Thanks to a post on Reddit, we've learned that Epic Games currently have no plans to put their store on Linux.
In response to a user question about it on Twitter, Sergey Galyonkin, the person behind Steam Spy who now works for Epic Games as the "Director of Publishing Strategy" said this:
It really isn’t on the roadmap right now. Doesn’t mean this won’t change in the future, it’s just we have so many features to implement.
It's interesting, since their original announcement mentioned the store was coming to "other open platforms" besides Windows, Mac and Android which we presumed would mean Linux. It's odd, since there aren't really other open platforms besides those to put a store on. We also had Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, give a ray of hope on Twitter with "We'll See :D" in reply to a user asking if the other open platforms meant Linux. So, I do still find it very odd that it's not on the roadmap at all. Not surprising though, Linux has always been low priority for Epic Games.
This could create an issue for us in future, since Epic Games are taking on timed-exclusive games which would mean no possibility for a Linux version until that ends. Even then, the developers of those games could decide to remain solely on the Epic Store. Remember, this has already happened with Satisfactory from Coffee Stain having the Steam store page removed to be exclusive to the Epic Store.
Speaking on Reddit, Epic's Sweeney said "These exclusives don’t come to stores for free; they’re a result of some combination of marketing commitments, development funding, or revenue guarantees.". So with that in mind, Epic Games are offering some commitments to developers to get their games, which could sway some future high-profile titles away from the likes of Steam.
For Linux gamers we still have Steam, GOG, Humble Store, itch.io and a few others which support Linux games. Heck, even Discord confirmed their store will come to Linux. For now, the Epic Store isn't a huge deal and doesn't have a lot of games (or features) for users so it won't be a huge problem right away. It will be interesting to follow, especially to see what Valve plan to do to prevent too many games leaving.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Comandante Ñoñardo Dec 31, 2018
Quoting: iiariQuoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI thing Valve should split in two: One store for big games and another for Indies....That a tough one. Where do you draw that line?
That is what I do for my accounts.
This is very subjective for me.
An Indie game is a low budget game... most of them self published.. barely with English audio and , if We are lucky, subtitles in other languages.
Big games, unlike indies, have big budget, so they have audio in various languages, very good 3d models (depends on the game), good production, availability in several platforms and a lot advertising.
But There are few games in the middle...
Example, Killing Floor 2 in an indie game, but it has audio in several languages like an AAA.
The Witcher is an indie game but with an AAA production, it has several audio languages, except Spanish...
Spoiler, click me
C'mon, CD projekt! There are 20 countries that speak Spanish!
I live in Argentina, so a game without Spanish audio is not an AAA for me.
I live in Argentina, so a game without Spanish audio is not an AAA for me.
0 Likes
orochi_kyo Dec 31, 2018
Cool, now you can stop being hype about a store which main resource to compete is using Fortnite money to pay greedy developers for exclusive stuff.
Epic store has everything I hate from console gaming, shady agreements with greedy developers to develop exclusive games or exclusive content for X platform or store, poor control to customers, almost no info about the quality of the port or the game on the store among other things.
If some games or devs will leave, then goodbye, COD BO4 leaves, nobody miss it, EA games leave, nobody miss those horrible new NFS games or those Battlefield games which has been using the same engine and assets for YEARS, remember how awful was the last Sim City with their "always online" and micro-transactions?
Fallout 76 is not on Steam and nobody asked Bethesda to put in on Steam because its awful.
We are going backwards in terms of gaming service, going back to those days when Nintendo ask developers that if they want their game on the NES or SNES they cant develop the game for other consoles. This is all the same EPIC asking devs to develop only for them, not allowing devs to sell their game in other stores.
But Steam haters are laughable, have you ever heard about Valve paying a lot of money OR promising higher
revenues to a third party developers for exclusive content?
Never, still they support these EPIC 4ssh0l3s, you cant reason properly when you hate.
Last edited by orochi_kyo on 31 December 2018 at 5:01 am UTC
Epic store has everything I hate from console gaming, shady agreements with greedy developers to develop exclusive games or exclusive content for X platform or store, poor control to customers, almost no info about the quality of the port or the game on the store among other things.
If some games or devs will leave, then goodbye, COD BO4 leaves, nobody miss it, EA games leave, nobody miss those horrible new NFS games or those Battlefield games which has been using the same engine and assets for YEARS, remember how awful was the last Sim City with their "always online" and micro-transactions?
Fallout 76 is not on Steam and nobody asked Bethesda to put in on Steam because its awful.
We are going backwards in terms of gaming service, going back to those days when Nintendo ask developers that if they want their game on the NES or SNES they cant develop the game for other consoles. This is all the same EPIC asking devs to develop only for them, not allowing devs to sell their game in other stores.
But Steam haters are laughable, have you ever heard about Valve paying a lot of money OR promising higher
revenues to a third party developers for exclusive content?
Never, still they support these EPIC 4ssh0l3s, you cant reason properly when you hate.
