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PayPalIt’s been a long time since I’ve done this, but here’s part 5 in the series of me talking to developers about how their games have been selling on Linux.
If you missed the previous articles: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
Beamdog
For those who don’t recognise the name, Beamdog are the people behind revamps of classic RPG titles like Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition.
They gave some details about how Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition sold on Steam:
- 91.74% - Windows
- 6.22% - Mac
- 2.04% - Linux
Additionally, they also gave details about install numbers from their own Beamdog client:
- 91.13% - Windows
- 6.38% - Mac
- 2.49% - Linux
Here’s what Beamdog CTO, Scott Brooks had to say about Linux support:
QuoteWe really think the Infinity Engine games are something special and work hard to bring them to people that might not otherwise be able to play them. We've worked with professional and volunteer translators to help bring Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition to 14 languages, and we add things like Story Mode to help people who otherwise would have a hard time playing these great games. We've ported an engine that was originally built in the 16bit to 32bit transition to 64bit in order to let people continue enjoying these games. There are people on Linux that would love to play our games specifically on Linux, and we would love to let them.
Also, if you missed it I did an interview with Beamdog before, you can see that here.
MidBoss
MidBoss, the roguelike where you possess the bodies of your enemies released with Day-1 Linux support back in May. Here’s the figures their developer gave:
- 93.4 - Windows
- 4.7% - Mac
- 1.9% - Linux
Here’s what the developer of MidBoss had to say about supporting Linux now and in future:
QuoteI feel pretty good about supporting both platforms in MidBoss, particularly since Ethan Lee who made FNA did the ports and it wasn't too expensive. Without him they probably wouldn't have happened.
In the future I'll be using a new, completely custom framework that can create .NET executables as well as JavaScript/WebGL builds from a single C# codebase. We're planning to initially use the web builds with Electron to keep supporting Mac and Linux. This should perform just fine for smaller games such as Ultra Hat Dimension which is probably coming out on Steam in early 2018.
When we do wind up doing a bigger more demanding game again (MidBoss 2? Who knows!) I'll investigate getting the .NET versions working on Mac and Linux too. The .NET side uses OpenTK/OpenGL so it shouldn't be that difficult, hopefully, we just don't have the time/resources right now to go into it.
Milkstone Studios
To my surprise, Milkstone Studios were very open and sent over details about multiple titles!
White Noise 2
- 95.31% - Windows
- 4.06% - OSX
- 0.64% - Linux
Only Linux details given for these:
- Little Racers Street: 12.05%
- Pharaonic: 4.59%
- Ziggurat: 2.19%
- White Noise Online: 0.96%
It’s worth noting, that just before the release of Little Racers Street, I did an interview with Milkstone Studios about the title. That may have helped towards the rather high Linux percentage there.
Here’s what they said about continuing to support Linux:
Milkstone StudiosSeeing these numbers, look like Linux players are more used to single player experiences, so that might be the reason.
We support Linux on a pretty basic level (we're not Linux users ourselves, so we have limited experience with it). Linux support takes up lots of support time (I'd say around 20-25% of our support time is dedicated to addressing Linux issues), and it's hard to justify dedicating our time to this platform if sales for it are low. However, Unity allows for easy generation of Linux builds, and most of the work required for a proper port was done with Ziggurat, so for now we'll continue releasing games with Linux support, and trying to solve issues to the best of our knowledge.
While they weren’t able to give any specific details, I did speak to two of the bigger porters Feral Interactive and Aspyr Media.
Here’s what Feral Interactive had to say:
QuoteThe Linux market remains small in comparison to Mac, and tiny compared to Windows. Three years of bringing AAA games to Linux has taught us a lot about what works in sales terms, and what works less well. Although we had hoped that the Steam Machine would gain more traction, we have been pleasantly surprised by the Linux sales achieved on distros other than SteamOS, and continually encouraged by the passionate (and vocal!) audience of Linux gamers. However, we are disappointed by the promotion of piracy by some, which does disproportionate damage to the economics of bringing games to an already small platform.
Take a look at what Aspyr Media said:
QuoteOur Linux business continues to be an important part of our strategy going forward. We consider Linux a viable platform, and continue to make it a target goal of any deal we strike.
I did reach out to Virtual Programming, but they were extremely busy and didn't have time.
I would like to thank everyone who got back to me. Sadly some didn’t reply, but given how busy developers are actually making games, it’s all good!
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
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Apple is not abandoning the Mac at all.
They have just announced the iMac Pro with Xeon CPUs, external GPU support, Metal 2 and a new high-end Mac Pro coming in 2018/2019 along with new Cinema 5K Displays.
