Valve have put out a news post to highlight some of the top games put onto Steam in May and it's another reminder of why Steam Play is needed.
In this blog post they start by listing 20 games that had the top revenue earned in the first two weeks following their release. Without looking, take a guess at the number of games in that list that actually support Linux.
Did you take a guess? The answer is a rather sobering two: Rise of Industry and Total War: THREE KINGDOMS. What happens to that number if we include those that can be run with Steam Play, with a "Platinum" rating from user reports on ProtonDB? That brings it right up to nine, which is far more impressive. It would be even higher, if Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye worked with Steam Play and since both said they're working on it (Sources: EAC - BattlEye), things can only get better.
They also went over the top five free games, measured by peak player count within the first two weeks following release: Conqueror's Blade, Splitgate: Arena Warfare, Minion Masters, Eden Rising and Never Split the Party. Of those, only one supports Linux which is Never Split the Party. If we take "Platinum" Steam Play games again, that only rises to two.
Note: The top free games list has two entries that also appear in the top revenue list.
Without popular games, Linux gaming won't grow to a point where it will be noticeable. Once again, this is a big reason why Steam Play is going to help in the long run. First we get games, then we get players, then we hopefully get developers wanting control with their own supported Linux builds.
What's interesting though, is this only takes into account the first two weeks in both cases. Taking a look myself a bit closer, out of the top 20 games most played on Steam right now (players online) only one of those games Valve listed in the blog post actually make it at all, which is Total War: THREE KINGDOMS and that does support Linux. Going even further, out of the top 100 games on Steam for player count, from Valve's list, only currently Total War: THREE KINGDOMS shows up.
As a quick additional and interesting measure for June: Looking at the top 20 by player count right now, how many in total support Linux? A much healthier 10, so half which isn't so bad. Stretching it out even more, from the top 100 by player count, 43 of them support Linux.
So while we don't get the "latest and greatest" games, keep in mind that we do have a lot of games that stay popular supported on Linux, so there's at least a silver lining of sorts there.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoteif in short Linux was definitively better as a thing to use than for instance Windows, and specifically if you could play all the Windows games and Linux continued to kick ass in other ways, that this would inevitably result in a mass exodus from Windows and a rapid growth of Linux market share. I don't think that is actually true.
Hm... Not sure about that. It's not like I hear Windows users tell me all the time how they are just loving their Windows. And early next year, when Windows 7 is supposed to die, we'll hear that even less. There might be a barrier of "nobody's using it". If everybody knew someone who also runs Linux (and maybe could be of assistance), I could imagine this mass movement.
Quoting: EikeI'd certainly love to see that Windows 7--> Linux migration scenario materialize. But I've seen a couple of other "This MS screw-up should drive people our way" events that never worked out, so I dunno. Time will tell.Quoteif in short Linux was definitively better as a thing to use than for instance Windows, and specifically if you could play all the Windows games and Linux continued to kick ass in other ways, that this would inevitably result in a mass exodus from Windows and a rapid growth of Linux market share. I don't think that is actually true.
Hm... Not sure about that. It's not like I hear Windows users tell me all the time how they are just loving their Windows. And early next year, when Windows 7 is supposed to die, we'll hear that even less. There might be a barrier of "nobody's using it". If everybody knew someone who also runs Linux (and maybe could be of assistance), I could imagine this mass movement.
Quoting: ShmerlParadox head of sales talking about Linux support (08:15): https://play.acast.com/s/theparadoxpodcast/Buzzsprout-1340245The rest of what he said is pretty frightening though. He seems quite definite that Linux gaming is shrinking over time. This over a time period when on a technical level, near as I can figure out Linux has been significantly improving as a gaming platform.
He brings an interesting point, that Stadia can help them continue supporting desktop releases due to cost being covered. That what I think will impact developers a lot more, than people using Wine / Proton and etc.
We may need Proton, and Stadia I guess, more than I thought.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe rest of what he said is pretty frightening though. He seems quite definite that Linux gaming is shrinking over time.
He mentioned their sales, not Linux gaming in general. It makes zero sense for it to be shrinking, when more gamers use Linux every year. In my view, sales go down due to natural balancing of the market. I.e. if amount of produced games is growing faster than influx of new gamers, people will be proportionally buying less from a particular developer (not less overall though!)
