'SOMA' from Frictional Games sales figures released, Linux accounted for around 1.1% of sales

Frictional's in-house game engine (HPL engine) runs on OpenGL, and SOMA has been ported on Mac and Linux by Aaron Melcher from Knockout Games (Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Sunless Sea, Shadow Warrior and some others). Previous ports seem to have been handled by Edward Rudd.

Linux represents probably more than 1.1% of the market share here, as SOMA has also been ported to PS4 which is included in the 450.000 copies figure. SteamSpy show 250.000 SOMA copies sold, where Linux would account for a 2% market share. The truth is probably between those two values (1.1% ~ 2.0%), which is not bad regarding Steam's surveys! :)

I hope Frictional will continue to deliver such high quality games on Linux (never played Amnesia nor Penumbra as I'm not that in horror games, but SOMA - with its story and realisation - is really on the very top of my gaming experience)! :)


Last edited by riusma on 24 September 2016 at 10:25 am UTC

OK I'm defo buying this just on principle now. Have to support devs who push out Linux games even though we are a minority right now.

Don't forget to play it too, it's a really great game!

Linux represents probably more than 1.1% of the market share here, as SOMA has also been ported to PS4 which is included in the 450.000 copies figure. SteamSpy show 250.000 SOMA copies sold, where Linux would account for a 2% market share. The truth is probably between those two values (1.1% ~ 2.0%), which is not bad regarding Steam's surveys! :)

This is where their PC figures came from:

@gamingonlinux Gog, humble and steam. Not counting humble monthly subscribers that use Linux.

Source

I need to add it to the article.

Edit: Doh you're right they said that much further down in the article, so you're right.

Linux still counts for about 1.1% of overall sales though, that's across all platforms even against PS4 sales so it's actually quite good. If it was just PC sales it would be higher.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 24 September 2016 at 10:06 am UTC

Frictional's in-house game engine (HPL engine) runs on OpenGL, and SOMA has been ported on Mac and Linux by Aaaron Melcher from Knockout Games (Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Sunless Sea, Shadow Warrior and some others). Previous ports seem to have been handled by Edward Rudd.

Thanks for the info! I wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to have their own Linux guy/girl. But still they probably care for compatibility from the beginning, which will make life easier for whoever makes it run on Linux. I bet they've got their in-house coding guidlines containing e.g. "* DO care for file name casing."...


Last edited by Eike on 24 September 2016 at 10:21 am UTC

Based on our Steam Survey market share, and the amount of games available on Linux, you would expect that a Steam game with Linux support would have approximately 3.5% sales on Linux. This is because we Linux gamers have less games to spread our money over. Based on this, 1.1% ain't a lot, even considering that PS4 sales are included.

ouch, thats a scary small amount of sells on linux.
Glad they are still wanting to support us.

I imagen they dont lose money on it, and dont gain to mutch eather.
They really got nothing more to lose then time.

And in the long run, this might be a smart move.
If valve will have there wishes fulfilled with the steam os.

Just look at feral and the relationship between linux and feral,
And devs that want to support linux get the same amount of love as feral do.
Soo to support linux from the start, the start I mean as when valve released there steam machines/steamos,
could create som good fan boys, saying this in a positive way.

Based on our Steam Survey market share, and the amount of games available on Linux, you would expect that a Steam game with Linux support would have approximately 3.5% sales on Linux. This is because we Linux gamers have less games to spread our money over.

With 2.500+ games available on Steam for Linux now I think it is no more the case, as the amount of games that are worth playing (I will say about 250 ~ 500 games looking at my library / wish-list) is already above the amount of games the average gamer has on its library (of course you will find many accounts with 1000+ games, but most of the Steam's accounts have less than 100 games in their library). :S:

Edit: according to SteamSpy (data from october 2015) only 1% of Steam accounts (representing 1.3 millions at that time) have more than 107 games in their library, and only 20% of Steam accounts has more than 4 games (source: Canard PC, october 15th 2015).


Last edited by riusma on 24 September 2016 at 1:18 pm UTC

It would be interesting to see some sales figures from Feral - they ramp up their pipeline, so it must be profitable, but how profitable?

With 2.500+ games available on Steam for Linux now I think it is no more the case, as the amount of games that are worth playing (I will say about 250 ~ 500 games looking at my library / wish-list) is already above the amount of games the average gamer has on its library (of course you will find many accounts with 1000+ games, but most of the Steam's accounts have less than 100 games in their library). :S:

I don't get your point. A Linux user buying 100 out of 2500 games compared to a Windows user buying 100 out of 8000 games, should still have the effect that those 2500 games should see considerably higher Linux sales than the Linux market share on Steam. Doing the math puts the expected sales at approximately 3.5%.