Last edited by orochi_kyo on 31 December 2018 at 5:01 am UTC
8 Likes, Who?
It's absolutely painful to read how detached from reality some people are. This is why we can't have nice things on Linux. From b*tt-hurt comments about why the Epic store doesn't have a Linux version planned to absurd conspiracy theories. We should set a Patreon goal called "aluminum foil", so that we can buy the lot of you material to make nice hats.
The Epic store is absurdly barebones. Epic thought they could get away with a very cut down version of a game store, but reality slapped them in the face pretty fast. So now they need to integrate a crap ton of stuff Steam has, to make users happy. Anybody who is not completely insane would prioritize that over a Linux version, because there are more Windows gamers who care about achievements, than there are Linux gamers overall. It's basic math. I am 100% sure Linux support is happening. Don't forget - we're still waiting on GOG Galaxy, which is why I only play GOG games on Windows.
I'm not even going to comment on the whole Tencent conspiracy theory. Somebody even mentioned the Chinese government. Seriously guys?
The Epic store is absurdly barebones. Epic thought they could get away with a very cut down version of a game store, but reality slapped them in the face pretty fast. So now they need to integrate a crap ton of stuff Steam has, to make users happy. Anybody who is not completely insane would prioritize that over a Linux version, because there are more Windows gamers who care about achievements, than there are Linux gamers overall. It's basic math. I am 100% sure Linux support is happening. Don't forget - we're still waiting on GOG Galaxy, which is why I only play GOG games on Windows.
I'm not even going to comment on the whole Tencent conspiracy theory. Somebody even mentioned the Chinese government. Seriously guys?
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: CreakMeh. That's just me, but most of those are hardly a bother to me and I'd gladly keep those minor inconveniences over the risk of yet another mobile-first overhaul that dumbs things down and makes actual info harder to get to and/or sacrifices screen real estate in favor of huge shiny graphics. Many of those issues could be fixed within the context of the current design instead of rebuilding everything.Quoting: SalvatosTo be honest I don't see it either.
- Encumbered UI
- Poorly made preferences/config window with way too many options that are difficult to memorize
- No smooth scrolling
- Not responsive/slow
- Using several windows (the same complaint everyone told about GIMP)
- Popups that keep stealing focus at startup
- Uselessly complex badge system (with badge levels into badges)
- Workshop that says "Follow" when you would simply expect "Install"
- and so on and so forth..
3 Likes, Who?
Arehandoro Dec 31, 2018
Not So Epic Games anyway.
0 Likes
Quoting: SalvatosQuoting: CreakMeh. That's just me, but most of those are hardly a bother to me and I'd gladly keep those minor inconveniences over the risk of yet another mobile-first overhaul that dumbs things down and makes actual info harder to get to and/or sacrifices screen real estate in favor of huge shiny graphics. Many of those issues could be fixed within the context of the current design instead of rebuilding everything.Quoting: SalvatosTo be honest I don't see it either.
- Encumbered UI
- Poorly made preferences/config window with way too many options that are difficult to memorize
- No smooth scrolling
- Not responsive/slow
- Using several windows (the same complaint everyone told about GIMP)
- Popups that keep stealing focus at startup
- Uselessly complex badge system (with badge levels into badges)
- Workshop that says "Follow" when you would simply expect "Install"
- and so on and so forth..
Have to agree. The ONLY thing that annoys me about the Steam client is that it doesn't respect Gnome window decorations. So I can't right click on its border to send it to back, for example. I'm also lucky that I use a mainly dark theme so that it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.
Smooth scrolling would be nice, I suppose...
0 Likes
Quoting: mao_dze_dunIt's absolutely painful to read how detached from reality some people are. This is why we can't have nice things on Linux. From b*tt-hurt comments about why the Epic store doesn't have a Linux version planned to absurd conspiracy theories. We should set a Patreon goal called "aluminum foil", so that we can buy the lot of you material to make nice hats.You're very rude.
The Epic store is absurdly barebones. Epic thought they could get away with a very cut down version of a game store, but reality slapped them in the face pretty fast. So now they need to integrate a crap ton of stuff Steam has, to make users happy. Anybody who is not completely insane would prioritize that over a Linux version, because there are more Windows gamers who care about achievements, than there are Linux gamers overall. It's basic math. I am 100% sure Linux support is happening. Don't forget - we're still waiting on GOG Galaxy, which is why I only play GOG games on Windows.
I'm not even going to comment on the whole Tencent conspiracy theory. Somebody even mentioned the Chinese government. Seriously guys?
We have many nice things on Linux, but to the extent we can't, it has nothing to do with people commenting on forums. Talk about detached from reality. Yes, yes, I know it was meant as hyperbole, but if you're going to criticize people's lack of realism it's bad form to lead with total lack of realism.
Continuing on with lack of realism, the reality is they say Linux support isn't on the roadmap. Why then are you saying it's somehow a ridiculous conspiracy theory for people to be talking like Linux support isn't on the roadmap? I would think (although these Epic guys admittedly don't seem to be captains of communication) that if Linux support had been on the radar but got bumped to lower priority because they suddenly realized they need features, that still would mean Linux support was on the roadmap, just at a low priority. If they say it's not on the roadmpap, that would mean they haven't seriously considered it. Sure, maybe someday it'll happen, but if they're not planning for it I don't see why we should be.