After stalling for how long? Dropping in some update after years of doing nothing is not called "not abandoning". Also, they clearly don't care about their own users and developers, otherwise they would have updated their OpenGL to latest versions. I.e. good luck trying to run something like The Witcher 3 in Wine on MacOS - it won't work, because OpenGL is stuck there at around 4.1. For all intents and purposes, Linux is much better for gaming.
MacOS sales are staying high because most of the people are thinking having an Apple branded system is a privelege. So suddenly MacOS being a status sign for them and that is keeping them on the ecosystem : Ego.
Yes, that makes more sense. Technically, MacOS is becoming trash, and Apple simply decided to address complaints of abandonment, rather than pushing it forward. But people use it out of inertia.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 Aug 2017 at 3:42 pm UTC
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GustyGhost 2 Aug 2017
To be clear, Aspyr has not left Linux at all. I don't get why people say that, they did only recently put out Civ VI (a pretty major title). They are also publishing games coming to Linux.
Because Feral are, by comparison, running circles around them. They raised the expectation for release rate and now even VP appear to have "left linux".
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Nice. As you can see, it's way higher than so called Steam survey, which only highlights, that the later is pretty useless. It all depends on the game, and I'd say on developers and their engagement with Linux community. I'd be also interested in some numbers from inXile and Obsidian, who like Beamdog release cross platform from day one.
Also, I'm somewhat surprised that MacOS sales stay high, despite bitrot of the system, and Apple basically abandoning their own desktop.
MacOS sales are staying high because most of the people are thinking having an Apple branded system is a privelege. So suddenly MacOS being a status sign for them and that is keeping them on the ecosystem : Ego.
Also note that , Apple ecosystem makes people much more binded to their platform. Purchase history made them tied with Apple Market.
On the other hand , Linux is replaceable and there is nothing to lose if you abandon Linux.
If you abandon Windows , you will lose games. If you abandon MacOS you will lose that feeling of being special.
Oh, boy. Are you kidding? macOS -- unlike iOS -- is an open platform just like Linux. You are not forced to buy software from the Mac App Store or use iCloud at all. There's a terminal, X11, whatever you like. The only downside compared to other *nix systems: You need a physical Mac to run it. But even that is not an issue anymore (visit tonymacx86) if you go the Hackintosh route, which Apple doesn't mind at all, they just won't grant support.
Believe me, there are people who have been running their businesses solely on Macs long before Steve Jobs was back at Apple, the iPod or iPhone were even thought about. The old-school Mac community is just as passionate as Linux people and a lot of them are entrepreneurs and top notch creatives. They don't care about ego or advertisements, but about ROI, working solutions and great support.
We couldn't run our studio solely on Linux, because there's no professional video editing or design software available for Linux. Building apps for iOS would be complicated, etc. I'm glad macOS exists, I'm glad Linux exists -- we use both to their strengths and don't need Windows except for testing purposes.
So, please, stop the "Macs are only for superficial egoists" bullshit. It's simply not true. Hundreds of thousands of creative professionals worldwide might agree.
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Oh, boy. Are you kidding? macOS -- unlike iOS -- is an open platform just like Linux.
In many ways it's not. Why don't Nvidia and AMD release proper graphics drivers for MacOS? They could address the problem of lacking Vulkan and stalled OpenGL there easily. Apple doesn't let them. So it's far from open (I'm not even talking about FOSS, I'm talking about some flexibility). In the graphics sense, Windows is actually way more open than MacOS.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 Aug 2017 at 4:11 pm UTC
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Apple is not abandoning the Mac at all.
They have just announced the iMac Pro with Xeon CPUs, external GPU support, Metal 2 and a new high-end Mac Pro coming in 2018/2019 along with new Cinema 5K Displays.
After stalling for how long? Dropping in some update after years of doing nothing is not called "not abandoning". Also, they clearly don't care about their own users and developers, otherwise they would have updated their OpenGL to latest versions. I.e. good luck trying to run something like The Witcher 3 in Wine on MacOS - it won't work, because OpenGL is stuck there at around 4.1. For all intents and purposes, Linux is much better for gaming.
You do realise Apple has their own graphics API called Metal? They have officially dropped OpenGL support and encourage all developers to switch to Metal, just like Feral did with F1 2017, Hitman or Dawn of War III.
It's not the route I would have taken, but Apple chose to do their own thing just like Microsoft with DirectX. There will be no official Vulkan support on Mac or iOS, which is not good for the API, but Apple will most likely get away with it. They have a strong user base.
