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According to Feral Interactive on Twitter in reply to my question, it seems Linux gamers will not be getting F1 2016, due to low sales of the previous title.
The just announced a release date for the Mac version of F1 2016, so I had to ask the obvious question:
@gamingonlinux F1 2016 isn't coming to Linux. Sales of F1 2015 weren't strong enough to support a port of 2016. Penguin racers do have DiRT Rally though!
— Feral Interactive (@feralgames) April 3, 2017
It's a shame, but the F1 games on PC don't seem all that popular. Going by Steam, F1 2015 has less than one thousand reviews and F1 2014 has even less again. Even the latest title has less than two thousand reviews. Comparatively, DiRT Rally, which we do have, has thousands more reviews and going by SteamSpy, vastly more sales too.
F1 2016 has so far seen a much nicer reception with users and critics, so it's a real shame we won't see it due to lower sales from a, quite frankly, inferior game. The previous game had bad AI, no proper career mode and other issues.
What do you think to this news?
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I don't care. All i want is Shadow of War day 1 Linux port from Feral right now.
7 Likes, Who?
Sad but at the same time understandable decision when resources are finite.
7 Likes, Who?
UltraAltesBrot Apr 3, 2017
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
Last edited by UltraAltesBrot on 3 April 2017 at 11:05 am UTC
Last edited by UltraAltesBrot on 3 April 2017 at 11:05 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
First of all, let me say that I love that they are open with this, and they should be commended for it! More of this, please!
Secondly, I don't like Formula One (and "realistic" racing games in general), so I have no stake in this, beyond wanting to see as many games on linux as possible.
Finally: Why did this happen? Why wasn't this a financial success?
Is there some kind of correlation between liking linux and liking F1 sims? Seems unlikely.
Is the linux user base too small for a niche game like this? Possible.
What's also possible is that the port was simply released too late - according to the steam news on this, the port was released in May 2016, almost a year after the windows release and literally a day before the sequel announcement. With a year in the title, that doesn't sound great.
Combine that with an apparent lukewarm reception (going by the metacritic score and steam reviews), that seems to explain it.
Would this be better for F1 2016? Considering that the projected Mac release isn't much closer to the windows release (8 months vs 10 months), it might very well not be.
Last edited by hirnbrot on 3 April 2017 at 11:19 am UTC
Secondly, I don't like Formula One (and "realistic" racing games in general), so I have no stake in this, beyond wanting to see as many games on linux as possible.
Finally: Why did this happen? Why wasn't this a financial success?
Is there some kind of correlation between liking linux and liking F1 sims? Seems unlikely.
Is the linux user base too small for a niche game like this? Possible.
What's also possible is that the port was simply released too late - according to the steam news on this, the port was released in May 2016, almost a year after the windows release and literally a day before the sequel announcement. With a year in the title, that doesn't sound great.
Combine that with an apparent lukewarm reception (going by the metacritic score and steam reviews), that seems to explain it.
Would this be better for F1 2016? Considering that the projected Mac release isn't much closer to the windows release (8 months vs 10 months), it might very well not be.
Last edited by hirnbrot on 3 April 2017 at 11:19 am UTC
8 Likes, Who?
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
How many of them had a sequel ported to prove?
1 Likes, Who?
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
How many of them had a sequel ported to prove?
Total War series
3 Likes, Who?
Fair point. I bought F1 2015 just to support Feral but only played it for <1h since it's not my type of game. So I'd prefer them spent their resources rather on other Linux ports.
What's a bit frightening though is that obviously doing a Mac port now seems not to reduce the cost of a Linux port drastically anymore. Probably due to Metal.
And ofc that their radar is an Apple device atm! :-(
What's a bit frightening though is that obviously doing a Mac port now seems not to reduce the cost of a Linux port drastically anymore. Probably due to Metal.
And ofc that their radar is an Apple device atm! :-(
4 Likes, Who?
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
How many of them had a sequel ported to prove?
X-Com series.
