Epic Games new 'Epic Online Services' will support Linux and it's free for developers to use

Companies that base their business strategy around taking away consumer choice end up on my shit-list pretty quickly, no matter if they support Linux or not (not that they would).

The other problem is the sketchy way Epic is doing business. They're cutting backroom deals and offering big sums of money to publishers in order to secure an exclusive contract while the developers get the shaft. You see, the publishers don't care if a game sells fewer copies being an Epic Store exclusive because they have their money upfront. It's the developers who's paychecks depend on number of units sold who get screwed.

So I think now we know wich other "open plattform" Sweeney meant.
It is stadia - no way it is Linux...

I'd rather have Origin () on Linux than this.

they are working on an linux engine
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/eas-experimental-halcyon-game-engine-has-vulkan-and-linux-support.12840
now we know it is surely for stadia, but maybe even origin comes to linux one day

Well, regarding to Sergey Galyonkin's tweet, they are looking for Linux engineers. In that thread it's about getting Pheonix Point to run on Linux... via proton or wine or whatever.

i think Phoenix Point is the perfect game for stadia. latency isnt that important

Man. Phoenix Point is actually a game that would make me wonder if I should give in and play it via Stadia (if it became possible). I'd probably hold out and not get it during an exclusive period. Hard to say.

I would guess that all the weirdness of the past year like new online game-stores popping up and offering supply-side inducements, Microsoft embarking on a shopping spree for studios, and now Google announcing Stadia, are the dance of a major re-alignment in gaming.

A major upheaval has been predicted for a long time, these are probably just the first indications that it is arriving. I'm still not convinced how many people will want to jump to Games as a Service, or how practical it is yet, but the ball is rolling downhill now, so it is probably not going to stop.

We now have at least NVidia, Sony, Blade Shadow, Jump, and Google with known GaaS-like offerings, and rumours about Valve, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart, EA, Apple, and Comcast. It's logical to assume that anyone with a strong existing subscriber or customer base in a relevant industry - i.e. Phones, Tablets, PCs, TVs, Cable service, Cellular Service, Landline Telephony service - is related to one of these potential gaming services, or is thinking of providing their own.

I know Tim Sweeney is put on the "naughty step" a lot lately over the practices used to promote Epic Games Store, and further back over taking investment from Tencent, but seen in the light of the potential alternatives lining up to enter the market, his decisions are more easily understood. The company he founded has survived when so many others have not, because he found ways to finance it's survival and navigate the threats.

I don't approve of Epic's behaviour, but I can see the threat of disruption in the industry, and I'm pretty sure there will be a lot more things to dislike, from all quarters, in the coming year or so.

Consoles may be under more threat in the short term than "Open" PC platforms, because the draw XBox and PS have for attracting developers to their big markets has the potential to evaporate under pressure to develop for more interesting and potentially profitable markets. I can also see a portion of the console players just not buy new consoles if services like Stadia provide a better experience at an acceptable cost.

I think the PC player base is probably less likely to shift to streaming in the short term, but I can see the Linux Native market actually being ignored more in terms of internally developed game releases in favour of the streaming services which are huge potential markets.

But I can also see that if you just want to be able to use your Linux PC to play games, are not riddled with FSF and EFF principles, have a good network connection and don't mind not "owning" games, that the choice available to you could become very wide. The biggest problem might be the number of streaming services you need to use if they start competing by buying studios and negotiating exclusive agreements.

And so, one day, they will buy third party games and release them exclusively on linux. And I will be forced to stand up for the windows junkies out there. This gaming world is so messed up.

if i had the fortnite money, i would totally do it

here you have metro.... but linux exclusive for 1 year
i brought you pc master race heavy rain.... but linux exclusive for 1 year
you like factorio... here you have it in 3D, called satisfactory.... but linux exclusive for 1 year
i heard you like RDR2, here we go.... but linux exclusive for 1 year

that would be so funny... 95% pc gamers pissed off, hackers start to build windows wrappers, to make it playable on windows

Windows users excited with a new version of "LINE" so they could test what Linux games are working on windows :)

Linux Is Next (Windows) Emulator.

ADD: (Forgot to add comments)

Like EA plans on Halcyon. I'm believed it when I see it for real.

