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?
Quoting: Alm888Quoting: LeopardProbably cutting deal with Codemasters for F1 2015 was cheaper than porting already good seller game.They simply tried to get maximum earning for porting that to Linux,because licence price would differ to targeted platforms. That was an experiment which failed; nothing more.They knew at the start that game won't sell good enough but yet they give it a shot.
LOLwut?! So, in other words, they picked the weak product to port (and not the strong one) because they hoped to feed it to Linux gamers based on the assumption we are experiencing deficiency of car simulators and ignorant about the superior product, thus will "eat what has been served" no matter the quality?
VERY! SHREWD! MOVE!
Quoting: LeopardThey're porting F1 2016 to only Mac because game has good reviews and with a game generally satisfies people you can sell more and Mac user base is bigger than Linux.
Edit:Yep,you can see that is proving my point.
https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/848881198696996869
Actually, not. It does not prove the point. It is known problem that a lot of Macs are quite weak hardware-wise and Feral bets heavily on Metal in hopes it will help them widen the reach on Apple products. This does not relate directly with "good reviews" and general satisfaction. But, I say this again, this is a gamble on Feral's part: even on the twitter some ask what about older Macs without Metal support.
I think that way;F1 2016 has bigger chance to sell due to it is good reviews,a bigger user base and (thanks to Metal) increased number of capable Macs to handle this game
When it comes to Linux,our market is desperate and begging for some genres and this leads people to just buy this games for support even they didn't like the game.
Mac users are much more selective about it and i think licence pay of a game differs from if is it for Linux or Mac. Simply Mac port deals will cost them much more because of bigger sale potential.
I really enjoyed F1 2015 (still am, actually) even if it's the most feature-poor game in the franchise. The post-patch version we got on Linux had none of the bugs that plagued the Windows version upon release, and its more strategy-packed approach to racing was a good break from GRID Autosport, which is just about running as fast as you can. So no F1 2016 for me, unfortunately, but at least I can have DiRT Rally to look for after I am done neglecting my family for Motorsport Manager.
Last edited by Pinguino on 3 April 2017 at 2:55 pm UTC
And I suppose even if you liked the genre, would you really buy yearly updates for a sports game, EA-style? I guess sitting out the 2016 version and waiting for the 2017 bringing some more significant improvements would do just nicely. Maybe Vulkan will have gained more momentum by then, so the porting costs will decrease.
Quoting: wleoncioI wonder what the chances are of us getting F1 2017 would be. What would make Codemasters/Feral reconsider porting the franchise to Linux?
These games are seasonal games ; as you can see it from the title. There is no meaning to port if you don't provide day 1 release like Sega doing with their Football Manager series.
It's a shame, really!
I've bought F12015, even knowing about the bad reviews and not having the time to play it, just to support the platform and hoping for the better brother F12016.
The only thing I boot windows for is rFactor2.
We still miss a proper racing simulator on linux.
Give me an rFactor, an Assetto Corsa or a future GTR3 for linux and I would insta buy it!
(I refuse to talk about pCars... because it make me angry)
I really hope moving forward that video game companies support both Nvidia and Amd because it does limit the users that can play there games. I am not saying this is the main issue but it does limit your user base.
Last edited by themixturemedia on 3 April 2017 at 4:43 pm UTC
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