After recently mentioning that A Total War Saga: TROY for Linux was no longer happening, the other side of the coin here is that Total War: WARHAMMER III is still coming to Linux officially from Feral Interactive.
Only just today Feral hooked up the recent Total War: WARHAMMER II - The Silence & The Fury DLC for the Linux version along with the last huge upgrade, and we noted how we weren't entirely sure now if Total War: WARHAMMER III was still happening. Feral spotted this and reached out to confirm with no ambiguity that the port of Total War: WARHAMMER III to Linux "is in progress and we will share more info at a later time".
Direct Link
Hopefully they will be able to keep cross-platform multiplayer going, which they did manage with Total War: ROME REMASTERED that they actually developed in partnership with Creative Assembly, as usually it's missing which makes it the sore spot for their ports that otherwise perform really well now they use the Vulkan API.
Total War: WARHAMMER III releases later this year. You can pre-order from Humble Store and Steam.
Kinda "old" news, they confirmed it here: https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1420319814648795137. I'm guessing they already had a contract for porting Total War: WARHAMMER III, since they do seem to have given up on further linux ports.
Not just Linux, they don't seem to have anything else on their 'radar' for OSX, iOS or Android either. This is in sharp contrast to past years when they would have several games being worked on simultaneously.
Kinda "old" news, they confirmed it here: https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1420319814648795137. I'm guessing they already had a contract for porting Total War: WARHAMMER III, since they do seem to have given up on further linux ports.Old to you perhaps but we never saw it, no one notified us and it seems plenty were unaware.
Kinda "old" news, they confirmed it here: https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1420319814648795137. I'm guessing they already had a contract for porting Total War: WARHAMMER III, since they do seem to have given up on further linux ports.
Not just Linux, they don't seem to have anything else on their 'radar' for OSX, iOS or Android either. This is in sharp contrast to past years when they would have several games being worked on simultaneously.
I heard they do Nintendo Switch ports now.
Kinda "old" news, they confirmed it here: https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1420319814648795137. I'm guessing they already had a contract for porting Total War: WARHAMMER III, since they do seem to have given up on further linux ports.Old to you perhaps but we never saw it, no one notified us and it seems plenty were unaware.
Not really sure how twitter works, but in the tweet i linked it says "Replying to @... and @gamingonlinux". I commented to point out that they had already confirmed it, i wasn't complaining about the article or anything, the tweet didn't seem very visible anyway.
With close to 27K followers on Twitter, it's impossible for us to go over all reply notifications so it was entirely missed.Kinda "old" news, they confirmed it here: https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/1420319814648795137. I'm guessing they already had a contract for porting Total War: WARHAMMER III, since they do seem to have given up on further linux ports.Old to you perhaps but we never saw it, no one notified us and it seems plenty were unaware.
Not really sure how twitter works, but in the tweet i linked it says "Replying to @... and @gamingonlinux". I commented to point out that they had already confirmed it, i wasn't complaining about the article or anything, the tweet didn't seem very visible anyway.
Enough of Warhammer ports! Is there no other games left?
https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/linux-games/
There's actually quite a mix in there.
I think he meant a game thats come out since 2019/2018 and nope this pretty much looks like this is the last linux port they re making as pretty soon creative are going to work out that its cheaper not to bother and just have proton do it. Asypr got out the game already vp have gone only fereal and Ethan lee and gordon although as he says he has nothing current and all the games he has contrats for are games that stand no chance of turning a profit. Not the best marketing for your porting business.
Enough of Warhammer ports! Is there no other games left?
https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/linux-games/
There's actually quite a mix in there.
I count eight Total War games, so almost a third of the games in that list are TW! Four in the list carry the name Warhammer; you can see how some might think that all Feral port are TW and Warhammer games. Shame Feral couldn't have signed up for some more varied franchises as I might have spent more with them.
Last edited by robvv on 5 August 2021 at 8:59 pm UTC
Enough of Warhammer ports! Is there no other games left?
https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/linux-games/
There's actually quite a mix in there.
