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.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Well, what to say? Oh yes: Praising just more proprietary platforms helps, of course for a system based on user's freedom. :P
Being thankful for what exactly? The business decision from Steam / Valve? The half-hearted lie GOG is going to tell the user? No DRM? Very bad jokes and not the best arguments for a bright future. But yes: It's possible to praise that. Making every Linux-distribution to another copy of known paradigma.
Being thankful for what exactly? The business decision from Steam / Valve? The half-hearted lie GOG is going to tell the user? No DRM? Very bad jokes and not the best arguments for a bright future. But yes: It's possible to praise that. Making every Linux-distribution to another copy of known paradigma.
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It's not all about the number, but also the force we represent. It's surely an example which favor linux gamers as all games are compatible with linux. But still... % of users does not stand for the equivalent of potential buyers. We have less game (we use to have almost none) but this kind of graphs shows that we also are generous with studio actually take linux into account. As our overall base users is lower, triple AAA games should be consider carefully for studio willing to port those. But for most indie games it does not take much effort to bring it on our platform. It's in everyone best interest to see linux marketshare rising. Windows 10 is just a mid term investment for owning both users software and hardware, and this is by no mean a good thing contrary to some people playing on windows and coming in every linux thread to say no one should ever consider playing on linux.
[
pdm stands for marketshare data available for this bundle.
The 1.50% markethsare for this one almost stand for half the donation given 91% of desktop users (windows users).
Last edited by Jahimself on 14 August 2017 at 8:56 pm UTC
[
pdm stands for marketshare data available for this bundle.
The 1.50% markethsare for this one almost stand for half the donation given 91% of desktop users (windows users).
Last edited by Jahimself on 14 August 2017 at 8:56 pm UTC
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Kimyrielle Aug 14, 2017
Quoting: throghWell, what to say? Oh yes: Praising just more proprietary platforms helps, of course for a system based on user's freedom. :P
Being thankful for what exactly? The business decision from Steam / Valve? The half-hearted lie GOG is going to tell the user? No DRM? Very bad jokes and not the best arguments for a bright future. But yes: It's possible to praise that. Making every Linux-distribution to another copy of known paradigma.
Well, you can't have the cake and eat it. There are how many free-as-in-freedom games out there, that can even remotely compete with commercially made ones in terms of quality?
Yes, there is 0AD.
That's...it.
So if you want good commercial games on your free-as-in-freedom platform, you will have to live with the quirks that come with commercial software. No source code. No freedom. DRM. Proprietary technology. Silly EULAs. Yep, not ideal, but it's a take it or leave it thing, really. Let's face reality for a second - with our 2% market share, we're not exactly in a position where we could blackmail publishers with "DRM will go, or we won't buy it!!!" lines without making them laugh.
I am not a fan of DRM and Steam's near monopoly on games distribution either, but it's either sucking it up or having no AAA games at all. We would have exactly NOTHING if not for Steam and them pushing us.
Either you accept that or your catalogue of games will mainly consist of Tux Racer and Nethack. But if you want AAA games and then refuse buying them when they are offered, your just shooting yourself in the foot.
Pick your poison!
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OAD can't really compete in terms of quality. To me it seems that they concentrate too much on engine and technologies behind, without doing a good game design and trying to make game fun. Last time I looked, the sheep farming was still not implemented.
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TheRiddick Aug 14, 2017
GOG would do a hell of a allot better if they'd release that GOG Galaxy Linux Client!?¿!
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It seems like it wasn't that long ago when all we had was LGP, Icculus, Garage Games and free games like Tux Racer. It's amazing how far we've come.
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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 headquarters are in Warsaw. I bet the whole Cyprus registration is for some legal / financial reasons. It's basically a formality, but not sure what for.
Last edited by Shmerl on 14 August 2017 at 11:26 pm UTC
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Save this chart please, and look again on 11 february 2018.
URL chart windows (steam chart updated)
Assuming that this February chart of all 12350 games on Steam is still current.
And the list of 3000 games for Linux is still current.
I did an average portability calculation.
If we continue with this progress of 500 games for every 6 months.
We will reach the value of 12350 in 9 years.
Of course the number and games for windows should also grow in proportion, but if we will reach the equivalent number of windows only time will tell.
URL chart Linux (steam chart updated)
URL chart windows (steam chart updated)
Assuming that this February chart of all 12350 games on Steam is still current.
And the list of 3000 games for Linux is still current.
I did an average portability calculation.
If we continue with this progress of 500 games for every 6 months.
We will reach the value of 12350 in 9 years.
Of course the number and games for windows should also grow in proportion, but if we will reach the equivalent number of windows only time will tell.
URL chart Linux (steam chart updated)
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TheRiddick Aug 14, 2017
I think VR 2.0 will change things up for Linux and gaming. Valve is putting allot of work into SteamVR for Linux lately and that's a good thing, but I do believe the current VR headsets are still not convincing people, perhaps the next gen 4k ones will be good (there is already one out but its quality is questionable) .
