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.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: EikeIf releasing for Windows only and losing 1% of customers, it won't hurt me and I wouldn't change anything.Looks like your only problem is that companies don't invest money on the "official" Linux version of their games.
If releasing for Windows only and not losing customers (because I see Linux users buying it nevertheless) - why the hell would I change anything?!?
They're already buying, why invest money?
I love video games and I want to play the games that I really like. Thanks to proton I'm able to play these games on Linux just by pressing a button.
Why I have to buy games that I don't like just because they have native ports? Even if some native games are just wine wrappers and some ports run worse than the Windows version on Proton.
Last edited by aldy on 1 July 2019 at 3:05 pm UTC
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Quoting: aldyQuoting: EikeIf releasing for Windows only and losing 1% of customers, it won't hurt me and I wouldn't change anything.Looks like your only problem is that companies don't invest money on the "official" Linux version of their games.
If releasing for Windows only and not losing customers (because I see Linux users buying it nevertheless) - why the hell would I change anything?!?
They're already buying, why invest money?
I love video games and I want to play the games that I really like. Thanks to proton I'm able to play these games on Linux just by pressing a button.
I understand that, and it's ok. It just shouldn't be presented as a means to advance native Linux gaming. If they don't care for 1% which won't buy their games if they don't port, why would they care for 0.5% which may or may nor be able to play their game under Proton?
Quoting: aldyWhy I have to buy games that I don't like just because they have native ports?
Nobody said so.
Have fun! (I mean it.)
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Quoting: BeamboomI have to give it to you guys though: I kind of envy the confidence at display here. It takes SOME confidence to actually believe one has understood something that pretty much the entire multi-billion industry fails to see... ;)Well, to be fair, the fact that the GNU/Linux desktop in general and Linux gaming in particular have gotten to where they are today is baffling under any kind of business-minded consideration. I think the ideology at our roots actually plays more of a role than we may sometimes admit. Just seeing Paradox recently saying that they will still consider porting future games to Linux on a case-by-case basis even though they have barely been turning a profit on them if at all, to me, is quite impressive. Many companies would (and have) just give up on us completely and choose easier ways to make more money (the DLC example being a very good one).
I'm not too much of an idealist, but in this case our track record shows that we can at least keep some hope alive despite slim odds :)
Last edited by Salvatos on 1 July 2019 at 3:44 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomBut my main point is to try to establish an understanding on just how small we are in this pond. That perspective is fundamental when considering the pros and cons for Steam Play.Definitely we are small. Even if we do get 5% marketshare and the game in question will be supported on Stadia, companies like EA may take the lazy route and not release a native port and let Steam Play do the work for them. But even if they take that route, as long as Vulkan is available for SteamPlay for games it will still add tremendously to Linux. There is barely any difference between a native Vulkan game and one that runs through Steam Play. It's not even close to as pronounced as running game on Steam Play through DXVK.
I am optimistic about 2020. I just hope Valve can resolve anti cheat before end of year.
Last edited by Linuxwarper on 1 July 2019 at 6:06 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomYou talk about decimals now, Eike. It's nothing. Nothing. You must focus on the broader picture and stop counting breadcrumbs. One percent market share is nothing, never was, never will be. Totally insignificant.
[...]
What we talk about here are the games that makes headlines and enter top seller lists. The big titles from the big developers.
We won't get anywhere when we cannot even agree on what we're talking about. When I talk about the absolute number of Linux users having grown well in the last years, and you answer that the percentage is still low, this will lead nowhere. Neither when I'm talking about all games and you insist this would be only about AAA games.
Last edited by Eike on 1 July 2019 at 8:07 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestThere are other reasons for not wanting to rely on Wine for gaming, even if Vulkan is used natively (by the way, a Stadia port does not mean a Windows version will also use Vulkan - in fact, there's very little chance of that if the Windows version is using DX11 or DX12).It goes without saying that native ports is the ultimate outcome. But market share must be higher for that to happen. Even if we reach market share that rivals Mac, developers could be lazy and rely on Steam Play for easy money. So I expect gaming on Linux will go through a phase of many games being played through Steam Play. And if that is what we have to settle with, until market share is so significant they can't neglect us anymore, then I hope the developers at least ensure best possible compliance with Steam Play (Vulkan, no drm, no middleware etc).
Ancillary benefits from natively developed games include: better tooling, more stable drivers, investment in resolving certain compatibility problems, non-reliance on Microsoft, different compilers (often can spot problems, so I would imagine a Stadia port would help here as well as native for desktop GNU/Linux), possible peripheral devices being better supported (if more native games exist, and market share grows), etc.
