News in the last week, heck, in the last few weeks and months have the potential to shake up the games industry significantly. It certainly may have huge repercussions for Linux gaming. It’s also been a little hard to follow sometimes, so I decided to explain many of the developments of the past few months and put them within an easy-to-understand context.
What better way to speak from the heart than using the ancient art form of letter-writing? I couldn’t think of a better alternative. So below is my earnest plea to Valve regarding Linux gaming:
Dearest Valve,
The first time we met, I was a precocious scamp, highly excited about the potential of video games and already a voracious gamer. It’s already been 20 years and you still have people enamored with your first title. As you might already know, I also really enjoyed my time wielding a crowbar. Even if I found headcrabs sometimes a little too scary at that tender age. It’s hard to believe just how that early success blew up and how it allowed you outclass most other developers when it comes to having an impact on the PC gaming market.
Well, I mean, I think we both know that it’s kind of hard to believe for outsiders. You and me know the real score. The massive success of Half-Life wasn’t just due to its impressive AI, naturalistic storytelling and tight action. Instead, rather astutely I need to add, its modability is what truly made it stand out. You promoted the GoldSrc engine with the original Team Fortress but it was ingenious modders that created Day of Defeat and Counter-Strike. That generation of mods really came to define PC multiplayer games for several years and I lost track of how many times I played a Half-life-based mod at a LAN party or cyber cafe.
That’s also why you were able to get away with pushing Steam. No one liked the client at first and I think most people begrudgingly installed it as a way to play Half-life 2 and Counter-Strike 1.6. You were smart to acquire CS and smart to invite other developers to release their games on Steam. Having an open platform with no exclusivity deals and which also took care of distribution in an age where brick and mortar stores were still a major force was a risky gamble. But you rightly saw that there was a niche in the market you could establish yourself in. With enough time and effort, that niche pretty much became the market.
Once you were the top dog in the digital front, you didn’t rest on your laurels. You added support for OSX and, eventually, Linux to your client and your games. The common refrain from people when the subject comes up is that it was Microsoft’s announcement of their own store for programs that made you panic. I don’t really disagree but, personally, I think that the more useful way of looking at is that you value openness; Gabe Newell has famously quipped that he thinks exclusives are bad for everyone. And I think that’s something that many gamers agree on—people should get to enjoy the games we like no matter what operating system or platform they choose.
Too many hours were spent here back in the day.
Though you’ve had your controversies with curation and the games on your store, you’ve ultimately opted towards openness when it comes to content. Nudity and violence are all fine and dandy, hidden behind opt-in filters in your store. Sure, it’s an imperfect solution with plenty of ambiguous wiggle room but, so far, so good. Liam got to pretend he wasn’t into sexy times just recently thanks to that policy. Let the good times continue to roll.
I was apathetic to Epic’s announcement of their own game store earlier this week. Competition, in principle, is good. You know it best as you’ve shared the space with other stores for years. You know that you’re in an open relationship with every gamer. DRM-free and a good deal is hard to say no to sometimes. It’s by competing that customers get the best value. Your improvements to the store, friends chat and other features are clearly spurred on by the desire to keep on being relevant and competitive.
Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, has sent mixed-messages about Linux and the games industry over the years. I’m not exactly holding my breath that the new store will support Linux properly despite vague hints. Seeing is believing, insofar I’m concerned. Their flagship title, Fortnite, has come to our Linux-powered Android cousins but not to our shiny and GNUish desktop computers, after all. And, besides, they’ve already committed a most grievous sin insofar we’re both concerned: they have 3rd-party exclusives on their store.
You know that’s a tactic that big companies try to do to get people to flock to them. Console makers do it all the time. Certain big publishers do it to varying degrees in the PC field: some publish on Steam as well but some really large names do all their business exclusively through their digital storefronts. You probably knew of Epic’s moves in advance—that would explain your recent adjustments to revenue sharing for popular titles. I get it, you want to prevent the big boys from packing up and striking it out on their own.