3 Likes, Who?
rustybroomhandle Apr 3, 2017
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
How many of them had a sequel ported to prove?
Total War series
And XCOM
0 Likes
MasterSleort Apr 3, 2017
That means other Feral ports seem to have been a financial success.. which is good i guess?
How many of them had a sequel ported to prove?
Total War series
And XCOM
And generally releasing new ports/games. They wouldn't keep porting games if only a fraction of them becomes financially viable. Hopefully most of their games released on Linux is a good investment.
I do wonder whether Feral proposes a game developer to port their game or if the game developer/publisher asks Feral to do so. Nevertheless, I do hope that they have two games on their wishlist to port: GTAV and The Witcher 3 :D
4 Likes, Who?
This is sad, and after 33 hours in F1 2015 including completing a full season, I really enjoyed the experience (coming first overall helped too :-) ), but it does not surprise me that the sales were low, for a couple of reasons:
1. The mixed to negative Steam user reviews were off-putting.
2. The game remained at full price for too long, even after F1 2016 was released (my opinion only).
Also being a niche game in a small market is a tricky proposition too. Anyway, thank you Feral for F1 2015 - it's great to have an F1 game on Linux!
Last edited by FredO on 3 April 2017 at 11:40 am UTC
1. The mixed to negative Steam user reviews were off-putting.
2. The game remained at full price for too long, even after F1 2016 was released (my opinion only).
Also being a niche game in a small market is a tricky proposition too. Anyway, thank you Feral for F1 2015 - it's great to have an F1 game on Linux!
Last edited by FredO on 3 April 2017 at 11:40 am UTC
5 Likes, Who?
A big Formula 1 fan myself, even though I own F1 2015, I don't care that much about F1 games. I would be a lot more interested in them porting Project CARS 2 if Slightly Mad were to dishonour their vow again (quite likely, IMO). Project CARS is a great racing sim.
1 Likes, Who?
Porting houses are dependent on the ecosystem they develop for. That for, it makes a lot of sense to concentrate on titles that complete the catalogue of the target or have huge impact.
Our racing-catalogue has really improved, while a lot of other key genres are still lacking behind.
Our racing-catalogue has really improved, while a lot of other key genres are still lacking behind.
0 Likes
This is probably extremely difficult for a porter. It follows the F1 seasons and will be "old" before it is released. With the 2015 version not being a great one, I'm not actually surprised that it didn't do too well.
IIRC, Mac didn't get F1 2015, so I hope that this one for Mac will be better for them.
IIRC, Mac didn't get F1 2015, so I hope that this one for Mac will be better for them.
0 Likes
leillo1975 Apr 3, 2017
It's a pity. I enjoy a lot F1 2015. I don't understand why the game does not have the success it deserves. Maybe I'm too fan of F1 and not everyone is like me. Like Liam says F1 2016 It's considerably better than 2015.
0 Likes
It's a pity. I enjoy a lot F1 2015. I don't understand why the game does not have the success it deserves. Maybe I'm too fan of F1 and not everyone is like me. Like Liam says F1 2016 It's considerably better than 2015.
It is not even succesful on Windows too ; that is a game and genre specific issue. F1 is not glorious or popular now, like it was in old days.
1 Likes, Who?
they wrong to port f1 2015... No one buy a bad game (linux or windows version).
1 Likes, Who?
SilverCode Apr 3, 2017
I was really excited for F1 2015, but the mixed reviews meant it sat on my Wishlist until it dropped to a price I felt comfortable paying. It never did come down enough, and by the beginning of 2017 it didn't seem worth buying an outdated F1 game with mixed reviews, so it came off my wishlist.
I probably wouldn't have played it much anyway. As much as I like the idea of playing racing games, in reality I suck at them and hardly play for more than 30min before getting frustrated and stopping.
I probably wouldn't have played it much anyway. As much as I like the idea of playing racing games, in reality I suck at them and hardly play for more than 30min before getting frustrated and stopping.
1 Likes, Who?
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