I don't get your point. A Linux user buying 100 out of 2500 games compared to a Windows user buying 100 out of 8000 games, should still have the effect that those 2500 games should see considerably higher Linux sales than the Linux market share on Steam. Doing the math puts the expected sales at approximately 3.5%.

Hmmm, ok I get your point, sorry! ^^ (note that now it's more 2500+ vs 10.000+ between Linux and Windows giving an even worst result)

Well, perhaps here we are a bit short data-wise for expecting to reach theoretical statistics (I mean, we have global sales which include an unknown amount of PS4, a partial look at the Linux sales which remain a tiny percent of global ones, and SOMA remains a game with a less wide audience than others which may leads to a "not enough randomize" sample). :S:

I don't get your point. A Linux user buying 100 out of 2500 games compared to a Windows user buying 100 out of 8000 games, should still have the effect that those 2500 games should see considerably higher Linux sales than the Linux market share on Steam. Doing the math puts the expected sales at approximately 3.5%.

That only works if the sales are equally spread over the games. Soma is a very popular game in comparison, so it's less likely to gain from less choice.

Not seen or heard of this game. looks interesting so just checking out this game now on steam.

Ohh what the hell,

Purchased.

As a Linux gamer with 100 games in my library looking for a new game I would not assign a 1/2400 chance to the other available games and choose randomly., I will also not read up on reviews of them all. What i do is to choose among those that got my attention somehow. Thiis site for once and the reddit for gaming on linux are a big influence that windows gamers wont read, I wouldnt be surpised if SOMA gets more Linux sales proportionaly than Windows sales from this news. They got mine after reading comments here and on Reddit

According to SteamSpy (data from october 2015) only 1% of Steam accounts (representing 1.3 millions at that time) have more than 107 games in their library, and only 20% of Steam accounts has more than 4 games (source: Canard PC, october 15th 2015).

I just crunched the numbers on this...

1% of all Steam accounts have more than 107 games in Library = 13000 Steam Users with > 107 games in Library.

Of those 13K users, latest Steam hardware survey (August 2016) shows Linux usage at 0.83% = 108 Linux users with > 107 games in Library.

ONLY 108 LINUX USERS ON STEAM WITH > 107 GAMES IN THEIR LIBRARY!!

Obviously there is some leeway here with average Linux user Steam Library numbers but this makes quite sobering reading!!

According to SteamSpy (data from october 2015) only 1% of Steam accounts (representing 1.3 millions at that time) have more than 107 games in their library, and only 20% of Steam accounts has more than 4 games (source: Canard PC, october 15th 2015).

I just crunched the numbers on this...

1% of all Steam accounts have more than 107 games in Library = 13000 Steam Users with > 107 games in Library.

Of those 13K users, latest Steam hardware survey (August 2016) shows Linux usage at 0.83% = 108 Linux users with > 107 games in Library.

ONLY 108 LINUX USERS ON STEAM WITH > 107 GAMES IN THEIR LIBRARY!!

Obviously there is some leeway here with average Linux user Steam Library numbers but this makes quite sobering reading!!

It's not 1% of 1.3 million accounts, it's 1% of the steam users that equals 1.3millions so it's 10790 Linux users with > 107 games.

According to SteamSpy (data from october 2015) only 1% of Steam accounts (representing 1.3 millions at that time) have more than 107 games in their library, and only 20% of Steam accounts has more than 4 games (source: Canard PC, october 15th 2015).

I just crunched the numbers on this...

1% of all Steam accounts have more than 107 games in Library = 13000 Steam Users with > 107 games in Library.

Of those 13K users, latest Steam hardware survey (August 2016) shows Linux usage at 0.83% = 108 Linux users with > 107 games in Library.

ONLY 108 LINUX USERS ON STEAM WITH > 107 GAMES IN THEIR LIBRARY!!

Obviously there is some leeway here with average Linux user Steam Library numbers but this makes quite sobering reading!!

It's not 1% of 1.3 million accounts, it's 1% of the steam users that equals 1.3millions so it's 10790 Linux users with > 107 games.

Oh phew. I'm terrible with maths.

I purchased this game TWICE; on GOG and Steam... ^_^