Yes, some indies are (rightfully) upset that they’re not getting any breaks. But I see the cold business logic as well. You need to keep the latest and greatest big titles on your store in order to keep customers. You’re not a charity. Still, I know you have a cunning plan for maintaining your primacy in the PC space. People like to joke about Valve Time and your aloof nature but I think it’s plain enough to see if you’ve been following closely your engagement with Linux.
Though we make up a little less than 1% of the Steam market share, we’ve gotten a disproportionate amount of attention from you. Timothy Arceri, Samuel Pitoiset, Andres Rodriguez, Daniel Shürmann and others have been paid by you to contribute to Mesa. Pierre-Loup Griffais has been very active in sorting out things like Proton and generally making gaming on Linux better. And, of course, Keith Packard has been a very busy man getting VR to work well on Linux. I check the Mesa mailing list almost daily and often see something being contributed by one of your affiliated devs. Do forgive me if I forgot any other big names but my memory isn’t what it used to be.
My, and Proton? You worked with Codeweavers, Wine, and Philip Rebohle, the person behind DXVK. And you’re working with Ethan Lee in order to get FAudio sorted. That likely took a level of resources and commitment that most companies would not bother with—the advantage you have is that you’re privately-owned and doesn’t have to answer to shareholders who want short-term returns. You’re playing the long game. You recognized that the only way an open platform thrives is by making sure that the programs that everyone knows and love work well and as painlessly as possible. The objective there isn’t to get everyone to switch because of Proton, but make the barrier of entry as low as possible. Realistically the thousands of Windows-only games that have been released on Steam won’t be ported in their entirety anytime soon. It simply doesn’t make financial sense for the developers and publishers.
There’s a plan afoot! But I’ll get to that in a moment.
I have to add as an aside that I’ve become impressed with your Steam Play efforts after being initially skeptical. As I said at the beginning—I’ve been a lifelong gamer. I had a lot of PC games before I switched to Linux full time and, my lovable but clueless friends and family have occasionally gifted me Windows-only games because they thought that I’d enjoy the shiny new hot game. I’ve played some of those old games in my library now. And, in a moment of weakness brought on by a glass too many of actual wine, I even bought some newer titles with good compatibility during the last sale. Then again, you always did know my weak spots. I have to admit it was a rather unfiltered pleasure to let myself be seduced by the erstwhile forbidden allure of DOOM and Valkyria Chronicles 4.
I've broken my vow of "no tux no bux". Feel free to shame me.
Anyways, your plan! Your lying lips may say otherwise but I know you better than that. I’m on to you. You’re about as conspicuous as a tower of hats. I’ve thought so for the longest time, what seems like years now, that you’re clearly gearing up for another generation of VR hardware and SteamOS-powered consoles. Recent “leaks” have reinforced my suspicions. You realized that depending on Windows for your console was a non-starter if you want an open base system. Astutely, you realized that the driver and software support situation on Linux could use improvement. Hence the direct driver work and hence the continuous push for ports and Steam Play. That’s fantastic, if true, and I wish you all the best with your ultimate plan.
And yet... I’m not sure it’ll be enough, sweet Valve.
After buttering you up and extolling your genius so shamelessly, I need to tell you that you need to keep a firm heading. You need to double down on Linux because that’s the only way that you can replicate your booming success of the early days with all the sharks in the water. Only smaller fish like the awesome itch.io and Paradox Interactive have bothered to provide first-class Linux support for their stores and launchers. They don’t have the resources to invest in the ecosystem as a whole, much less drive its direction. Being able to deliver on competitively-priced VR hardware with a the largest games catalog in the market would be a huge win. No one has yet made VR appeal to the masses as it’s too cumbersome and expensive.
You can’t win against aggressively-split revenue because there will always be a more desperate newcomer that will attempt to show you up. You have to be calm, steady and head into a market that you get to create all over again. You insistence on open platform and that’s how you got here in the first place.
That said, be nicer to small developers! 30% of their revenue is too much. Once you factor in any costs they might have in licensing engines and tech as well as the cut to their publishers (if they have one), they’re barely making ends meet. You know it and I know it. Indies, porting houses and basically anyone who isn't a AAA publisher knows it too. Y'know, the vast majority of developers on your platform. Something's got to give.
