IO Interactive retains the rights to HITMAN and becomes fully independent

First of all, I am glad for IOI and the developers there.

Secondly, they now have a record working with Feral, and if the ports were successful (and they don't take a huge risk letting Feral do the port, it's most likely Ferals risk), they probably will do it again.

Quoting: ShmerlI'm interested in whether they'll start releasing their games DRM-free.

Can't imagine that's very high on their priorities

More developers free from the shackles of publishers is a good thing in my books. If they continue to support Linux I will continue to support them. DRM free would be a huge bonus.

Quoting: liamdawehttps://twitter.com/feralgames/status/875689145254936578

Quoting: FeralCongratulations @IOInteractive and @HITMAN! You've always been one of our favourite partners. We look forward to many more hits to come.

Quoting: KeyrockQuick, someone from Feral send IO Interactive a congratulatory encouraging tweet... and a nice card... and a batch of delicious cookies. :D

1/3

The various games ported to us under Square Enix banner would imply Ferals' good relations are with them. That tweet implies more direct relations with the studios.
The wait and see approach is most fitting now, I believe

As for Shadow Warrior 2 the radio silence over the port speaks volumes its either been canned or is having major issues.

It's good news that Hitman is not gone and is remaining in the creator's hands. It could have been archived or given to some brand new studio (which sometimes works out but often doesn't). If the franchise died, there would be zero hope to see new Hitman games on any platform.

Quoting: GuestWho decides if a game gets ported to Linux? For example, if Feral Interactive wants to port The Witcher 3 to Linux, is it CD Projekt who has the final say?

The publisher or developer (in the case of an independent studio working without a publisher) and the porting studio need to reach an agreement for a game to get ported with terms both parties find acceptable. Ultimately, the party that owns the rights to the game in question (usually the publisher) has the final say. After all, it's their game. So yes, in the example you gave, CD Projekt RED would have the final say.

Quoting: GuestThanks for the replies.

Let's say the financials are not an issue and the porting company can do it successfully. Will there any be logical reason for the Windows publisher not to allow the game to be ported to Linux?

Yes and no. Let me elaborate on this.

The problem is that your assumption is wrong. Financials are always an issue -> Party that has rights to the game has to see business value in new market (either now or in long-term perspective). Regarding "porting company can do it successfully" I will use Witcher game series as an example to answer your question, because I have an impression that you want to focus on Witcher 3.

First of all -> CD Projekt Red already ordered Linux port of one of the Witcher series games - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. I don't know if you are familiar with the story, but initial port caused serious shitstorm. Quality of the port was very bad, and Linux users were requesting their money back, Windows users were laughing at Linux users, because of low quality of the game and because of low performance of OpenGL, etc.
Virtual Programming did this port, and many Linux gamers started to hate their "eON" wrapper.
3 years later the game works almost as good as Windows version performance-wise, eON wrapper is mature (has it's own issues of course, but is decent from my perspective).
The question here is -> is such a port successful? Today, the game works like it should, however, it looks like CD Projekt RED interpreted this port as a failure, because they avoid talking about Linux versions of their games. If first port would be successful from very beginning, I am 100% sure that we would be playing Linux version of Witcher 3 game for a year now.

The other aspect related to successful port is the fact that porting the game like Witcher 3 is an ongoing process. You need to ensure that the game on other platform is up-to-date with the version on base platform. Take a look at other games Feral Interactive ported -> those games have some delay with updates while comparing with Windows version of the game. Because of that I can assume, that Feral's port is not merged to game's codebase, and because of that they have to manually adapt changes made in game's codebase to port's codebase. If my assumption is true, Feral's developers have to do some ungrateful work after port is published and updates to already ported games are released.

This business model has it's serious disadvantages -> at some point port done by 3rd party may be not developed anymore, while the game itself is in development, and as a result, people who invested money in Linux version of the game cannot play their game anymore. I refer to this situation.

So it's not black and white and that's why there is no simple yes/no answear to your question.


Last edited by wojtek88 on 18 June 2017 at 4:48 pm UTC

Quoting: liamhis could mean future titles may end up watered-down compared to what they've done recently

This concern is very real. If the released title didn't sell enough to earn a decent profit (why else would SE dicontinue it) then will this company have enough strength to carry a development of such a big production alone?

Time will show...

Quoting: liamdaweThere's no reason to assume IO will suddenly be anti-Linux.

There's also no reason to think they will be supporting Linux either. Their track record looks rather dismal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IO_Interactive#Games_developed
Year Title Platform(s)
GCN PS2 PS3 PS4 Wii Win Linux Mac Xbox X360 XB1
2000 Hitman: Codename 47 No No No No No Yes No No No No No
2002 Hitman 2: Silent Assassin Yes Yes No No No Yes No No Yes No No
2003 Freedom Fighters Yes Yes No No No Yes No No Yes No No
2004 Hitman: Contracts No Yes No No No Yes No No Yes No No
2006 Hitman: Blood Money No Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
2007 Kane & Lynch: Dead Men No No Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No
2009 Mini Ninjas No No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No
2010 Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days No No Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No
2012 Hitman: Absolution No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes No
2016 Hitman No No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes[25] No No Yes


Last edited by harshbarj on 19 June 2017 at 7:54 pm UTC