I count eight Total War games, so almost a third of the games in that list are TW! Four in the list carry the name Warhammer; you can see how some might think that all Feral port are TW and Warhammer games. Shame Feral couldn't have signed up for some more varied franchises as I might have spent more with them.
They surely can not just "sign up" for more games to port, as they rely on the publishers/devs. If they do not want it, Feral can not do a port.
I can imagine they would have liked to do a port of Cyberpunk, but you know...CDPR...
But the next step for Linux gaming is definitely Proton so I guess we will see lesser and lesser native ports. Maybe if the Steam Deck becomes a massive success and the next version Proton's compatibility isn't perfect, then native ports may become a thing again.
I'm really sad for the people at Feral. They did a wonderful job with all their ports. They made among the best native ports and their support is excellent. I only had to contact the support once. They managed to find that my keyboard was making the game crash. I don't even understand now how they were able to find it but they were right.
But the next step for Linux gaming is definitely Proton so I guess we will see lesser and lesser native ports. Maybe if the Steam Deck becomes a massive success and the next version Proton's compatibility isn't perfect, then native ports may become a thing again.
I'm quite sure that native ports or rather native versions from the ground up will be a thing again. We are now in the middleground where things like proton is good enough but the userbase is still too small, at some point IF our userbase raises then some publisher will move away from being dependent on a 3d party (proton) to be in better control of their own software as well as being able to push things to their technical limits.
The huge problem with native ports now is not really proton, it's the fact that our userbase is still so small. Proton just made it more apparent/transparent.
Last edited by F.Ultra on 6 August 2021 at 4:07 pm UTC
I'm really sad for the people at Feral. They did a wonderful job with all their ports. They made among the best native ports and their support is excellent. I only had to contact the support once. They managed to find that my keyboard was making the game crash. I don't even understand now how they were able to find it but they were right.
But the next step for Linux gaming is definitely Proton so I guess we will see lesser and lesser native ports. Maybe if the Steam Deck becomes a massive success and the next version Proton's compatibility isn't perfect, then native ports may become a thing again.
I'm quite sure that native ports or rather native versions from the ground up will be a thing again. We are now in the middleground where things like proton is good enough but the userbase is still too small, at some point IF our userbase raises then some publisher will move away from being dependent on a 3d party (proton) to be in better control of their own software as well as being able to push things to their technical limits.
The huge problem with native ports now is not really proton, it's the fact that our userbase is still so small. Proton just made it more apparent/transparent.
I hate to be 'that guy', but I think what Linux needs, and I know this is a gaming site, but for it to truly be something people migrate toward, we need a 'killer app' that is only available on Linux, or is somehow gimped by being used on other platforms. Unfortunately (fortunately?) due to most software being 'good enough' to cover the bases, and being open source, means that even if we did get a superior program for whatever, it'd just be ported over and people could remain on whatever non-Linux desktop they use.
1) Great usability? Check!
2) Simplified software installs and updates? Check!
3) Game compatibility or native? Check!
4) Cost of ownership? Check!
5) Reason why people should learn something new, even one program that requires Linux/GTK/QT/Xorg/Wayland? ...
One of Linux's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness. While I agree with Valve, and say that exclusives are terrible, after all the hardware is all the same and can run the same software. It is the reason people buy a PS5 over an xbox-whatever. Halo fan? You buy an Xbox. God of War? Playstation. You want to run Final Cut? You buy a Mac. You don't know what you want to run yet? You end up with Windows...
I'm really sad for the people at Feral. They did a wonderful job with all their ports. They made among the best native ports and their support is excellent. I only had to contact the support once. They managed to find that my keyboard was making the game crash. I don't even understand now how they were able to find it but they were right.
But the next step for Linux gaming is definitely Proton so I guess we will see lesser and lesser native ports. Maybe if the Steam Deck becomes a massive success and the next version Proton's compatibility isn't perfect, then native ports may become a thing again.