There’s only one piece of very practical advice I’d give you to turbocharge your Linux efforts. It involves some numbers, though, and they aren’t my strongest suit so feel free to tweak them to your liking. I know you can’t count to three, yourself.
Simply put: you should lower your take by 1-2% for anyone that puts up a game on steam with an officially supported Linux version. This may not seem like much but at the 50+ million USD range, where you’ve currently adjusted your cut to be 20%, that’s at least whole extra million USD (at, say 18%) that the publisher or developer would get to keep. Even the biggest players might find that their financial calculus is worth the risk of having and supporting a Linux port despite our paltry numbers in terms of absolute market share. Indies would also love the extra income, no matter how little it might seem. When you’re small, every penny counts. It’s important that this is a flat percentage for all sales instead of just Linux sales, otherwise the incentive isn’t large enough.
With the cost of entry lowered due to your work all these years on drivers and the ecosystem as a whole, I think that a more direct nudge is needed. It’ll play into your long-term plan of building towards a VR Linux-powered console. Don’t get me wrong: releasing games like Artifact (with day-1 Linux support) or making CS:GO free-to-play is great but it’s not enough to guarantee your spot at the top. You need to keep pushing the market and shaping its direction. Our interests are aligned at the moment and I want to see Linux gaming be as great as it possibly can be. I’ll dare to say that they’re aligned in the medium-to-long run as well—fat chance Microsoft will drop its store anytime soon given they’ve also started buying up studios. Not mention, Epic is clearly going all-in with their strategy and store; even their formerly flagship title, Unreal Tournament, has been seemingly abandoned in their bold charge forward.
Even if I’m not convinced about the broad appeal of VR yet, it really can’t hurt to have an open and free ecosystem where you can really push your weight around. You’ll have to be smart about your move in the PC game market and competing on just the traditional price wars front is a definite road towards stagnation. Sure, consumers will win either way in the short run but where will you be in five to ten years? Is this format sustainable? You don’t need to answer me right away.
I know you’re quiet and not given to clear communication. We’ve been at this for twenty years, so I don’t expect any different. Still, if I could have any one thing from the holidays from you it’d be that you take my concerns seriously. Your direct contributions are laudable but will be for naught if you don’t get enough of a critical mass in both users and software for Linux. Don’t answer right away please—take your time to think and reflect. I’ll be waiting eagerly to see what you have to say or what you do in the coming weeks and months.
Yours affectionately,
BTRE
P.S. If you do ever feel like sharing, know that both Liam and I would gladly talk to you about your vision and plans for Linux and the games market whenever you want. Let us know!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I must say I get competition is great but I hate having my games split between multiple apps library. got command and conquer, battle field 4, and sim city with EA. wow, diablo 3 and star craft 2 with battlenet, witcher 3 with gog and 300 games on steam.Is it too difficult to click another icon to launch a game? Some strange people even buy game consoles - big expensive devices intended only for playing few games.
Maybe not difficult, but annoying. That's what is/was so great about Steam. It was comfortable. That's also what is/was great about consoles. You just start it and press play. Steam offers the same thing. You think console owners would be happy if they had to log into 12 different accounts on their system?
There are tons of Steam only games. Why is all of a sudden Epic evil for having 3rd party esxclusives?Nothing is stopping those developers/publishers from releasing on other platforms. At least on Valve's end. It's up to them. If you follow the link in the article you'll see examples of developers who previously released in other stores (like Supergiant) who have, for now, only exclusively launched their games on Epic's store. Presumably, they've signed a contract with Epic for full or limited-time exclusivity. That's an important distinction.
Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive. It seems most devs who fully jumped ship are betting on compensating for the possibly lower volume of sales with the bigger cut they get from each sale. Quite frankly, I find this hostility towards Epic, for making a new store, silly. Valve don't own PC gaming. If somebody else offers a better price or better service - I'll shop there. The best thing that can happen to consumers is there is increased competition. And if Epic manage to make Valve sweat - even better.
