Borderlands 2 will see no further updates for Linux / macOS from Aspyr Media

It's all well and good to say that "It's just business" and "businesses have to make a profit." I get that. It's what makes business business, after all. But I entirely reject that --- as I believe Aspyr has done here --- a business must treat their customers haughtily, dismissively, or otherwise less than worthy of simple honesty or civility, in order to make a profit.

Aspyr said they were coming out with a patch, ignored us, for what --- a year? And now, after repeated requests for news, have finally deigned to admit that, no, they're doing no such thing? That's not a matter of profit. That's a matter of simple civility, on par with saying "hello" to someone who says "hello" to you, or "thank you" when someone does something nice for you.

Thank you Liam for staying on top of this story, for finally getting an answer out of the group of ne'er-do-wells that is Aspyr.


Last edited by Nanobang on 13 September 2020 at 3:03 pm UTC

Quoting: SchattenspiegelThe only question I have is why was this not communicated directly after the release of the windows patch? All this massive delay did was fuel annoyance the of customers.

What do they care? They apparently have no further interest in Linux gamers as customers, so they're free to piss us off all they want.

Quoting: Salvatos

Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoImagine the next super AAA being six months timed SteamOS/Linux exclusive because, instead of taking the regular 30% cut, Valve takes the 10% of the game price only with that condition... 2 points less than Epic Store, by the way..

That’s just a race to the bottom—who runs out of money first? Valve can afford to keep its current cut because they have the features the users want and the audience the publishers want.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Hate to say i called it but i called it Aspyr have seemingly given up on linux that much i expected but to give up on mac as well there publisher arm must be doing well if it can let the porting side of business go.

The Mac version is already at parity with the Windows updates as far as I know. Took them a few months, but they updated that port. So it’s not much to say that they don’t plan to update it again.

Case in point Mac has a larger base than linux and by all accounts porting games to mac is still highly profitable. My main point is we are not getting native games again anytime soon the buzz has gone on that. Maybe is steam machines were outselling consoles maybe if valve had actually supported the project with a game that ended in 3 that people have been waiting for it would of been a whole different story. But back to the topic at hand basically if you are on linux and determined to game on linux proton/wine is it forget everything else. Without getting into a full debate yeah i know there are tons of linux native indie games but lets be real here most of them are trash. There are good indie games but there is more drek then gold.

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: slaapliedjeI was thinking about this the other day. While we have both Unity and Unreal engines with the potential of a 'click to export to Linux' have we really seen a large amount of Unreal based games coming natively to Linux?

The major standard engines support Linux, but, yes, a lot of the middleware components devs plug into their games to save time, do not. Since studios tend to develop the entire game on Windows until it's done, even when they promised a Linux version, they often don't even find out until it's too late.

Another, newer effect is Proton, which is totally awesome, but also gave these Windows-only developers an excuse not to care about ports.

And the third one is that Steam Machines failed the way they did. In the beginning, a lot of studios believed Steam Machines to become a thing, but gave up on Linux once it turned out that they did not. We're still just the 1% market share they don't really care about.

In short, yes, it seems porting is largely dead. Thankfully, thanks to Proton, Linux gaming is not. Ironically we can play more games on Linux now than ever.

Exactly.

"Since studios tend to develop the entire game on Windows until it's done, even when they promised a Linux version, they often don't even find out until it's too late."

That why the kickstarters* sentences like "we are working on the Windows version, and we will see for Linux later" is a no-go for me: 99% chances of never see a Linux build because X middleware is Windows only.

"Another, newer effect is Proton, which is totally awesome, but also gave these Windows-only developers an excuse not to care about ports"

Same here, i think proton is a very good piece of software, but now i buy native ports only, because if we all use proton, risk is to enter a era with no port at all...
I think the best way to support Linux Gaming is to not use Proton (yes, it's sad because great games are working only via Proton, honestly, if i find *very* good bundles, i'll take it, but i dont pay full price for a game running via Proton).
I'm surprise to see Proton-Only game's articles here. Obviously a game running via Proton is a game playable on Linux, so it's relevant, but i think it may be counterproductive if we want developper to support Linux.