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You do realise Apple has their own graphics API called Metal?
Which is a jerk lock-in reaction, to open competition (Vulkan), which Apple politically decided not to support. That disgusts me in Apple pretty a lot.
They have officially dropped OpenGL support and encourage all developers to switch to Metal
Forcing developers to adopt lock-in, by using bit rot is another stinky political move. Basically, Apple wants to tax cross platform developers. In this sense, they are worse than MS these days.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 Aug 2017 at 4:18 pm UTC
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Oh, boy. Are you kidding? macOS -- unlike iOS -- is an open platform just like Linux.
In many ways it's not. Why don't Nvidia and AMD release proper graphics drivers for MacOS? They could address the problem of lacking Vulkan and stalled OpenGL there easily. Apple doesn't let them. So it's far from open (I'm not even talking about FOSS, I'm talking about some flexibility). In the graphics sense, Windows is actually way more open than MacOS.
If that is true, allow me to ask you a question: Who is developing the official NVidia Web Driver for macOS to support their latest GPUs like the GTX 1080 if Apple prevents them to do so?
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If that is true, allow me to ask you a question: Who is developing the official NVidia Web Driver for macOS to support their latest GPUs like the GTX 1080 if Apple prevents them to do so?
Apple surely let them to do something, but not enough to address lacking APIs. That's why I have quite a strong disrespect towards Apple. They are one of the worst lock-in jerks in existence.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 Aug 2017 at 4:24 pm UTC
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If that is true, allow me to ask you a question: Who is developing the official NVidia Web Driver for macOS to support their latest GPUs like the GTX 1080 if Apple prevents them to do so?
Apple surely let's them to do something, but not enough to address lacking APIs. That's why I have quite a strong disrespect to Apple. They are one of the worst lock-in jerks in existence.
Why should Nividia or AMD develop an API for Apple? They don't develop APIs for Microsoft or any other company either. They try to sell GFX cards and develop optimised software to sell more than their competition to performance oriented users.
And how do you measure the quality of this "something"? Do you use Macs with Nvidia cards on a regular basis to back up your statements?
I agree with you that it would be better if all the big players would have agreed on Vulkan and dropped their proprietary solutions. But it won't happen: Microsoft sticks to DirectX and Apple developed Metal (for iOS) long before Vulkan was a "finalised" standard.
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Why should Nividia or AMD develop an API for Apple? They don't develop APIs for Microsoft or any other company either.
Not sure what you mean. On Windows, all major vendors (Intel, AMD and Nvidia) develop and support open APIs like OpenGL and Vulkan. They don't develop it "for MS". They do it for users and developers who rely on these APIs. So again, what stops them from doing it for MacOS? Only Apple's crooked political insistence on lock-in.
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first A for big budget, second A for big dev and publisher, and third, it was once, A for quality.
So, AAA games tend to have a lot content, quality models, animations, voice overs, videocuts and so on...
Sure, but then disqualify PC altogether, because best AAA games are on consoles these days. PC market is big, sure, but console market just guarantees that sweet sweet revenue. There's good reason why Arkham Knight was canned for PC altogether.
I think this discussion which rages now for years is basically about "is this enough for Linux desktop to exist and grow?" and we have different opinions where this growth should/can come from. You think Windows gamers suddenly will switch over to Linux for some frame per second or other reason....not really. I never bought that argument.
For me Linux gaming is - does it offer enough entertainment and fun for Linux user NOT to use Windows dual boot or switch to Windows altogether? I would argue it does for many, many users.
This is an excellent and defining point. When I help people migrate to Linux that also play computer games, very few of them switch because of FPS. Most switch because the computer game they are already enjoying or plan to enjoy is on Linux. They are tired of whatever is going on in their current OS or are just curious. Those that stay, do so because they find more programs of use to their daily computing needs and they find other games to enjoy.
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Break those numbers down by title, genre, etc. Subtract subscription based or free to play/IAP driven MMOs, visual novels and stuff like Hearthstone or LoL and then compare the numbers again.
So remove all the huge PC exclusives from the word go.
So far so fair , right ?
Huge AAA open world titles and immersive experiences like Uncharted, Zelda or Assassin's Creed could not exist without the console market. And those titles are what "hardcore" gamers consider AAA and big teams and studios are built for.
And all the games from before you wanted excluded are made by an indie team in a garage ?
Also what is a "hardcore" gamer nowadays ? Pro players ? People who invest time and money into gaming ?
EDIT:
Misread your comment. On a personal note do not care about sports - so no knowledge in that field.
