Quite a number of people have asked me to talk about where to buy Linux games, how to make sure developers are supported and so on, so here I am.
First of all, I am fully aware there will likely be a small backlash in the comments on certain points. We do seem to have a small minority of very vocal people who like to boast about buying dirt cheap games from places like G2A, which makes me sad. We also have a few who like to advocate piracy, which is not only sad, but makes us look really bad in the eyes of developers. For the most part though, the people commenting here are fantastic to talk to.
To make this a point: I am not aiming to single anyone out, nor am I aiming to be hostile towards anyone. Read this as if we are all sitting around the table having a *insert favourite drink* and discussing the best way to support our platform. That’s what this is all about, everything I do is to help Linux gaming progress somehow.
To get this out of the way; I flat out do not recommend buying from places like G2A and Kinguin, Samsai already wrote about that here. Read that as a starting point if you please. Basically, don’t pre-order, don’t buy from random reseller stores.
While Samsai touched on some dubious stores in his linked post, I wanted to talk about Steam key resellers in general. I would completely steer clear of all of them, that’s the single safest option here. I actually already wrote about this before here.
As you can see, we’ve already written about all of this before in various places, so it’s time to bring it together under one roof. Instead of having the information scattered across various previous articles.
So, how do you know if your purchase is counted as a Linux sale? Most of the time it’s actually pretty simple. I’ve come up with some general guidelines and information for you, it’s your call on how to act upon it. I don’t want to seem like I am forcing anything on anyone, these are my personal thoughts as always. As someone who is a gamer at heart who firmly believes in supporting developers, as well as an editor.
Cheap games & Resellers
If you’re extremely strapped for cash, rather than go to some dubious key reseller, try to wait out for spring/summer/autumn/winter sales. Most major stores now do massive sales for each season like Steam and GOG do. Sales happen so often, you really have no reason to go to some random reseller where your purchase is not just likely to count for Windows, but feed the pocket of none of the actual developers or publishers.
Steam rather often does specific Publisher or Developer sales, weekend sales, free weekends to test games and more. You have so many chances to get legitimate cheap games. If money really is the issue, you’re just not being patient enough. You are in full control of your own wallet, be smart with it. There's nothing wrong with waiting for a sale, that's not the issue here at all.
I’ve seen so many people worry about how little Linux games sell in comparison to other platforms, and buying your games dirt cheap on reseller stores only does one thing: Weaken our sales statistics even more and reduce the possibility of future ports happening.
Seeing people say things about their financial situation, well, I have news for you, you’re not entitled to anything. It’s a shame if you can’t afford it (and I feel for you!), but why should that entitle you to pay sometimes 90% less than the rest of us from a store that supports no one but itself? You know what I do if I can’t afford something? I wait until I can, I don’t buy it for 90% off the price from the back of a truck. That’s essentially what key resellers do. Not all of them mind you, but most use dubious methods of acquiring their keys.
I admit there are reasons why you may want to seek other sources, like region locking, bad dubbing of the audio in certain versions and other reasons I haven’t thought of. I don’t mean to lump everyone under the same umbrella here. The same thing, sadly, still applies to you. You’re not entitled to it, it’s best to voice your opinion to the developer directly. By going to these questionable stores, you’re still possibly hurting Linux gaming.
I really hate the word “entitled”, it sounds terrible, but it’s an accurate way of portraying some of the attitudes I’ve seen. If this offends you somehow, you should realize it’s probably a perfect description of your attitude.
If you’re still going to buy cheap games from random places, remember who you’re supporting by doing it (certainly not the developer), and remember when developers and publishers talk down Linux ports, you’re probably at least a small part of the problem. This may sound a little unfair, but it’s the honest truth of the matter. A small amount of sales being cut down even smaller is good for no one.
To quote Edwin from Feral Interactive:
I've spoken to numerous other developers who all say a similar thing. I linked to this before, but Bundle Stars is a good example of this when I asked them if they have Linux keys or just Windows keys a while ago:
Steam - Buying directly from Steam on Linux is a Linux sale. That’s a fact, so long as the game has a playable Linux version. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a SteamOS icon, if it has a Linux version, the developers will see a sale for it.
It doesn't really matter what operating system you buy your game on when it's directly on Steam, the main thing that counts is where it's first installed and played on for the first two weeks.