Valve are a business that is trying to get its customers money by providing goods and services. Gabe Newell is a businessman, not our buddy or pal. Nothing more, nothing less. Writing a love letter to a company that doesn't give a damn about you (because it doesn't) is just weird. I appreciate what Valve did for Linux gaming, but in the end that's nothing more than a business decision. I don't write a thank you letter to the restaurants I eat at.
Maybe not difficult, but annoying. That's what is/was so great about Steam. It was comfortable.It's either this, or Steam monopoly.
You think console owners would be happy if they had to log into 12 different accounts on their system?Don't they already have to do that for Uplay, Origin, Fortnite, etc?
Valve are a business that is trying to get its customers money by providing goods and services. Gabe Newell is a businessman, not our buddy or pal. Nothing more, nothing less.
One doesn't exclude the other.
Writing a love letter to a company that doesn't give a damn about you (because it doesn't) is just weird. I appreciate what Valve did for Linux gaming, but in the end that's nothing more than a business decision.
Of course it's business - but you know what's good for business? Happy customers. So of course they give a damn about you. If you aren't happy, you will leave. If you leave they won't get your money.
I don't write a thank you letter to the restaurants I eat at.
Why not? The owner might be happy to hear that his work is appreciated.
You think console owners would be happy if they had to log into 12 different accounts on their system?Don't they already have to do that for Uplay, Origin, Fortnite, etc?
No. Those things aren't a thing on consoles.
Last edited by kuhpunkt on 10 December 2018 at 1:05 pm UTC
Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive.
Epic are giving away Subnautica the coming weekend. Since it not reasonable to think that the dev is just giving away their game to promote the Epic store, it is Epic pulling their wallet to bring in people. If they do it for this game, they likely did it for others as well.
I think you're misinterpreting peoples feelings on this, especially ours. BTRE isn't being hostile towards Epic, I certainly haven't been either. Not entirely sure where that's coming from? BTRE is right, seeing is believing and until the Epic store is on Linux it doesn't mean that much to us as a platform.There are tons of Steam only games. Why is all of a sudden Epic evil for having 3rd party esxclusives?Nothing is stopping those developers/publishers from releasing on other platforms. At least on Valve's end. It's up to them. If you follow the link in the article you'll see examples of developers who previously released in other stores (like Supergiant) who have, for now, only exclusively launched their games on Epic's store. Presumably, they've signed a contract with Epic for full or limited-time exclusivity. That's an important distinction.
Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive. It seems most devs who fully jumped ship are betting on compensating for the possibly lower volume of sales with the bigger cut they get from each sale. Quite frankly, I find this hostility towards Epic, for making a new store, silly. Valve don't own PC gaming. If somebody else offers a better price or better service - I'll shop there. The best thing that can happen to consumers is there is increased competition. And if Epic manage to make Valve sweat - even better.
Valve are a business that is trying to get its customers money by providing goods and services. Gabe Newell is a businessman, not our buddy or pal. Nothing more, nothing less. Writing a love letter to a company that doesn't give a damn about you (because it doesn't) is just weird. I appreciate what Valve did for Linux gaming, but in the end that's nothing more than a business decision. I don't write a thank you letter to the restaurants I eat at.
To be clear, we as a website would welcome the Epic store on Linux. Competition is good, not having what could be one of the biggest PC stores online isn't good and so apart from the "yet another launcher" argument, it would be a good thing to have it.
As for assumptions, it's not an assumption about exclusives, it has already happened. As BTRE said, check the link provided. You mentioned a timed exclusive (I assume Hades from Supergiant) but Satisfactory from Coffee Stain has completely scrapped the Steam release and entirely removed their store page. The article linked even explicity mentions this:
Satisfactory did have a Steam page but Coffee Stain have pulled that and explained on YouTube that they now plan to release their Factorio ’em up exclusively through Epic’s store.
Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive.
Epic are giving away Subnautica the coming weekend. Since it not reasonable to think that the dev is just giving away their game to promote the Epic store, it is Epic pulling their wallet to bring in people. If they do it for this game, they likely did it for others as well.