Don't be fooled by total numbers. The big franchises make much more money on consoles than on all PC platforms combined, that's why they are being build with the PS4 as their lead platform (Xbox 360 in the last generation).
I try not to be. I could be in the wrong.
But if by big franchises you mean the console exclusives which are by design anti consumer since they are locked down to one platform and one publisher then yes , those by deign will be made for ONE and ONLY one platform in mind. ( Until the publisher wants more money and port it to PC that is )
Of course, games like World of Warcraft or League of Legends are build by large teams with big budgets.
But be honest: Think about PC gaming without Blizzard, LoL and the gazillions of Asian F2P shenanigans. What's left? Besides AA houses like Paradox and maybe 20 million active Steam users with a diverse gaming library (even though Valve claims they have more than 150 million accounts, but not daily users)?
The PC market is huge and healthy, but it's not the driver of the gaming industry.
GTA V. Call of Duty. Forza. FIFA. Madden. Metroid. Mario. Zelda. Pokemon etc.
Without PS4, 3DS, Xbox and now the Nintendo Switch those titles could not exist. Platform holders need exclusives and a diverse library to sell units. That's the main reason why SteamOS was never going to be a 'huge' success: Valve never planned to put any exclusive title on it. Half-Life 3 only on SteamOS? Millions of gamers would dual-boot to Linux in a heartbeat -- but that won't happen.
You might not like those business antics, but that's how you make money (and create some excellent titles).
By the way: I forgot to mention one PC game on par with the highest quality console titles: The Witcher 3 (if you study the history of CD Project RED that's another anomaly).
No , the anti consumer practices I spoke about seem to be the driving force. Which is not a good thing for you and me.
Pre-orders , on disc DLC , season pass. All those work for companies and against you.
Unless you are a stock holder you are not getting the carrot you are getting the stick.
Is it really worth it ? Not for me.
I'd rather play AA and indie games forever than bow down to being screwed over like that.
Why do you think I use a PC ?
Hardware choice. They have to cater to me , I don;t have to settle for what they throw at me.
OS choice. Windows does some BS with their EULA I switch to Linux. Won;t hurt them at all financially , but still I have the choice.
Publisher choice. I can buy games from what publisher I choose and there is no bouncer at the gate called Microsoft or Sony making the rules.
We may not have one single massive publisher for PC , but we do have many , and put together they give us a big enough edge.
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On the other hand , Linux is replaceable and there is nothing to lose if you abandon Linux.
Wait, you'll lose freedom.
And penguins: who would abandon a cute penguin?
Every time a person leaves Linux a penguin dies, remember it. Stop this massacre.
Oh, and you'll lose the Linux and the GOL community too. They are not perfect, I know, but they are great.
We are missing the point here, let's look at our Linux gaming library: it's huge, we don't have time to play all of it.
Now let's cheat and add the Wine games rated Gold and platinium: WOW, so many that we can't play all of them in our entire life. Now let's add the games from emulation: our mind can't even count them.
I know how gamers think (I'm a gamer too after all): we want THOSE particular games.
Nothing shameful, we can play them after all, just outside of Linux (if we can't ask for the port I mean). Nobody is stopping us to do so.
As penguins though, we appreciate a lot when any developer think about Linux, and make a good port.
Thanks to Linux (and GOL) I'm sure some of us discovered a lot of awesome games they may have missed using Windows (even the big "AAA" ones) and I'm sure a lot of us are having a good time with their Linux games.
Sales are little compared to Windows? Who cares! We didn't try Linux for games and exclusives, right? Don't waste your free time complaining and play some games instead!
Thanks to Feral, Aspyr and the other dev/porters who are doing this great job even if sales are low compared to the others OSes.
Hell, just look at GOL! The community is so strong to pay Liam for his job and the site and there is not enough people to cover all the games!
Linux gaming is evolving: right now we are a Charmender just a few levels away from the evolution, and it's awesome! Everyone just want a Charizard at 100 from the start, but as gamers we know that enjoying all the game from the beginning is more important than having all things maxed out from the start.
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I feel slightly disappointed with the progress of Linux gaming. On one hand, I have 75+ Linux games on my wishlist (and it seems to grow). On the other hand, I have a Windows partition anyway for legacy games I already own, so is no Tux-no bux policy just an empty gesture in my case? Will the fact I'm not playing the Witcher 3, StarCraft 2, Doom 2016, Dishonoured 2 or Train Sim World change anything?
I have finally tried VR and I want it. I don't expect any major VR titles to arrive to Linux anytime soon, so that's another sacrifice...
