We have both good and bad news to share this morning, as inXile entertainment have given an update on both The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep and The Bard's Tale Trilogy.
In their most recent Kickstarter update, inXile have said that progress on the massive Director’s Cut update for Barrows Deep is going really well. They said Microsoft has been a "truly amazing partner" giving them extra resources allowing them to take their time. As for the release, they're now saying it will be in "late summer" which will include the long-delayed Linux version. Hopefully those who backed it will enjoy it but it must be annoying waiting almost a year since the release for official Linux support.
As for The Bard's Tale Trilogy which was developed separately by Krome Studios, they said this:
We also have some news regarding The Bard’s Tale Trilogy for Mac gamers. Since launch, we’ve seen that Linux users have been able to play the game with minimal fuss, using methods like Steam’s Proton service. On the other hand, Mac users have not been able to play the game, so we are pleased to announce that we have made the additional investment to develop a Mac version. Krome is currently working on some additional updates for The Bard’s Tale Trilogy, and will begin work on the Mac version later this summer. All of you, Windows, Mac, and Linux, will be getting these additional Bard’s Tale Trilogy enhancement updates free of charge.
Clarifying it in the comments of the post, they confirmed "There won't be a native Linux version". It's a shame to see Linux support isn't coming for The Bard's Tale Trilogy but at least it had a "Platinum" rating on ProtonDB.
If you want to follow it along, the Linux build of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep will be up on Humble Store, GOG and Steam.
Hat tip to Faugn.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
As much as i understand their statement, they didn't say it won't have Linux support for "The Bard's Tale: Trilogy", but only support will be via Steam Play which is fine if they commit to guarantee Platinum. As long as they do QA on Linux and fix Linux issues, it doen't matter if they prefer to release a native build or a Steam Play one.
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Quoting: GuestWe have lots of games with great support. All platforms have some shitty developers, and of course I'm completely against that. Support good games and good developers that provide/come with good Linux support, is always the qualifier there. :3
Actually no, linux does not have a big number of really good AAA games. Actually just the Feral games come to my mind. Anything else is either small Indie or a rushed port that doesn't stand the test of time. I know that I'm exaggerating a bit. I love to play my e.g. Civ VI game and I'm grateful to have it on Linux but regarding quality it can't compete with e.g. Rise of the Tomb Raider. The only porting house that did the investment to switch to Vulkan is Feral who are still able to produce a good port of current games. VP and Aspyr more or less left, their way with ports using OpenGL won't work with modern games and they didn't seemed the investment into Vulkan worth it (mostly speculation from my side).
Sorry, but currently we have either Feral or Indie. Not much more.
Quoting: GuestNo gamer should ever be up shit creek without a paddle is the point. Linux gamers shouldn't be abused just as gamers on other platforms shouldn't be.
I agree on this, but it will take some time (and a lot more Linux users) to get there. I see Steam Play as one of the better tools on this long journey. Stadia could also be helpful on this journey to get more users on Linux but that remains to be seen.
Last edited by jens on 9 June 2019 at 9:33 am UTC
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Quoting: GuestWhy would you "distance yourself" from that simple idea?
You're insulting people, which is bad by itself, and that only because they've got other ideas what might help Linux gaming - or they maybe just don't care because they just want to play games on Linux. I don't agree with them, but both is valid.
Quoting: GuestYou want to keep an open mind in case someone tacked on "to save a bunch of puppies!" at the end? lol
I dont understand that (language-wise).
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rustybroomhandle Jun 9, 2019
Steam Play/Proton. Love it or hate it, it does need to exist.
A few years ago Valve tried to make Linux mainstream by launching their Steam Machines consoles. This failed. Aside from some other rookie mistakes made by Valve, they also had trouble getting game studios on board with this. The consoles launched, and as soon as buyers realised how small the game selection was compared to Windows, a lot of people who bought them just said bugger it and installed Windows.
In principle, Steam Machines is a great way to mainstream Linux as a gaming platform, but the execution sucked. And if (nay, when) Valve decide to do a round 2, they will not have the same issue again, thanks to Proton. They just have to not make all their other rookie mistakes again.
---
An aside. Loosely related. We've been waiting quite long for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Said game has now shown up on the Stadia launch titles list. I'll be over here with my tin foil hat on.
A few years ago Valve tried to make Linux mainstream by launching their Steam Machines consoles. This failed. Aside from some other rookie mistakes made by Valve, they also had trouble getting game studios on board with this. The consoles launched, and as soon as buyers realised how small the game selection was compared to Windows, a lot of people who bought them just said bugger it and installed Windows.
In principle, Steam Machines is a great way to mainstream Linux as a gaming platform, but the execution sucked. And if (nay, when) Valve decide to do a round 2, they will not have the same issue again, thanks to Proton. They just have to not make all their other rookie mistakes again.
---
An aside. Loosely related. We've been waiting quite long for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Said game has now shown up on the Stadia launch titles list. I'll be over here with my tin foil hat on.
