Recently, GOG added the Windows version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to their store and since it has a Linux version on Steam, I reached out to the porter to see about their plans for the Linux version.
We've seen a lot of speculation in the past, with people wondering if Feral Interactive will ever get their Linux ports onto a store other than Steam. Here's their official stance, which they sent me this morning:
We don't have any plans to distribute our games through GoG. If this changes, we'll make announcements through our usual channels.
We can speculate all we like as to why they're not doing it, even if the decision does strike me as a little odd. Hopefully they will reevaluate this stance in future, considering it's not exactly a new game and the Linux port from 2014 isn't exactly new either.
A shame for everyone who prefers their games on GOG.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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[quote=Linas]
GOG cares not about Linux, nor does to Windows either. GOG cares about selling stuff. Just like all the rest…
Don't know why. Why I don't care about Steam releases? Perhaps because I cannot play the Steam releases?
The ******(put your word here) client requires 32bit! I have none and I will countinue to have none. For I don't need that on my system, like at all…
They will countinue to receive nothing from me, for I have stopped bothering buying anymore. And that won't ever change because I'm way past caring for Tux gaming.
Quoting: ShmerlA team in GOG department that's been assigned with dealing with all Linux stuff… Shocking?Quoting: Shmerl...GOG Linux team...A what?
Quoting: LinasWhy is everybody so up in arms about publishers not putting their games on GOG? Sure, DRM-free is important, but they are doing very little, if anything, to push Linux adoption. They have no Linux-compatible client (GOG Galaxy), no easy way to distribute updates, no standardized runtime, don't port their own games to Linux, nothing that would actually invite Linux users and developers.
GOG could become a great alternative to Steam if they actually cared about Linux, but until then Steam is much more Linux-friendly platform run by a much more Linux-friendly company.
GOG cares not about Linux, nor does to Windows either. GOG cares about selling stuff. Just like all the rest…
Don't know why. Why I don't care about Steam releases? Perhaps because I cannot play the Steam releases?
The ******(put your word here) client requires 32bit! I have none and I will countinue to have none. For I don't need that on my system, like at all…
They will countinue to receive nothing from me, for I have stopped bothering buying anymore. And that won't ever change because I'm way past caring for Tux gaming.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ageres(conspiracy theory mode on) What if Valve gives some benefit to developers who don't put their games on GOG?
doubt about that, but they might take smaller cut from sales if the game is released for linux, so feral will get a bigger cut maybe.
thats all insane speculation though, no facts.
Last edited by Xpander on 18 June 2018 at 2:21 pm UTC
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Quoting: skinnyrafDo Feral ports use Steam DRM? Or do they use Steam only as a distribution platform and perhaps the runtime? Is it possible to run a game from Feral directly, without the Steam client running in the background?All the games I have (pretty much all that are worth having, before Rise of Tomb Raider), can not be played without the Steam client. Yes, I have actually thought of that and tested.
I'm asking, as I play all of their games on a Steam Machine without a keyboard attached, so don't have too many options for investigating...
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Mblackwell Jun 18, 2018
To be fair, from experience GOG controls every aspect of your release. They control the store page (images, text, etc), the sales, even the packaging - you send them files and they decide how it is packaged and distributed. Betas can be effectively impossible, and updated versions can take arbitrary amounts of time to be built and put online once sent.
Along with a few other things I can't talk about, I can see why some developers wouldn't bother.
Along with a few other things I can't talk about, I can see why some developers wouldn't bother.
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Quoting: MblackwellTo be fair, from experience GOG controls every aspect of your release. They control the store page (images, text, etc), the sales, even the packaging - you send them files and they decide how it is packaged and distributed. Betas can be effectively impossible, and updated versions can take arbitrary amounts of time to be built and put online once sent.
Along with a few other things I can't talk about, I can see why some developers wouldn't bother.
In this sense, itch.io is an interesting alternative which gives a lot of freedom to developers, including doing anything they want with betas and in-development versions, and it's DRM-free too. So the above is not an excuse to avoid DRM-free releases.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 3:03 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestTry as you might, there's nothing to indicate Feral's DRM stance one way or another. I put it to you that lack of xcom on GOG is about various business deals, distribution, quality control. Nothing at all to do with DRM.:) You know, it is kind of silly to try to hide an elephant behind a straw:
- The DRM-free version of the game is already available on GOG, but Feral® explicitly said it is not interested in GOG release;
- Feral uses Steamworks (as none of their games are on The Big List of DRM-Free Games on Steam.