But of course Wine (and anything based off it), eON, dosbox, etc, all help individuals play games they want without locking themselves into Windows. So it's very important to have that.
Basically there is _plenty_ of room for both native and wrapped games, and both are absolutely needed.
Last edited by Linuxwarper on 1 July 2019 at 7:21 pm UTC
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Quoting: GuestAbsolutely agreed.Indeed. I hope though that Steam Play can be able to achieve its goal of increasing market share before it's effort is shutdown by companies like Microsoft putting in software in games that will make the games not run as good as they do currently. That is my only concern for Steam Play. Otherwise I am optimistic that in long run (three years from now) the market share will surely have increased.
I also forgot to mention another benefit of Wine in general (and I'll stick to writing "Wine" because this applies outside of Steam) and that's for archival. Old games, some even with GNU/Linux native versions, may not run properly on modern systems. Wine helps resolve that in some cases, similar to dosbox, though I daresay with increasing complexity of larger modern games this won't be as viable in the future.
...of course source code would be even better, but hey, that's orthogonal to the conversation really.
Last edited by Linuxwarper on 1 July 2019 at 8:05 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomThey are not two different things. It evens out since the larger platform they currently support have an even higher increase in numbers. Think about it: For the relative shares to remain the same, roughly a HUNDRED new Windows gamers must be added for every single Linux gamer. This is why the percentage number is what matters.
Supporting an entirely new platform is no small decision to make.
Related, but quite different. Let's say you have a hundred million users altogether. Even 1% out of that, already means a million users. That's a lot. I.e. probably enough to cover your production costs through sales. Who cares if total number is hundred million? For viability, it's not the market share that matters, it's the size of your market (which means total number of your users).
Or think about it this way - 90% of 10 is 9. Would it cover your costs? So forget about percentages. Absolute numbers rule.
Last edited by Shmerl on 1 July 2019 at 11:47 pm UTC
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gradyvuckovic Jul 2, 2019
Another problem Linux gaming faces is the ROI (Return on Investment) of shipping a native Linux game. Even when shipping a native Linux game IS profitable, we often miss out on those games because the ROI is so slow. There are fixed costs for shipping native games that don't scale with the number of customers, and that can reduce the overall ROI % of shipping a native Linux game.
From the perspective of a greedy big AAA publisher with thousands of angry investors screaming at them to throw more lootboxes and mtx into their games, spending $10 to make $12 profit vs spending $10 to make $100 profit, is a no brainer, you're always going to go with the best ROI. They get a better ROI for Windows only games.
In that circumstance, it doesn't matter how high our numbers get, unless we reached something like 20 or 30% marketshare, we wouldn't those AAA games from those publishers. It doesn't matter how much we scream at them "no tux no bucks" they're quite happy to answer back: "no problem" then ignore us.
But lacking those games also keeps gamers from switching to Linux. Hence why we need Proton in the short term.
But it's too early to judge the situation, Proton has only been out for 10 months. In 10 months we have seen some positive signs, a trend of growth emerging on Steam stats, fewer people on GoL's stats indicating they're dual booting, positive youtube coverage of Linux, and Valve has shown unwavering commitment. This is all great but it's still too early to draw any conclusions.
For a start, Proton while amazing is still lacking some crucial things needed for success, like EAC/BattlEye compatibility. Multiplayer PvP games are THE big games of our present, we NEED those games on Linux and right now they're the most likely type of game to not work. Fortnite, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, these are huge popular games and completely unplayable on Linux right now.
We also shouldn't assume Proton would be so effective that it would draw over huge masses of gamers overnight. Never underestimate how difficult it is to ask someone to change something as crucial as OS.
People hate change, just look at how difficult it has been for Microsoft to get people off Windows 7. Windows 8 officially became available to the general public in 2012. That's 7 years ago! 7 years of bombardment of advertising, 7 years of desktop notification reminders on Windows 7 telling people to upgrade, then several years of offering Windows 10 as a free download, and even sneaky tactics like shipping Windows 10 as a free automatic update to Windows 7. For years Windows 7 hasn't been available in retail stores on laptops/desktops for years, and installing Windows 7 on a modern PC is a nightmare as drivers for modern hardware have to be sideloaded into the installer, among other countless problems. Windows 7's EOL is coming in less than 12 months.