Subnautica was already a part of the Humble Freedom Bundle (47 games for 30$) almost two years ago... so I got it for less than 1$. Epic won't catch me with such lazy tricks :P
Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive.
Epic are giving away Subnautica the coming weekend. Since it not reasonable to think that the dev is just giving away their game to promote the Epic store, it is Epic pulling their wallet to bring in people. If they do it for this game, they likely did it for others as well.
ubisoft also gave away a lot of games. prince of persia, splinter cell, watch dogs
i still dont use uplay........
Ubisoft didn't have the most popular game in the world though. You will now have kids and teens growing up, understanding exactly what the Epic Store is thanks to Fortnite. They have a big pull, will be interesting to see how it goes.Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive.
Epic are giving away Subnautica the coming weekend. Since it not reasonable to think that the dev is just giving away their game to promote the Epic store, it is Epic pulling their wallet to bring in people. If they do it for this game, they likely did it for others as well.
ubisoft also gave away a lot of games. prince of persia, splinter cell, watch dogs
i still dont use uplay........
Ubisoft didn't have the most popular game in the world though. You will now have kids and teens growing up, understanding exactly what the Epic Store is thanks to Fortnite. They have a big pull, will be interesting to see how it goes.Actually, we have zero indication of this. I have absolutely no idea on what you're basing your assumptions, except for this one game, that was announced as a timed exclusive.
Epic are giving away Subnautica the coming weekend. Since it not reasonable to think that the dev is just giving away their game to promote the Epic store, it is Epic pulling their wallet to bring in people. If they do it for this game, they likely did it for others as well.
ubisoft also gave away a lot of games. prince of persia, splinter cell, watch dogs
i still dont use uplay........
but they have far cry, assassins creed, watch dogs, splinter cell, beyond good an evil, etc
epic has 1 free2play game......
i know there are a lot of fortnite player BUT most of them are on consoles. maybe children, who cant afford full price games, or have to wait til christmas
the PC market ist very small compared to PS4.
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Last edited by mylka on 10 December 2018 at 3:23 pm UTC
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Unreal Tournament. And an engine that they're not exactly going to make difficult to use with their store.
So does Steam, they just need to finally release it :D
https://www.polygon.com/2015/3/3/8145273/valve-source-2-announcement-free-developers
There are tons of Steam only games. Why is all of a sudden Epic evil for having 3rd party esxclusives?
There are tons of Steam only games. Why is all of a sudden Epic evil for having 3rd party esxclusives?
Not saying its right but probably because Valve has a very odd white knight/saviour of gaming reputation not something i share but am guessing thats why. Valve have done a lot for linux and mac no doubt of course its not done out of the kindness of their hearts but there are worse companies to be sure.
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Unreal Tournament. And an engine that they're not exactly going to make difficult to use with their store.
are you serious? who plays UT today? i think valve has more gamers play csgo, dota, tf2, left 4 dead
engine? everybody has an engine. ubisoft has more than 1 engine, vavle has an engine, ea has an engine
there are so many engines on the market. i think we all agree, that ubisoft has the best open world engine with assassins creed
and theres cyberpunk coming with its own engine. witcher 3 was beautiful til assassins creed origin came along
the most beautiful games dont use unreal engine
kingdom come. best forest.... cryengine
valve just needs to improve their engine and make left 4 dead 3, or a new dota, or cs and epic + fortnite have absolutlly no chance
and im pretty sure they have half life 3/portal 3 somewhere in case of emergency
Last edited by mylka on 10 December 2018 at 6:13 pm UTC
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Unreal Tournament. And an engine that they're not exactly going to make difficult to use with their store.
are you serious? who plays UT today? i think valve has more gamers play csgo, dota, tf2, left 4 dead
engine? everybody has an engine. ubisoft has more than 1 engine, vavle has an engine, ea has an engine
there are so many engines on the market. i think we all agree, that ubisoft has the best open world engine with assassins creed
and theres cyberpunk coming with its own engine. witcher 3 was beautiful til assassins creed origin came along
the most beautiful games dont use unreal engine
kingdom come. best forest.... cryengine
valve just needs to improve their engine and make left 4 dead 3, or a new dota, or cs and epic + fortnite have absolutlly no chance
and im pretty sure they have half life 3/portal 3 somewhere in case of emergency
Unreal Tournament is a famous brand, and Epic can move more money into it again if needed.
