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Across various previous articles we've looked at how many games are supported on Linux and how many Windows games work with Steam Play Proton, so let's take a look at the current top 100.

The top 100 Steam games is a list that fluctuates quite a lot, so this is taken using a snapshot of what was available thanks to SteamDB going by the 24 hour player peak count. Seems like a pretty good sample to use since it shouldn't be drastically different any time soon, except for big new releases after the article goes live of course. So this is just a snapshot of how things look in early October 2021 ahead of the Steam Deck release.

Over time the compatibility is expected to increase thanks to native ports, more Windows-only games working with Steam Play Proton and now Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye have expanded their support.

Name 24 Hr Peak Linux Status
New World 790,682 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 789,100 Linux Native
Dota 2 587,627 Linux Native
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 341,912 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Apex Legends 220,593 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT 131,161 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Grand Theft Auto V 103,932 Works with Proton
Team Fortress 2 89,491 Linux Native
Destiny 2 81,595 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Rust 69,107 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Wallpaper Engine 64,082 Proton Broken
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 64,048 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Warframe 59,171 Works with Proton
Dead by Daylight 56,988 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Rocket League 54,039 Works with Proton
Battlefield V 51,319 Works with Proton
Football Manager 2021 50,672 Works with Proton
ARK: Survival Evolved 46,999 Linux Native
FIFA 22 46,847 Works with Proton
Cookie Clicker 46,482 Works with Proton
Valheim 46,423 Linux Native
MIR4 46,023 Proton Broken
PAYDAY 2 38,942 Linux Native
Sid Meier's Civilization VI 37,433 Linux Native
Terraria 36,815 Linux Native
Euro Truck Simulator 2 35,640 Linux Native
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online 35,113 Works with Proton GE
DayZ 34,126 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
War Thunder 32,164 Linux Native
World of Tanks Blitz 31,939 Works with Proton
Hearts of Iron IV 31,686 Linux Native
Unturned 29,382 Linux Native
Garry's Mod 28,931 Linux Native
Farming Simulator 19 28,141 Works with Proton
Monster Hunter: World 28,126 Works with Proton
The Elder Scrolls Online 25,690 Works with Proton
Don't Starve Together 25,412 Linux Native
Total War: WARHAMMER II 25,372 Linux Native
Stardew Valley 24,900 Linux Native
Brawlhalla 23,196 Works with Proton
雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) 23,028 Works with Proton
Left 4 Dead 2 22,208 Linux Native
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition 21,876 Works with Proton GE
Phasmophobia 21,558 Works with Proton
Europa Universalis IV 20,886 Linux Native
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20,084 Works with Proton
Sid Meier's Civilization V 19,629 Linux Native
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 19,578 Works with Proton
7 Days to Die 19,320 Linux Native
RimWorld 19,272 Linux Native
Black Desert 18,719 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Red Dead Redemption 2 18,622 Works with Proton
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous 18,336 Works with Proton
Bloons TD 6 17,775 Works with Proton
VRChat 17,705 Unstable with Proton
Bless Unleashed 17,400 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 17,363 Linux Native
Fallout 4 17,208 Works with Proton
SMITE 17,107 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Hunt: Showdown 16,873 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
SCUM 16,750 Proton Broken
Factorio 16,549 Linux Native
Stellaris 16,463 Linux Native
Cities: Skylines 16,238 Linux Native
Arma 3 16,060 Partially works with Proton
Conqueror's Blade 15,251 Proton Broken
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 14,638 Works with Proton
Battlefield 1 14,473 Works with Proton
Counter-Strike 14,338 Linux Native
tModLoader 14,225 Linux Native
No Man's Sky 13,686 Works with Proton
Forza Horizon 4 13,465 Works with Proton
EA SPORTS FIFA 21 13,399 Unstable with Proton
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links 13,358 Works with Proton
eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE 13,297 Partially works with Proton
NBA 2K22 12,848 Works with Proton
Crusader Kings III 12,609 Linux Native
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 12,494 Proton Broken
Sea of Thieves 12,394 Partially works with Proton
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 12,266 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Football Manager 2020 11,991 Works with Proton
The Sims 4 11,627 Works with Proton
Soundpad 11,571 Proton Broken
Path of Exile 11,232 Works with Proton
Geometry Dash 11,031 Works with Proton
Need for Speed Heat 11,018 Works with Proton
Satisfactory 10,788 Works with Proton
World of Warships 10,775 Works with Proton
DARK SOULS III 10,733 Works with Proton
Medieval Dynasty 10,611 Works with Proton GE
Dying Light 10,453 Linux Native
F1 2021 10,224 Proton Broken
Paladins 10,144 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Cyberpunk 2077 9,952 Works with Proton
Tales of Arise 9,686 Works with Proton
Eternal Return 9,235 Proton Broken
Divinity: Original Sin 2 9,131 Works with Proton
BeamNG.drive 9,123 Works with Proton
Timberborn 8,775 Works with Proton
Among Us 8,699 Works with Proton

