Sad news today Linux gamers, Psyonix emailed us directly to make sure we saw the news that they're officially ending support of Rocket League on Linux and macOS.
Their published statement on this was quite short and didn't really explain much:
As we continue to upgrade Rocket League with new technologies, it is no longer viable for us to maintain support for the macOS and Linux (SteamOS) platforms. As a result, the final patch for the macOS and Linux versions of the game will be in March. This update will disable online functionality (such as in-game purchases) for players on macOS and Linux, but offline features including Local Matches, and splitscreen play will still be accessible.
If you purchased Rocket League for Mac or Linux on Steam, the game will still work with full functionality when installed and played on a computer running Windows 7 or newer.
So the Linux and macOS versions will still be there, but left old and online play will be disabled. Not good. Not good at all and as a huge Rocket League fan I'm not pleased—annoyed you might say.
This "new technologies" bit was interesting, perhaps they've decided to go DirectX 12 with an Unreal Engine upgrade? At this point we can only speculate with so little information. In the expanded support page, for Linux they mentioned playing Rocket League with Steam Play Proton is possible although they will not be supporting it.
When Psyonix became part of Epic Games back in May last year, many speculated that Rocket League would not only drop Linux support but also leave Steam. I didn't think either would happen but here we are, Psyonix has still never said they will continue to sell the game on Steam only that it would see "continued support". Originally, I thought meant it would go free to play, but with this move it seems a little more likely it will move over to the Epic Store which doesn't support Linux.
Update: Psyonix are now suggesting to request a refund from them on their support portal.
Update 2 - 24/01: Psyonix are now telling us "macOS and Linux players can reach out directly to Steam to request refunds and they will be honored. In these cases, Steam will make an exception to their 2 hours limit rule.". Their own support ticket team are now also saying to ask Steam for the refund, although Valve has denied my own refund twice.
In situations like this, Valve ideally need a better support system in place or at least an option of platform removal to get around the usual way. As we end up going in circles.
Update 3: After making their PR team aware what was going on with the refund situation, they've now released a statement on Reddit. Refunds will be accepted on Steam now, plus they gave the reason behind removing Linux and macOS support.
It's what I suspected as written above, they're upgrading to a higher version of Direct X which is a problem as the "macOS and Linux native clients depend on our DX9 implementation for their OpenGL renderer to function" and they're not willing to put resources into Vulkan/Metal for Linux/macOS when the combined player-base was apparently "0.3%" of the active total and when "viable workarounds exist" with Wine being mentioned.
They could have gone for Vulkan though to get Windows + Linux (and Stadia) and possibly even macOS with MoltenVK. It's a shame another company decided to stick with a proprietary API. That said, it may not have been possible if they're on quite an old version of Unreal Engine.
If you do get a refund for it, be sure you use that Steam Wallet funding for a developer that does support Linux. Make it count.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: razing32Quoting: ExpalphalogAs someone who knows little-to-nothing about the "under the hood" parts of Linux, how likely is this to be working on Steam Play in the future? It's the only cross-platform game that my friends on the other side of the country play together and I would rather keep playing with them than get a refund.
However, if the outlook is not good, I would rather get my refund now then wait. Rip the band-aid off, as it were.
Not sure about DX11 and how well wine works with that.
Also as some have pointed out , if they implement Easy Anti Cheat (EAC) you can consider it dead. That cannot be run on Linux and attempts to do so may be seen as cheating and land you a ban.
Refund and if it works with Proton later get it back on a sale.
Only bad part you can only refund base game , not DLC and other stuff you may have bought.
Seems to be a few people in this topic getting the DLC refunded too. I assume any microtransactions can't be refunded though.
I initially got in touch to get a refund, but then I realised that I got the game free with my Steam controller, so there didn't seem much point continuing with that process.
Quoting: GuestQuoting: edenistQuoting: GuestIt's Epic Games, not Tencent, Tencent have 40% of Epic Games.
Your fooling yourself if you don't understand how big of a string they can pull. All of this BS with epic games started after the tencent money started flowing in.
