Serious Sam 4 from Croteam and Devolver Digital finally has a release window with it announced for August.
It was just announced for Windows on Steam and Stadia too, so Linux fans using Stadia will be able to play it hopefully without any issues right away. Sadly, they removed mention of both Linux and macOS from the Steam store page back in April (SteamDB).
Some of what to expect from it can be seen in the below videos:
Direct Link
Direct Link
Direct Link
Croteam were one of the first companies to bring their games to Linux, back when Steam arrived for us in 2013. Since then they continued Linux support with Talos Principle and Serious Sam Fusion. Alen Ladavac, one of the Croteam co-founders actually left for Stadia last year too so it's not a surprise to see Stadia support continue.
We've emailed Devolver Digital, the publisher, to see if they have any comment on Linux desktop support. Otherwise it's Stadia and perhaps the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer for desktop Linux.
There's also a big Serious Sam Sale live on Steam now.
Update 21/05 - they confirmed no Linux desktop support for launch:
I'll be on point - Serious Sam 4 won't be available natively on Linux on launch. What happens later, we don't know. We're currently focused on Windows and if that changes we'll let everyone know.
I hope that at least they will actively support Proton or, better, that's it's just a later release date to be confirmed...
Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 May 2020 at 6:52 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestActually the talk of just hoping it works with "Proton" is rather disheartening to me. They have a GNU/Linux native version. From the start. Buying a Windows game is just saying that they don't need to bother with GNU/Linux.
Nope - for me it's a native version or nothing.
That's why I wrote "actively support Proton" even if it's barely acceptable to me. I ask for an official support, else I'm not going to buy it.
I personally think Croteam is the best game producer company nowadays, but unfortunately I don't like their games.
Quoting: GuestActually the talk of just hoping it works with "Proton" is rather disheartening to me. They have a GNU/Linux native version. From the start. Buying a Windows game is just saying that they don't need to bother with GNU/Linux.
Nope - for me it's a native version or nothing.
Linux support --> I buy on release
No Linux support --> I buy when the game is for about 20-30% of the release price
I really love SS franchise, I hope that they the get back the native linux support.
Last edited by x_wing on 20 May 2020 at 7:07 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestQuoting: MohandevirQuoting: GuestActually the talk of just hoping it works with "Proton" is rather disheartening to me. They have a GNU/Linux native version. From the start. Buying a Windows game is just saying that they don't need to bother with GNU/Linux.
Nope - for me it's a native version or nothing.
That's why I wrote "actively support Proton" even if it's barely acceptable to me. I ask for an official support, else I'm not going to buy it.
To me though, that's still just a Windows game. I don't care if they try to support "Proton" (or actually just vanilla wine would be better) because it's still a Windows game from the start. And if I remember rightly enough, Croteam went all-in and support only Vulkan, so it's not like they have much to technically tie them to Windows.
This is what worries me about "Proton". Fine for older games, not fine for new ones. It's still GNU/Linux gaming try to emulate Windows, which means Microsoft still dominate how a game is played on GNU/Linux. That's not good any which way you cut it.
I know I sound passionate about this (because I am), and I do understand that many are fine so long as it runs (not caring how, so long as it runs). My views aren't that obviously, though I'm trying to explain why even if I "sound" (or read as) a little ranty.
Totally get your point. I'm not that far from your stance, but it's a discussion that we had in the past... Many Linux native games are still relying on huge Windows code chunks and are just wrapped versions of the Windows game... It's something I really have problems being categorically for or against any of these solutions. But I must admit that coming from Croteam, anything less than a true native port would be just a shame. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to force our views on studios.
Oh! And I forgot... When I have to rely on Proton, I buy the game only when it is 50% off or better. Not going to buy a game full price to play it with Proton and then have it break because of a bad update in Proton or in the game. Thus, not a day-one purchase for sure.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 May 2020 at 7:49 pm UTC
This is not the case. Croteam have a well-optimised Linux natives binary that has a very good Vulkan renderer, and very very few proprietary libs. I can forgive not having day one support (just barely), but I have a strong opinion about their company if they don’t have a Native build in a month or two.
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