If you buy a key from elsewhere and don’t activate it until that particular game gets ported to Linux, that’s still a Windows sale. Why? Your key would have been generated before a Linux version existed, it would be part of a set of keys designed for a specific platform. The developer may see a Linux download, but not a Linux sale. I’ve had this confirmed from multiple different developers.
GOG - My GOG contacts have been unable to tell me how Linux games are tracked. I refuse to believe in 2016 a store as big as GOG don’t have something in place, and I don’t take their refusal to be open about it as a “we don’t track them”, but more as they are a business not wanting to divulge private business information.
It’s most likely that they track the number of downloads per-platform for each game.
I’ve tried asking developers about their stats from GOG, but no one is talking about it. It’s possible GOG specifically prohibits this.
Humble Bundle/Store - Humble as mentioned above in our quote from Edwin usually have keys for each platform.
Humble track the platform that was used to purchase each game, which is how they do their pie chart. So, if you buy it while on Linux, it’s generally a Linux purchase. The same applies as before though, if you buy it on Humble before it has a Linux version, prepare to be a Windows customer.
I am unsure how buying it from a mobile will count, as that’s never been mentioned anywhere. They most likely have a default set on it, which would probably be Windows for mobile sales. It’s possible they may wait to see what desktop system tries to redeem them, but we can’t be sure here.
Originally, Humble had a checkbox to tick which operating system to be counted for, but that hasn’t been around for some time. I did some test purchases today for researching this and never saw anything like it.
Itch.io (updated)- A statement from their head:
Games Republic - Their answer to me from last time:
Developers stores
One major way to support developers is to buy directly from their own store or website. Like the Feral store, Aspyr Media store, Virtual Programming store as some examples. That way, you are guaranteed to not only count as a Linux sale, but support developers directly with more of your money (Steam gets no cut then for example).
Final note, please try to remain respectful in the comments. There's no need to be rude or disrespectful to others. Disagreements are fine and part of life, insults and bad attitudes are not needed here.
With thanks to Samsai and Flesk for giving their input on this article. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
First of all, I am fully aware there will likely be a small backlash in the comments on certain points. We do seem to have a small minority of very vocal people who like to boast about buying dirt cheap games from places like G2A, which makes me sad. We also have a few who like to advocate piracy, which is not only sad, but makes us look really bad in the eyes of developers. For the most part though, the people commenting here are fantastic to talk to.
To make this a point: I am not aiming to single anyone out, nor am I aiming to be hostile towards anyone. Read this as if we are all sitting around the table having a *insert favourite drink* and discussing the best way to support our platform. That’s what this is all about, everything I do is to help Linux gaming progress somehow.
To get this out of the way; I flat out do not recommend buying from places like G2A and Kinguin, Samsai already wrote about that here. Read that as a starting point if you please. Basically, don’t pre-order, don’t buy from random reseller stores.
While Samsai touched on some dubious stores in his linked post, I wanted to talk about Steam key resellers in general. I would completely steer clear of all of them, that’s the single safest option here. I actually already wrote about this before here.
As you can see, we’ve already written about all of this before in various places, so it’s time to bring it together under one roof. Instead of having the information scattered across various previous articles.
So, how do you know if your purchase is counted as a Linux sale? Most of the time it’s actually pretty simple. I’ve come up with some general guidelines and information for you, it’s your call on how to act upon it. I don’t want to seem like I am forcing anything on anyone, these are my personal thoughts as always. As someone who is a gamer at heart who firmly believes in supporting developers, as well as an editor.
Cheap games & Resellers
If you’re extremely strapped for cash, rather than go to some dubious key reseller, try to wait out for spring/summer/autumn/winter sales. Most major stores now do massive sales for each season like Steam and GOG do. Sales happen so often, you really have no reason to go to some random reseller where your purchase is not just likely to count for Windows, but feed the pocket of none of the actual developers or publishers.
Steam rather often does specific Publisher or Developer sales, weekend sales, free weekends to test games and more. You have so many chances to get legitimate cheap games. If money really is the issue, you’re just not being patient enough. You are in full control of your own wallet, be smart with it. There's nothing wrong with waiting for a sale, that's not the issue here at all.
I’ve seen so many people worry about how little Linux games sell in comparison to other platforms, and buying your games dirt cheap on reseller stores only does one thing: Weaken our sales statistics even more and reduce the possibility of future ports happening.
