Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition arrives on Linux on November 5th

Is it just me, or is this November release actually the first Top 10 AAA title of the year getting a Linux port? oO

(and yes, I know that technically it's LAST year's Top 10 title, even. :S)

I really welcome this release and don't want to be a Negative Nancy, but at the same time I am a bit sad that native Linux ports of AAA games seem to be sort of dead. And if we're still getting any at all, they so old that you could almost call them retro-games. I honestly don't know if a lot of people are willing to wait THAT long to buy the game from Feral. I freely admit that I bought this game last year when it was new, same as with its predecessor. I am willing to wait a few weeks or even a couple months for a native game, but a year is just way over top for me.

Honestly, I catch myself more and more buying Windows games again (which I had completely stopped doing during the 2-3 golden years of Linux gaming we've had a while back), and play them with Proton, which - let's be open for a second - seems to become the go-to solution for Linux gaming, if we like it or not.

Now maybe they can fix ROTTR for 5700xt. So I can play through again before I buy Shadow again.

Quoting: Kimyrielle*snip*

I'm sure I've seen you post something like this before, more than once...

Feral, Aspyr and VP were pretty much the only ones doing AAA for us anyway. They all slowed down for one reason or another. VP do...well nothing? Aspyr do hardly anything either except update Civ and Borderlands 2/TPS (although Linux is STILL waiting on that) and Feral branched out to mobile and Switch as well.

Edit: Actually Aspyr also branched out to Switch now too.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 15 October 2019 at 7:04 pm UTC

Yes, really cool! Surely a 5th November purchase at the Feral store!

PS: Technically this is a day one release, the definitive edition will hit other systems on the very same day :)
https://tombraider.square-enix-games.com/en-us/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-definitive-edition


Last edited by jens on 15 October 2019 at 7:34 pm UTC

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: Kimyrielle*snip*

I'm sure I've seen you post something like this before, more than once...

I guess I might have? It just seems to get worse by the day, so this release reminded me of the less-than-awesome state of big-box native titles. Sorry if I have annoyed you (and judging by you pointing it out, I assume that I have). I will just shut up, I guess? In my defence, if people are discouraged from making the same point more than exactly once, I guess we need to stop discussing Proton and WINE in general, and several other Linux gaming topics too, as people tend to make the same pro and con points over and over there as well?

QuoteFeral, Aspyr and VP were pretty much the only ones doing AAA for us anyway. They all slowed down for one reason or another. VP do...well nothing? Aspyr do hardly anything either except update Civ and Borderlands 2/TPS (although Linux is STILL waiting on that) and Feral branched out to mobile and Switch as well.

Edit: Actually Aspyr also branched out to Switch now too.

I remember Aspyr announcing to move towards publishing original games a year back or two. I guess they still do Civ VI DLC ports because of their existing contract for that game, but I haven't seen them doing anything else substantial since back then, yes.
VP I remember getting burnt by users for that less-than-ideal Witcher II port they did using their translation layer. Not sure if that was enough to discourage them, but yes, I haven't seen much from them lately, either. Feral is the last porting house still doing ports for 3rd party publishers AFAIK, and their annual output is a fraction of what it once was. I am not privy to their numbers of course, but I can only guess that mobile and Switch games are more profitable than porting games to Linux a year after they appear for Windows...


Last edited by Kimyrielle on 15 October 2019 at 7:23 pm UTC

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: Kimyrielle*snip*

I'm sure I've seen you post something like this before, more than once...

I guess I might have? It just seems to get worse by the day, so this release reminded me of the less-than-awesome state of big-box native titles. Sorry if I have annoyed you (and judging by you pointing it out, I assume that I have). I will just shut up, I guess? In my defence, if people are discouraged from making the same point more than exactly once, I guess we need to stop discussing Proton and WINE in general, and several other Linux gaming topics too, as people tend to make the same pro and con points over and over there as well?

No need to be so confrontational over it? I was answering a point that seems to just come up often. You're welcome to bring it up of course. Discourse is welcome, I'm not about to stop people discussing Linux's lack of AAA support.

The wider point though is: what do people expect? I ask that honestly. I just find it thoroughly odd to see it mentioned often. Linux is still hovering below 1% when looking at Steam and there's been no push from anywhere else either. AAA isn't just going to appear on Linux for no reason.

almost a year of waiting since the announcement

I've been waiting for this one for awhile and will be picking it up.

Quoting: KimyrielleVP I remember getting burnt by users for that less-than-ideal Witcher II port they did using their translation layer. Not sure if that was enough to discourage them, but yes, I haven't seen much from them lately, either.

Well they've done this and some other racing game from the same company. Both rather mediocre ports of bad games.

I'm in favor of buying this game on Steam for Linux rather than Feral store directly.

IMO, Valve deserves some of my money for funding Proton / Wine development and DXVK and D9VK funding, which have helped keep Linux gaming on the map. Feral gets 70% and Valve gets 30%. Seems fair.