Quoting: GuestAre you calling Riot Games, Supercell, Ubisoft and Activision 'Tencent' everytime too?Yes. Tencent owns Riot Games, and owns like 85% of Supercell, and is the second largest stakeholder of Ubisoft. You don't find it interesting watching the sheer number of companies tencent are reaching their hands into? Their influence cannot be overlooked.
And Tencent is a platinum member of the Linux Foundation, has his own Linux distro (https://cloud.tencent.com/document/product/213/38027) and QQ for Linux (https://im.qq.com/linuxqq/index.html), China is LITERALLY forbidding Windows and OS X computers in the administration, step by step, stop your antisocialist bullshit ffs.
It's Psyonix the ones who decided to sellout. But somehow they aren't being blammed for all of this lol.
What did I say which had anything to do with being antisocialist? Or pro-[insert anything political here]?
It was merely a comment on the reach of tencent, which goes beyond what most people likely appreciate on the surface level of the companies they buy from.
Your incredibly defensive stance and aggressive [shall I put you down as pro-authoritarian then?] political shouts, combined with your personal avatar suggest you are politicising things unnecessarily, and have an agenda yourself.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 28 January 2020 at 11:18 pm UTC
Comandante Ñoñardo Jan 28, 2020
QuoteRainbow Six Siege currently uses the DirectX 11 API which was released more than 10 years ago. While it still delivers great performance, the graphics driver requires significant amounts of CPU processing. Moreover, some features supported by modern GPUs are not compatible with older APIs such as DirectX 11. (We also evaluated DirectX 12, but our internal tests show better CPU performance under Vulkan.)
That is the right technical path to follow for Windows games.. So, obviously, Psyonix is having bad intentions.
This is exactly what I predicted and why proton is not a good thing. It gives devs the option to just be lazy: "Just use proton. Oh it doesn't work? Well we don't actually support it, so tough. Oh, the problem occurred 2 hours and 1 minute into the game? I guess no refund for you."
Quoting: antisolwhen "viable workarounds exist" with Wine being mentioned.
This is exactly what I predicted and why proton is not a good thing. It gives devs the option to just be lazy: "Just use proton. Oh it doesn't work? Well we don't actually support it, so tough. Oh, the problem occurred 2 hours and 1 minute into the game? I guess no refund for you."
On the other hand, a lazy dev is not likely to produce a port anyway, so it won't make much of a difference.
As for the refunds, we now have proof that you can get them for these special cases, even if time is exceeded by a large margin.
Quoting: EhvisAs for the refunds, we now have proof that you can get them for these special cases, even if time is exceeded by a large margin.
I guess the publisher wrote a mail to Valve to allow this. I wonder if Valve is keeping its 30% in this case.
Quoting: Ehvisa lazy dev is not likely to produce a port anyway, so it won't make much of a difference.
Well, for example, we got Papers, Please on Linux, but not Return Of Obra Dinn. I'd bet that proton is the reason why.
Quoting: EhvisAs for the refunds, we now have proof that you can get them for these special cases, even if time is exceeded by a large margin.I'm not talking about these special cases where the dev has specifically told valve to allow refunds after 2 hours, I'm talking about buying a game to run it under proton. What happens if Doom 2016 crashes due to some wine bug at 2:01? What about a game that isn't on proton's "supported" list but which the dev has told me "just use proton. But it's not officially supported"?
Quoting: antisolWhat about a game that isn't on proton's "supported" list but which the dev has told me "just use proton. But it's not officially supported"?
The you politely reply that proton is too much of a risk to spend money on and move on to play something else. I have more Linux games in my backlog than I will ever have time to play. There is no "need" for proton.
Quoting: antisolWell, for example, we got Papers, Please on Linux, but not Return Of Obra Dinn. I'd bet that proton is the reason why.
... or too much hazzle and too few bucks.
I agree Proton is a problem for native Linux gaming, but we shouldn't pretend it's the only one.
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