Seeing people say things about their financial situation, well, I have news for you, you’re not entitled to anything. It’s a shame if you can’t afford it (and I feel for you!), but why should that entitle you to pay sometimes 90% less than the rest of us from a store that supports no one but itself? You know what I do if I can’t afford something? I wait until I can, I don’t buy it for 90% off the price from the back of a truck. That’s essentially what key resellers do. Not all of them mind you, but most use dubious methods of acquiring their keys.
I admit there are reasons why you may want to seek other sources, like region locking, bad dubbing of the audio in certain versions and other reasons I haven’t thought of. I don’t mean to lump everyone under the same umbrella here. The same thing, sadly, still applies to you. You’re not entitled to it, it’s best to voice your opinion to the developer directly. By going to these questionable stores, you’re still possibly hurting Linux gaming.
I really hate the word “entitled”, it sounds terrible, but it’s an accurate way of portraying some of the attitudes I’ve seen. If this offends you somehow, you should realize it’s probably a perfect description of your attitude.
If you’re still going to buy cheap games from random places, remember who you’re supporting by doing it (certainly not the developer), and remember when developers and publishers talk down Linux ports, you’re probably at least a small part of the problem. This may sound a little unfair, but it’s the honest truth of the matter. A small amount of sales being cut down even smaller is good for no one.
To quote Edwin from Feral Interactive:
QuoteIf you buy from a third party and they don't explicitly say they are selling Linux or Mac keys then you've bought a Windows key. Bundle-star for example sell Windows keys.
Doesn't matter where you play the game on third party stores the sale is based on the steam keys they have purchased. Humble Bundle for example have a set of keys tagged as Windows, Mac and Linux and hand out the correct ones based on your platform so that the correct platform sale is recorded.
I've spoken to numerous other developers who all say a similar thing. I linked to this before, but Bundle Stars is a good example of this when I asked them if they have Linux keys or just Windows keys a while ago:
Bundle StarsHi Liam, Sorry for the delay in responding over the weekend. I can confirm that we have not been sent new keys for Shadow of Mordor since the Linux release and only Windows is mentioned on the page. However, where we promote games as being available for Linux, these will all activate correctly for the platform.
Steam - Buying directly from Steam on Linux is a Linux sale. That’s a fact, so long as the game has a playable Linux version. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a SteamOS icon, if it has a Linux version, the developers will see a sale for it.
It doesn't really matter what operating system you buy your game on when it's directly on Steam, the main thing that counts is where it's first installed and played on for the first two weeks.
If you buy a key from elsewhere and don’t activate it until that particular game gets ported to Linux, that’s still a Windows sale. Why? Your key would have been generated before a Linux version existed, it would be part of a set of keys designed for a specific platform. The developer may see a Linux download, but not a Linux sale. I’ve had this confirmed from multiple different developers.
GOG - My GOG contacts have been unable to tell me how Linux games are tracked. I refuse to believe in 2016 a store as big as GOG don’t have something in place, and I don’t take their refusal to be open about it as a “we don’t track them”, but more as they are a business not wanting to divulge private business information.
It’s most likely that they track the number of downloads per-platform for each game.
I’ve tried asking developers about their stats from GOG, but no one is talking about it. It’s possible GOG specifically prohibits this.
Humble Bundle/Store - Humble as mentioned above in our quote from Edwin usually have keys for each platform.
Humble track the platform that was used to purchase each game, which is how they do their pie chart. So, if you buy it while on Linux, it’s generally a Linux purchase. The same applies as before though, if you buy it on Humble before it has a Linux version, prepare to be a Windows customer.
I am unsure how buying it from a mobile will count, as that’s never been mentioned anywhere. They most likely have a default set on it, which would probably be Windows for mobile sales. It’s possible they may wait to see what desktop system tries to redeem them, but we can’t be sure here.
Originally, Humble had a checkbox to tick which operating system to be counted for, but that hasn’t been around for some time. I did some test purchases today for researching this and never saw anything like it.
Itch.io (updated)- A statement from their head:
QuoteWe don't have a metric to associated purchases to a platform. But we do monitor what files are downloaded with a purchase so we could calculate what purchases result in Linux downloads.
