I know, I know, quality over quantity! Still, I can't help but feel excited by the amount of good quality games that are now available on Linux.
The current count is at around 3529 on Steam, give or take a few that still show up in the list that haven't actually released yet. It might be slightly different depending on the country you're in too.
The rate of games releasing for Linux hasn't actually increased all that much at all, it took a very similar amount of time for us to go from 2.5K to 3K and again now to 3.5K. The funny thing is how wrong I was back in February, since I thought it might slow down. If anything, it's increasing in pace overall, just not all that quickly.
While we're on the subject, GOG now has about 719 games that support Linux, so their library is growing for us too. It pales in comparison to Steam though. GOG are much more selective about what they allow on their store overall, so it's to be expected.
We've had some truly great releases already this year and we've got a lot of time left to go. We've had games like Total War: Shogun 2 & Fall of the Samurai, DiRT Rally, HITMAN, Civilization VI, Sudden Strike 4, Tacoma, Pyre, Albion Online, Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition, Rusted Warfare and I could continue on for hours it seems.
I said in my end of year review for 2016, that 2017 would be a massive year for us. Given how the year has gone so far, I think I might have been right. Lots of time left this year, so I bet there's a good amount of surprises due.
What has been your most exciting Linux game release so far this year? I really can't pick! I'm at an absolute loss, there's so many. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The current count is at around 3529 on Steam, give or take a few that still show up in the list that haven't actually released yet. It might be slightly different depending on the country you're in too.
The rate of games releasing for Linux hasn't actually increased all that much at all, it took a very similar amount of time for us to go from 2.5K to 3K and again now to 3.5K. The funny thing is how wrong I was back in February, since I thought it might slow down. If anything, it's increasing in pace overall, just not all that quickly.
While we're on the subject, GOG now has about 719 games that support Linux, so their library is growing for us too. It pales in comparison to Steam though. GOG are much more selective about what they allow on their store overall, so it's to be expected.
We've had some truly great releases already this year and we've got a lot of time left to go. We've had games like Total War: Shogun 2 & Fall of the Samurai, DiRT Rally, HITMAN, Civilization VI, Sudden Strike 4, Tacoma, Pyre, Albion Online, Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition, Rusted Warfare and I could continue on for hours it seems.
I said in my end of year review for 2016, that 2017 would be a massive year for us. Given how the year has gone so far, I think I might have been right. Lots of time left this year, so I bet there's a good amount of surprises due.
What has been your most exciting Linux game release so far this year? I really can't pick! I'm at an absolute loss, there's so many. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mountain Man Aug 14, 2017
Even 5-years ago, I honestly never thought we'd see this day and was prepared to content myself with dual-booting and the occasional indie release for Linux.
But even as successful as Linux gaming has been, I'm still somewhat concerned about our minuscule presence and a little afraid, perhaps irrationally, that it could all just suddenly go away.
But even as successful as Linux gaming has been, I'm still somewhat concerned about our minuscule presence and a little afraid, perhaps irrationally, that it could all just suddenly go away.
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The biggest surprise that I had with GOG is when I discovered that is a Cypriot based company :D
(I was like no way!!! but then I understood the reasons like all other foreign companies that have a company in my country)
Proof: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-User-Agreement
This Agreement is a contract between you and GOG Ltd, 7 Florinis Street, Greg Tower, 6th floor, 1065 Nicosia, Cyprus and applies to www.GOG.com, your GOG user account, the GOG Downloader, GOG Galaxy, any games or videos or other content which you purchase or access via us, the GOG web forums, GOG customer and technical support and other services we provide to you (we'll just call all this “GOG services” for short).
(I was like no way!!! but then I understood the reasons like all other foreign companies that have a company in my country)
Proof: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-User-Agreement
This Agreement is a contract between you and GOG Ltd, 7 Florinis Street, Greg Tower, 6th floor, 1065 Nicosia, Cyprus and applies to www.GOG.com, your GOG user account, the GOG Downloader, GOG Galaxy, any games or videos or other content which you purchase or access via us, the GOG web forums, GOG customer and technical support and other services we provide to you (we'll just call all this “GOG services” for short).
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Quoting: Mountain ManEven 5-years ago, I honestly never thought we'd see this day and was prepared to content myself with dual-booting and the occasional indie release for Linux.Yeah, I never imagined we would get some of the titles we have now!
But even as successful as Linux gaming has been, I'm still somewhat concerned about our minuscule presence and a little afraid, perhaps irrationally, that it could all just suddenly go away.
I fear the same, but that's part of why I'm here. I will do what I can to help spread the word :)
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It could still all go away but for the minute as long as valve stays committed to linux in some way and keeps the client updated we should still be somewhat viable to game companies. If Linux can keep Square/Codemasters/2K/Paradox/Sega/Deep Silver and Valve porting games maybe we can grow that. My concern if is the sales are not strong enough on x title and one of those companies pulls linux support that will start to make other devs nervous.
Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 14 August 2017 at 5:35 pm UTC
Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 14 August 2017 at 5:35 pm UTC
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Quoting: wolfyrionThe biggest surprise that I had with GOG is when I discovered that is a Cypriot based company :D ...
I could have sworn they are from Poland.
But yeah, life has never been so good as a Linux user. Really there is nothing I cannot do on Linux either for work or leisure. I don't even need to have Wine installed anymore. It's almost too easy.
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Quoting: Mountain ManEven 5-years ago, I honestly never thought we'd see this day and was prepared to content myself with dual-booting and the occasional indie release for Linux.I worry about that too. Our market share is too small for this proportion of games coming to Linux to feel sustainable.
But even as successful as Linux gaming has been, I'm still somewhat concerned about our minuscule presence and a little afraid, perhaps irrationally, that it could all just suddenly go away.
There is I think an odd factor sustaining it--the prevalence of Linux everywhere except the desktop. People who do computer-oriented things for a living are far more likely to do those things with Linux, at least some of the time, than the broader population. Servers? Linux. Cloud (really just a special case of servers)? Linux. Supercomputers? Linux. Embedded? Linux. Programming for all those things? Linux. And given that, a lot of education related to programming also teaches Linux. Game designers are part of that community and came through that education, so they too are likely to be familiar with and involved in Linux. There's a mindshare there independent of the actual Linux desktop market; a lot of these people want an excuse to make games available for Linux.
Even so, and despite the engines and such making it easier, at 1-2% the financial viability of making games available on Linux is suspect. This is one reason why I'd love to see a redone, better Steam Machine launch. Or a copyright crackdown in Asia, because Linux can compete with Windows way better than with Pirate Windows.
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Mountain Man Aug 14, 2017
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThis is one reason why I'd love to see a redone, better Steam Machine launch. Or a copyright crackdown in Asia, because Linux can compete with Windows way better than with Pirate Windows.As Bill Gates allegedly said, "I don't care if people pirate, as long as they're pirating Windows."
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Quoting: wolfyrionThe biggest surprise that I had with GOG is when I discovered that is a Cypriot based company :D
(I was like no way!!! but then I understood the reasons like all other foreign companies that have a company in my country)
Proof: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-User-Agreement
This Agreement is a contract between you and GOG Ltd, 7 Florinis Street, Greg Tower, 6th floor, 1065 Nicosia, Cyprus and applies to www.GOG.com, your GOG user account, the GOG Downloader, GOG Galaxy, any games or videos or other content which you purchase or access via us, the GOG web forums, GOG customer and technical support and other services we provide to you (we'll just call all this “GOG services” for short).
That came as a surprise to me. I thought they were based in eastern Europe.
Last edited by Duckeenie on 14 August 2017 at 5:53 pm UTC
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Kimyrielle Aug 14, 2017
Setting up proxy companies in tax havens to evade having to contribute to society is considered a standard practice in international business.
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I'm actually more optimistic for Linux gaming in the future than even today, as I think eventually gaming will largely be streaming, and as long as the streaming clients exist for Linux, then we'll be good. That way, if anything, we'll have an even bigger selection than we do today...
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Kimyrielle Aug 14, 2017
Quoting: iiariI'm actually more optimistic for Linux gaming in the future than even today, as I think eventually gaming will largely be streaming, and as long as the streaming clients exist for Linux, then we'll be good. That way, if anything, we'll have an even bigger selection than we do today...
I don't think streaming games per se has much of a future. In contrast to music (tiny files) and movies (you usually watch them only once) there is no compelling reason to stream games over installing them. You -still- need a gaming capable PC to run streamed games, and the performance of locally rendered games will ALWAYS be better compared to sending data to the other side of Earth and back and keeping everything in sync. But we will probably see more client/server online games like MMOs and online FPS games. The days of pure offline games might actually end sooner rather than later.
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Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Purple Library GuyThis is one reason why I'd love to see a redone, better Steam Machine launch. Or a copyright crackdown in Asia, because Linux can compete with Windows way better than with Pirate Windows.As Bill Gates allegedly said, "I don't care if people pirate, as long as they're pirating Windows."
"About 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." - Speech at the University of Washington, as reported in "Gates, Buffett a bit bearish" CNET News (2 July 1998)
"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not." - Bill Gates, Fortune Magazine, July 17 2007
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
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Sure, I miss the Witcher 3 and everything from Blizzard, but 75+ excellent Linux games on my Steam wishlist is the reality.
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Kimyrielle Aug 14, 2017
Quoting: skinnyrafSure, I miss the Witcher 3 and everything from Blizzard, but 75+ excellent Linux games on my Steam wishlist is the reality.