Their (awkward) reasoning is of no importance to me. The hard truth is: Feral Interactive releases all their games as Steamworks-exclusives and it is entirely Feral's descision to do so.
You can condemn or approve this descision, but stop pretending it is not their own stance.
Sorry, but no "Feral is tied up with contractual obligations" rubbish from now on, OK?
Quoting: TheRiddickSteam does not stop developers releasing products on other platforms, so the decision is up to the original developer.Got any proof? Some Licence Agreement scans? Or, are you one of Valve employees and has explicit right to speak on behalf of Valve? And in this case the original developer had already desided do release the game DRM-free, but Feral is of different opinion on the matter.
Quoting: LinasWhy do you assume that they are even allowed to release the games as DRM-free? The majority of the games they port are not even available as DRM-free on Windows. It's not like when they make a Linux version it becomes Ferals(sic) property and they can do whatever they want with the game?Eeehmm… Hello again! It seems you did not fully understand the whole meaning of the news. Well, just in case you missed (sorry for being Captain Obvious here), "XCOM: Enemy Unknown" is already available at GOG. DRM-free!
Last edited by Alm888 on 19 June 2018 at 12:36 pm UTC
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Quoting: Alm888Got any proof? Some Licence Agreement scans? Or, are you one of Valve employees and has explicit right to speak on behalf of Valve? And in this case the original developer had already desided do release the game DRM-free, but Feral is of different opinion on the matter.
I've heard before, that Valve don't require exclusivity, but I doubt this info can be proven through public sources. In general, only Valve's own titles appear to be hard Steam exclusives, many are developers' own choice to make them so, according to developers themselves. For instance Croteam.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 3:49 pm UTC
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GustyGhost Jun 18, 2018
More and more I appreciate games whose code is freely available. That way, no platform lock-in and no storefront lock-in.
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Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: Adamfx990Its a shame publishers favour it despite GOG being the far-more consumer-friendly platform.
Oh well now - that totally depends on how you define "user friendly". One of my major arguments for Steam is precisely that it by far the most user friendly alternative, both in regards to the cloud storage of save-games (where that feature is utilised), the unified, cross platform chat feature with friends, and especially in regards to patching. It's all integrated in one client, one framework.
To claim this is not user-friendly is - if I am to be a bit blunt - really quite fanatic from the anti-drm camp. It is exactly what it is - very user friendly. That's the challenge GOG needs to tackle.
"user friendly" != "consumer friendly".
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GustyGhost Jun 18, 2018
Gosh, I haven't bought a Feral game since... Warhammer? And on Warhammer they failed to make the online component cross platform even. I have since cleansed nasty DRM out of my life so bye bye Steam. Feral if you want me to buy your games you're going to have to loosen that death grip.
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Quoting: hummer010"user friendly" != "consumer friendly".
How do you define the difference?
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Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: hummer010"user friendly" != "consumer friendly".
How do you define the difference?
Consumers can think that convenient violation of their rights is "friendly", as long as its convenient.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 4:08 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: Adamfx990Its a shame publishers favour it despite GOG being the far-more consumer-friendly platform.
Oh well now - that totally depends on how you define "user friendly". One of my major arguments for Steam is precisely that it by far the most user friendly alternative, both in regards to the cloud storage of save-games (where that feature is utilised), the unified, cross platform chat feature with friends, and especially in regards to patching. It's all integrated in one client, one framework.
To claim this is not user-friendly is - if I am to be a bit blunt - really quite fanatic from the anti-drm camp. It is exactly what it is - very user friendly. That's the challenge GOG needs to tackle.
While I personally am only mildly annoyed by DRM, I think this post is doing an apples/oranges thing. Adamfx990 said "consumer-friendly", not "user-friendly". You then went and talked about "user-friendly". The terms are distinct. To go to absurd extremes--you could have a platform which featured a telepathic AI which read my mind and instantly downloaded for me any games which I had formed the clear intention to buy, and instantly started a game I wanted to play as soon as I had decided to play it (first cleanly shutting down any other programs I would have wanted to shut down, saving documents etc exactly how I would have done it) and generally responded to my every wish when it came to games--BUT the terms of use included a clause where the company gets to drain my bank account if I ever think of a unicorn. I put it to you that this would be very user-friendly, but not consumer-friendly. One might even argue that corporate AIs reading my mind is inherently not consumer-friendly.
