Serious Sam 4 announced for August, confirmed for Stadia (updated)

That looks properly crazy! Well, all they have to do is bring it to Linux and I'll be there the day that they do.

as long as it works on proton im fine with it

Reloading. Let’s hope they don’t repeat many more of BFE’s baffling blunders.

Serious? On Stadia, but not on Linux desktop... Coming from a company that has such a great Linux desktop support track record... I can't help it... It's a hard blow.

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

Actually 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.

This sounds very disappointing. I would really like to know why such a "Linux-friendly" company suddenly stops supporting GNU/Linux.

Since it's Croteam making, you can have 100% sure they'll have a Native Linux version using Vulkan avaliable.

I personally think Croteam is the best game producer company nowadays, but unfortunately I don't like their games.

Actually 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

Actually 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

I’m not usually on the side of Native > Proton, because in terms of end user experience the proton version has a clear advantage, but I mostly do that, because the people don’t have a truly native version: they have an SDL port of Code that was originally designed to run on Windows, and mostly tested on Windows, in other words a sub-par compile time emulation.

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.

Now when can we get a timetable for Talos Principle 2?

Linux support --> I buy on release
No Linux support --> I buy when the game is for about 20-30% of the release price

I'm in the same boat. I bought Tomb Raider at full price when Feral released it. If I buy Windows (Proton) games, it's very, very rarely for anything more than a steep discount. Which is what I do for most "AAA" games. It must be a really good game indeed, preferably with no DLC planned, for me to jump on it (like God of War (4) on PS4). Having a backlog helps too, though.

Also, one of the best things about playing a game a year+ post release is that you'll likely have all the DLC (so that you can finish the game in one go) and that the devs have fixed all the bugs they were allowed time to deal with.

For me, I've been really looking forward to Serious Sam 4. I've played all the previous games, completed Serious Sam 3: BFE (plus DLC campaign) on Linux. I was very happy when Croteam released the Fusion Engine which allowed the earlier titles (SS1, SS2) to run natively on Linux.

I'm also a massive fan of the fairly similar DOOM franchise. DOOM Eternal hasn't come to Linux, and I've held off buying it - because it is only available on Windows. I did buy DOOM 2016 on Release Day. Annoyingly, DOOM Eternal appears to be even better than DOOM 2016. (Noting that DOOM 2016 was added to the Proton Whitelisted Games selection.)

Croteam - Please don't upset the Linux gaming market by only releasing Serious Sam 4 on Windows and Stadia! While we're on the subject, I'm not a fan of Stadia, and view it similar to playing with Windows - something I'm avoiding, thus far.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I'd rather see some seriously more realistic graphics. They're still a little too cartoony in textures, visual effects (like explosions and shadows) for me to enjoy. Just personal preference, I suppose.

No shortage of those games. Cartoony, campy, and over the top is what the SS franchise does... Very old-school.


Last edited by iiari on 21 May 2020 at 12:51 am UTC

I want Linux, not Stadia. I hope it wouldn't take them too long to release a Linux version.

To give Croteam the benefit of the doubt it's also not coming to Consoles yet seemingly because of the Stadia deal so it could be that the Stadia terms mean that they can't release it til after the exclusivity time has passed

It really is odd that they seemingly removed the Linux support (for the moment), given how Linux-compatible their tech is (and almost always was).

Hopefully, that will be added later on.

I remember a Linux developer left them, heading towards Stadia. I hope they've got plenty of Linux enthusiasts...

Sadly, they removed mention of both Linux and macOS from the Steam store page back in April

Aaaand I just removed it from my Steam Wishlist.

Update:

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay in answering, but I'm sure you can imagine the chaos we've been through in preparation for this.

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.