Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment have officially joined Microsoft

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tuubiI don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

With Proton there is just a few games / developers behind walled gardens. The boundaries become more and more not technical.

Well yes and no not having native ports is a big problem because its valve they get white knighted and true they have helped linux because it helps them have an alternative to windows if MS decide to make it difficult to work on windows. Proton is funded by valve and valve does have a patience meter just look at steam machines gone no marketing no mention of them on steam store anymore steam link failed barely mentioned and sold for under a pound last two steam sales. Valve have money and resources but they seem to have a very limited amount of patience.

By closing down Windows MS threatens Valves busyness foundations. So there is two possible ways for Valve to act:
1. Become part of the MS store.
2. Find another open OS base.

I think what Valve does, and did for the past few years, is a very long term enterprise. They never shifted from it, as we can see when we look at Proton. They need Linux, and I think they understood Linux needs more users to be attractive to developers. With the visibility of their strategie they naturally reinforced MS on their strategy. So I guess it's no wonder we see a lot of movement these days:

- Proton makes games playable we never dreamed of.
- Proton makes developers ditch native versions.
- Linux userbase might (hopefully) rise because people that wanted to change to Linux get to play more of their Steam libs on Linux.
- MS might try to deny more games on Linux.
- MS suddenly loves Linux (where it's useful to them).

What we won't see, I think, is Valve stopping what they do.

So from my perspective: F*ck inXile and Obsidian and move on.


Last edited by Nevertheless on 11 November 2018 at 11:20 am UTC

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tuubiI don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

Hey, there is Pathfinder: Kingmaker! It really feels great! I'm just waiting for the 1.1 version to start over.

At the end, i wonder, who between Disney and Microsoft will by the other one ?

I'd like to prepare, should i wear squares or circles, with my forced smile ?

Gaming on Linux (not this website, the act of gaming...) is a "small issue" for me, the big one being that more and more giants are eating the smaller people.

EMBRACE. EXTEND. EXTINGUISH.

While talking about this in relation to another recent well known multi billion dollar M$ acquisition, Bryan Lunduke explains this specific M$ agenda to a point.
Watch this vid... laugh, cry, view the whole vid, then cry again.

"Linux Sucks. Forever. - Filmed live at Linux Fest NW - April 28, 2018"
https://youtu.be/TVHcdgrqbHE?t=685

Quoting: GuestThis is a strange move, these companies predominantly make PC games that simply wouldn't work as well on console, they can't be buying them to make xbox exclusives, asking them to make xbox exclusives would be like asking a man to dance on one leg. These companies also only make games that wouldn't benefit at all from using apis like dx12 or vulkan, they're just not that graphically intense.

I'm not seeing their plan here, I'm not seeing a lot of their plans these days and it makes me a little nervous.

It looks to me like they are going for the "throw stuff on the wall to see what sticks" method: buy lots of studios in the hopes a few of them will produce console sellers. For that, it doesn't really matter that these companies' current games don't really fit consoles; the same could be said for fpses (control scheme) back when Microsoft acquired Bungie, after all.

I expect some major pruning in a few years, with most of these acquisitions getting axed, leaving the few success stories in place as producers of console exclusives.


Last edited by emphy on 11 November 2018 at 11:46 am UTC

QuoteI think we should be okay for future titles. Microsoft loves Linux after all…right?

MS loves Linux wherever it makes them money, which is in the cloud. Video games on the other hand, not so much. With video games they want walled garden. The reason they are buying up all these game studios (13 now I think) is because Sony has been having some great exclusives which has helped them gain a majority of the console market. This is MS trying to catch up with that and this means they will play by Sony's rules, which means exclusives, which means Windows Store + Xbox only. I do hope I'm wrong, but it's looking very grim.

It's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

Well, in the bright side remember that Chris Avellone is now on techland working on dying light 2 as narrative designer.

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: JiskinIt's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

I cannot speak for the others but i am well aware boycotts do not work. In my case, i just do not want to contribute to Microsoft's coffers.

Plus game wise i am not very optimistic. But even if the next Obisidian inXile game was interesting to me, i still wouldn't give a dime to M$

I too think it might be more helpful to give the money to a developer who offers at least a chance of more Linux titles.

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: JiskinIt's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

I cannot speak for the others but i am well aware boycotts do not work. In my case, i just do not want to contribute to Microsoft's coffers.

Plus game wise i am not very optimistic. But even if the next Obisidian inXile game was interesting to me, i still wouldn't give a dime to M$

I too think it might be more helpful to give the money to a developer who offers at least a chance of more Linux titles.

Even if I can understand you point of view, just picture it in a capitalistic world: would you help or provide a service to a community hostile in paying you for that ? Obviously no.

We should be inspired by South Africa and forgive. MS is not the old ennemy it was, and whatever you think they have made some great products and major contributions to Linux and PC world.

If the Linux users' mentality do not change, why MS would ?