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The Witcher 3 is something Linux users have been practically begging to have, but the problem is that it seems it will likely never come to Linux. An ex-Virtual Programming developer has taken to reddit explaining why this may have happened.
I should stress, for our own record here that this is not the official word from Virtual Programming or CD Projekt RED. This is the personal opinion of an ex-VP developer.
Here's the issue: The Linux version of The Witcher 2 was released in a poor state, it had poor performance and just didn't really work well at all. It was later fixed-up and last time I tried it, the performance was absolutely fine for me. The real problem, is the amount of hate that was sent towards the porters Virtual Programming and directly to CD Projekt RED as well. Even I personally saw some of the hate that was sent their way and it was downright idiotic and absolutely uncalled for.
I will absolutely hold my hands up as well, I made mistakes around it since I simply didn't know enough at the time, and to be honest three years ago I was still learning a lot about everything. I later corrected what I said, as I always aim to.
Writing on reddit, this developer said (source):
It seems we may have also seen a port of The Witcher 1 as well, as the developer also said (source):
There's also this post from another user, who said at the time The Witcher 2 released for Linux, CDProjekt apparently lost a fair amount on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Apparently due to such a big backlash from the community about the initial release quality. I haven't verified that myself, but if true it would certainly make CDProjekt rather against doing another Linux port with anyone.
This is sad, really sad. I hope this makes a few people reconsider their attitude when talking to developer about the performance of ports. Performance can be worked on and fixed, burnt bridges are harder (and sometimes impossible) to fix.
This reminds me of the time the Blizzard President responded to a small petition asking for Linux ports of their games. The response to the petition was really nice to see from such a big company and truthfully the response I fully expected, but the original statement in reply to it from the petition author (now deleted by the author, but captured in my article) was downright childish and idiotic.
Yes problems are annoying, but throwing insults around helps no one and yes it does make us look bad. I get where people are coming from, to an extent, since some games do end up getting left in a terribly broken state for a long time and sometimes forever. However, in this case VP did good and continued working and now, as stated previously, The Witcher 2 seems fine. Their others ports are generally pretty decent too.
I just hope in future that this developer who got a massive amount of hate and CD Projekt RED can look past it somehow, for all the fans of their franchise on Linux.
Note: I personally spoke to this developer about publishing this with their approval, in the hopes that it might get a few people to re-think their initial attitude towards problems in games. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I should stress, for our own record here that this is not the official word from Virtual Programming or CD Projekt RED. This is the personal opinion of an ex-VP developer.
Here's the issue: The Linux version of The Witcher 2 was released in a poor state, it had poor performance and just didn't really work well at all. It was later fixed-up and last time I tried it, the performance was absolutely fine for me. The real problem, is the amount of hate that was sent towards the porters Virtual Programming and directly to CD Projekt RED as well. Even I personally saw some of the hate that was sent their way and it was downright idiotic and absolutely uncalled for.
I will absolutely hold my hands up as well, I made mistakes around it since I simply didn't know enough at the time, and to be honest three years ago I was still learning a lot about everything. I later corrected what I said, as I always aim to.
Writing on reddit, this developer said (source):
QuoteI agree, things were not right on release... but the vocality of people went way beyond that. It was an all out hate campaign against VP, against CDPR for "lying about the port being native". I attempted to help people out in my own time and got absolutely roasted and abused for it.
The community needs to realise it simply cannot justify this sort of behaviour if they want to convince devs and publishers to support them. There is no excuse.
It seems we may have also seen a port of The Witcher 1 as well, as the developer also said (source):
QuoteThe vitriol was unbelievable. Yes we messed up the performance on release but we put it right. However a huge hate campaign ensued. Both VP and CDPR got lots of vengeful hate mail sent to them. I cannot help but feel this damaged CDPR's view of the Linux platform irrevocably.
They certainly didnt blame us, because they had us work on a Mac port of Witcher 1 to replace the non-functioning Wineskin version. The same port would have ran on Linux too with very little extra work, but they were not interested in releasing it.
There's also this post from another user, who said at the time The Witcher 2 released for Linux, CDProjekt apparently lost a fair amount on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Apparently due to such a big backlash from the community about the initial release quality. I haven't verified that myself, but if true it would certainly make CDProjekt rather against doing another Linux port with anyone.
This is sad, really sad. I hope this makes a few people reconsider their attitude when talking to developer about the performance of ports. Performance can be worked on and fixed, burnt bridges are harder (and sometimes impossible) to fix.
This reminds me of the time the Blizzard President responded to a small petition asking for Linux ports of their games. The response to the petition was really nice to see from such a big company and truthfully the response I fully expected, but the original statement in reply to it from the petition author (now deleted by the author, but captured in my article) was downright childish and idiotic.
Yes problems are annoying, but throwing insults around helps no one and yes it does make us look bad. I get where people are coming from, to an extent, since some games do end up getting left in a terribly broken state for a long time and sometimes forever. However, in this case VP did good and continued working and now, as stated previously, The Witcher 2 seems fine. Their others ports are generally pretty decent too.