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Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: throghWell, what to say? Oh yes: Praising just more proprietary platforms helps, of course for a system based on user's freedom. :P
Being thankful for what exactly? The business decision from Steam / Valve? The half-hearted lie GOG is going to tell the user? No DRM? Very bad jokes and not the best arguments for a bright future. But yes: It's possible to praise that. Making every Linux-distribution to another copy of known paradigma.
Well, you can't have the cake and eat it. There are how many free-as-in-freedom games out there, that can even remotely compete with commercially made ones in terms of quality?
Yes, there is 0AD.
That's...it.
I hear you but also Xonotic.
1 Likes, Who?
lucifertdark Aug 15, 2017
When I switched to Linux 10 years ago there almost no games at all worth having, 0AD & OpenTTD were about it for me, jump forward 10 years to today & I have Hitman, Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, the Xcom games, most of the Total War games & over 700 more running natively in Linux.
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Sir_Diealot Aug 15, 2017
Another perspective on Steam vs GOG:
GOG has 2100 games, 700 for Linux, that's 1/3 of the games.
Steam has about 15000 games, 3500 for Linux, that's less than 1/4.
By ratio, GOG wins.
Those stats are all highly flawed though. The game counts may contain duplicattes due to different editions, DLC and so forth. Dosbox games that don't have a Linux version is another factor and there likely are tons of other issues that distort the statistics.
Perception is another topic altogether. New games frequently use steam for the multiplayer component. GOG has Galaxy to interoperate with steam. Galaxy is not yet available for Linux. As a consequence a fair number of new games have a Linux version on Steam but not on GOG. Those new games are more visible to players for a number of reasons, so we get the impression that there are a lot more Linux games on Steam.
For new games that is actually the case. The problem however lies mostly with Steam and the developers who rely on Steam services.
GOG has 2100 games, 700 for Linux, that's 1/3 of the games.
Steam has about 15000 games, 3500 for Linux, that's less than 1/4.
By ratio, GOG wins.
Those stats are all highly flawed though. The game counts may contain duplicattes due to different editions, DLC and so forth. Dosbox games that don't have a Linux version is another factor and there likely are tons of other issues that distort the statistics.
Perception is another topic altogether. New games frequently use steam for the multiplayer component. GOG has Galaxy to interoperate with steam. Galaxy is not yet available for Linux. As a consequence a fair number of new games have a Linux version on Steam but not on GOG. Those new games are more visible to players for a number of reasons, so we get the impression that there are a lot more Linux games on Steam.
For new games that is actually the case. The problem however lies mostly with Steam and the developers who rely on Steam services.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyProgramming 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.
There are still a lot of PC game developers that their gained their experience between 1990 and 2005 when Windows was almost unchallenged. But since then Linux/Unix have certainly been ascendant in the technical community.
However, the money people in gaming, and business in general, remain primarily Windows-oriented, as are PC gamers themselves. With gaming ( and other software ) increasingly bypassing the desktop to mobile platforms and streamed services, and PC/Laptop sales seemingly in a long slow decline, I still struggle to see where the growth of Linux on the Desktop will come from.
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Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: 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.
If streaming games become the norm ( and I actually think they will, but not for a while ), it will be because the companies producing games choose to do it that way, not because gamers necessarily think it a good idea. The driving forces are fairly strong - elimination of piracy, greater control of revenue generation, reduced support and development costs. But it will need a better global infrastructure than we have now, and there will likely always be a niche market for installable titles that someone will service.
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Aug 15, 2017
Quoting: Sir_DiealotAnother perspective on Steam vs GOG:
GOG has 2100 games, 700 for Linux, that's 1/3 of the games.
Steam has about 15000 games, 3500 for Linux, that's less than 1/4.
By ratio, GOG wins.
Those stats are all highly flawed though. The game counts may contain duplicattes due to different editions, DLC and so forth. Dosbox games that don't have a Linux version is another factor and there likely are tons of other issues that distort the statistics.
Perception is another topic altogether. New games frequently use steam for the multiplayer component. GOG has Galaxy to interoperate with steam. Galaxy is not yet available for Linux. As a consequence a fair number of new games have a Linux version on Steam but not on GOG. Those new games are more visible to players for a number of reasons, so we get the impression that there are a lot more Linux games on Steam.
For new games that is actually the case. The problem however lies mostly with Steam and the developers who rely on Steam services.
The assumption that most games are published on Steam exclusively either due to Steamworks or Galaxf missing is highly flawed.
I think you're missing the most important factor when it comes to GOG releases: Quality Control.
They are really selective about what goes into GOG and only accept stuff they think is worth it even if the publishers themselves would want to release DRM-free on GOG. They have certainly become less restrictive as of late with games "In Development" (ie Early Access, but less of a shitshow) and even games bound to Galaxy (Gwent), but they're far from ending up like Steam and itch.io. I can't remember the title, but I remember wondering whether a really nice game I liked would ever get released on GOG only to find out the devs reached out to them and they refused stating they liked the game but had a lot of similar games in their store.
