As an update to my previous article talking about Easy Anti-Cheat, as it turns out they're not stopping official native Linux support for it at all. Previously we got word from Garry Newman of Facepunch Studios, who said "EAC are pausing their Linux support" but as it turns out that's not right.
Here's what Epic Games told me over email this morning:
Thanks for reaching out! Sorry to see all the confusion on this topic.Garry's comments reflect day-to-day prioritization decisions between anti-cheat issues across all of the platforms we support. These ongoing trade-offs in priorities don't mean there is any change in the long-term development of our Linux anti-cheat, and we remain committed to providing the support necessary for Linux as a gaming platform.
They also notified me they put a Twitter post out in public to also confirm this. Additionally, they also mentioned in a reply to someone on Twitter that work seems to be in progress to support EAC in Wine "EAC/Wine compatibility is currently in a beta state", which means Steam Play support should hopefully come eventually.
For those who don't quite understand, it's likely that Linux-related issues are just a much lower priority (for obvious reasons) compared to issues being found on other bigger platforms.
So…as you were, carry on, nothing to see here. A bit of good news is how I like to start my day. However, it also means I personally jumped the gun on this which seems to have caused a bit of a storm with it being shared wildly across Reddit, Twitter and YouTubers using it to claim Epic Games is killing off Steam Play and so on.
I honestly thought such a well-known game developer could be taken at their word but I was wrong on that. So for that, I apologise. I am only human, I do make mistakes and I will reflect on it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
And we, of course, believe Epic Games and Sweeney for they never lied before (*sarcasm*).
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I'm starting to feel like we will have to actually start paying from our pockets to get proper support in our platform for even third party tools.
All this situation recalls me of the recent events of Vivox, with the difference that for this case we have the comments from two bullies of the industry. Propitious days...
All this situation recalls me of the recent events of Vivox, with the difference that for this case we have the comments from two bullies of the industry. Propitious days...
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The mistake here (and hopefully lesson learned) was believing Garry in the first place... Epic Games are not saints, of course not (their scummy practices are hurting Linux gaming already), but Garry... this guy behaves like Linux is a nightmare, haunting his dreams, while he maybe didn't realize Linux is powering all his smart devices and the whole god damn internet. What an interesting and sad person.
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Quoting: mao_dze_dunOh, for fuck sake, what do you people want? A written statement signed in Tim Sweeney's blood? They're not stopping anything and just being honest about prioritizing Windows over Linux because duh. Being critical of Epic is one thing, but being ridiculous tin foil wearer is just absurd.Yeah, I'm actually surprised Liam got even this much from them. The fact they bothered to address it at all (rather than one big shoulder shrug and a "who cares?") I find the most encouraging aspect of all...
Good for you for owning up the mistake Liam. Also thank you for the new info on the matter.
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" day-to-day prioritization decisions between anti-cheat issues across all of the platforms we support."
How is this different from a pause? As far as I can tell they nowhere in their statement explicitly deny a pause. Like all PR statements, theirs is ambiguously worded.
How is this different from a pause? As far as I can tell they nowhere in their statement explicitly deny a pause. Like all PR statements, theirs is ambiguously worded.
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Kimyrielle May 7, 2019
Quoting: mao_dze_dunOh, for fuck sake, what do you people want? A written statement signed in Tim Sweeney's blood? They're not stopping anything and just being honest about prioritizing Windows over Linux because duh. Being critical of Epic is one thing, but being ridiculous tin foil wearer is just absurd.
I guess it's because of the tremendous amount of bad blood caused by Epic Games in the community lately. The reaction to this is...quite human, I guess? It's hard to trust somebody with a track record of not giving a flying fish about you and openly saying so. Trust has be earned, and their posting is a first step towards reconciliation after breaking more porcelain than the proverbial bull in the china shop, nothing more, nothing less.
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Quoting: scaineI don't see any gum jumping. A major developer cast aspersions on Linux support for a crucial piece of middleware affecting many games. I want that news reported.Some people will only ever want me to cover something when it's 100% confirmed and not have any kind of speculation whatsoever, that's just not how the internet works though. As I tried to explain to others before, part of my reasoning in doing a lot of things early is so I can get ahead of all the utter clickbait out there. Some people don't accept that and as usual a couple people across Reddit are saying all sorts of horrible things - but fuck them.
If Liam sat on news like this, waiting for official communications, half the controversial stories would break elsewhere, without any community damage control, such as dredgepits like Reddit.
Please keep doing what you're doing, Liam. It's much appreciated.
The problem is, what if they don't reply in a few days, a week, 2 weeks? Everyone else covers it, we're left waiting. Better to get ahead of a problem, while still contacting people to ensure you get confirmation while making sure people know things are not confirmed.
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Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: scaineI don't see any gum jumping. A major developer cast aspersions on Linux support for a crucial piece of middleware affecting many games. I want that news reported.Some people will only ever want me to cover something when it's 100% confirmed and not have any kind of speculation whatsoever, that's just not how the internet works though. As I tried to explain to others before, part of my reasoning in doing a lot of things early is so I can get ahead of all the utter clickbait out there. Some people don't accept that and as usual a couple people across Reddit are saying all sorts of horrible things - but fuck them.
If Liam sat on news like this, waiting for official communications, half the controversial stories would break elsewhere, without any community damage control, such as dredgepits like Reddit.
Please keep doing what you're doing, Liam. It's much appreciated.
The problem is, what if they don't reply in a few days, a week, 2 weeks? Everyone else covers it, we're left waiting. Better to get ahead of a problem, while still contacting people to ensure you get confirmation while making sure people know things are not confirmed.
Don't worry about them Liam. Speculation is a right of men in the free world. Plus using you mind to connect the dots, formulate hypothesis, look for the hidden truth are all legit and valuable skills in journalists. What is cancer is deny, hide or distort the factual truth, but that's not what happened here.
All in all speculation even when it turns out wrong it prompts the involved actors to release official statements to the press to avoid misunderstandings and so is functional to get actual clarity. Which is what journalism is about.
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EagleDelta May 7, 2019
Quoting: gradyvuckovicOK, two things, good and bad... well, start with the bad I guess.
QuoteEarlier comments by a partner reflect ordinary day-to-day prioritization decisions
Wait, whose decisions? Facepunch's or EAC's? Sounds like EAC's? It doesn't sound like they're denying this but just qualifying it..
...
I don't know, there's a lot of PR talk in this.
Nothing really PR about it (other than the careful wording). The day-to-day prioritization of tasks/issues is very much a normal thing in development. All Dev decisions are weigh against impact, business need, risk, and so many other factors and prioritized based on that.
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Quoting: EagleDeltaNothing really PR about it (other than the careful wording). The day-to-day prioritization of tasks/issues is very much a normal thing in development. All Dev decisions are weigh against impact, business need, risk, and so many other factors and prioritized based on that.They essentially confirmed that they had paused support by neither saying nor denying it but vaguely qualifying Garry's claim and saying there are no long-term plan changes, which was never the subject. If that's not PR talk...
They could have been transparent and said something like "Yes, Linux support is currently on hold while our teams have their hands full with X and Y, but once that's cleared things will be back to normal."
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