Sad news again (sorry). Apparently The Witcher 3 was never actually planned for Linux which makes things a bit odd.
Source
Hmmm, "never were any" huh. Let's have a recap shall we.
The Witcher 3 was originally confirmed by a big front-page "coming to SteamOS" banner on Steam. This was up for a while, but it got pulled down and no announcement was ever made by Valve or the game developer about it. Everyone went silent on it.
Much later the game was again featured in Steam's big SteamOS sale. At this time I did note it was the only game not to specifically state it on the Steam store page, when all the others confirmed it somehow.
I reached out to both GOG and CD PROJEKT RED each time these happened, and I never got a reply.
I have now personally reached out to GOG for answers, although they never replied to me specifically before. Slightly annoying, as they have replied to a few other random people through emails when asking about it, but never to me directly. I am hoping they are now willing to get it properly cleared up.
This whole situation has been one odd thing after another.
What I imagine, is that it was planned, but was later dropped due to unforeseen issues. The problem here, is as always, the lack of communication. Neither party will want to blame the other, as it will sour business relations. It's likely both Valve and CDPR are at fault for it in some way or another.
The problem here is how utterly incompetent are they (either or both of them) to have it featured twice like this? Especially since the second time was specifically a sale to get people to buy it to play it on SteamOS directly.
The whole thing bloody stinks. I don't likespeaking writing like this, but that's my honest opinion on the matter.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Source
Hmmm, "never were any" huh. Let's have a recap shall we.
The Witcher 3 was originally confirmed by a big front-page "coming to SteamOS" banner on Steam. This was up for a while, but it got pulled down and no announcement was ever made by Valve or the game developer about it. Everyone went silent on it.
Much later the game was again featured in Steam's big SteamOS sale. At this time I did note it was the only game not to specifically state it on the Steam store page, when all the others confirmed it somehow.
I reached out to both GOG and CD PROJEKT RED each time these happened, and I never got a reply.
I have now personally reached out to GOG for answers, although they never replied to me specifically before. Slightly annoying, as they have replied to a few other random people through emails when asking about it, but never to me directly. I am hoping they are now willing to get it properly cleared up.
This whole situation has been one odd thing after another.
What I imagine, is that it was planned, but was later dropped due to unforeseen issues. The problem here, is as always, the lack of communication. Neither party will want to blame the other, as it will sour business relations. It's likely both Valve and CDPR are at fault for it in some way or another.
The problem here is how utterly incompetent are they (either or both of them) to have it featured twice like this? Especially since the second time was specifically a sale to get people to buy it to play it on SteamOS directly.
The whole thing bloody stinks. I don't like
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Kallestofeles Sep 2, 2016
What pisses me off most about this is the fact that CDPR has never made a clear statement about the possibilities of a linux release - they have always just ignored the question altogether.
Whether this guy knows the truth or not, we never hoped for TW2 either, yet out of the blue it emerged. So, who knows...
Whether this guy knows the truth or not, we never hoped for TW2 either, yet out of the blue it emerged. So, who knows...
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Quoting: BumadarAs for it not coming to Linux, if you played it then you know how utterly brilliantly looking the game is and if you followed the release a bit then you know how much effort it cost them to even get it working probably on current gen consoles and windows, I truly doubt the 1% Linux customers will bring enough to return the investment to get it running on Linux in the same state, because if they can't get it running with the same visual effect/framerates we will all be upset and shouting at them.
I also do remember that graphics were cut down on PC for the sake of platform parity. Let them release their titles on PlayStation and never mind again about them. Really.
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Even if the chanse is small, Im gonna try to refund this.
I dont really pre-order that often, and this was an exception.
I guess Iv learned my lesson now. GoG in general has made some odd changes to there "DRM-free" policy.
I dont really pre-order that often, and this was an exception.
I guess Iv learned my lesson now. GoG in general has made some odd changes to there "DRM-free" policy.
