a developer noted it was still nearing a release window.
Edit, Rocket League have since sent us a message on twitter

@gamingonlinux For sure. Saw your article. We're working on getting it optimized and will send out an update when we have a firm date.

— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) July 19, 2016


It's always frustrating when developers just don't deliver, but always remember to be respectful. You are talking to humans after all and being rude is a good way to get ignored. There was a game a while ago that was delayed due to abuse/trolling towards the porter, so don't be a fool about it. Being frustrated is only natural, but you need to think about how you come across, get your wording right before posting a message to a developer.

I say it time and time again: If you genuinely care about playing games on Linux and want to support Linux gaming, never buy a game until the Linux port is actually out and confirmed to be playable.

I personally don't fund and will never fund anything on services like Kickstarter unless they have a working Linux build and even then I remain sceptical. It would have to be truly amazing to get my support.

Feel free to comment about others, and remember to help keep the wiki page updated. Keeping that updated and letting others know that page exists should help keep track of this growing port-mess we have.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial
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Corben Jul 18, 2016
My list of games, where a Linux port was announced, secretly hinted at or at least were hopes for:

- Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
- Gas Guzzlers Extreme
- Evolve
- Elite: Dangerous
- Darksiders and Darksiders 2

But I'm afraid none of these are going to happen anymore. Too bad, so sad.
Ehvis Jul 18, 2016
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Quoting: Shutup-FoolI'm still pissed about Project Cars too.

That one probably deserves the top spot because it was the original developer that would support it. First as same day release, then with some delay. Now it's a year further without a single word.

I'm glad I have absolutely no desire to pre-order things.
lucifertdark Jul 18, 2016
I've got 34 Windows games on my list that promise a Linux port, plus quite a few others that never made it to the list, some are now into a second or third year of waiting, like Giana Sisters, well for that one I've given up waiting cause I know it's never coming. If I could get a refund on it I would.
leillo1975 Jul 18, 2016
I have a big, big disappointment with Rome II Total War and Darksiders I & II. I'm also waiting for Mad Max but I have the feeling (perhaps the hope) that this game will be released soon.
Ehvis Jul 18, 2016
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Quoting: leillo1975I'm also waiting for Mad Max but I have the feeling (perhaps the hope) that this game will be released soon.

Since this has the markings of a Feral port, it will be Feral soon. :D I imagine this one will be a little harder to do because it requires good performance and probably needs to be in the same optimisation level as Shadow of Mordor.

The thing that was most annoying about this one is that it was supposed to be released for Linux. Then it was not going to happen. And then it turned out there was stuff happening in Steam without mention. Is it so hard to say up front that it will come, but (much) later?
Eike Jul 18, 2016
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Quoting: cprnI asked about Linux under official YouTube video of SPAZ2 few days ago. They confirmed but said something like: "when the PC version calmes down a little". I happily educated them about what PC means but they removed my comment like I was rude or something... not that I wasn't, it freaking annoys me when PR people misuse technical terms.

While it is correct, you'll not make new Linux enthusiasts (or even supporters) bitching about this.
Ordinary PC Windows developer will think: "Oh no! Now as I'm thinking about supporting their marginal group OS, they start caviling about words everybody knows!"
manero666 Jul 18, 2016
I don't know about you guys but I'm always extremely surprised (in a bad way) when I read about developers "not having a Linux Machine" or acting this way whenever linux is mentioned:



I mean if you are developer (so a bit of a computer geek) shouldn't Linux be some sort of a "Tweakers Paradise" to get your hands on at least once in your life?

But no, sometimes it looks like my 60+ yo mom knows more about Linux than someone who uses the PC daily as a full time job..

I never got burned mainly because I only buy heavily discounted stuff or bundles, but it's a shame for people who bought a game expecting a Linux port who still has to come.

I guess we will see more AAA port with the advancing of Linux as a "known" Window$ alternative (it is already an alternative but people don't know of its existence).

Also be loud and let devs/people hear our voice in various forums is the way to assure us more ports :)
Tak Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: GuestRight now Unity's latest releases have been causing all sorts of grief to the Linux 64bit Shroud of the Avatar client
I keep reading that in their updates, but I still haven't managed to get any information nor bug reports...

Quotebut because they've been slow to address the issue on the Linux side of things the same issues have been appearing on Windows
wat - if they have the same issues on Windows and Linux, then they're not issues with Linux support...
Tak Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: manero666I don't know about you guys but I'm always extremely surprised (in a bad way) when I read about developers "not having a Linux Machine"
[...]
I mean if you are developer (so a bit of a computer geek) shouldn't Linux be some sort of a "Tweakers Paradise" to get your hands on at least once in your life?
Well, yes and no. Linux gives users a ton of freedom in terms of configuration, tweaking, streamlining; and developers a ton of freedom in terms of being able to read/modify/share source code for basically everything from bootloader to application level. (Context: I've been using Linux personally and doing professional software development (for Linux and other platforms) for coming up on 20 years.)

However, Microsoft has been very careful to create and maintain a very friendly and attractive environment for application and game developers, in terms of tools, diagnostics, etc. For example, there's no C++ IDE that's available for Linux that even comes close to competing with Visual Studio in terms of functionality and usability - the closest ones of which I'm aware are Jetbrains's CLion(which I'm currently using all day, every day)[non-FOSS] and maybe Eclipse CDT[FOSS], and they both have a long way to go. Official SDKs for all current consoles are Windows-only, as far as I know.

Graphical debugging tools, even for OpenGL, barely exist outside of Windows. (I've tried to use the ones from both Nvidia and AMD to debug real-life problems - in my experience, they were buggy and barely functional in the best conditions.) Maybe this will change with Vulkan, but signs aren't promising so far - although I have renewed hope for Renderdoc since Valve started contracting its author.

We have a lot of great low-level tools on Linux: valgrind, gprof, strace, gdb - but it's a hard sell to somebody who's used to having a lot of that functionality right there when s/he hits the play button.

(All of the above is just my opinion/experience, your mileage may vary, etc.)
Mohandevir Jul 18, 2016
Quoting: HalifaxValve giving up on SteamVR for SteamOS and pretty much giving up on SteamOS, at least for now, sure does seem like they decided to not power through and fix/try again after a poorly received Steam Machine release.

Just trying to put things together and this is just speculation, but looking at AMD's recent rate of development on Linux with their AMDGPU-Pro (and/or) Opensource driver and considering the fact that their new apu's are reported to have performances int the range of R9-285, R9-290 gpus (can't find the source where I read this)... I'm beginning to think that it might be the missing piece of the puzzle for another Steam Machine offensive.

What I mean is that you can't have a viable price bracket with Intel CPU + Nvidia GPU or sufficient performances with Intel integrated graphics. I'm talking about low end Steam Machines, obviously, but if you can get an APU for 200$ that does both...

But that is just speculation and AMD has still to deliver what is advertised.

Edit: Can't find the article where the comparison was mentionned, but still, here are examples:

http://wccftech.com/amd-x86-zen-based-highperformance-apu-detailed-rumored-feature-16-cores-16-gb-hbm-memory-greenland-igpu-ddr4-memory-support/

http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-may-be-getting-a-new-apu-based-on-amds-polaris-architecture/

or

http://www.kitguru.net/components/apu-components/matthew-wilson/amds-zen-apu-rumoured-to-launch-in-2017-with-polaris-gpu/


Last edited by Mohandevir on 18 July 2016 at 1:30 pm UTC
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