Haha, same! My wishlist has about 25 games at this point, and I just can't justify buying more games when I still have at least 25 games in my Steam library I have yet to start even once.
Honestly, in terms of numbers we're more than fine now. There are more Linux games now than there were Windows games just a few years ago. 'nuff said.
And while 90% of these games might suck - which isn't any different for Windows games - 10% of 3,500 is still an awesome collection of good games to pick from.
I am also not one of these people who'd go ahead and buy an entire system just because they have an exclusive game or two they think they can't live without. If Windows gamers can accept that Horizon Zero Dawn isn't available for their platform of choice, we just have to adopt the same attitude for our own platform and stop complaining because this or that game won't ever get ported.
That being said, there is still room for improvement in certain areas, such as underrepresented genres (there is still not ONE AAA MMO available for Linux...), or big budget games in general, which we still generally lack despite we saw a few good releases lately. My hope for 2017 or 2018 is that at least one other major publisher will give Linux a shot and get us a much needed push in the AAA department. Yes, Bethesda, I am looking at you... :D
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Avehicle7887 Aug 14, 2017
Looking back at 2 years ago when I switched to Linux, the OS has come very far in terms of gaming and not only that. Open source software such as Mesa has got more attention than just "being a gpu driver", Wine development has accelerated and there's plenty of support for modern hardware also.
All this was a dream I that couldn't fulfill 10 years ago, due to the limited game library and lack of OS popularity. My only wishful thinking is that more developers push their games to GOG. There's a good sum of Linux users on GOG that are probably salivating to get their hands on those high budget Linux ports.
I'll be the first to tell you that I'd love to play DiRt Rally till the sun rises.
All this was a dream I that couldn't fulfill 10 years ago, due to the limited game library and lack of OS popularity. My only wishful thinking is that more developers push their games to GOG. There's a good sum of Linux users on GOG that are probably salivating to get their hands on those high budget Linux ports.
I'll be the first to tell you that I'd love to play DiRt Rally till the sun rises.
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Plintslîcho Aug 14, 2017
Quoting: LinasQuoting: wolfyrionThe biggest surprise that I had with GOG is when I discovered that is a Cypriot based company :D ...
I could have sworn they are from Poland.
They are (their office is in Warsaw). But...
Quoting: KimyrielleSetting up proxy companies in tax havens to evade having to contribute to society is considered a standard practice in international business.
On topic: I'd be interested to learn how many of the games available for Linux on GOG.com are actually Linux games or just games bundled with dosbox and made available also for Linux. I can't help it, I'm a bit disappointed by all the games that are not available for Linux on GOG.com that are available on Steam though, like the Metro games for example.
But yeah, that really is complaining without much of a reason. Fact is, it's amazing how many games we have available nowadays for Linux, given the small market share Linux still has on the desktop. A couple of years back I wouldn't have dreamed of Linux becoming a gaming platform as well.
Last edited by Plintslîcho on 14 August 2017 at 7:15 pm UTC
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Quoting: iiariI'm actually more optimistic for Linux gaming in the future than even today, as I think eventually gaming will largely be streaming, and as long as the streaming clients exist for Linux, then we'll be good. That way, if anything, we'll have an even bigger selection than we do today...
No, just no. I don't want to stream my games, ffs...
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Lack of games was one of the biggest reasons that people gave for not switching to desktop Linux. Desktop Linux still has problems when it comes to many things - doesn't support much specialist software that people need (though there's great native alternatives and Wine supports some of it), not compatible enough with certain non-Linux software (e.g. MS Office), software updates are problematic (snappy/Flatpak will hopefully fix that, but they're still in rather heavy development and in the process of being adopted - also there's two 'universal' standards, which is problematic in itself), not pre-installed on many PCs, not promoted enough - but whilst by no means have all Windows games been ported to desktop Linux, such a sizeable chunk has that that's much less of a reason to not use desktop Linux than it used to be. I'd be happy with few games, to be honest, but having access to all Valve games, Civ V, AoE II HD (via PlayOnLinux and a couple of custom tweaks), The Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (via PlayOnLinux, works out-of-the-box), Undertale, etc = very cool. (Yes I have a weird taste in games and tbh I don't game *that* much, but still, I think it's cool and very helpful for desktop Linux in general).
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QuoteWhile we're on the subject, GOG now has about 719 games that support Linux, so their library is growing for us too. It pales in comparison to Steam though. GOG are much more selective about what they allow on their store overall, so it's to be expected.
GOG:
Windows compatible games: 2100
Mac OSx compatible games: 1063 (just over 50%)
Linux compatible games: 719 (just over 34%)
Linux support on GOG hasn't been around as long as Mac Support. But still not bad considering. GOG has been giving solid support for Linux, but they still need to get around to releasing GOG Galaxy for the platform.
I also think Humble Bundle does a good job with Linux releases too.
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