While the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 will not support the Linux desktop, it is at least confirmed to be launching on Stadia same-day as other platforms on November 19.
This gives Linux gamers another way to play, with Stadia getting more huge upcoming games, as on Linux all you need is a Chromium browser and a mouse or gamepad hooked up. If your country is in the supported list for Stadia, that is. Google has still yet to announce wider support for the game streaming service.
Stadia getting probably one of, if not the biggest release this year day and date with other platforms with Cyberpunk 2077 is pretty huge news and perhaps a show of how serious Google are about bringing more people and more games over to it.
From the press release:
“Huge in scale and scope, Cyberpunk 2077 is our most ambitious game to date. It’s humbling to see just how many people are looking forward to playing it, and we want to make it possible for as many gamers as possible come November 19th, when the game launches. The Stadia version will allow players to jump into Night City just seconds after the game unlocks for play worldwide without any downloads needed,” said Michał Nowakowski, SVP of Business Development, CD PROJEKT.
"CD PROJEKT RED are known for developing some of the biggest and best games ever created, and Cyberpunk 2077 is sure to deliver as the most anticipated game of the last few years. We're thrilled to announce that Cyberpunk 2077 will be available on Stadia November 19th. Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia will allow gamers to play on their favorite screens and never have to wait for a download or install to get into, and explore, the depths of Night City," said Shanna Preve, Managing Director, Stadia Partnerships.
Plenty more footage was shown off recently too on the official YouTube, like this one showing off plenty of the vehicles you will be able to get your hands on:
Direct Link
They also confirmed that people who buy the game on Stadia will get a set of Cyberpunk 2077-themed digital goodies including: the game’s original score, art booklet, the original Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook and Cyberpunk 2077: Your Voice comic book, as well as a set of wallpapers for desktop and mobile.
It's worth noting also, that CD PROJEKT RED have been embroiled in plenty of controversy around Cyberpunk 2077. Video game journalist Jason Schreier has been covering it in detail, with a developer who was apparently confirmed to be working on it posting about the working conditions on Reddit too. Crunch is seriously terrible and it's such a massive shame these big games keep forcing such terrible conditions on developers.
Don't miss that we're expecting more big Stadia news next week, which we will be following along.
Quoting: Guest...many in the desktop Linux kernel using crowd are more than happy to pay for a Windows release of the game.
If it works, yes. But you rare relying on community reports (ProtonDB) to know if it does. And the experience is often that it only mostly works. Some games don't work at all. Even titles whitelisted by Valve (like Doom) have no indication of that on their Steam pages.
There is no such thing as zero-effort support. Because if you support something, you have to make sure that it works, regardless of how you achieve it. Otherwise it's like people buying gym subscriptions and end up never using them. Sure, there's a few that do that, but you don't plan your budget based on that.
I love the "do it yourself" mentality of the Linux world, but that alone won't get us very far. We still need the devs (or rather their managers) onboard too.
Come on Valve. For Stadia games in general. The extra effort they need to be convinced to do is so small that Valve wouldn't need to get out their big guns/sponsorships/whatever. Offer them to take 1% less from their revenue for a year if they provide a proper and working Linux version or something trivial like that.
It just feels like Valve is missing the low hanging fruits here with not getting Stadia games on Linux for Steam. They are doing all the driver and kernel involvements but skip the final blow.
*comparing it to the whole port
As an afterthought: Feral could provide the Stadia-to-Linux-Steam effort and support
Last edited by kellerkindt on 16 October 2020 at 2:10 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestPoint I was trying to make is that I don't think many companies would bother with even minimal support for anything running on desktop GNU/Linux because they're essentially getting it for free from elsewhere. From a pure economics standpoint, it makes zero sense - which is why I'm a little dispirited when there are complaints about Stadia, followed immediately about how someone will just use "Proton" so it doesn't matter.The problem here is that the "supported" stadia basically has the problems of unsupported Windows/Proton titles build into the system. Even worse: you are in danger of not only losing access to one title but to your complete library. Stadia is currently just not a comparable competitor to the more traditional vendors + a lot of people can not even use the service for technical or geographical reasons. It is simply a completely different beast than traditional gaming.
Just ironic how Stadia is a supported way to play under GNU/Linux (with caveats - yes the whole worry about Google pulling the plug on Stadia), but so many are far more interested in paying for a Windows version.
That aside the answer is simple: a not desktop native game never gets paid anything near the full price. Which also means, that the chances of getting paid for fully by the Windows users I game with regularly, sinks significantly.
A service like Stadia will only ever get money if they either provide Steam/GoG keys for the games they sell games in addition to the streaming service or they give access to the their whole library in exchange for a monthly fee.
Quoting: TheSHEEEPIt should be such a small step from Stadia to generic Linux release, shouldn't it?Well, no. Same as always: low Linux market share, that then requires direct support across different HW and SW.
Quoting: gabberIt IS frustrating. We were hyped for stadia because it uses linux. Dreamed of getting more games working on linux...
Now it's just another streaming service with exclusives . It does not matter one bit that it uses linux.
In the end it proves that it's not a technical limitation but a publisher decision that we don't get a Linux version. Of course, I'm not saying that porting a game to Stadia is the same as creating a desktop Linux version but in this case is quite sad to see that the company that owns GoG and does support Linux doesn't want to do the extra mile.
Quoting: LinasDo we have any details on how they make these Windows-only DirectX 12 games work on Stadia? I mean, is it actually running on Linux? [Conspiracy theory intensifies]
I think all Stadia games are windows game running on Debian via compatibility layer...
Is the more cheapest process...
With Stadia, they know what hardware they have to target for optimal performance and a trouble-free solution, with a normal desktop release they might have to train staff and have additional support tickets to resolve. I think this is more of a realistic reason why.
EDIT: Ironically at the same time, smaller devs have no issue releasing for Linux. So even with all the above said, it's time for large companies to start including Linux as part of their release platforms.
Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 16 October 2020 at 2:59 pm UTC
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