Games Republic - Their answer to me from last time:
QuoteWe work directly with developers & online retailers like Nexway, which work directly with publishers too. We got that information on our About Us page: https://gamesrepublic.com/service/about-us.html
We sell only legitimate and authorized keys received directly from the publishers
Developers stores
One major way to support developers is to buy directly from their own store or website. Like the Feral store, Aspyr Media store, Virtual Programming store as some examples. That way, you are guaranteed to not only count as a Linux sale, but support developers directly with more of your money (Steam gets no cut then for example).
Final note, please try to remain respectful in the comments. There's no need to be rude or disrespectful to others. Disagreements are fine and part of life, insults and bad attitudes are not needed here.
With thanks to Samsai and Flesk for giving their input on this article. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: crt0megaYup, you used it correctly. It means it has removed doubt for you.QuoteHumble Bundle/Store - Humble as mentioned above in our quote from Edwin usually have keys for each platform.Thanks! Now I feel reassured¹ for the bunch of games I've bought there.
____
¹: Had to look this up on dict.cc, not sure if it's the correct word.
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Quoting: liamdaweI've added in a bit about Games Republic too, thanks for reminding me.
Games Republic - Their answer to me from last time:
QuoteWe work directly with developers & online retailers like Nexway, which work directly with publishers too. We got that information on our About Us page: https://gamesrepublic.com/service/about-us.html
We sell only legitimate and authorized keys received directly from the publishers
Edit: I wouldn't have ever expected less from Games Republic, since they are owned by 11bit (developer of This War of Mine, Anomaly).
That does not tell if and how they count Linux sales.
Lets say I just browse their sire without filtering for linux only and stumble upon
https://gamesrepublic.com/game/action,saints-row-iv---game-of-the-century-edition,10855.html
knowing that it is out for Linux I might buy it even if it is not listed as Linux on that page.
If I filter for linux and search for Saints they only show https://gamesrepublic.com/game/action,saints-row-iv---game-of-the-century-edition,10855.html
and then the previous example with borderlands 2 where the same game has 2 store pages depending on platform.
So does it matter what platform they list for the counting, or not?
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I'm with you on everything except the shaming of people with little financial means who use key resellers. Someone who struggles to make ends meet and has to decide how to spend what little income they have on a bit of entertainment should not really concern themselves with philosophical battles over free software and the like. Worrying about gnu+linux and stuff like that is the domain of the wealthy, people who have their basic needs easily taken care of and are looking for stuff to care about. When you don't have much you just try to get by. And yes, you do need entertainment of some form if you don't want to go crazy, it's not entirely a luxury, and a cheap computer + cheap games can be very cost-effective in that regard.
Also, I think they are absolutely entitled to purchase keys from these companies, as they are operating legally. If Steam is not happy with G2A, they can sue them out of existence. Assuming they will win. Until then, it's a legit, albeit possibly morally questionable company.
In the end, these people are not stealing. They are paying for a product. It comes off as very self-righteous to criticize, or give lessons about "entitlement". Almost like an organic food supporter chewing out someone on welfare for buying cheap, non-organic veggies.
People have other stuff to worry about.
But of course, for the rest of us who have large quantities of disposable income, we should not support these resellers if we want to see the platform supported.
Also, I think they are absolutely entitled to purchase keys from these companies, as they are operating legally. If Steam is not happy with G2A, they can sue them out of existence. Assuming they will win. Until then, it's a legit, albeit possibly morally questionable company.
In the end, these people are not stealing. They are paying for a product. It comes off as very self-righteous to criticize, or give lessons about "entitlement". Almost like an organic food supporter chewing out someone on welfare for buying cheap, non-organic veggies.
People have other stuff to worry about.
But of course, for the rest of us who have large quantities of disposable income, we should not support these resellers if we want to see the platform supported.
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@liamdawe thanks for the write up, clarified some questions I have had.
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Thank-you! I'm afraid I've bought a few games from Bundle-Stars in the past, but will remove myself from their mailing lists, and try and offset the harm I've done. Again, thank-you. Humble and Steam sales, waiting, and direct from the publisher from now on.