I just hope in future that this developer who got a massive amount of hate and CD Projekt RED can look past it somehow, for all the fans of their franchise on Linux.
Note: I personally spoke to this developer about publishing this with their approval, in the hopes that it might get a few people to re-think their initial attitude towards problems in games. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: EhvisQuoting: GuestIt's called "Signal to noise ratio". There was far more hatred than praise, even after we fixed all the problems.
Emotional nonsense. Any business that listens to that has no right to exist.
The most important considerations in a business are usually financial, but any business based on intellectual capital, or people, as they are more properly called, is ill advised to ignore their emotions.
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Quoting: GuestIt's called "Signal to noise ratio". There was far more hatred than praise, even after we fixed all the problems. Even 3 years on I saw people blasting the port saying how poor it was, even though the problems they were quoting had long been fixed.We're not living in an ideal world, where everyone gives full feedback and the thumb up/down on a product, for the makers to get the full picture. Not seeing enough praise doesn't mean there's not enough people liking the game.
How many people bought the game and how many people complained unjustly? That's the only ratio worth looking for. Anything else makes no sense being bothered about.
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For me personally, I've got "TOO MANY" games on Linux to even worry about the lack of Witcher 3, or others I'd like to see ported. Suffice to say, I generally don't buy a game unless it is available on Linux.
If "Shadow Warrior 2" was out on Linux, I'd buy it in a flash. But for now, it isn't, so I'm not touching it.
The other day "Rise of the Tomb Raider" came to Linux - and I bought 2 copies.
Meanwhile, I'm happily playing "Slay the Spire [beta]" with new "The Defect" character (and cards).
If "Shadow Warrior 2" was out on Linux, I'd buy it in a flash. But for now, it isn't, so I'm not touching it.
The other day "Rise of the Tomb Raider" came to Linux - and I bought 2 copies.
Meanwhile, I'm happily playing "Slay the Spire [beta]" with new "The Defect" character (and cards).
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Quoting: GuestUltimately the damage is now done. It is very unlikely CDPR will change their minds at this point.
Their management doesn't make decisions anymore. At least they can't uphold them. I suspect their shareholders run the shots there now.
See https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/shareholders/
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 May 2018 at 1:07 pm UTC
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Nevertheless May 1, 2018
Quoting: EhvisQuoting: GuestIt's called "Signal to noise ratio". There was far more hatred than praise, even after we fixed all the problems.
Emotional nonsense. Any business that listens to that has no right to exist.
We're running in circles here... If it were all about rational decisions we wouldn't have a chance for a Linux version anyway..
For now we're more of an anomaly than an econmical influence. We're completely dependant on what Valve is doing to help. We need mor new users, a lot more than we actually are now. And we have to prepare to be friendly to them as well!
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I think this discussion is quite pointless, when CDPR have such abysmal communication and can't even explain to the community what the problem is and what can be improved to fix it. Such kind of distancing is not conductive for any dialog, and simply looks like stonewalling.
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 May 2018 at 3:02 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 May 2018 at 3:02 pm UTC
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Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: GuestUltimately the damage is now done. It is very unlikely CDPR will change their minds at this point.
Their management doesn't make decisions anymore. At least they can't uphold them. I suspect their shareholders run the shots there now.
See https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/shareholders/
I would read that graphic as indicating the founders/management retain 1/3 of the shares, with only 2 institutions holding more than the 5% threshold for being identified (assuming the 4 named Polish individuals are part of the company).
If that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.
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Quoting: etonbearsIf that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.
Then I'm not sure what problem they had with Linux release. Or was it expected to mess up their stock prices?
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Quoting: ShmerlIt was suggested earlier in the thread that the bad press from the TW2 port caused a temporary stock price event. I didn't find evidence of that When I looked at the stock history.Quoting: etonbearsIf that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.
Then I'm not sure what problem they had with Linux release. Or was it expected to mess up their stock prices?
Most likely the revenue from TW2 wasn't strong enough to warrant other ports at this time. I live in hope that their future games are built cross-platform, but would not be surprised if they continued to ignore Linux.
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slaapliedje May 2, 2018
Quoting: etonbearsQuoting: ShmerlIt was suggested earlier in the thread that the bad press from the TW2 port caused a temporary stock price event. I didn't find evidence of that When I looked at the stock history.Quoting: etonbearsIf that is the case, the management team would be in a strong position to do what they want. Keeping the share price strong and stable would be in their own interests as well, of course.
Then I'm not sure what problem they had with Linux release. Or was it expected to mess up their stock prices?
Most likely the revenue from TW2 wasn't strong enough to warrant other ports at this time. I live in hope that their future games are built cross-platform, but would not be surprised if they continued to ignore Linux.
Well, considering by the time they did the port it was an old game, and most people probably already owned it. This is pretty typical for a lot of Linux games, it's hard to justify not making money on something that is basically given away for free on Steam if you already have it for another operating system.
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