I've seen some posts on reddit and across the wider net about Steam hitting around 2,000 games for Linux. The truth is the number is actually quite a lot higher.
People seem to be using SteamDB numbers which aren't up to date. The problem here is that SteamDB is unofficial and a manual process for people to let them know a game works. So you need to own the game and manually tell them, which makes their numbers rather different to the reality.
Note: SteamDB do truly excellent work, this isn't a bash attempt, but to let people know how they work and how their list is different.
The other problem is that the Steam Search when filtering only for Games and only for Linux is still incorrect. It actually lists games that are due soon, or due this month and haven't released yet. It also still lists games that haven't updated their release date that were supposed to release before today, but didn't actually release yet.
In reality, the number is around 2,500 Linux games on Steam right now. Using the official Steam Search it gives us "2,549" games, but that's still off by a little bit due to the above mentioned issues.
With that said having at least 2,500 games on Linux is pretty amazing isn't it? Granted there's a lot of junk, but we have been steadily getting some bigger releases as well as some fantastic smaller games.
In comparison, Mac OSX has around "3,791" games and Windows has around "10,260". Those numbers are without taking into account the above issues, so those numbers will also be a bit smaller. Windows will continue to dwarf us in game count for a long time given the current numbers and rate of increase.
We have two key things that are missing right now as far as games go:
- Day 1 releases for bigger titles
- Bigger titles
There's obviously a lot of other issues holding us back, but this article is entirely about the games themselves.
Both of which have slowly been increasing over time thanks to the porting efforts of various companies and individual porters.
Just remember, a couple years ago that number was zero on the biggest PC gaming store and community of them all. Good progress, but lots still to do for us.
Another interesting mark is the top played games on Steam. This changes often with releases and sales, but as of right now 8/10 games in the top 10 support Linux. Pretty good that. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
People seem to be using SteamDB numbers which aren't up to date. The problem here is that SteamDB is unofficial and a manual process for people to let them know a game works. So you need to own the game and manually tell them, which makes their numbers rather different to the reality.
Note: SteamDB do truly excellent work, this isn't a bash attempt, but to let people know how they work and how their list is different.
The other problem is that the Steam Search when filtering only for Games and only for Linux is still incorrect. It actually lists games that are due soon, or due this month and haven't released yet. It also still lists games that haven't updated their release date that were supposed to release before today, but didn't actually release yet.
In reality, the number is around 2,500 Linux games on Steam right now. Using the official Steam Search it gives us "2,549" games, but that's still off by a little bit due to the above mentioned issues.
With that said having at least 2,500 games on Linux is pretty amazing isn't it? Granted there's a lot of junk, but we have been steadily getting some bigger releases as well as some fantastic smaller games.
In comparison, Mac OSX has around "3,791" games and Windows has around "10,260". Those numbers are without taking into account the above issues, so those numbers will also be a bit smaller. Windows will continue to dwarf us in game count for a long time given the current numbers and rate of increase.
We have two key things that are missing right now as far as games go:
- Day 1 releases for bigger titles
- Bigger titles
There's obviously a lot of other issues holding us back, but this article is entirely about the games themselves.
Both of which have slowly been increasing over time thanks to the porting efforts of various companies and individual porters.
Just remember, a couple years ago that number was zero on the biggest PC gaming store and community of them all. Good progress, but lots still to do for us.
Another interesting mark is the top played games on Steam. This changes often with releases and sales, but as of right now 8/10 games in the top 10 support Linux. Pretty good that. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I already have far too many games on Linux to play than I have time for! My last non-linux purchase was Witcher 3 (and I havent yet played it!!), and other than that I havent bought a windows only game since 2014.
I am slowly playing my way through my steam library, and my MMO itch is sated by GW2 via WINE
I am slowly playing my way through my steam library, and my MMO itch is sated by GW2 via WINE
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Quoting: MegazellFor example on STEAM, reviewers on Linux should denote that somehow. I tend to post my distro for the games I review. I should do it more often, tho.