Tencent . . . if, as someone says upthread, Tencent own over 40% of Epic shares, it's hardly a conspiracy theory to expect Tencent's objectives will have some influence on the behaviour of a company they control. Rather, it would be bizarre to imagine otherwise. Why would Tencent's ownership be so stupid as not to make use of one asset to advance the profitability of other holdings if they had the opportunity? This is not mysterious voodoo; the suits call it "synergy".
All in all, I'd say your snide swipe at, uh, basically everyone here, is way farther from reality on every point you make than the people you're insulting.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: iiariQuoting: LeerdeckLet's be real here. Valve doesn't support Linux because they believe that the year of the Linux desktop is coming. Nobody does that. Valve does this because of cloud-streaming gaming that someday in the far future will be a available alternative. Because if you run a big server farm you don't want use Windows licenses. Every major publisher will someday port their games to Linux but only for their own server farms. Valve will not stop supporting Linux infrastructure because they don't really care about Linux desktop end users. That we profit from it is just a really nice side effect and we provide test results + bug reports.No more calls, we've got a winner! I think this is much closer to the truth than anything else I've read or heard elsewhere. I think Valve has been telegraphing this quite clearly in their focus on Streaming technology, and is one of the reasons I believe the Link went away. Google seems like they are on the verge of a Streaming gaming service themselves. NVIDIA is already in the space. It's the best way Valve maintains their advantage: By having a technology that everyone else will have to spend a fortune to develop, being able to implement that more cheaply than others via their Linux expertise, and leveraging their existing library. We users beta test Proton and win. Quite right. Makes a lot more sense than "new Steam Machines!"
I'm not exactly sure, but didn't Gabe once say something like that he's not a fan of those Streaming plattforms? And the Steam Link didn't go away. The little box, yes. But not the concept. In-Home Streaming is completely different from pure Streaming from a consumer standpoint. One is good, the other isn't.
Last edited by kuhpunkt on 31 December 2018 at 2:22 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, speaking about Tencent. They do have one weird problem.Quoting: mao_dze_dunIt's absolutely painful to read how detached from reality some people are. This is why we can't have nice things on Linux. From b*tt-hurt comments about why the Epic store doesn't have a Linux version planned to absurd conspiracy theories. We should set a Patreon goal called "aluminum foil", so that we can buy the lot of you material to make nice hats.You're very rude.
The Epic store is absurdly barebones. Epic thought they could get away with a very cut down version of a game store, but reality slapped them in the face pretty fast. So now they need to integrate a crap ton of stuff Steam has, to make users happy. Anybody who is not completely insane would prioritize that over a Linux version, because there are more Windows gamers who care about achievements, than there are Linux gamers overall. It's basic math. I am 100% sure Linux support is happening. Don't forget - we're still waiting on GOG Galaxy, which is why I only play GOG games on Windows.
I'm not even going to comment on the whole Tencent conspiracy theory. Somebody even mentioned the Chinese government. Seriously guys?
We have many nice things on Linux, but to the extent we can't, it has nothing to do with people commenting on forums. Talk about detached from reality. Yes, yes, I know it was meant as hyperbole, but if you're going to criticize people's lack of realism it's bad form to lead with total lack of realism.
Continuing on with lack of realism, the reality is they say Linux support isn't on the roadmap. Why then are you saying it's somehow a ridiculous conspiracy theory for people to be talking like Linux support isn't on the roadmap? I would think (although these Epic guys admittedly don't seem to be captains of communication) that if Linux support had been on the radar but got bumped to lower priority because they suddenly realized they need features, that still would mean Linux support was on the roadmap, just at a low priority. If they say it's not on the roadmpap, that would mean they haven't seriously considered it. Sure, maybe someday it'll happen, but if they're not planning for it I don't see why we should be.
Tencent . . . if, as someone says upthread, Tencent own over 40% of Epic shares, it's hardly a conspiracy theory to expect Tencent's objectives will have some influence on the behaviour of a company they control. Rather, it would be bizarre to imagine otherwise. Why would Tencent's ownership be so stupid as not to make use of one asset to advance the profitability of other holdings if they had the opportunity? This is not mysterious voodoo; the suits call it "synergy".
All in all, I'd say your snide swipe at, uh, basically everyone here, is way farther from reality on every point you make than the people you're insulting.
If they manage their products/companies/subsidiaries directly, all those stuffs will be poop.
If the products/companies/subsidiaries are independence from their control, those stuffs will be thrived.
Example? Garena. (currently, it's a poop)
0 Likes
Quoting: GuestI do not get this article.
Even i, whom i consider rather clueless about windows, had heard windows being called an open platform because anyone could develop and sell what he or she wanted on it. It was clear from the start he was thinking mainly about windows and eventually other not so closed down commercial platforms.
But they said they will aim for OTHER open platforms. They are ALREADY on Windows. So that doesn't make any sense.
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