Since there was actually more from E3 2019 for Linux than I expected, here's a little round-up of things so you don't get lost in a sea of articles. As expected, there's little in the way of AAA games but anyone actually expecting that for Linux hasn't been keeping up. Traditionally, E3 has never really given much information for Linux gamers. There were still a few fun little surprises though!
Coming this year
- Lovely Planet 2: April Skies - June 18th
- Mable & The Wood - Summer 2019
- UnderMine - Summer 2019
- Police Stories - September 19th
- Stoneshard - November 7th
- Commandos 2 HD Remaster - Q4 2019
- Starmancer - "Soon"
- Terraria 1.4 "Journey's End" - 2019 sometime
- Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary - No ETA from Aspyr Media
- Mosaic - "It’s not a day 1 priority, but we want to get it out on Linux as well." (source) - 2019
Coming in 2020
- Aground (Early Access already on Linux) - New update live, full release "early 2020"
- Bite the Bullet - Q1 2020
- CARRION - 2020
- Spiritfarer - 2020
- Psychonauts 2 - 2020 + Double Fine join MSFT
- Wasteland 3 - Spring 2020
Crowdfunding
- Ribbiting Saga - Crowdfunding
- SkateBIRD - Crowdfunding
Hardware
- Ryzen 9 3950X and Radeon RX 5700
- Smach Z handheld - Shipping this year, Linux by default (Windows costs extra). There's been talk of them bringing out a Switch-like dock, to enable the CPU to run faster too.
- Atari VCS console - March 2020
Pinched by Epic Store
- WHAT THE GOLF? - Epic Exclusive until next year
- Griftlands - Epic Exclusive until next year
- Afterparty - Epic Exclusive until next year, waiting to hear more info from the developer
Stadia
Since Stadia will work on Linux and it's powered by Linux, here's what is newly announced for it:
- Marvel's Avengers - Square Enix
- Watch Dogs: Legion - Ubisoft
- Uplay+ - an extra subscription service, with access to 100+ games. Not clear how many of those will be on Stadia.
Interestingly, we also now know why Valve are going it alone in making their own stand-alone version of Dota Auto Chess. During E3 at the PC Gaming Show, the original creator of the popular Dota 2 game mode revealed that his own stand-alone desktop game is going to be an Epic Store exclusive. It now makes more sense why Valve said, "Valve and Drodo could not work directly with each other for a variety of reasons".
On another Valve-related note that's small, Valve also put out Steam Play Proton 4.2-7 to "Fix for performance and sound regression that affected some games, like Wolfenstein: The New Order.". This was needed, as FAudio was a bit messed-up.
For those curious (we've been asked a few times about this), Paradox Interactive and Romero Games also revealed Empire of Sin, sadly though it seems to be another game published by Paradox that won't be seeing Linux support. Linux was missed out of all the press info they sent.
As for a random bit of non-gaming news, Debian 10 Buster was announced this week to release on July 6th.
Plenty more non-E3 news to come Linux gaming fans! I have a big todo-list and inbox waiting for me, which got pushed back by the surprising number of announcements over the last two days.
I will continue to add to this, as more comes out so check back often!
Since Stadia will work on Linux and it's powered by Linux, here's what is newly announced for it:
[...]
Uplay+ - an extra subscription service, with access to 100+ games.
This does mean the games do not need to run natively on Linux.
Ubisoft won't port 100+ games...
Doesn't sound it's using the Stadia infrastructure.
It even supports offline gaming.
You forgot the Smach Z in the list, which was primarily meant as a Linux device.Added, good shout.
Details of how it will work are yet to be confirmed, as are the exact number of Stadia-compatible titles.Since Stadia will work on Linux and it's powered by Linux, here's what is newly announced for it:
[...]
Uplay+ - an extra subscription service, with access to 100+ games.
This does mean the games do not need to run natively on Linux.
Ubisoft won't port 100+ games...
Edit: As for "won't port", if the money is there to be had, they would.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 June 2019 at 9:16 am UTC
Doesn't sound it's using the Stadia infrastructure.
It even supports offline gaming.
Ah. I thought they're all running on Stadia as well.
General remarks:
I do think Stadia might help us.
While not every Linux port will make it to the shops (DOOM, I'm looking at you, and angrily that is!), more game developers with Linux knowledge is a good thing for us.
Interestingly, we also now know why Valve are making their own stand-alone version of Dota Auto Chess. During E3 at the PC Gaming Show, the original creator of the popular Dota 2 game mode revealed that his own stand-alone desktop game is going to be an Epic Store exclusive.
That's hardly the reason why they're making a stand-alone version of Auto Chess.
While they were busy releasing Artifact and having it end up as an utter failure of a non-free2play game with extremely greedy monetization, Auto Chess was one of the most successful games available on their platform and they somehow managed to let that one too get snatched by Epic.
If they ever hoped for Artifact to maintain a sizeable play base with that pricing they should have at the very least released the mobile client along with the desktop one.
Then it took them too long to start focusing on Auto Chess and they're still far from releasing their own version of it, with only a hideous dev gameplay vid recorded on a toaster.
Epic is not the only one releasing a competitor (well barely so, since the original dev is working on it). Tencent is also releasing a League of Legends spinoff and it seems like both of these versions are going to be out way before Valve's own standalone client.
