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Just like I did for May's releases, here's a look over the Valve blog post highlighting some of their top games released in June. After which, I shall give some thoughts but let's get some of the facts and info done first shall we?

Like last time, Valve are using the revenue earned data based on the first two weeks following the release of a game. The top titles from June are:

So out of those top 20 from June, only one of them actually supports Linux right now. As for Steam Play, it's a pretty mixed bag with quite a few broken or suffering some major problems that won't give a good experience.

As for the top free games from June based on peak player count within the first two weeks there's:

Only one, again, supports Linux and that's a Valve game so it was to be expected. Although, it should be noted of course that Ring of Elysium shows up in both lists.

None of that obviously looks good and further shows how Steam Play is going to help Linux gaming now and in future. It's not enough to have thousands of games already supported, if we don't get the hot new releases people want to play as it does matter.

As always though, new releases (even those that do well) often burn out very quickly. Of all those titles listed, how many of them actually show up in the top one hundred games being currently played on Steam? They Are Billions, Ring of Elysium, Black Squad and Dota Underlords. Four in total and one of them has Linux support.

Going further again, how about the current top twenty games on Steam. A list that fluctuates often, but still an interesting measure to look at. How many support Linux? Ten, so 50% of the top twenty by player-count support Linux (same count as last month). Let's push it, how about the top one hundred for June, how many of those support Linux? Forty (three less than last month).

I think what I said in the article covering May continues to be relevant here: 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.

Still true, but Steam Play is still very much needed to help give Linux gamers and anyone switching a better selection available from their back catalogue of Steam games. See you again, for another look next month!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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BielFPs Jul 24, 2019
I still think that for now asking for Vulkan support is more important than ask for a native version (both of then would be better of course) thanks to projects like wine/dxvk/lutris, which improve windows games running on linux very well in recent times.

I'm currently following the development of a game called "Ready or Not (dx11 game)" which is kind of a new SWAT series game, and I recently ask then in their official reddit page to avoid using components which could harm wine/proton support, so we could play it even if they don't develop an native version (which is unfotunatelly most of the cases of games using unreal engine apparently).
rustybroomhandle Jul 24, 2019
Amusingly, of all of those there's maybe 3 I think I'd actually ever want to play. I think it's because the metric is by (concurrent?) player count. Games I favour tend to be one-and-done type games, mostly single player. The last non-native AAA(ish) game I played was A Plague Tale, which was great, but unlikely to ever show up in a list like this, even during release week.


Last edited by rustybroomhandle on 24 July 2019 at 2:16 pm UTC
Kimyrielle Jul 24, 2019
Other than native Linux ports seem to be dead (I can remember times when a lot more top sellers had ports), the thing that surprised me is that I have never heard of most of these top selling games before...
Dunc Jul 24, 2019
QuoteF1 2019 - Feral Interactive ported previous versions to Linux, no sign for this one.
From memory, the last couple (and they were both odd-numbered years) appeared around the autumn after the original release. So I wouldn't count it out just yet.
Xaero_Vincent Jul 24, 2019
Proton and the failure of Steam Machines has negatively impacted developers decisions to target Linux.

It's not enough to simply port the game to Linux as players expect it to run nearly as good as the Windows version, otherwise they will simply play the Windows version in Proton, which we see done for many native Linux titles.

Even Feral's game ports with an OpenGL renderer generally run worse than the Windows version with Proton/Wine + DXVK. It seems only their recent, highly-optimized Vulkan-based ports beat DXVK.

We can only hope that Stadia ports with the help of Feral and Aspyr might bring some more Vulkan games to Linux.
kokoko3k Jul 24, 2019
Quote...and further shows how Steam Play is going to help Linux gaming now and in future.
No words about how it helped/ruined it in the past?
:)
Liam Dawe Jul 24, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quote...and further shows how Steam Play is going to help Linux gaming now and in future.
No words about how it helped/ruined it in the past?
:)
What?
kokoko3k Jul 24, 2019
It was a joke, you said Steam play is helping and will help linux gaming, somebody thinks it makes devs to not port games to linux anymore.
Maybe my english wasn't right, sorry.

BTW, just a joke; i don't even have an opinion about it.
kaiman Jul 24, 2019
Quoting: rustybroomhandleGames I favour tend to be one-and-done type games, mostly single player. The last non-native AAA(ish) game I played was A Plague Tale, which was great, but unlikely to ever show up in a list like this, even during release week.
Same for me. But I guess the list is still a good indication whether Linux is suitable for the "masses", as these are games played by a large number of people.

Depending on personal preference, the situation is actually not as bleak as the article makes it out to be. In fact, my own little statistic of game purchases shows more native Linux titles than non-Linux titles since 2014. Obviously, that's just me and should be considered somewhat skewed by a preference for Linux games. Though I did not completely ditch Windows until end of 2015, and basically did all gaming on Windows until then.

Games by release date and platform:
mylka Jul 24, 2019
Quoting: Xaero_VincentProton and the failure of Steam Machines has negatively impacted developers decisions to target Linux.

so what? valve takes 30% to improve linux and i dont care why, or how a game works, as long as it works

i tried shadow of the tomb raider DEMO latley with valves ACO mesa. it runs pretty nice.... if feral doesnt tell a release date soon i am gonna buy it at next sale
sorry feral, but almost 1 year and no date.... even the announcement was november 2018
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