I'm quite sure that native ports or rather native versions from the ground up will be a thing again. We are now in the middleground where things like proton is good enough but the userbase is still too small, at some point IF our userbase raises then some publisher will move away from being dependent on a 3d party (proton) to be in better control of their own software as well as being able to push things to their technical limits.
The huge problem with native ports now is not really proton, it's the fact that our userbase is still so small. Proton just made it more apparent/transparent.
I hate to be 'that guy', but I think what Linux needs, and I know this is a gaming site, but for it to truly be something people migrate toward, we need a 'killer app' that is only available on Linux, or is somehow gimped by being used on other platforms. Unfortunately (fortunately?) due to most software being 'good enough' to cover the bases, and being open source, means that even if we did get a superior program for whatever, it'd just be ported over and people could remain on whatever non-Linux desktop they use.
1) Great usability? Check!
2) Simplified software installs and updates? Check!
3) Game compatibility or native? Check!
4) Cost of ownership? Check!
5) Reason why people should learn something new, even one program that requires Linux/GTK/QT/Xorg/Wayland? ...
One of Linux's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness. While I agree with Valve, and say that exclusives are terrible, after all the hardware is all the same and can run the same software. It is the reason people buy a PS5 over an xbox-whatever. Halo fan? You buy an Xbox. God of War? Playstation. You want to run Final Cut? You buy a Mac. You don't know what you want to run yet? You end up with Windows...
Well you are not wrong, once upon a time Apache/MySQL/PHP was the killer app that turned basically every server into a Linux server.
The desktop is hard though, Microsoft fought hard and dirty to get their monopoly and once you get there, alternatives are near impossible to make a dent since you will be the "strange kid", and there will always be some small thing with "this word documents does not really work", "this Photoshop plugin does not work" to keep the majority at bay. At work every one exuding the sales team use elusively Linux on our desktops/laptops because sales have to exchange documents with customers and prospects and they are always in some .doc or .docx.
Not to mention that there are no pre-installed Linux machines for purchase in stores where people en masse does their purchases. Which also means that there are no company drive behind Linux, and this I have written about before, in where a publisher with a big AAA title will be given free marketing, a huge spotlight on conferences and paid interviews by the likes of Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft while zero of that exists for Linux so there are no marketing incentive to make a Linux port either, you will get zero airtime for doing that.
We will see though how well the Steam Deck will play out, if they manage to actually solve all the problems with EAC et al and have close to every single steam game playable in Proton AND releases SteamOS3 with those changes AND does so before W11 gets out of preview then at least there is a high chance that some portion of gamers will make the jump (W11 obseletes a lot of working hardware and places like Linus Tech Tips are talking more and more about Linux as a possible alternative).
This is where it sucks that one is not as rich as Bezos or Musk to pour into the development of some Linux exclusive killer apps or games. I know that we normally does not look too kindly at exclusives but then again Linux is both open and free so any one can dual boot and is therefore not excluded from the exclusive :)
I hate to be 'that guy', but I think what Linux needs, and I know this is a gaming site, but for it to truly be something people migrate toward, we need a 'killer app' that is only available on Linux,Microsoft learned their lesson from Wine and would just WSL that killer app in a heartbeat!
Well, here's the question I think; How many people walk into a store these days to pick up a laptop, if they haven't already been kind of looking? ChromeOS ones are the only ones really priced in the spontaneous buy category. Most people know they either want a Mac... or a not Mac. If System76 or others could manage to get their systems into Best Buy / Wal-Mart I wonder how much their sales would actually go up? Doesn't help that there isn't a large range of them, they are usually mid-high to high end systems.I'm really sad for the people at Feral. They did a wonderful job with all their ports. They made among the best native ports and their support is excellent. I only had to contact the support once. They managed to find that my keyboard was making the game crash. I don't even understand now how they were able to find it but they were right.