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It was clearly planned to be developed, as CD Projekt Red confirmed multiple times (see here.
Since this was a response from GOG support, I think you need to understand it in their context. GOG never planned to sell TW3 for Linux, because CDPR never asked them to. They didn't have anything to sell. It doesn't mean they never had plans to make it though.
Anyway, support folks can't answer questions about their parent company's plans. That's a question to their management.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 September 2016 at 5:25 pm UTC
Since this was a response from GOG support, I think you need to understand it in their context. GOG never planned to sell TW3 for Linux, because CDPR never asked them to. They didn't have anything to sell. It doesn't mean they never had plans to make it though.
Anyway, support folks can't answer questions about their parent company's plans. That's a question to their management.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 September 2016 at 5:25 pm UTC
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Quoting: KallestofelesWhat pisses me off most about this is the fact that CDPR has never made a clear statement about the possibilities of a linux release - they have always just ignored the question altogether.
That's not true. See above. They answered this question multiple times. But, they never provided any concrete plans (like dates of release and etc.). They only confirmed that they indeed planned it and were even working on it. Later that changed to "looking into" and "exploring", which indicates some difficulties I suppose.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 September 2016 at 5:27 pm UTC
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GoG have ever played lip service to Linux - first denying all possibility of selling Linux games, then actively stripping out features that would help Linux gamers buy Windows versions of wine-compatible games. Finally, out of the blue, they support some Linux titles, but still no sign of Galaxy and most titles take months or more to hit the GoG shelves after the Steam release (although this last is more about DRM and possibly affects Windows releases too).
So, no, I'm not a fan, despite the general no-DRM ethos. I own a handful of GoG titles, about a hundred Humble Bundle (from HiB) and over 600 on Steam, the bulk of which (around 400+) are Linux titles bought in the last four years. I realise it's not a completely fair comparison because GoG were late to the party, but you go where the action is and I don't think GoG are providing much to shout out about.
So, no, I'm not a fan, despite the general no-DRM ethos. I own a handful of GoG titles, about a hundred Humble Bundle (from HiB) and over 600 on Steam, the bulk of which (around 400+) are Linux titles bought in the last four years. I realise it's not a completely fair comparison because GoG were late to the party, but you go where the action is and I don't think GoG are providing much to shout out about.
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GustyGhost Sep 2, 2016
Quoting: mr-eggLinux is not getting any love from your typical cash grabbing AAA devs.
We are relying now (given Aspyr games has gone to the dark side) on two porting companies ( VP, Feral interactive ) three if you count code weavers to bring existing or older titles across.
Fill us in? It looks to me like they're still selling Linux ports. The most recent being Layers of Fear.
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I still haven't played the Witcher 2, so for me the upshot is that I will not begin to look forward to part 3 as much when I do get around to it.
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donbastiano Sep 2, 2016
I'm with scane. In my opinion the W3 affair is even worse considering the huge success of the game and the money they earned (from wikipedia "Those sales drove the studio to make a profit of...$62.5 million USD in the first half of 2015"), so they really have all the resources.
And the W2 is not a very good porting...
I've decided to never buy on GOG.
And the W2 is not a very good porting...
I've decided to never buy on GOG.
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Sad, but I'll live. TW2 was great though, go play it if you haven't. It's works fine on its own.
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I've never thought really about W3 when I was a Windows user... Switching to Linux and reading GOL every day changed this a bit...I was caught into the hype for this game too.
Now, after reading this article, I'm not only disappointed but I have a strange feeling, a urge to play the Witcher games, partly because I remembered they are good and partly because a part of me wants to play this game (even if it's not for Linux and my Hardware specs won't allow me to play it!).
So, I'm a bit sad, I still have a faint hope about it and I will wait until:
- W3 will be released on linux or
- my desires about it will be gone or
- I'll decide to buy a PS4 or
- Wine will be able to play it
Now, after reading this article, I'm not only disappointed but I have a strange feeling, a urge to play the Witcher games, partly because I remembered they are good and partly because a part of me wants to play this game (even if it's not for Linux and my Hardware specs won't allow me to play it!).
