A feature that was often requested by Linux gamers, was a way for us to show developers there's a demand for a port. Valve has delivered something interesting to help. Although it does have a small caveat, it's only if you pick one platform in your Steam settings.
Writing about it on Twitter, Valve developer Pierre-Loup linked to this post on Steam that explains it:
We have made changes to the wishlist aiming to improve developers' visibility of any interest in their title coming from Steam users playing on platforms they're not currently targeting.
If a user only has one platform filter selected in their Steam store preferences, adding a game to their wishlist will result in it being specially reported to the developer in a new platform-specific breakdown of the wishlist report:
Currently, Steam has this feature some of you might be familiar with (set it here):
Now they're actually making some more use of it, so developers will end up seeing something like this:
A simple change overall, but one that could end up proving quite interesting for developers. I don't imagine this suddenly moving mountains (being realistic here), but we've long needed something official like this to help things along a bit more.
More changes like this, to help developers decide can only be a good thing for Linux/SteamOS gaming.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Seems weird consumers can tweak their end but devs cannot.
UltraAltesBrot Dec 6, 2017
Now I'll have to go over the full list of steam games and add all those windows/mac-only titles that I'd like to see ported...
It would be interesting to see how those stats look like for some of the highly demanded games, like The Witcher 3.
Last edited by pb on 6 December 2017 at 11:12 pm UTC
Challenge accepted Steam.
Also PUBG.
Last edited by Leopard on 6 December 2017 at 11:16 pm UTC
Quoting: Smoke39I'm not sure how useful this will be. It doesn't count people who dual boot but prefer Linux, and people who don't know about this feature may not bother wishlisting games they can't play (personally, I use the "follow" function for games I'm hoping get ported, and only wishlist them if and when they do). I kinda feel like this could actually make demand look even smaller than it actually is.
Agreed , since i was only wishlisting games with an actual port but if this can help a bit ; why not?
Quoting: Smoke39I'm not sure how useful this will be. It doesn't count people who dual boot but prefer Linux, and people who don't know about this feature may not bother wishlisting games they can't play (personally, I use the "follow" function for games I'm hoping get ported, and only wishlist them if and when they do). I kinda feel like this could actually make demand look even smaller than it actually is.
Seriously. Given that the wishlist is already kinda of unwieldy due to the complete lack of filtering, why would we want to clutter it up even more with stuff *we can't even play*? And what happens when a well-meaning friend/relative sees it there and buys it for us? :/ I'm glad Steam is trying help with Linux, but this particular plan is rather less than half-baked.
If I start wishlisting non-Linux games, I'm inevitably going to end up receiving Steam gifts that I can't play. :(
Quoting: WorMzyIf I start wishlisting non-Linux games, I'm inevitably going to end up receiving Steam gifts that I can't play. :(I'm in much the same bind. But I'm pretty careful about arranging my list with the stuff I want most at the top, and everyone who buys from it knows that, so it might be safe to put a few non-Linux things on the end.
On the upside, it's another sign that Valve hasn't given up on Linux.
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