Well, the writing was on the wall for some time but this confirms it - it seems Feral Interactive aren't likely to do more Linux ports with the official port of A Total War Saga: TROY for Linux cancelled.
It was announced today that TROY would be finally seeing a Steam release on September 2. Feral did their usual thing on Twitter of quote-tweeting, mentioning it would be on macOS soon after the Windows release. A mention of Linux was totally absent.
Feral replied to a user on Twitter to say:
The Linux port was put on hold while TROY was exclusive to Epic, and we are not resuming development for the Steam release. We will continue to assess the feasibility of porting games to Linux, but there is generally less demand for native titles since Valve’s launch of Proton.
Considering there's a chance that Steam Play Proton might be able to play it from day-1, it's not overly surprising to hear this from Feral considering the cost of porting bigger games with it being far easier for indies. Worth also noting, that TROY was free on Epic Games Store when it first launched, so it would have already eaten into plenty of possible sales.
Part of the problem though, is how most Feral ports lack cross-platform multiplayer with Windows and that type of thing simply won't fly on the upcoming Steam Deck. Add into that issues with saves between the Windows version and Feral ports, that could cause more confusion if they don't sync up. Not only that but since the Steam Deck is basically a PC in handheld form, seeing bigger titles launch for it officially months or years later also wouldn't be a good look.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: CatKiller
Don't be sad!
Last edited by PlayX on 27 July 2021 at 4:20 pm UTC
But if that doesn't work, well, Proton has a definite downside.
Quoting: Horiwhy pay for developing a new version when the already-existing one works just fine?In my case, because they'd get 2-10 times as much money from me. But they won't particularly notice just my money, or even if all of us did it, because we're dwarfed my the hordes of Windows users.
Short term I see a widening catalog of playable games.
But Long term I can see porting companies and Linux professionals losing their job and native versions disappear form the market. There's a risk Linux won't be seen as a target platform ever again. I'm not sure it's a good thing...
Feral's work is amazing, they are really competent, but the idea of the needing of a company just to release a port is bizarre, problems with multiplayer, dlcs taking a long time to release, patches, etc. We need a first class treatment, the developer should release a Linux version, but this will never happen, so that's why proton is so important.
People need to watch the market, they saw this coming, they should find another way to make money.
Last edited by fagnerln on 27 July 2021 at 4:36 pm UTC
I've bought almost everything feral has brought to Linux, feel kinda betrayed, tbh.
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