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Quoting: SkarjakI'm with you on everything except the shaming of people with little financial means who use key resellers. Someone who struggles to make ends meet and has to decide how to spend what little income they have on a bit of entertainment should not really concern themselves with philosophical battles over free software and the like. Worrying about gnu+linux and stuff like that is the domain of the wealthy, people who have their basic needs easily taken care of and are looking for stuff to care about. When you don't have much you just try to get by. And yes, you do need entertainment of some form if you don't want to go crazy, it's not entirely a luxury, and a cheap computer + cheap games can be very cost-effective in that regard.zThis was my point about entitlement. It is not a philosophical battle, and it's completely unrelated to arguments about free software. You're comparing apples to oranges in that respect.
Also, I think they are absolutely entitled to purchase keys from these companies, as they are operating legally. If Steam is not happy with G2A, they can sue them out of existence. Assuming they will win. Until then, it's a legit, albeit possibly morally questionable company.
In the end, these people are not stealing. They are paying for a product. It comes off as very self-righteous to criticize, or give lessons about "entitlement". Almost like an organic food supporter chewing out someone on welfare for buying cheap, non-organic veggies.
People have other stuff to worry about.
But of course, for the rest of us who have large quantities of disposable income, we should not support these resellers if we want to see the platform supported.
I firmly believe that not having a bunch of disposable income doesn't suddenly entitle you to computer games.
There's nothing self-righteous about what I am talking about, simply laying out some facts and some best practices for people who may not be aware.
I've gone months and months on end without buying games before, simply because I could not afford it. I simply don't agree with the thinking that financial struggles = entitlement to games for cheap from questionable sources. Even worse when people know the facts. It's not just getting the games for cheap, but losing access to your games when those cut-price keys get revoked by developers (which does happen).
Like I said in the article, sales happen nearly all the time. It's a matter of being patient, not using what are essentially excuses.
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Mountain Man Oct 5, 2016
I think the bottom line is that the only way to guarantee it counts as a Linux sale is to buy it through Steam for Linux and only when the Linux version is actually available. Maybe even download and start the game up for a few minutes just to be sure.
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voyager2102 Oct 5, 2016
QuoteSeeing people say things about their financial situation, well, I have news for you, you’re not entitled to anything. It’s a shame if you can’t afford it (and I feel for you!), but why should that entitle you to pay sometimes 90% less than the rest of us from a store that supports no one but itself?
Ohohoh... You do know that ethics are relative? I have two things to say about this statement:
1) How is it fair that companies divide up the globe into zones with different pricing and yet cry when we use means to circumvent this artificial division? Or to put it in your language: Why should living in a different part of the world entitle me to pay several times the money for the same product?
2) I did pirate games. Lots of them. That is now decades past. I could have never afforded a C64 and then buy the games for it, too - I was nine when I bought it and it consumed the money I had saved from previous birthdays and christmases. There was no way of me paying for the games, not even if I would have wanted to (with some rare exceptions for very special games like Civ, UFO, Laser Squad, Empire, etc.) - so I pirated them, played them and "stole" from the programmers since I used their code without giving them anything back. So here you come in, and tell me that I should not have played those games and waited a few years until I could have afforded them??? By then they would have been ancient, and there would have been no reason to buy them anymore -> no gain for the coders, and loss for me.
This is not a zero sum game - there are situations where both parties loose or at least no party gains. In my world I don't see how you could call this unethical, rather the way around: I would call companies that go after individual users without a financial perspective unethical. I also have a problem with companies that think that protecting their "intellectual property" is of higher importance than enabling their paying customers to enjoy their product (i.e. the ones with aggressive DRM). And by the way - I earn my money as a programmer. I release GPLed code, too. I contribute what I can - I run my systems on GNU Linux... and I don't pay the people that created that OS either without feeling bad about it.
To finish my story: Now that I make enough money to afford the games I would like to play, I buy them. Hundreds of them. More than I could ever play. Some of them just to support small companies or people whose games I enjoyed during the time when I did not have the money to buy them. I hardly ever pay full price - we're in a market economy after all, but I usually don't buy from the resellers (too shady). Having so many games lying around just means that I couldn't play most titles on release anyways (and mostly the linux version isn't available then) so there would not really be much of a point - I also do consider most games to be too expensive on release for the amount of time I will actually play them.
You could say my money also supports all those pirating freeloaders. Yes, that's right. But I can't object to somebody who could normally not afford playing a certain game from pirating it. They don't hurt me or the author. What I do object to is that there are people that do have the financial means but don't contribute their share, but that's hardly a problem specific to games and should not be solved by punishing paying customers (i.e. DRM).
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