"We're still just the 1% market share they don't really care about"

Yes, but this 1% is more valuable than a 1% in Windows, because your game will have more visibility, competition in this 1% is limited.
If you are working on a battle royale for example, how many games are you in competition with in this 1% ? There is no fortnite, no PUBG etc...
Of course, 1% even with this in mind, remain still too little.


Last edited by DebianUser on 14 September 2020 at 10:12 am UTC

There is not much positive in Proton in the mid to long term.
I never drank that Kool-Aid.

Just think for a moment that MS releases a new, significantly different, Direct3D version,
that in contrast to Direct3D 12 gets wide adoption.
We can't be so sure compatibility layers will be able to catch up fast.
Currently, this dependency might have been shadowed by the very slow advances of Direct3D
over the last years and many new games still support Direct3D < 12.

This is damn complex tech.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Case in point Mac has a larger base than linux and by all accounts porting games to mac is still highly profitable. My main point is we are not getting native games again anytime soon the buzz has gone on that.

We are not getting native ports of AAA games. We're still getting plenty of new native games, I see articles about them right here every single day. They're just generally not from the very top tier, which is a problem, but it's not the same problem you're describing.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Without getting into a full debate yeah i know there are tons of linux native indie games but lets be real here most of them are trash.

Without getting into a full debate, I think I've just read some trash.

Quoting: DebianUserI'm surprise to see Proton-Only game's articles here. Obviously a game running via Proton is a game playable on Linux, so it's relevant, but i think it may be counterproductive if we want developper to support Linux.

IMO, the problem is not the "Proton-Only game's articles" per se, but these articles here, on this site. The article writers shall convince Windows-gamers on Windows games news sites (and forum threads) to try out Linux because a game X "works fine with Proton™", not Linux locals of this site to spend their money on a Windows game (no matter the quality!) instead of supporting Linux gaming. Honestly, it is worse than preaching to the choir, it is almost like an act of direct sabotage.
Sure, some Windows-games may be good, but this is not an excuse for being an un-paid Windows-game promoter/advertiser. One shall know not only where we are, but also where we want to be; and I, for one, clearly do not want to be in a world of Windows-only games sometimes translated into Linux ecosystem via wrappers and developers not giving a damn about their games' compatibility with said wrappers. I want full-fledged day-1 first-class-citizen style releases.

Thankfully, these windows games' ads have become rare here to my delight. :)

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Case in point Mac has a larger base than linux and by all accounts porting games to mac is still highly profitable. My main point is we are not getting native games again anytime soon the buzz has gone on that.

We are not getting native ports of AAA games. We're still getting plenty of new native games, I see articles about them right here every single day. They're just generally not from the very top tier, which is a problem, but it's not the same problem you're describing.

Again i repeat my previous statement most of them are drek and you would not normally look at them but because we are getting so few native triple a games people are buying them.

[quote=Alm888]

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Without getting into a full debate yeah i know there are tons of linux native indie games but lets be real here most of them are trash.

Without getting into a full debate, I think I've just read some trash.

Ha good one, so have I you may love indie games that look like really bad snes games but i grew up in that era and snes games looked better than that. I know what i like and i know what i find engaging while you may think they are innovative i see re treads of better games with worse graphics.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Case in point Mac has a larger base than linux and by all accounts porting games to mac is still highly profitable. My main point is we are not getting native games again anytime soon the buzz has gone on that.

We are not getting native ports of AAA games. We're still getting plenty of new native games, I see articles about them right here every single day. They're just generally not from the very top tier, which is a problem, but it's not the same problem you're describing.

Again i repeat my previous statement most of them are drek and you would not normally look at them but because we are getting so few native triple a games people are buying them.

Tastes apparently differ. I can't remember when I read about an AAA game that sounded like something I wanted to play. I won't go so far as to call them all drek--clearly plenty of misguided souls for some bizarre reason have different opinions on this subject from my own. You might want to pull your horns in a bit, too.