Just had the same thought. :) I have "Runs fine for me on Linux." as the last sentence of a review. Should do that every time (when it's true, obviously). Just to remind people every now and then that Linux gaming is a thing and that the game they're interested in runs on Linux.
Last edited by Eike on 28 September 2016 at 9:19 am UTC
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I miss Elite: Dangerous. But just because of one game I'm not going to install Windows.
By the way: DELL sold in China meanwhile 42 percent of its devices with Linux. See:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984194/operating-systems/its-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop-for-dell-in-china.html
What to make of it? I think, if China changes, for whatever reason, then that changes everything.
By the way: DELL sold in China meanwhile 42 percent of its devices with Linux. See:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984194/operating-systems/its-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop-for-dell-in-china.html
What to make of it? I think, if China changes, for whatever reason, then that changes everything.
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MadVillain Sep 28, 2016
Good news, but it's not like there is lot of AAA titles among the list.
Another question is how well do this games run on Linux. I had problems with Dota 2 (game from the guys who promote Linux as gaming platform) and Middle Earth:SOM (which i bought only because of its Linux release), they both didn't work correctly without some launch options. Most of people wouldn't bother with settings and stuff.
Waiting for Deus Ex to come to Linux to check out it's performance.
Last edited by MadVillain on 28 September 2016 at 11:46 am UTC
Another question is how well do this games run on Linux. I had problems with Dota 2 (game from the guys who promote Linux as gaming platform) and Middle Earth:SOM (which i bought only because of its Linux release), they both didn't work correctly without some launch options. Most of people wouldn't bother with settings and stuff.
Waiting for Deus Ex to come to Linux to check out it's performance.
Last edited by MadVillain on 28 September 2016 at 11:46 am UTC
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Deus Ex performance will be interesting indeed. Unfortunately Feral is tight lipped about the possible use of Vulkan. They did do a news post specifically about metal with "You can't kill progress" in the title. What they didn't mention (and nobody on twitter asked) is whether the port does DX12 -> Metal or DX11 -> Metal. If they did the first, then their knowledge of DX12 should be pretty good and Vulkan would not be too hard to do. Anyway, more patience is needed before we know if progress is not killed for us either.
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Quoting: MaCroX95Did you try to set them through Wine? Majority of LEGO titles work very well with WINE but I hate that I cannot manage to get my controller working on playonlinux which drives me mad since I'd really love to play lego titles from the couch through controller.
Nah, I'm done with Wine. I'm not a purist, I have a Windows installation dual booting via BIOS and a backlog of Windows games. I like Linux/SteamOS because of excellent gaming experience - and unfortunately Wine is not excellent gaming experience, even if everything works fine. It's just easier to boot into Windows.
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Quoting: EhvisDeus Ex performance will be interesting indeed. Unfortunately Feral is tight lipped about the possible use of Vulkan. They did do a news post specifically about metal with "You can't kill progress" in the title. What they didn't mention (and nobody on twitter asked) is whether the port does DX12 -> Metal or DX11 -> Metal. If they did the first, then their knowledge of DX12 should be pretty good and Vulkan would not be too hard to do. Anyway, more patience is needed before we know if progress is not killed for us either.Like I tell people when this comes up, I don't expect Feral to use Vulkan until later next year. If they were using Vulkan, like with Metal it would have already have been announced.
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MintedGamer Sep 28, 2016
Quoting: skinnyrafA few months ago I looked at my gaming backlog, I looked at good games available for Linux/SteamOS and came up with a genius plan to solve my backlog issue: don't buy any new Windows only games, complete what I have in the library and then become Linux only.
How naive I was. There are so many great games for Linux, my wishlist has 57 games for SteamOS and the backlog is growing again.