And that you're disregarding the Unreal Engine like that pretty much shows how little you understand of why Epic is such a major player.
and valve has more than 1 brand. as i said
l4d, cs, dota, tf, portal, hl
vavle even has more genres
i dont disregard the unreal engine, but it is 1 of many. nothing special
Last edited by mylka on 10 December 2018 at 6:30 pm UTC
I know this is going to sound harsh, because text can be taken that way, but I mean this as something more akin to a constructive comment: you appear to have "Valve blinders" on. The original comment was about if Fortnite disappears, what do Epic have? They have Unreal Tournament. The original UT was up there with Quake3. It's really not hard for Epic to build more success around Unreal Tournament, and use that to continue to leverage their own store. And yes, that keeps them quite happily in competition with Valve.
I don't think Fortnite is going anywhere soon, but I don't think Unreal Tournament is such a draw anymore. Arena shooters might just not be a thing anymore. Law Breakers completely failed. I don't know how many people play Quake Champions outside of Steam but on Steam it's just ~1400 players on average. And don't you think there's a reason why they stopped working on the new UT?
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Unreal Tournament. And an engine that they're not exactly going to make difficult to use with their store.
are you serious? who plays UT today? i think valve has more gamers play csgo, dota, tf2, left 4 dead
engine? everybody has an engine. ubisoft has more than 1 engine, vavle has an engine, ea has an engine
there are so many engines on the market. i think we all agree, that ubisoft has the best open world engine with assassins creed
and theres cyberpunk coming with its own engine. witcher 3 was beautiful til assassins creed origin came along
the most beautiful games dont use unreal engine
kingdom come. best forest.... cryengine
valve just needs to improve their engine and make left 4 dead 3, or a new dota, or cs and epic + fortnite have absolutlly no chance
and im pretty sure they have half life 3/portal 3 somewhere in case of emergency
Unreal Tournament is a famous brand, and Epic can move more money into it again if needed.
And that you're disregarding the Unreal Engine like that pretty much shows how little you understand of why Epic is such a major player.
and valve has more than 1 brand. as i said
l4d, cs, dota, tf, portal, hl
vavle even has more genres
i dont disregard the unreal engine, but it is 1 of many. nothing special
I know this is going to sound harsh, because text can be taken that way, but I mean this as something more akin to a constructive comment: you appear to have "Valve blinders" on. The original comment was about if Fortnite disappears, what do Epic have? They have Unreal Tournament. The original UT was up there with Quake3. It's really not hard for Epic to build more success around Unreal Tournament, and use that to continue to leverage their own store. And yes, that keeps them quite happily in competition with Valve.
Unreal Engine is quite special. Again, I don't think you quite realise just how special. Epic have additionally added a marketplace for content to add to it - something developers quite enjoy, and Epic are going to make it very easy to get their engine, develop on it, create a game with it, and publish to their store. That entire developer toolchain will make it very attractive to indies, and that's before the lower percentage cut taken by Epic. This is why Valve should be a little concerned.