Or LITE = LITE Is Totally an Emulator

I'd rather have Origin () on Linux than this.

they are working on an linux engine
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/eas-experimental-halcyon-game-engine-has-vulkan-and-linux-support.12840
now we know it is surely for stadia, but maybe even origin comes to linux one day

Well, regarding to Sergey Galyonkin's tweet, they are looking for Linux engineers. In that thread it's about getting Pheonix Point to run on Linux... via proton or wine or whatever.

i think Phoenix Point is the perfect game for stadia. latency isnt that important

Man. Phoenix Point is actually a game that would make me wonder if I should give in and play it via Stadia (if it became possible). I'd probably hold out and not get it during an exclusive period. Hard to say.

i dont know. they droped linux a few month ago, because it was too hard and now they are back on it because google came around?

and of course now they made it epic exclusive.
i like xcom games, but i rather play xcom again, or hard west, or Attack of the Earthlings, or battletech, or, mutant year zero, or even crookz.... than support this

I'd rather have Origin () on Linux than this.

they are working on an linux engine
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/eas-experimental-halcyon-game-engine-has-vulkan-and-linux-support.12840
now we know it is surely for stadia, but maybe even origin comes to linux one day

Well, regarding to Sergey Galyonkin's tweet, they are looking for Linux engineers. In that thread it's about getting Pheonix Point to run on Linux... via proton or wine or whatever.

i think Phoenix Point is the perfect game for stadia. latency isnt that important

Man. Phoenix Point is actually a game that would make me wonder if I should give in and play it via Stadia (if it became possible). I'd probably hold out and not get it during an exclusive period. Hard to say.

i dont know. they droped linux a few month ago, because it was too hard and now they are back on it because google came around?

and of course now they made it epic exclusive.
i like xcom games, but i rather play xcom again, or hard west, or Attack of the Earthlings, or battletech, or, mutant year zero, or even crookz.... than support this

Yeah, I know. I'll even add more games to the list you started: Fell Seal, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, even Wesnoth. And I do own both Xcom games and Battletech. I definitely don't need Phoenix Point. :)

The pricing model and usage policy of Stadia will probably have the biggest effect on whether I take a stance on principle... and how much more of the exclusivity garbage continues.


Last edited by 14 on 23 March 2019 at 8:31 pm UTC

All this talk skewed off topic...I'm more concerned with Epic's lack of focus on safety (account security/etc).


I'm sure the streaming service will be its own headline, so I'll just keep it short and say that this is the start of another market to be heavily influenced by giant corporations' greed.


Last edited by sneakeyboard on 24 March 2019 at 8:34 pm UTC

I'm sure the streaming service will be its own headline, so I'll just keep it short and say that this is the start of another market to be heavily influenced by giant corporations' greed.

We don't even know how much actually. Cloud gaming has the potential to be either the best thing ever or to the ultimate catastrophe for us gamers.

In the past music streaming services battled each other with exclusives and other anti consumer practices. Pirate bay forced them to be more reasonable with their plans and now you can choose Amazon, Google, Spotify, Apple and so on for their service, not for their catalog, all at a reasonable price.

Video streaming started all right. But now that greedy video makers try to eat the streamers slice, the market is about to learn the same lesson. It's already starting to be rather annoying.

The battle of the launchers as it is called the Epic/Steam conflict doesn't much differs from the above. In the end the market will settle to a balance were everybody is happy.

But Game streaming? If developers stop to even release desktop versions there will never be a version to pirate in the first place. Then the shit that Epic store is pouring on us today will look like an utopia. Guys like Sweeney and the likes will be free to charge you as many monthly fees as they like. Then you will either start a mortgage to access all the games you like or will need to choose every month what you will like to play. Which for me it sucks: when I want to play, I know what I want to play in that moment, not one month before. Not to mention that in the world of curated shops/cloud services little gems like Undertale, Stardew Valley, Factorio and so on would never have a chance to even exist. Which means worse games to play overall.

Ofc that's just the worst case scenario. The best one is that it ends like for music. We get all the games in the world, at reasonable price and with many streaming providers to choose from. But for me, the kind of person I am, I will stop gaming entirely if the worse case scenario is what is coming. But since I feel that I can't really do do anything to stop it, I will just live by the moment and enjoy my Steam library for a few hours before another Sunday ends and a work Monday begins. :)

I'm sure the streaming service will be its own headline, so I'll just keep it short and say that this is the start of another market to be heavily influenced by giant corporations' greed.