So, I'm a bit sad, I still have a faint hope about it and I will wait until:
- W3 will be released on linux or
- my desires about it will be gone or
- I'll decide to buy a PS4 or
- Wine will be able to play it
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Bah. Picked this as my free game when I bought my graphics card. There were no Linux-friendly options, but I thought this one would arrive one day.
Still, I got Tomb Raider with the previous graphics card, so that one worked out ok!
Still, I got Tomb Raider with the previous graphics card, so that one worked out ok!
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Quoting: scaineI realise it's not a completely fair comparison because GoG were late to the party, but you go where the action is and I don't think GoG are providing much to shout out about.
I had maybe 300 DOS-games on GOG.com, and I kept pestering them about Linux-support (and delivering DOS-games without the Win32-exe of Dosemu, just the zip, please) when they started releasing newer indie-games that actually HAD Linux-ports (or the opposite, were developed on Linux and had Windows-ports), but the Linux-versions were not available on GOG. That was way before Steam had Linux support.
But what made them finally do it was Steam, because obviously Linux-users aren't going to buy the games from GOG when they only get the Linux-version when they buy from Steam (or Humble Bundle or something).
So if GOG was late to the party, then it's because they did not listen to their users.
I do own a lot of linux-games on GOG.com now, and I still buy at GOG.com, but only old games, nothing that is available on Steam.
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ElectricPrism Sep 2, 2016
Where I'm from bloody isn't a cuss word, if we could just drop the classist barrier intentionally created by the rich and poor to segregate people by their speech that would be great.
Hell, It's about fucking time.
(This story has a funky smell to it, either the replyer is braindead or just CYOA)
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 2 September 2016 at 7:09 pm UTC
Hell, It's about fucking time.
(This story has a funky smell to it, either the replyer is braindead or just CYOA)
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 2 September 2016 at 7:09 pm UTC
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I personally think one mail from gog support doesn't really say anything either way. Not that I had high hopes of it happening any time soon. I still think they simply thought they'd give it to VP and they would squeeze out a port without checking if that was even possible. This may eventually happen when tech has caught up.
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Quoting: EhvisI personally think one mail from gog support doesn't really say anything either way.
Yes. This question should be addressed to CDPR directly, not to GOG.
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Quoting: AnxiousInfusionQuoting: mr-eggLinux is not getting any love from your typical cash grabbing AAA devs.
We are relying now (given Aspyr games has gone to the dark side) on two porting companies ( VP, Feral interactive ) three if you count code weavers to bring existing or older titles across.
Fill us in? It looks to me like they're still selling Linux ports. The most recent being Layers of Fear.
AFAIk from a discussion on reddit, Aspyr are fore-filling obligations and that's why you saw LOF but they were bought/licensed by Apple. Don't take my word for it though.
Aspyr - The Greatest Mac publisher on Earth, ever.
^ that is their link header.
Last edited by on 2 September 2016 at 9:57 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Sep 2, 2016
Quoting: Comandante oardoValve and CDPROJEKT did MISLEADING ADVERTISING with obvious bad intentions against us, the customers.I seriously doubt Valve took it on themselves to advertise that Witcher 3 was coming to SteamOS, so the blame for this lies squarely on CDProjekt who apparently changed their plans as development progressed.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 2 September 2016 at 8:28 pm UTC
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wvstolzing Sep 2, 2016
Quoting: Mountain ManI seriously doubt Valve took it on themselves to advertise that Witcher 3 was coming to SteamOS,
Except that's exactly what they did -- in order to advertise Steam *Machines*, by way of making the Steam OS catalog appear more appealing than it actually is. At the time that 'SteamOS Sale' was meant to convey only one message, and that was that this new thing called a 'Steam Machine', was the kind of thing you could get, so you could play Arkham Knight or Witcher III on it.
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