I'm the same, I have more than enough quality games in my steam backlog (over 300) that I will never need to buy a Windows only game again. I set a rule for myself that other than FIFA and Pro Evo for my son, if a game doesn't support Linux I won't buy it. I haven't felt like I've missed out this year, I've had more than enough games to play.
I think things are really improving since steamos has been released, not so long ago we were getting games like Tuxracer and other small shareware type games, now we're getting games like Tomb Raider, Borderlands, Deus Ex, Stellaris, Total War Warhammer, etc, etc, as well as an increase in the number of smaller games. Vulkan has only been released for about 6 months and will surely reduce the cost and effort to port to Linux, and when Unity with vulkan is complete and Linux support is finished for Unreal 4 things will surely improve some more.
The best thing we can do is vote with our wallets, only buy games with Linux support, and do without the EA and Ubisoft windows only franchises that are mostly stale and uninnovative anyway.
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elbuglione Sep 28, 2016
Quoting: MadVillainGood news, but it's not like there is lot of AAA titles among the list.use Nvidia Card, and you will not have any problem.
Another question is how well do this games run on Linux. I had problems with Dota 2 (game from the guys who promote Linux as gaming platform) and Middle Earth:SOM (which i bought only because of its Linux release), they both didn't work correctly without some launch options. Most of people wouldn't bother with settings and stuff.
Waiting for Deus Ex to come to Linux to check out it's performance.
Last edited by elbuglione on 28 September 2016 at 3:45 pm UTC
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Quoting: liamdaweLike I tell people when this comes up, I don't expect Feral to use Vulkan until later next year. If they were using Vulkan, like with Metal it would have already have been announced.
That argument works can also be reversed. They didn't deny it, so they are planning a Vulkan release.
The most reasonable explanation is probably that they are working on a Vulkan layer, but don't know yet whether it (and the drivers) will be stable enough to use it for this particular release.
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Doesn't matter much though. What matters are how many of the best selling games are on Linux. That's the "make it or break it" for our platform.
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Quoting: GuestThen DOOM happened.
I don't think there can be anything like this anymore without a whole new technology.
Like VR.
But then, people need to have their hands on the new technology...
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MadVillain Sep 28, 2016
Quoting: elbuglioneuse Nvidia Card, and you will not have any problem.Weeelll i actually do have nvidia card and latest proprietary drivers from nvidia ppa.
My problem with Dota 2 was not even about video card, it was about keyboard input.
Both of these problems was reported a long time ago and developers did nothing to fix them.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Dota-2/issues/453
https://steamcommunity.com/app/241930/discussions/0/451850468366263604/
Last edited by MadVillain on 28 September 2016 at 5:51 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Sep 28, 2016
Quoting: EikeI always include a word about Linux performance in every review I write.Quoting: MegazellFor example on STEAM, reviewers on Linux should denote that somehow. I tend to post my distro for the games I review. I should do it more often, tho.
Just had the same thought. :) I have "Runs fine for me on Linux." as the last sentence of a review. Should do that every time (when it's true, obviously). Just to remind people every now and then that Linux gaming is a thing and that the game they're interested in runs on Linux.
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Quoting: MintedGamerThe best thing we can do is vote with our wallets, only buy games with Linux support, and do without the EA and Ubisoft windows only franchises that are mostly stale and uninnovative anyway.
You're right... But the Witcher 3 :(
But I've managed to change the way I see Windows-only games: as exclusives. I'd love to play Doom, just as I'd love to play Uncharted, but neither is on my platform of choice.
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Quoting: ajgpI already have far too many games on Linux to play than I have time for! My last non-linux purchase was Witcher 3 (and I havent yet played it!!), and other than that I havent bought a windows only game since 2014.GW2 has a lot worse performance in WINE for me, enough that I can't be bothered and swallow the Windows poison for my eyes.
I am slowly playing my way through my steam library, and my MMO itch is sated by GW2 via WINE
I wish for a Guild Wars 3 with Vulkan, even if reusing most of the GW2 content.
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