Update: Feral got in touch, all is fine. As I suggested it was, it's due to a late filling of accounts. Phoronix has now removed their article and Feral has given permission to quote them on this:
Hello Liam,
Thank you for your email.
Sorry to give a mundane explanation, but this is a non-story. It is simply due to late filing of our accounts, not great, but not terribly unusual.
It’s a shame Michael Larabel didn't contact us before publishing this piece, we would have been happy to set him straight.
Feral is in good health and we look forward to continuing to bring great games to our favourite platforms for many years to come.
Regards,
Timur
Original article:
Feral Interactive, the porting company that has made many games available on Linux (as well as macOS and mobile) may be in a spot of trouble.
Reported first on Phoronix, as found out from the UK's Companies House, they're being given a "First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off" which is not exactly a good sign for any company. What this means, is that they have a few months before they might cease to legally exist. There can be a few reasons for this, like not sending in their accounts or an annual confirmation statement. Looking at Feral, it seems theirs are overdue as they should have been done by 31 December 2019.
This would be really bad for Linux gaming as a whole considering just how many ports they've given us including: Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, XCOM, XCOM 2, Life is Strange 1 & 2 + Before the Storm, HITMAN, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, numerous Total War titles and they were supposed to also be bringing Total War Saga: TROY to Linux this year too.
However—given how they've only somewhat recently expanded into Nintendo Switch and mobile porting with multiple titles (and they're pretty lucrative platforms), and they only just released Company of Heroes on iPad, something about this seems a little odd. Hopefully it's a case of some missing paperwork that's being prepared late with this notice perhaps being automatic.
We've reached out to Feral Interactive, to see if they can provide a statement.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
slaapliedje Mar 3, 2020
Quoting: pete910Huh, first time I have heard of DRM particularly in the light of privacy concerns, especially Steam's. Usually it is in the case of wanting to actually own your software.Quoting: JJNovaQuoting: pete910Quoting: JJNovaI'm actually disappointed that they aren't in trouble. If they were in a situation, maybe they would sell their games somewhere other than Steam.
What a ridiculous thing to say!
*shrugs*
They currently aren't making any games for people that prefer their privacy to playing games. Seems weird to think that them distributing on more platforms would be bad for consumers.
*face plams*
Regardless of where you want to buy games from is no reason to wish/say such things about any firm/devs ect. You've basically ssaid you want people to lose there jobs just so you can buy "x" game on another store.
As stated by others, 99% of the time it's not ferrals decision to make. Which in turns makes the statement you make even more ridiculous due to your lack of knowledge of porting/licencing games/software/propriety IP.
And please, stop with the BS "Privacy" rhetoric.
If you have privacy concerns over Steam, which you can use aliases, and even your account name != username, then you should probably stop using the Internet, or cell phones, or going outside your house.
I am very paranoid about such things myself, but still Steam is one of the more trustworthy plarforms out there.
I respect people who would prefer to buy their stuff on GOG, so they can archive the files themselves, but oh, you can basically do that with Steam too and play in offline mode...
Sure, some DRM on Steam is crappy, but pretty sure Feral's is less so. Also, since they are a porting house, they have to follow what their contract is with the original publisher, and I bet they are against non-Steam releases.
Quoting: pete910Regardless of where you want to buy games from is no reason to wish/say such things about any firm/devs ect. You've basically ssaid you want people to lose there jobs just so you can buy "x" game on another store.
No I didn't. I said I would prefer them on a store with better consumer friendly policies, and the original post could have motivated that change.
Even if I had said that, there is nothing bad about it. There are plenty of places I don't shop, or media I don't partake in, or events I avoid for one reason or another. I'm not supporting everything just so people don't lose their jobs.
Quoting: JJNovaEven if I had said that, there is nothing bad about it. There are plenty of places I don't shop, or media I don't partake in, or events I avoid for one reason or another. I'm not supporting everything just so people don't lose their jobs.
There is a difference between "not supporting because I don't like the taste" and "wishing to fail because it is not for my taste". Your earlier postings assumed the later.
Quoting: JJNovaQuoting: pete910Regardless of where you want to buy games from is no reason to wish/say such things about any firm/devs ect. You've basically ssaid you want people to lose there jobs just so you can buy "x" game on another store.
No I didn't. I said I would prefer them on a store with better consumer friendly policies, and the original post could have motivated that change.
Even if I had said that, there is nothing bad about it. There are plenty of places I don't shop, or media I don't partake in, or events I avoid for one reason or another. I'm not supporting everything just so people don't lose their jobs.
Stop trying to back-pedal, The original post was plain vindictive.
Man up and admit it and we'll leave it at that.
I hope prospective devs/publishers reading this particular thread don't think this is how linux gamers/users as a whole think.
Quoting: pete910I hope prospective devs/publishers reading this particular thread don't think this is how linux gamers/users as a whole think.
#MENEITHER
Quoting: EikeQuoting: pete910I hope prospective devs/publishers reading this particular thread don't think this is how linux gamers/users as a whole think.
#MENEITHER
Without getting in history i think that ship has sailed using the internet way back machine go back to vp games and witcher 2.
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