Market will naturally balance out, by developers making less Linux games, until amount of Linux gamers will grow over some point for them to increase it again. And if price of making Linux games will continue falling (due to Stadia and etc.), it will speed up tilting the market in the positive direction, like he said.
Last edited by Shmerl on 30 June 2019 at 8:39 am UTC
Nevertheless Jun 30, 2019
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: GuestI've said it before and I will say it again, "no tux no bucks" does more harm than good and this shows whyNot sure I see the conflict. Steamplay is for making migration to Linux easier. No Tux no Bux is current Linux users rewarding developers who support Linux. Both those things have a place; indeed I'd say they're complementary.
I like the idea to bring those two together! In my opinion it can only work, when current Linux users try to reward the efforts of developers creating native Linux games, before buying Proton games. In that case however, there is not much left from an absolute nTnb mindset. Or did you have in mind that Proton games are only for new Linux users?
Nevertheless Jun 30, 2019
Quoting: EikeQuoting: Purple Library GuyThe production of native Linux games could totally plummet in that scenario. For Steamplay to be a Good Thing it has to result in a big market share gain. And we don't actually know that's going to happen. I think we have to roll those dice anyway because the stagnation we have right now isn't viable in the medium term, but the concerns about Steamplay potentially damaging native game production are pretty valid.
Thanks for these two posts. I cited the second one to say: Yes, this is a) what I'm fearing and b) what, in my eyes, seems to be actually happening. Even many GoL readers, probably more involved than the average Linux gamer, seem to jump on Proton like the starved, and we're not seeing a decent raise on the Steam survey side. I already had the impression of a decline in interesting Linux releases before Proton, but IMHO, Proton... it doesn't seem to stop this to say the least.
I was afraid of what would be happening when Proton was announced, and I see my fears coming true.
... to an extend that I might use it myself some day.
If I will, I'll think about hiding the Linux sale by the way. I figure it might be actually counterproductive to show that Linux users buy Windows only games.
But the point is: Proton games are not Windows only games anymore!
Quoting: GuestI've said it before and I will say it again, "no tux no bucks" does more harm than good and this shows why
And how this has been working so far?
The truth is that the interest on Linux Gaming these last 2 years has only grow thanks to Proton & DXVK.
It's too bad you stick with you rigid rule, the more people we have on Linux, the more contributors we have for all other open source projects. Besides, on Steam if you buy a Windows game and play via Steam Play, I understood it is count as Linux sale (maybe someone could confirm that?). If it's true, not buying just show the developers that Linux gamers no have any interest in their games... what is doing more harm now?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'd certainly love to see that Windows 7--> Linux migration scenario materialize. But I've seen a couple of other "This MS screw-up should drive people our way" events that never worked out, so I dunno. Time will tell.
I don't actually see it happen (most people will use Windows 10, some just stay with Windows 7), it would have to be combined with your "Linux just does everything better" scenario.
Last edited by Eike on 30 June 2019 at 8:53 am UTC
Quoting: NeverthelessQuoting: EikeIf I will, I'll think about hiding the Linux sale by the way. I figure it might be actually counterproductive to show that Linux users buy Windows only games.
But the point is: Proton games are not Windows only games anymore!
Well, in order not to have to argue about that...
I figure it might be actually counterproductive to show that Linux users buy games not ported to Linux (if you want to have games ported to Linux).
Nevertheless Jun 30, 2019
Quoting: EikeQuoting: NeverthelessQuoting: EikeIf I will, I'll think about hiding the Linux sale by the way. I figure it might be actually counterproductive to show that Linux users buy Windows only games.
But the point is: Proton games are not Windows only games anymore!
Well, in order not to have to argue about that...
I figure it might be actually counterproductive to show that Linux users buy games not ported to Linux (if you want to have games ported to Linux).
I'd love to see Linux in a position to automatically get native versions of all games, but I realized it's not. And when I ask myselve what kind of gaming do I really want, then answer is open platform gaming. I really could live with a Vulkan/Proton platform fully supporting Windows/Linux/Mac/Whatever. You could say I see Proton games as liberated games. ;-)
Last edited by Nevertheless on 30 June 2019 at 9:04 am UTC
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