sounds nice theoretically, seems to be not so easy in practical
there is ubisoft with a very good anvil engine and an own store an they still give a lot of money to valve
there is CDProject, with an own store (DRM free of course) with a very good REDengine. they cant compete with steam. they still give valve a lot of money with witcher 3 and they will do it with cyberpunk
there is EA, with an own store, with a very good frostbite engine. they cant compete with steam
so yes, the cut to epic is less, but i think, that they also sell way less copies, because i have a huge amount of games and all of my friends in steam and i wont get another client, just because the developers get more of my money
the human being is fucking lazy. they dont want change and as long as the games on epic arent much much cheaper than on steam, no one goes to epic
and if they start with exclusive titles like EA than F you epic and all your developers. i wont support that and i hope/think that much PC gamers have the same opinion. PC gamers are different from console gamers
FirearmsUnited Dec 10, 2018
This was a very wholesome letter and I really really support it! Valve and Linux Gamers happen to fight alongside because we are facing a common enemy: Platform and/or developer exclusive stores with harsh content restrictions. Valve has given us love and support beyond anything I could have ever imaged a couple of years ago and the Linux community, while small, has hoisted their flags in support. While Linux might be the Hobbit that is able to throw the ring into the volcano it is Valve who has to fight and win the war so we are able to. I always wished that Valve would succeed in making Linux a fully fledged gaming platform but it was Proton that made me truly believe that it was possible. Now with the new Hardware in the making we are nearing an important moment in history that will decide for the decades to come if Valve will succeed with their open and uncensored store concept for all of us to enjoy or if we will enter a dark age of console and smartphone like closed stores with painful content "curation" (censorship).
The world around us gets darker and uglier every day and there is nothing we can do against it. I really hope that at least our gaming world will remain an open, creative and easy to use place where people of every kind can enjoy a very diverse catalogue of games. No game will make everyone happy but everyone will find something to enjoy while tuning out the content they don't like without making it unavailable to those who enjoy it.
Man I really just wrote my whole thought process down but it felt great to do, so I will just post it.
i mean ubisoft has a franchise for every year. what does epic have, when the fortnite hype is over?
Unreal Tournament. And an engine that they're not exactly going to make difficult to use with their store.
are you serious? who plays UT today? i think valve has more gamers play csgo, dota, tf2, left 4 dead
engine? everybody has an engine. ubisoft has more than 1 engine, vavle has an engine, ea has an engine
there are so many engines on the market. i think we all agree, that ubisoft has the best open world engine with assassins creed
and theres cyberpunk coming with its own engine. witcher 3 was beautiful til assassins creed origin came along
the most beautiful games dont use unreal engine
kingdom come. best forest.... cryengine
valve just needs to improve their engine and make left 4 dead 3, or a new dota, or cs and epic + fortnite have absolutlly no chance
and im pretty sure they have half life 3/portal 3 somewhere in case of emergency
Unreal Tournament is a famous brand, and Epic can move more money into it again if needed.
And that you're disregarding the Unreal Engine like that pretty much shows how little you understand of why Epic is such a major player.
and valve has more than 1 brand. as i said
l4d, cs, dota, tf, portal, hl
vavle even has more genres
i dont disregard the unreal engine, but it is 1 of many. nothing special
I know this is going to sound harsh, because text can be taken that way, but I mean this as something more akin to a constructive comment: you appear to have "Valve blinders" on. The original comment was about if Fortnite disappears, what do Epic have? They have Unreal Tournament. The original UT was up there with Quake3. It's really not hard for Epic to build more success around Unreal Tournament, and use that to continue to leverage their own store. And yes, that keeps them quite happily in competition with Valve.
Unreal Engine is quite special. Again, I don't think you quite realise just how special. Epic have additionally added a marketplace for content to add to it - something developers quite enjoy, and Epic are going to make it very easy to get their engine, develop on it, create a game with it, and publish to their store. That entire developer toolchain will make it very attractive to indies, and that's before the lower percentage cut taken by Epic. This is why Valve should be a little concerned.
Yeah Unreal engine is what Epic have and fortnite which was a failed single player game that became a hit when they turned it into a free battle royale game. But unreal tournament doesnt have draw anymore noone cares about arena shooters now. Hell you can get four or five good arena shooters for free right here on linux and the player base is in the hundreds if your lucky for all of them.
The world around us gets darker and uglier every day and there is nothing we can do against it. I really hope that at least our gaming world will remain an open, creative and easy to use place where people of every kind can enjoy a very diverse catalogue of games.
Well said, FirearmsUnited! More free software, more collaboration.
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Oh and the name doesn't mean anything but coincidentally could be pronounced as "Buttery" which suits me just fine.
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