We don't even know how much actually. Cloud gaming has the potential to be either the best thing ever or to the ultimate catastrophe for us gamers.

In the past music streaming services battled each other with exclusives and other anti consumer practices. Pirate bay forced them to be more reasonable with their plans and now you can choose Amazon, Google, Spotify, Apple and so on for their service, not for their catalog, all at a reasonable price.

Video streaming started all right. But now that greedy video makers try to eat the streamers slice, the market is about to learn the same lesson. It's already starting to be rather annoying.

The battle of the launchers as it is called the Epic/Steam conflict doesn't much differs from the above. In the end the market will settle to a balance were everybody is happy.

But Game streaming? If developers stop to even release desktop versions there will never be a version to pirate in the first place. Then the shit that Epic store is pouring on us today will look like an utopia. Guys like Sweeney and the likes will be free to charge you as many monthly fees as they like. Then you will either start a mortgage to access all the games you like or will need to choose every month what you will like to play. Which for me it sucks: when I want to play, I know what I want to play in that moment, not one month before. Not to mention that in the world of curated shops/cloud services little gems like Undertale, Stardew Valley, Factorio and so on would never have a chance to even exist. Which means worse games to play overall.

Ofc that's just the worst case scenario. The best one is that it ends like for music. We get all the games in the world, at reasonable price and with many streaming providers to choose from. But for me, the kind of person I am, I will stop gaming entirely if the worse case scenario is what is coming. But since I feel that I can't really do do anything to stop it, I will just live by the moment and enjoy my Steam library for a few hours before another Sunday ends and a work Monday begins. :)

Late reply but still adding to it:

The difference from the situation with the music industry is that consumers had a choice, and they chose to vote with their wallets. Cloud services are part of a service that requires internet availability, which implies the infrastructure is there to support their ideal model and/or estimates: i.e. We guarantee 30ms of latency.

There are so many problems that it should be a topic all in its own. So, in my mind, it has zero potential until the US can stop pretending that a 50+year old cable will still deliver a stable and consistent signal to consumers. EU can enjoy it to say the least but the US is usually a target market given its large population.

I'm sure the streaming service will be its own headline, so I'll just keep it short and say that this is the start of another market to be heavily influenced by giant corporations' greed.

We don't even know how much actually. Cloud gaming has the potential to be either the best thing ever or to the ultimate catastrophe for us gamers.

In the past music streaming services battled each other with exclusives and other anti consumer practices. Pirate bay forced them to be more reasonable with their plans and now you can choose Amazon, Google, Spotify, Apple and so on for their service, not for their catalog, all at a reasonable price.

Video streaming started all right. But now that greedy video makers try to eat the streamers slice, the market is about to learn the same lesson. It's already starting to be rather annoying.

The battle of the launchers as it is called the Epic/Steam conflict doesn't much differs from the above. In the end the market will settle to a balance were everybody is happy.

But Game streaming? If developers stop to even release desktop versions there will never be a version to pirate in the first place. Then the shit that Epic store is pouring on us today will look like an utopia. Guys like Sweeney and the likes will be free to charge you as many monthly fees as they like. Then you will either start a mortgage to access all the games you like or will need to choose every month what you will like to play. Which for me it sucks: when I want to play, I know what I want to play in that moment, not one month before. Not to mention that in the world of curated shops/cloud services little gems like Undertale, Stardew Valley, Factorio and so on would never have a chance to even exist. Which means worse games to play overall.

Ofc that's just the worst case scenario. The best one is that it ends like for music. We get all the games in the world, at reasonable price and with many streaming providers to choose from. But for me, the kind of person I am, I will stop gaming entirely if the worse case scenario is what is coming. But since I feel that I can't really do do anything to stop it, I will just live by the moment and enjoy my Steam library for a few hours before another Sunday ends and a work Monday begins. :)

Late reply but still adding to it:

The difference from the situation with the music industry is that consumers had a choice, and they chose to vote with their wallets. Cloud services are part of a service that requires internet availability, which implies the infrastructure is there to support their ideal model and/or estimates: i.e. We guarantee 30ms of latency.

There are so many problems that it should be a topic all in its own. So, in my mind, it has zero potential until the US can stop pretending that a 50+year old cable will still deliver a stable and consistent signal to consumers. EU can enjoy it to say the least but the US is usually a target market given its large population.

You should see Australian internet!