DRM by its nature is not consumer-friendly . . . even if the platform running the DRM is user-friendly.
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Quoting: GuestOr maybe they could put steam shim libraries in place (technical difficulty unknown), which GOG might disallow.Various developers have done it and so can Feral. GOG have no problem with it either. Anyway, whatever the excuse, Feral don't want to do it, and the end result is, their game is not available DRM-free. We don't argue about that, right? So in the end, it means Feral cater for DRMed stores only.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 4:34 pm UTC
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I think there is no point in arguing what consumer friendly vs user friendly means, both terms can be used interchangeably. What this is about is convenience and user rights. DRM is user rights' hostile by definition. It also degrades some user experiences in different ways. But at the same time it might not affect other user experiences, which some might focus on as convenient. It doesn't mean it doesn't degrade the former. For instance, backup is an example of user experience. DRM is aimed to prevent it, therefore it's not user friendly in that sense.
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 4:37 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 4:37 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestBut while we can agree that this game is not on GOG for MacOS or GNU/Linux, the reasons are important if we'd like to see those reasons overcome and have games in a form we would prefer.
The reasons could be important, if Feral would have expressed them. But they refused. So it means they don't care about help in that matter either. For DRM-free users such attitude doesn't look friendly in the least, so it's natural to assume they only care to release in DRMed stores (which is exactly what they are already doing).
Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 4:49 pm UTC
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Quoting: Alm888Eeehmm… Hello again! It seems you did not fully understand the whole meaning of the news. Well, just in case you missed (sorry for being Captain Obvious here), "XCOM: Enemy Unknown" is already available at GOG. DRM-free!Captain Obvious is my second-favorite superhero. The first one is Batman of course. :P
Yes, I know XCOM is on GOG. It is not published by Feral Interactive though. It is only one game. One exception does not make a rule.
Quoting: Alm888You cannot prove absence. Unless there is a reason to suspect that such terms exist (in which case we would have probably heard about them by now), it is logical to assume that this is not the case.Quoting: TheRiddickSteam does not stop developers releasing products on other platforms, so the decision is up to the original developer.Got any proof? Some Licence Agreement scans? Or, are you one of Valve employees and has explicit right to speak on behalf of Valve? And in this case the original developer had already decided do release the game DRM-free, but Feral is of different opinion on the matter.
Again, it is only one game. And for Feral to support a new platform for the sake of one game is costly. When more original publishers start releasing their games as DRM-free, I am sure that Linux versions will follow. But it is not Ferals decision to make.
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Mblackwell Jun 18, 2018
Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it is worth the potential time and money investment.
Last edited by Mblackwell on 18 June 2018 at 5:00 pm UTC
Last edited by Mblackwell on 18 June 2018 at 5:00 pm UTC
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PublicNuisance Jun 18, 2018
Quoting: TheRiddickIf they released GOG Galaxy for Linux, then perhaps things might change a bit. We can only dream.
Do explain why Galaxy is needed for the release of Xcom.
Quoting: LinasWhy is everybody so up in arms about publishers not putting their games on GOG? Sure, DRM-free is important, but they are doing very little, if anything, to push Linux adoption. They have no Linux-compatible client (GOG Galaxy), no easy way to distribute updates, no standardized runtime, don't port their own games to Linux, nothing that would actually invite Linux users and developers.
GOG could become a great alternative to Steam if they actually cared about Linux, but until then Steam is much more Linux-friendly platform run by a much more Linux-friendly company.
1. The issue at hand here is not games not being released on GOG but that Windows versions of games are being released and not the Mac or Linux versions.
2. You say they won't port their own games to Linux but they did have Witcher 2 ported so the correct thing to have said was they don't port all of their games to Linux not that they don't port any at all
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Quoting: BeamboomWould be interesting to read an explanation as to why. For all we know there might be good reasons. Yo Feral guy who hangs here, care to elaborate? :)
(not that it matters one bit for me personally, I want all my games in Steam anyways)
I would guess its down to the original contract feral have permission to port it to one platform ie steam and having gog version would reguire a different longer term licence.
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