I didn't quite get my text right on that bit. I've adjust it, it was meant more as in why they're doing it alone and not together.Interestingly, we also now know why Valve are making their own stand-alone version of Dota Auto Chess. During E3 at the PC Gaming Show, the original creator of the popular Dota 2 game mode revealed that his own stand-alone desktop game is going to be an Epic Store exclusive.
That's hardly the reason why they're making a stand-alone version of Auto Chess.
The thing to remember about Stadia is that games do have to run on Linux. It's literally Debian under the hood. However, most AAA titles have high levels of abstraction for APIs, since they often run on Windows, PS4, Xbox, Switch and some on Mac, so getting it on Linux with Vulkan for bigger studios isn't going to be a lot of trouble.
PlayStation OSes run on a variant of BSD and that didn't bring us more games from their platform. My opinion is that Stadia running on Debian is more a fun fact that an actual game changer or factor to take into account.
Vulkan, however, might be a better indicative for our interests.
I've never said Stadia will mean Linux ports though, just that it may help in future :)The thing to remember about Stadia is that games do have to run on Linux. It's literally Debian under the hood. However, most AAA titles have high levels of abstraction for APIs, since they often run on Windows, PS4, Xbox, Switch and some on Mac, so getting it on Linux with Vulkan for bigger studios isn't going to be a lot of trouble.
PlayStation OSes run on a variant of BSD and that didn't bring us more games from their platform. My opinion is that Stadia running on Debian is more a fun fact that an actual game changer or factor to take into account.
Vulkan, however, might be a better indicative for our interests.
This time is quite different though, since it's not a console. It's a service any of us will have the choice to use it or not on Linux.
Since Stadia will work on Linux and it's powered by Linux, here's what is newly announced for it:
[...]
Uplay+ - an extra subscription service, with access to 100+ games.
This does mean the games do not need to run natively on Linux.
Ubisoft won't port 100+ games...
I imagine that devs will be releasing on Stadia and not doing native Linux releases so that they can design for only one OS and not "Linux".
It also seems that Google is willing to take on part of the porting process as well as support, which are still the major reasons (outside of third party tools and exclusive contracts) that devs are saying they won't support native Linux versions.
Personally I find the development of Stadia more intriguing than Steamplay, because they are promising to support Linux users, whereas Steam has still been pretty vague about what their support will look like.
Afterparty went EGS? Aw motherfxx¤%!&"&% hell naw! *WHY* :><:Yeah and it's another that hasn't said a word on the Steam page.
The thing to remember about Stadia is that games do have to run on Linux. It's literally Debian under the hood. However, most AAA titles have high levels of abstraction for APIs, since they often run on Windows, PS4, Xbox, Switch and some on Mac, so getting it on Linux with Vulkan for bigger studios isn't going to be a lot of trouble.
PlayStation OSes run on a variant of BSD and that didn't bring us more games from their platform. My opinion is that Stadia running on Debian is more a fun fact that an actual game changer or factor to take into account.
Vulkan, however, might be a better indicative for our interests.
Not really comparable. Playstation used BSD way down below but that was AFAIK not what you developed for when developing games for PS4, instead you developed against a complete Sony API for input, output, disk, network, display and so on. With Stadia they have one closed component but all the rest is pure Linux.
Which is not to say that the studios will release the Linux version ever, what they technically can do and what they will do is two different things.
Afterparty went EGS? Aw motherfxx¤%!&"&% hell naw! *WHY* :><:Yeah and it's another that hasn't said a word on the Steam page.
Why isn't Valve just wiping these products as long as they are exclusive elsewhere?
Or at least shut down the community hub for those products.
No idea, any single time it happens the community turns into a complete shitfest, Valve should step in and do something really. Imagine any other business where something similar would happen, you would not see it in the store at all.Afterparty went EGS? Aw motherfxx¤%!&"&% hell naw! *WHY* :><:Yeah and it's another that hasn't said a word on the Steam page.
Why isn't Valve just wiping these products as long as they are exclusive elsewhere?
Or at least shut down the community hub for those products.
I won't be surprised when google fork gcc and make a new compiler for that platform.
Last edited by Asu on 12 June 2019 at 10:38 pm UTC
My round-up on E3 2019
1. If you are game developers who successfully crowdfunded your games then going bait and switch and broke your promises to backers: FUCK YOU!! Hope your next project will make you bankrupted and gone.
2. I'm not surprise if piracy are gone rampage again like 'the old times' , but Linux gaming won't be never infected. You know, because game devs/publs ignore us!
3. I'm setting "ignore this publisher" on many developers/publishers on my Steam account. Can't stand to all hypocrites.
4. For now on, when I want to buy games; I will making full background research on those games. Everthing from developers, publishers, game engines, track record on employee, opinion on Linux and etc. etc.. I do not want fund shit people and I do not want to paying someone to want to destroying Linux gaming.
5. And lastly, thank you Liam. Why need to watch this stupid expo when GamingonLinux more than enough to me for all latest, accurate and balance/fair/impartial news on Linux gaming.
stadia will look like linux at first then it will get ugly after some time. Just like android.
I won't be surprised when google fork gcc and make a new compiler for that platform.
They have no reason to, since "Stadia" or whatever will only run on their servers. The more software they rewrite the more maintaining it would cost. They will probably write the bare minimum needed to provide such a service, like client applications for various machines/operating systems they plan to deploy their services on. (probably phones and windows)
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