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Quoting: rustybroomhandleAn aside. Loosely related. We've been waiting quite long for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Said game has now shown up on the Stadia launch titles list. I'll be over here with my tin foil hat on.
Yeah, I noticed that too. I have small hopes that Stadia could result in more work for Feral ;) Using their knowledge to "linuxify" and "vulkanize" for both Linux Desktop and Stadia sounds hopefully appealing ;)
Last edited by jens on 9 June 2019 at 9:48 am UTC
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legluondunet Jun 9, 2019
Soon, Windows or Linux or Playstation...all this platform war will be useless because we are soon all playing by the cloud. So I think Valve invest money in Linux and Wine development just to obtain a cloud games platform without Microsoft. At this step, support will be the same for all.
Last edited by legluondunet on 9 June 2019 at 11:04 am UTC
Last edited by legluondunet on 9 June 2019 at 11:04 am UTC
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Quoting: GuestAlso please help upvote my post on https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/by98n5 because the shills have pounced on it as usual. :P
(sorry Swiftpaw xo)
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Quoting: Avehicle7887Quoting: F.UltraHowever 0.84% vs 3.26% of Steams 90M users results in 756000 vs 2934000 potential customers and close to 3M potential new users is probably above some threshold for publishing houses to plan to put resources into support. Where exactly that threshold is I don't know but so far it seams to be above 0.84% for at least Linux.
I always found those percentages to be a bit misleading, primarily because Linux is a much better gaming OS than Mac. It is quite obvious why Mac appears more popular since the OS is sold with the hardware and Linux is not as widely marketed. For every new Linux user, you get 10 more Apples right off the shelf and the % starts going higher right away.
Quoting: F.UltraSo I would still argue that with or without hype we are still a bit too few for game publishers to care.
Chicken and egg situation sort of, the publishers not caring is part of the reason why we're still a bit too few, how are we supposed to do that without them feeding us games? I've seen quite a few people around saying they would try Linux if game x and y ran. The situation has improved over the years, but we need a bigger push to fix those last few issues with Multiplayer anti cheat software.
Yeah it's a bothersome situation where our platform came after the market already decided that it was Windows (PC) or Mac that defined a computer (after Commodore, Atari and so on died) coupled with the anti competitive business practice by Microsoft that enabled them to take the 95% market share.
So it will be an uphill battle for many years to come and during that time we simply have no leverage to demand native games like Swiftpaw thinks that we can.
Steam Play might not be the magic bullet that helps our market share grow to the needed threshold but at least it allows us existing users to enjoy a far wider variety of modern games.
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Quoting: Guest... we need to make sure they know they won't get our support until they support Linux in return. ...
And therein lies the rub, we simply are not in a position where "they" (except a minority of devs) care if we support them or not. And if we would have been in such a position to begin with then Steam Play / Proton would not have been created either so while the one is due to the other I do think that you have that order in reverse in your argument.
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: F.UltraQuoting: Avehicle7887Quoting: F.UltraHowever 0.84% vs 3.26% of Steams 90M users results in 756000 vs 2934000 potential customers and close to 3M potential new users is probably above some threshold for publishing houses to plan to put resources into support. Where exactly that threshold is I don't know but so far it seams to be above 0.84% for at least Linux.
I always found those percentages to be a bit misleading, primarily because Linux is a much better gaming OS than Mac. It is quite obvious why Mac appears more popular since the OS is sold with the hardware and Linux is not as widely marketed. For every new Linux user, you get 10 more Apples right off the shelf and the % starts going higher right away.
Quoting: F.UltraSo I would still argue that with or without hype we are still a bit too few for game publishers to care.
Chicken and egg situation sort of, the publishers not caring is part of the reason why we're still a bit too few, how are we supposed to do that without them feeding us games? I've seen quite a few people around saying they would try Linux if game x and y ran. The situation has improved over the years, but we need a bigger push to fix those last few issues with Multiplayer anti cheat software.
Yeah it's a bothersome situation where our platform came after the market already decided that it was Windows (PC) or Mac that defined a computer (after Commodore, Atari and so on died) coupled with the anti competitive business practice by Microsoft that enabled them to take the 95% market share.
So it will be an uphill battle for many years to come and during that time we simply have no leverage to demand native games like Swiftpaw thinks that we can.
Steam Play might not be the magic bullet that helps our market share grow to the needed threshold but at least it allows us existing users to enjoy a far wider variety of modern games.
We have no leverage to demand games? Right, that's why we have thousands of games with Linux support. All those developers who made those thousands of games with Linux support are responding to a demand for that, otherwise they never would have supported Linux. So, clearly that "leverage" did work. We need more demand so that we'll have more games, and the way we get it is more Linux gamers demanding Linux support.
Sure, with very small indie developers where increasing their sales by aprox 1% it does work and that is nice and all. For anything larger however we mostly does not exist.
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