Since GOG only releases but some of the PC games available and most of the games released exclusively on GOG, but not on Steam, are merely dosbox titles and therefore usually have linux support, it's safe to assume that the percentage difference between GOG and Steam Windows/Linux ratio is just a lucky side-effect of GOG's business model and the fact they only release some of the games shared among the PC world.
It's also important to note how some games are also missing linux binaries on GOG even though they technically hove been ported to linux. This is most of the times due to publishers not giving a hot damn about drm-free/gog builds or considering them unmaintainable for a niche of a niche market. GOG is not without blame since they should be pushing harder on these devs and haven't been leading by example (in regards to Galaxy) themselves either.
A welcome realization, made by others in the past, is how most publishers caring the most about their customers do release linux builds af their games, and if dosbox is not the primary source of gog ports then perhaps gog's quality checks are in line with this, confirming the assumption of how most great game releases end up receiving linux support sooner or later.
Last edited by kon14 on 15 August 2017 at 10:39 am UTC
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Quoting: wolfyrionThe biggest surprise that I had with GOG is when I discovered that is a Cypriot based company :DGOG is owned by CDProjekt which also owns CDProjekt RED (guys behind Witcher series). GOG operates from Warsaw and other offices in Poland however it has something registered in Cyprus for tax purposes as along with Ireland it's European "tax heaven". So instead of paying all the taxes in Poland where the actual work is being done and they have the offices they transfer some of that to Cyprus because they have lower taxes. They probably maintain an office and a "manager" like hundreds of other companies. That's bullshit.
(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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metro2033fanboy Aug 15, 2017
296 linux games on my STEAM library. Loving it. Now waiting for the other 400 windows-games to arrive...lmaaaaaoo
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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.
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'm really happy that Valve are pushing Linux gaming...
Hired LunarG...
Introduced Steam machines...
Raised the need for Vulkan...
Now hiring developers to improve mesa...
...
I think the next step should be to release a "Steam/Linux only" AAA game... Halflife 3 for example.
There are always exclusive titles released for a special platform ported/released later to other platforms.
Hey Valve... how about making a deal with Nintendo and release their games on a buildin dolphin/mupen64 emu inside SteamOS!?
Also think about other emus for Playstation, C64, neogeo..
This would of course raise a huge shitstorm against Valve but it would also bring Valve and linux gaming into the news... lots of people still don't know what Linux is and that you can have it for FREE and also install it BESIDE windows.
All gaming magazines would report about it - maybe also TV.
Windows gamers would give SteamOS a try and maybe would realise how easy and stable Linux is... No more hassle with drivers, etc. Everything is ALREADY installed!!!
This is of course only an idea.
Last edited by johndoe on 15 August 2017 at 12:16 pm UTC
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Sir_Diealot Aug 15, 2017
Quoting: kon14I never said that I did not talk about why there are more games on Steam in general. The reason most games are published on Steam is that it's the biggest platform. Many devs put their games on steam and are done with it, assuming most everyone uses steam anyway, no need to deal with any other stores. Maybe some want to release on other stores after the fact, but if they depend on Steam for multiplay or Steamworks they have a problem at this point, because releasing anywhere else just became so much more effort. Galaxy seems to be GOGs offer to aleviate this and get the games on GOG anyway. AFAIK it allows for at least multiplayer between Steam and GOG users.Quoting: Sir_Diealot...
The assumption that most games are published on Steam exclusively either due to Steamworks or Galaxf missing is highly flawed.
I'm not happy about this. Multiplayer should work independent of Steam or GOG. I guess it's simply easier for devs to use the Steam infrastructure than to do their own thing.
Quoting: kon14... .I think this is mostly due to Steam interop issues, no Galaxy for Linux. In some cases the ports may just be too poor. Steam and Humble bundle don't seem to care much about that, GOG have working games, for the most part...
It's also important to note how some games are also missing linux binaries on GOG even though they technically hove been ported to linux. This is most of the times due to publishers not giving a hot damn about drm-free/gog builds or considering them unmaintainable for a niche of a niche market. GOG is not without blame since they should be pushing harder on these devs and haven't been leading by example (in regards to Galaxy) themselves either.
Sure there's plenty of blame to go around.
Why does it take CD Project so long to do Galaxy for Linux? They have related job offers posted for a long time now. They likely could do something to get those developers. Pay more, allow them to work from wherever they are instead of Warsaw, anything really.
I also wonder why they apparently can't come to an agreement with some developers or publishers. Have a look at the godawful Nuclear Throne situation. And they are still selling the game, even though it's completely out of date and doesn't have a Linux version on GOG.
I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. There might be difficult situations, but they ought to be able to do something.
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To those that think GOG was polish based. That's true. As another said, this is just a tax and or responsibility evasion scheme. GOG is indeed polish, as when they tried to hire programmers, one of the requirements was that you would be able to work on location in <insert polish city>.
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