The recent Linux port teaser from Feral Interactive seems to be coming to Mac first now

Quoting: jensMac is I guess differently due to much higher volume in absolute numbers and because most (or lesser) Mac users don't have a dual boot past.

I disagree. You know of Boot Camp right?

I imagine most Mac gamers used Windows for years before getting a Mac too.

I Sincerely hope that at some point, we'd at least get complete franchise ports.

Feral did Shadow of Mordor, but shadow of War is not planned. They did an Ok job with Mankind Divided, but there's no port of Human Revolution.

What I'm most afraid of, is that there's simply not enough of us to justify having Feral doing any work...

I've started buying games, just because they have Linux support. Games I'd ignore, games I've owned for Windows on a CD. The games I like almost never get ported (probably never will, unless Bethesda change their policies). Am I the only, who does this out of fear that those semi-native ports are going to disappear?

I'm looking at the recommended specs for Bioshock Remastered for Windows (minimum GeForce 670/recommend 770), and it makes me wonder how many Macs out there will be able to handle it

Quoting: liamdaweI imagine most Mac gamers used Windows for years before getting a Mac too.

I would say there are in relative numbers less Mac users with a Windows past (or present) than Linux users, surely in absolute numbers. But we can agree to disagree here ;)

This combined with the general situation of more support costs on Linux due to much higher hardware and software fragmentation would be my reasoning for not bringing Bioshock Remastered to Linux. But this is just speculation from me. Would be nice if we would at some point hear Feral's actual reason for this business decision.

Quoting: appetrosyanWhat I'm most afraid of, is that there's simply not enough of us to justify having Feral doing any work...

That is indeed the question, right? Looks like a turning point at the moment. Our situation has that much improved in the last years that it feels like either we had the tip and the market is now satisfied or that we are at the beginning of seeing Linux to grow to a serious gaming platform.

PS: That said I'm really glad to see Ubuntu switch to Gnome again, to get rid of some fragmentation in the Linux Desktop world. We would be much stronger if 95% of all users would use either CentOs/Fedora or Ubuntu (or in other words: Debian or Red Hat based distro's).

Quoting: jens

Quoting: liamdaweI imagine most Mac gamers used Windows for years before getting a Mac too.

I would say there are in relative numbers less Mac users with a Windows past (or present) than Linux users, surely in absolute numbers. But we can agree to disagree here ;)

Unless either of us have anything to back it up it's speculation on both of our parts, not worth debating to be honest ;)

Quoting: jensThis combined with the general situation of more support costs on Linux due to much higher hardware and software fragmentation would be my reasoning for not bringing Bioshock Remastered to Linux. But this is just speculation from me. Would be nice if we would at some point hear Feral's actual reason for this business decision.

That will always be an issue of course and another not worth debating, mainly as that point is an obvious point :). Still, most developers generally target SteamOS and/or Ubuntu to get around that. Feral in this case, go by that too usually.

Quoting: Duke TakeshiHmmm okay so mac people might get whatever game it is on the radar a little earlier...so what?

So this is very important. Linux, as a profitable platform, is still weak. Waiting a bit more for a game is not a problem, but it may be one of the first sign of a decline of Linux ports.

The big wave of ports we had these years was due to comapnies following Valve in their bet. The situation is diferent now. Steam machine were'nt a big success, Linux market shares does not seem to progress, companies now see much clearer the costs and expected profits.

If Feral would slow down Linux ports (I'm not saying they do! Just considering the possibility), it would mean porting for us would be less profitable. Which would be very very bad for us.

I believe our platform can become a viable target, but we're not there yet. Drivers, ABI compatibility, libraries backward compatibilities, middleware are still major problems.

We may experience a slow down for the upcoming two or three years until vulkan, Mesa, engines, flatpack (or any other similar tech) are stable enougth.

If marketshare doesn't rise in the next years, Linux as gaming os will probably fall into oblivion.
Like my Tax app which I had on Ubuntu. I mailed and they said not enough users to continue, use Windows.-

Quoting: chimpyI'm looking at the recommended specs for Bioshock Remastered for Windows (minimum GeForce 670/recommend 770), and it makes me wonder how many Macs out there will be able to handle it

Those specs are basically based on politics, not real-life performance. They had to put something that is still supported by graphics card vendors. Real requirements are almost the same as the original one. I played it 1080p maxed on an old 6850 and it could easily do 100+ fps.

Quoting: jens

Quoting: appetrosyanWhat I'm most afraid of, is that there's simply not enough of us to justify having Feral doing any work...

PS: That said I'm really glad to see Ubuntu switch to Gnome again, to get rid of some fragmentation in the Linux Desktop world. We would be much stronger if 95% of all users would use either CentOs/Fedora or Ubuntu (or in other words: Debian or Red Hat based distro's).

Yes and No. Reducing fragmentation in that area is a good thing, but it only works out well, because both sides had a shortage of funds and developers, not a coders' block. Plus the ideas were nauseatingly similar, so you actually had effort duplication, with some diverging experience.

If people writing Debian or Ubuntu decided to merge into Red Hat, SUSE, it would have much the same effect. You would also have an added bonus of merging the advantages of all those families. You'd have centralised control over the system from SUSE, the streamlined User friendly experience for which Ubuntu is famous, and Red Hat's optimisations and security as a baseline. Best of all worlds.

But if you were to merge every other distribution into those narrow categories, you'd have a disaster. Arch is built in a very different way: it can't merge into Red Hat, because their entire ideology would be scrapped or lost. Same with Slack and Gentoo. For a corporate distribution, a "User builds their own system" kind of approach is more of a liability, and it would just die. I like that approach, and would like to keep it that way.

That said, if the corporate world finally decides on a universal Package format, It'd make our lives easier.