But the next step for Linux gaming is definitely Proton so I guess we will see lesser and lesser native ports. Maybe if the Steam Deck becomes a massive success and the next version Proton's compatibility isn't perfect, then native ports may become a thing again.
I'm quite sure that native ports or rather native versions from the ground up will be a thing again. We are now in the middleground where things like proton is good enough but the userbase is still too small, at some point IF our userbase raises then some publisher will move away from being dependent on a 3d party (proton) to be in better control of their own software as well as being able to push things to their technical limits.
The huge problem with native ports now is not really proton, it's the fact that our userbase is still so small. Proton just made it more apparent/transparent.
I hate to be 'that guy', but I think what Linux needs, and I know this is a gaming site, but for it to truly be something people migrate toward, we need a 'killer app' that is only available on Linux, or is somehow gimped by being used on other platforms. Unfortunately (fortunately?) due to most software being 'good enough' to cover the bases, and being open source, means that even if we did get a superior program for whatever, it'd just be ported over and people could remain on whatever non-Linux desktop they use.
1) Great usability? Check!
2) Simplified software installs and updates? Check!
3) Game compatibility or native? Check!
4) Cost of ownership? Check!
5) Reason why people should learn something new, even one program that requires Linux/GTK/QT/Xorg/Wayland? ...
One of Linux's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness. While I agree with Valve, and say that exclusives are terrible, after all the hardware is all the same and can run the same software. It is the reason people buy a PS5 over an xbox-whatever. Halo fan? You buy an Xbox. God of War? Playstation. You want to run Final Cut? You buy a Mac. You don't know what you want to run yet? You end up with Windows...
Well you are not wrong, once upon a time Apache/MySQL/PHP was the killer app that turned basically every server into a Linux server.
The desktop is hard though, Microsoft fought hard and dirty to get their monopoly and once you get there, alternatives are near impossible to make a dent since you will be the "strange kid", and there will always be some small thing with "this word documents does not really work", "this Photoshop plugin does not work" to keep the majority at bay. At work every one exuding the sales team use elusively Linux on our desktops/laptops because sales have to exchange documents with customers and prospects and they are always in some .doc or .docx.
Not to mention that there are no pre-installed Linux machines for purchase in stores where people en masse does their purchases. Which also means that there are no company drive behind Linux, and this I have written about before, in where a publisher with a big AAA title will be given free marketing, a huge spotlight on conferences and paid interviews by the likes of Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft while zero of that exists for Linux so there are no marketing incentive to make a Linux port either, you will get zero airtime for doing that.
We will see though how well the Steam Deck will play out, if they manage to actually solve all the problems with EAC et al and have close to every single steam game playable in Proton AND releases SteamOS3 with those changes AND does so before W11 gets out of preview then at least there is a high chance that some portion of gamers will make the jump (W11 obseletes a lot of working hardware and places like Linus Tech Tips are talking more and more about Linux as a possible alternative).
This is where it sucks that one is not as rich as Bezos or Musk to pour into the development of some Linux exclusive killer apps or games. I know that we normally does not look too kindly at exclusives but then again Linux is both open and free so any one can dual boot and is therefore not excluded from the exclusive :)
Now if we could get someone like Lenovo to stop making systems that are difficult to get Linux onto, and then selling systems that were low-high end stuff that had the Linux option, and then displaying the various options in the store, maybe there would be more sales for it. Imagine a world where you walk into Wal-mart and see Windows 10 next to KDE or Gnome? Would that finally be 'year of desktop Linux?'
Ha, WSL is both how I have to work currently and also my nemesis. WSL2 is supposed to be faster (because they gave up on trying to make it perform on top of the Windows kernel and just use a hypervisor) but it also does not play well with VPNs... moment I connect, I lose all networking, and damned if I have time to figure that out!I hate to be 'that guy', but I think what Linux needs, and I know this is a gaming site, but for it to truly be something people migrate toward, we need a 'killer app' that is only available on Linux,Microsoft learned their lesson from Wine and would just WSL that killer app in a heartbeat!
See more from me