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We will start the day with a bit of sad news, as the latest version of the popular Football Manager series Football Manager 2019 is not coming to Linux.

Announced today, Football Manager 2019 is only listing Windows and Mac on Steam. A user on Twitter reached out about the missing Linux version, to which the director of Football Manager simply replied that it was correct.

We followed up to ask why that is and the reply was this:

cost/benefit analysis. It unfortunately wasn't selling enough on Linux to cover the QA costs, let alone the dev cost. :(

Sports Interactive first put the game on Linux back in November 2013, which was considered a really good thing for Linux gamers considering how popular the title is. Looking at the 2018 edition, right now it has over thirty thousand people playing it (the peak today being nearly double that), so to have a game as popular as that no longer support Linux is a bit of a loss.

If it's not selling enough as they say to cover the costs, then you can't really argue against that. It sadly doesn't make sense for all games, even if they're popular on one platform they won't always be on another.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Sports, Steam
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g000h Aug 6, 2018
On which note, I've got a 75% off coupon for Football Manager 2018 that I'm unlikely to use. Yes, FM2018 supports Linux.
VoxelForge Aug 6, 2018
I wonder if situations like this would be less common if there weren't so many "Linux for everything but games" people. I know quite a few Linux users who complain about game support, dual-booting with a pirated version of Windows 7 and never actually using their Linux version of Steam - even for titles with a Linux port. I strictly use VMs and the occasional Windows drive for games when there is absolutely no Linux port available/coming.

To each their own, but if we're not contributing to our own numbers we're shooting ourselves in the foot.
Kristian Aug 6, 2018
This is of course bad news. But I guess it is a good thing it is news. 10 years ago, a game not coming to Linux wouldn't have been news. It would just be the normal state of affairs.
SadL Aug 6, 2018
That's really sad. I have the old FM14 and FM15 and yes these games are indeed a huge time sink...they are quite enjoyable for football fans. We do have other games to play but I feel really sad to hear that any game series no matter big or small discontinues Linux support...
Cmdr_Iras Aug 6, 2018
Shame, but I havent played a FM game since the 2009 version so wont affect me personally. But still not a good thing for a company to admit that Linux isnt a good business desicion for them while understandable. Hopefully this only affects this game specifically as FM is published by Sega who also publish the Total War games (I know those are brought to us by Feral though)
Leopard Aug 6, 2018
Well. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
Liam Dawe Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.
Leopard Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
rcaridade145 Aug 6, 2018
Isn't the game the same year after year? Fifa and such have ruined the games with version year+1 for me.
theghost Aug 6, 2018
For us German Steam users, the game wasn't available before.
Some region lock prohibited a sale of the game in Germany (probably some kind of license deal).
So I guess that's not a loss :D
Liam Dawe Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
Yes, Linux has a small market share and developers aren't going to get rich doing it, however I'm arguing against it being inevitable for all games on Linux, which is complete bullshit.

Since Steam came to Linux in 2013 there's very few games that have actually stopped supporting Linux.
rcaridade145 Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
Yes, Linux has a small market share and developers aren't going to get rich doing it, however I'm arguing against it being inevitable for all games on Linux, which is complete bullshit.

Since Steam came to Linux in 2013 there's very few games that have actually stopped supporting Linux.

Others were promised but did not come at all. Still waiting for SF5 :( Most likely will end up buying Tekken7 and using wine and dxvk to play it.
Leopard Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
Yes, Linux has a small market share and developers aren't going to get rich doing it, however I'm arguing against it being inevitable for all games on Linux, which is complete bullshit.

Since Steam came to Linux in 2013 there's very few games that have actually stopped supporting Linux.

Yes , few actually stopped supporting Linux while most of them didn't even come to Linux at all.
[email protected] Aug 6, 2018
Honest.. player DB updates should be regular updates and not new major version release.

I have 2017. Didn't see the need to buy 2018.
Liam Dawe Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
Yes, Linux has a small market share and developers aren't going to get rich doing it, however I'm arguing against it being inevitable for all games on Linux, which is complete bullshit.

Since Steam came to Linux in 2013 there's very few games that have actually stopped supporting Linux.

Yes , few actually stopped supporting Linux while most of them didn't even come to Linux at all.
Are you surprised, when people have attitudes like this ;)
tonR Aug 6, 2018
Apologies for very negative opinion...
Why on earth I should paid a franchise game for full price every year just for some updates? I played FM12/13 before in cyber cafe and played FM17 which bought legally last year to show my "Linux gamer support". Nothing much difference between both games IMO.

Sega/SI should abandoned yearly game launching and adopt base game + battle/season pass - style for FM. Like USD30 for base game and USD 15-20 for latest new season team squads. Paying full price for PC games franchise yearly plus with PC gaming gone all digital aren't feasible and/or justify anymore.

Yes, It's sad to see a franchise usually comes on Linux no longer available. But in this case, I'm not missed it much. Sega have superb track record on Linux gaming. So, I'm not afraid on "Sega will abandoning Linux" rhetoric.

Note: Not a football fan and terrible FM player but almost all my friends are football fans.. So yeah, go with the flow.
Leopard Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: LeopardWell. That is ineviateble for all games on Linux.
No, it's really not.

Well , unless company/publisher is just doing Linux version without seeking financial gainings.
Yes, Linux has a small market share and developers aren't going to get rich doing it, however I'm arguing against it being inevitable for all games on Linux, which is complete bullshit.

Since Steam came to Linux in 2013 there's very few games that have actually stopped supporting Linux.

Yes , few actually stopped supporting Linux while most of them didn't even come to Linux at all.
Are you surprised, when people have attitudes like this ;)

What is wrong with my saying anyway?

People on Linux don't buy games

Edit due to misunderstandings:

People on Linux of course buying games. But it seems that is not enough to justify expenses for Linux builds.


Last edited by Leopard on 6 August 2018 at 3:29 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: LeopardWhat is wrong with my saying anyway?

People on Linux don't buy games
Oh I do love the smell of FUD on a Monday afternoon.
Beamboom Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: LeopardPeople on Linux don't buy games

Why do you bother stating such obviously wrong claims? Why are you even here, on a site with pretty much only Linux gamers buying games (with the possibly single exception being you).
Tuxee Aug 6, 2018
Quoting: LeopardPeople on Linux don't buy games

Makes me wonder where those 417 Linux titles in my Steam library come from. Well, quite a few come from Humble Bundles, but apart from that I've bought 17 games so far in 2018. In they weren't even in the below-one-Euro pricing range: Helium Rain, Factorio, Skyforce Reloaded, RUINER, ROTR, Steamworld Dig 2,...

I'd rather say people on Windows don't buy games. They copy 'em.
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