I have finally tried VR and I want it. I don't expect any major VR titles to arrive to Linux anytime soon, so that's another sacrifice...
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Why should Nividia or AMD develop an API for Apple? They don't develop APIs for Microsoft or any other company either.
Not sure what you mean. On Windows, all major vendors (Intel, AMD and Nvidia) develop and support open APIs like OpenGL and Vulkan. They don't develop it "for MS". They do it for users and developers who rely on these APIs. So again, what stops them from doing it for MacOS? Only Apple's crooked political insistence on lock-in.
Even Microsoft is supporting Linux and open source in certain areas. Apple's programming language Swift is open source and supports Linux. Both embrace HTML5 in a big way. I don't get the hate for the "crooked policies" of commercial entities.
Apple is a private company offering a complete package made of hardware and software. Both are developed and sold together. Much like in the console or automobile space. Integration is key for Apple. That's why they insist on their own solutions -- it simply works for them.
They never intended to build an open software platform for anyone, they always wanted to sell a complete solution. This would have been possible with Vulkan as well, at least on the desktop, but maybe not so well on their mobile devices. We can only speculate.
I just don't like this sentiment of the "evil" Apple corporation and their "cultish and blind" following. That's just crap. Long time Mac users are very critical of a lot of things Apple is/was doing. Without the Mac software scene there wouldn't be any AAA games on Linux.
Aspyr, Feral, VP -- they're all Mac developers. I've been following these companies for the last 20 years and they all built up their business on Apple software before expanding into new markets like cross-platform publishing (Aspyr) or iOS development (Feral).
We as Linux gamers should be glad that there's a successful operating system similar to ours, which makes it easier for developers to take a risk and spend additional time and money for a Linux version.
You don't have to like Apple as a company or their policies, but the constant bashing of macOS and its community won't help Linux grow.
After all, the Mac has been good for Linux' development as a viable gaming platform.
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I play on Linux because its about showing support for more platforms. Even if gaming on Linux goes against what made it great to begin with: free software. Installing non-free drivers, non-free software, and software with DRM conflicts with that.
Since you can get Windows 10 Home for like $7 on a grey market key site, I don't see the price advantage of running Linux just for games. Not to mention needing non-free components through the non-free Steam platform to play non-free games that lack source code.
If you muddle up your Linux install with that, it makes it no different than Windows.
Last edited by t3g on 2 Aug 2017 at 5:12 pm UTC
Since you can get Windows 10 Home for like $7 on a grey market key site, I don't see the price advantage of running Linux just for games. Not to mention needing non-free components through the non-free Steam platform to play non-free games that lack source code.
If you muddle up your Linux install with that, it makes it no different than Windows.
Last edited by t3g on 2 Aug 2017 at 5:12 pm UTC
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Kuduzkehpan 2 Aug 2017
There arent so many game publishers cuz market is small, market is small cuz there arent so many game publishers. So we need to break the chain. It seems only google or such can do this but somehow i feel it will evoluete some other monopoly. This is all about capitalism.
Last edited by Kuduzkehpan on 2 Aug 2017 at 5:12 pm UTC
Last edited by Kuduzkehpan on 2 Aug 2017 at 5:12 pm UTC
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I don't get the hate for the "crooked policies" of commercial entities.
You don't get why lock-in is bad? History can teach some lessons. Remember all kind of attempts to balkanize the Web? ActiveX, Flash, Silverlight and etc. It took a huge amount of effort to carve out a common standard and make sure that lock-in stuff started dying out. Lock-in is always a tax. It increases costs of development, because of needless work duplication. It is crooked, especially when entities like Apple and MS use it with intention to deter developers (discouraging them from releasing cross platform). That's the whole point of lock-in, it's an anti-competitive (i.e. monopolistic like) practice.
In the context of Linux, take a look at this: http://www.catb.org/esr/halloween/halloween1.html
That's how lock-in jerks express their intentions in their own words:
OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market.
You can replace "simple protocols" there with open standards and "server applications market" with any market. Same idea.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 Aug 2017 at 5:41 pm UTC
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Mountain Man 2 Aug 2017
Milkstone studios says, "We support Linux on a pretty basic level (we're not Linux users ourselves, so we have limited experience with it)," and then complains about low sales.
Here's an idea: maybe if you didn't treat Linux like an afterthought then Linux gamers wouldn't treat your games like an afterthought.
Here's an idea: maybe if you didn't treat Linux like an afterthought then Linux gamers wouldn't treat your games like an afterthought.
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