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.
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Comandante Ñoñardo Jul 27, 2021
This doesn't surprise me at all...
Their IndirectX layer used to be precious, now is worthless thanks to DXVK and VKD3D.
But THEY ARE WRONG; THERE IS demand for NATIVE LINUX ports of BIG GAMES.
The problem is their bad habit of porting games years later after the official release...
If you gonna port to Linux a big game that wasn't released for Windows yet, release it day 1 and no few months later.
Example: When Death Stranding was announced as a timed PS4 exclusive, right away they should have acquired the publishing rights for Linux and coordinate efforts with the Windows publisher, 505 Games... But no...
Their IndirectX layer used to be precious, now is worthless thanks to DXVK and VKD3D.
But THEY ARE WRONG; THERE IS demand for NATIVE LINUX ports of BIG GAMES.
The problem is their bad habit of porting games years later after the official release...
If you gonna port to Linux a big game that wasn't released for Windows yet, release it day 1 and no few months later.
Example: When Death Stranding was announced as a timed PS4 exclusive, right away they should have acquired the publishing rights for Linux and coordinate efforts with the Windows publisher, 505 Games... But no...
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I can see why. Given that it works under proton, why bother? If there is a Linux and Windows version then the devs have two different bug channels and patches have to be deployed to two different platforms and kept in sync for multiplayer.
I actually don't mind if Proton becomes effectively a Linux API. What I would like to see, even if we don't get devs making native linux games is them fully testing and properly supporting *proton* as a target system. I care about playing games, not about ideological native support for what would be closed source software anyway.
I actually don't mind if Proton becomes effectively a Linux API. What I would like to see, even if we don't get devs making native linux games is them fully testing and properly supporting *proton* as a target system. I care about playing games, not about ideological native support for what would be closed source software anyway.
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Quoting: TeodosioI think this is good news, Feral ports were usually not very good: lower performance, delayed patches, additional bugs, etc.. The very idea of "porting" smells of a sub-par product.
I like to see *native* releases; it they cannot provide that, ensuring good compatibility with Proton may be better than a port.
The last Feral ports (i.e. Vulkan) run better than the proton/dxvk version. See for example total war here or Shadow of the tomb raider.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeSo... if Feral isn't porting it for Linux due to Proton... that just means they make no money on the sale of the game, right? As it is published by Sega. Sega gets that money. Sounds like Feral is going to give in and try to survive off the Mac? Most macs can't even run the total war games...
Most of their ports these days are on the Nintendo Switch and iOS.
We'll probably see a native Linux port from them someday again and they will continue porting to Mac OS as well. However, those two platforms are probably low priority for them at this point.
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As someone who admittedly never bought or played any of the Feral ports since they were tied to Steam, I have to wonder how much of a ripple effect Proton will have on the native games and developers I do support. I just hope that the kind of developers willing to go DRM free are also the ones most likely to see the benefits of cross-platform development.
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Quoting: subQuoting: GuestI guess I should point out that Valve have never said anything they do is intended to lead to more native ports. Quite the opposite actually - they've officially said not to bother!
So just like Google never said that Stadia would encourage native desktop GNU/Linux game development and people kind of assumed it would happen, Valve have never said it either and it probably won't happen.
This was one concern long ago about the approach VP did, but at least they supported the title running under GNU/Linux. There's not even that here, and native development (and support) is being discouraged - the result of which is this news. I can't see it ending well for GNU/Linux desktop gaming.
It would make more sense to me to encourage devs/publisher to provide native builds and have Proton as a fallback.
Best would be to establish in-house know how and awareness for nativ ports. Doesn't happen this way.
Just think Microsoft comes up with a Direct3D 13, completely incompatible and there is no such working Proton channel.
No way they could pull off something reliably working within months.
It would take a long time to appear DX13 exclusive games.
Its not good to depend on MS, but they cant change the whole development scene that quickly
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Quoting: DebianUserExactly what i was afraid of, and why i can't say if Proton is a good thing or not.
on the one hand you have 1 game from feral and maybe some other devs not porting their game to linux
on the other hand you have 1000s of games you can play, including the ones they would have ported.
imho the answer is pretty clear
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slaapliedje Jul 28, 2021
Quoting: mylkaI mean... maybe to be a little gross. But isn't this sort of like the short term gratification of getting a hooker... but then later down the road you figure out you caught something nasty and long term are forever cursed? That's kind of what this seems like, bad things long term, for short term solution.Quoting: DebianUserExactly what i was afraid of, and why i can't say if Proton is a good thing or not.
on the one hand you have 1 game from feral and maybe some other devs not porting their game to linux
on the other hand you have 1000s of games you can play, including the ones they would have ported.
imho the answer is pretty clear
For me, the specific use case of Proton is for games that would never even remotely get a native port. Games that are years old, and no longer supported. Or for games that won't even run on Windows 10.
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gradyvuckovic Jul 28, 2021
Quotebut there is generally less demand for native titles since Valve’s launch of Proton.
Here's what I read..
QuoteHow well this game runs in Proton already represents more then the amount of effort that can be justified putting into a native port for Linux right now.
If Linux had more than 0.9% market share, this wouldn't happen.
Because if Linux had more than 0.9% market share, Feral would very much so care how well their game runs on Linux, enough to want to control the experience by developing a native version and offering the best experience possible, rather than just settling for whatever works via Proton.
This doesn't harm the goal of growing the Linux marketshare, it's just an acknowledgement of how small our marketshare is.
Last edited by gradyvuckovic on 28 July 2021 at 6:18 am UTC
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