Yet look at the Steam Stats for 2019. 1/4 of Steam users still use Windows 7. That's how much people hate change. Switching to Linux represents a HUGE change. And also a step backwards in many ways, since it means switching to an OS with less hardware support (forget customising your gaming keyboard/mouse's RGB lights and don't forget NVIDIA's crappy drivers), access to far fewer games and often worse performance.
The fact that, under all of these conditions, Linux is not only staying relevant but also seeing even a tiny silver of positive growth, is simply incredible and something to be grateful for.
We have reasons to be optimistic, but at the same time, we need to also be realistic.
From the perspective of a greedy big AAA publisher with thousands of angry investors screaming at them to throw more lootboxes and mtx into their games, spending $10 to make $12 profit vs spending $10 to make $100 profit, is a no brainer, you're always going to go with the best ROI. They get a better ROI for Windows only games.
In that circumstance, it doesn't matter how high our numbers get, unless we reached something like 20 or 30% marketshare, we wouldn't those AAA games from those publishers. It doesn't matter how much we scream at them "no tux no bucks" they're quite happy to answer back: "no problem" then ignore us.
But lacking those games also keeps gamers from switching to Linux. Hence why we need Proton in the short term.
But it's too early to judge the situation, Proton has only been out for 10 months. In 10 months we have seen some positive signs, a trend of growth emerging on Steam stats, fewer people on GoL's stats indicating they're dual booting, positive youtube coverage of Linux, and Valve has shown unwavering commitment. This is all great but it's still too early to draw any conclusions.
For a start, Proton while amazing is still lacking some crucial things needed for success, like EAC/BattlEye compatibility. Multiplayer PvP games are THE big games of our present, we NEED those games on Linux and right now they're the most likely type of game to not work. Fortnite, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, these are huge popular games and completely unplayable on Linux right now.
We also shouldn't assume Proton would be so effective that it would draw over huge masses of gamers overnight. Never underestimate how difficult it is to ask someone to change something as crucial as OS.
People hate change, just look at how difficult it has been for Microsoft to get people off Windows 7. Windows 8 officially became available to the general public in 2012. That's 7 years ago! 7 years of bombardment of advertising, 7 years of desktop notification reminders on Windows 7 telling people to upgrade, then several years of offering Windows 10 as a free download, and even sneaky tactics like shipping Windows 10 as a free automatic update to Windows 7. For years Windows 7 hasn't been available in retail stores on laptops/desktops for years, and installing Windows 7 on a modern PC is a nightmare as drivers for modern hardware have to be sideloaded into the installer, among other countless problems. Windows 7's EOL is coming in less than 12 months.
Yet look at the Steam Stats for 2019. 1/4 of Steam users still use Windows 7. That's how much people hate change. Switching to Linux represents a HUGE change. And also a step backwards in many ways, since it means switching to an OS with less hardware support (forget customising your gaming keyboard/mouse's RGB lights and don't forget NVIDIA's crappy drivers), access to far fewer games and often worse performance.
The fact that, under all of these conditions, Linux is not only staying relevant but also seeing even a tiny silver of positive growth, is simply incredible and something to be grateful for.
We have reasons to be optimistic, but at the same time, we need to also be realistic.
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Quoting: gradyvuckovicWe also shouldn't assume Proton would be so effective that it would draw over huge masses of gamers overnight. Never underestimate how difficult it is to ask someone to change something as crucial as OS.Fortunately for us, in some ways, switching to Linux can be seen as a less drastic change than "upgrading" your Windows version from a UI point of view (e.g. the whole Windows 8 tiling fiasco). Nothing short of a world-changing revolution will make masses of people switch to Linux overnight, but every milestone we reach and every mistake Microsoft make results in more people willing to give it a shot, and in turn more people being happy with the change, and more people hearing about Linux, and so on. We have to be prepared for the long run because this was never something we would win in a handful of years. Fortunately for us, we already live in a time where a GNU/Linux OS is damn comfortable. And for many of us, outright better than a Windows OS, never mind the fewer video games.
People hate change, just look at how difficult it has been for Microsoft to get people off Windows 7. Windows 8 officially became available to the general public in 2012. That's 7 years ago! 7 years of bombardment of advertising, 7 years of desktop notification reminders on Windows 7 telling people to upgrade, then several years of offering Windows 10 as a free download, and even sneaky tactics like shipping Windows 10 as a free automatic update to Windows 7. For years Windows 7 hasn't been available in retail stores on laptops/desktops for years, and installing Windows 7 on a modern PC is a nightmare as drivers for modern hardware have to be sideloaded into the installer, among other countless problems. Windows 7's EOL is coming in less than 12 months.
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