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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LinuxGamesTV Apr 5, 2017
Quoting: PixelPi...
I do not understand why 2015 has received such crushing criticism. The races are really fun. I see hardly any difference between 2015 and the actual version.
This is the reason:
QuoteThe previous game had bad AI, no proper career mode and other issues.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 5 April 2017 at 8:01 pm UTC
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Quoting: PixelPiToday Feral streamed F1 2016 for Mac:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/133615850
It feels a little bit sad but I don't see much difference between 2015 and 2016. Mac users haven't got 2015, so they are maybe a lot Mac user who will buy.
To be honest, I do not know if I would have bought it now. I just paid 50 Euros for DiRT Rally. F1 is reissued every year. There will be a version for Linux again next year or later.
I do not understand why 2015 has received such crushing criticism. The races are really fun. I see hardly any difference between 2015 and the actual version.
This kind of seasonal games can sell good with one condition: first day releases every year.
That is how Football Manager and Fifa sells.
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As somebody who is a major fan of these games, I'll give some insight as to why F1 2015 never sold well and why not bringing F1 2016 to Linux is a bad call from Feral.
F1 2015 never sold well on any platform. The game itself was lacking. Engine wise the step up from EGO (The engine used from DiRT 2 up until Grid Autosport) to EGO 2 (Used in F1 2015-2016 and DiRT Rally) was great. Getting high quality looks and better handling cars. However, because of this major engine change, getting the cars coded within 6 months (From the start of the 2015 season, when they get to know the "pecking order" of the grid) meant that there pretty much wasn't anything in the game. Career mode was gone, instead replaced with "championship season" where you played as one of the drivers from the grid in a full season of F1 in order to win the championship. Time trial was basic, there were no game modes (Hell, even 2014 had more content and that was just 2013 with new cars and no classic mode) specific to that game. Single race was pretty basic. The only saving grace was that because 2014 didn't come out on next gen, you got both the 2015 and 2014 seasons available. Because of this, sales after the first week or so were poor and the game wasn't very well received, with reviewers saying that it was basically a tech demo for EGO 2.
Bring on 2016, The best game in the series. As well as refining EGO 2 using what they had learned from DiRT Rally and F1 2015. They were able to deliver a large amounts of features. Career mode was back, and better than ever before. Being able to race across 10 seasons improving your car along the way. You also still had he championship season and the "pro" (All assists turned off and locked in cockpit cam) championship season available. As well as steam workshop support for setups on PC. The online wasn't broken either, which was a BIG problem in F1 2015 on all platforms. Sales of F1 2016 were much better. The game received both critical praise and praise among players as the best version of a Codemasters F1 game yet. Sales numbers are starting to reflect this
So it's nothing to do with Feral's porting, or the Linux community. It was all down to the game. Nobody was willing to part with $60 of their hard earned cash for what was essentially a tech demo. That's why it never sold well. I think that Feral should give F1 2016 a chance, a lot more people would buy it simply because there's more there.
It's a shame, as this is one of two games that makes me loose one of my hard drives to Windows.
F1 2015 never sold well on any platform. The game itself was lacking. Engine wise the step up from EGO (The engine used from DiRT 2 up until Grid Autosport) to EGO 2 (Used in F1 2015-2016 and DiRT Rally) was great. Getting high quality looks and better handling cars. However, because of this major engine change, getting the cars coded within 6 months (From the start of the 2015 season, when they get to know the "pecking order" of the grid) meant that there pretty much wasn't anything in the game. Career mode was gone, instead replaced with "championship season" where you played as one of the drivers from the grid in a full season of F1 in order to win the championship. Time trial was basic, there were no game modes (Hell, even 2014 had more content and that was just 2013 with new cars and no classic mode) specific to that game. Single race was pretty basic. The only saving grace was that because 2014 didn't come out on next gen, you got both the 2015 and 2014 seasons available. Because of this, sales after the first week or so were poor and the game wasn't very well received, with reviewers saying that it was basically a tech demo for EGO 2.
Bring on 2016, The best game in the series. As well as refining EGO 2 using what they had learned from DiRT Rally and F1 2015. They were able to deliver a large amounts of features. Career mode was back, and better than ever before. Being able to race across 10 seasons improving your car along the way. You also still had he championship season and the "pro" (All assists turned off and locked in cockpit cam) championship season available. As well as steam workshop support for setups on PC. The online wasn't broken either, which was a BIG problem in F1 2015 on all platforms. Sales of F1 2016 were much better. The game received both critical praise and praise among players as the best version of a Codemasters F1 game yet. Sales numbers are starting to reflect this
So it's nothing to do with Feral's porting, or the Linux community. It was all down to the game. Nobody was willing to part with $60 of their hard earned cash for what was essentially a tech demo. That's why it never sold well. I think that Feral should give F1 2016 a chance, a lot more people would buy it simply because there's more there.
It's a shame, as this is one of two games that makes me loose one of my hard drives to Windows.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: daconmat321As somebody who is a major fan of these games, I'll give some insight as to why F1 2015 never sold well and why not bringing F1 2016 to Linux is a bad call from Feral.
You make good points, though I wonder if cutting 2016 from Linux was a decision from Feral or Codemasters. Either way, I wish Feral would say something more about it so the community can know what to do to prevent this from happening in the future.
1 Likes, Who?
You have to be realistic about F1 games. They're a niche in itself. If you look at the sales numbers on Steam, you see that most are around the 150k mark. If Feral can only get 1% of that for a Linux port, then it's going to be really hard to justify the investment.
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For anyone who catches this in the next 21 hours -- all the DLC for GRiD Autosport is 75% off at the Steam Store..
Maybe it's the kid in me who played hours of "street racing" games, but the Drag Pack for $1.25 was a steal! The comments are plagued with people complaining about a lack of burnout before the race, but hey, what can you get for $1.25 other than a McNasty from McD?? I didn't get all of them, but definitely used up about $4.00 of credit on some hand picked content.
The entire game+DLC is $17.50 for anyone who doesn't have it. It's by no means DiRT Rally, but there are a lot of us here with more than enough hours on this game to make it worth while!
Finally, there are also 2 free DLC, including a high resolution texture pack (dropped my 1070 to it's 20FPS knees on Ultra!) that you don't even have to download now, just click on the link in Steam and it "adds it to your library" (assuming it wouldn't drop off later, but we've seen worse..)
Let me know if anyone wants to get a round-robin GOL drag tournament going! :D
Maybe it's the kid in me who played hours of "street racing" games, but the Drag Pack for $1.25 was a steal! The comments are plagued with people complaining about a lack of burnout before the race, but hey, what can you get for $1.25 other than a McNasty from McD?? I didn't get all of them, but definitely used up about $4.00 of credit on some hand picked content.
The entire game+DLC is $17.50 for anyone who doesn't have it. It's by no means DiRT Rally, but there are a lot of us here with more than enough hours on this game to make it worth while!
Finally, there are also 2 free DLC, including a high resolution texture pack (dropped my 1070 to it's 20FPS knees on Ultra!) that you don't even have to download now, just click on the link in Steam and it "adds it to your library" (assuming it wouldn't drop off later, but we've seen worse..)
Let me know if anyone wants to get a round-robin GOL drag tournament going! :D
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