Some notes:

  • Proton GE refers to the community-built version of Proton. So while it requires adding it manually (which takes all of 5 minutes), it still works. This is sometimes needed for games where videos don't work with the official Proton. Valve is working on getting them all working out of the box with official Proton.
  • We expect Rust to work at the launch of the Steam Deck or shortly after, given that Garry Newman of Facepunch already stated previously it was in progress to have their Easy Anti-Cheat supported in Proton.
  • Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition works but online multiplayer can desync unless you do a small fix.
  • Phasmophobia doesn't have in-game voice due to it needing Windows Cortana.
  • The native port of ARK: Survival Evolved is pretty poor, and online with the Windows version in Proton is broken due to the BattlEye anti-cheat used.
  • Rocket League was removed from Steam, however it does work with Wine (which Proton is built from) if you use something like the Heroic Games Launcher.
  • Total War: WARHAMMER II has a native Linux port but the multiplayer is separated from Windows, it does also work with Proton.
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has a native port but the latest DLC does not, so it needs Proton for that.
  • Fallout 4 works but needs a small launch option fix for the audio.
  • Arma 3 single-player can work with Proton but multiplayer does not, same for eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE.
  • Sea of Thieves works but is missing in-game voice chat.

The takeaway here is that when blending together native Linux builds, those that run well with the official Valve Proton and Proton GE you can currently expect approximately 75% (minus 3 if you don't want to count Proton GE) of the top 100 to work on Linux / SteamOS and so hopefully the SteamOS Linux powered Steam Deck too.

It's never going to be an exact figure because PC gaming (both Windows and Linux) has so many possible configurations, there's a lot of wiggle room for games to work for one person and not another so as always take it with a grain of salt. How well they work within the constraints of the Steam Deck is another matter, many will need special tweaks.

When you think about those broken by anti-cheat, 15 might not sound like a lot but these are they absolute most popular games on Steam. Their absence will be felt if they aren't updated to work.

Considering there are over 52,000 games on Steam (with hundreds releasing each week), Valve has plenty of work to do with Proton to hit their marketing where they've said their aim is for all games to work. Hopefully a bunch more developers will also look to support Linux directly with either native builds or properly test against Proton to further increase compatibility.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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BielFPs Oct 6, 2021
They really can't do this. They would be ridiculed for telling their customers to install Windows on the Steam Deck
They don't need to say this exactly, they can just keep saying as they says today "Sorry we don't have support for your platform" and let the users do the math.

unless some percentage approaching half of all Steam Deck users were already doing it anyway, and that is very highly unlikely.
I don't think so, specially if this results in "more games being available to my console". Remember that not all Steam Deck buyers are Linux fans (most don't even care about which system they're running) so more games (specially the not support popular ones) are a great motivation for people to change (which was my first comment).

Imagine for example, if there was a (legal) way to run Nintendo games in the play station, where the procedure would involve just tweaking the system's console, even non technical users would have interest in doing this procedure because it would mean "more new games" as result.

Though Valve will not put up any obstacles to installing Windows, they have no intention of supporting Windows on the Steam Deck.
Yep
BielFPs Oct 6, 2021
Don't forget that the release of the Deck is a major event, so there will be adds, and promotions and perhaps even parties. As a game dev you want as much publicity / visibility as possible so they should be interested in being included in the upcoming Deck promotions.

This is one of the reasons why the big publishing houses never release a native linux build even though they obviously have one internally (for Stadia) -> that doing so won't get them inclusion on some big event and why they instead release on say the Switch since Nintendo will give them free air time.

So if Valve handles to release of the Deck properly then there should be huge interest to be on the hype train.
+ Click to view long quote
Indeed

But if Steam Machines thought us anything is that keeping support is more important that just the initial support.

Of course I'm also expecting game developers to take a ride on the hype train, but we don't want them to get off after the first station :)
Arten Oct 6, 2021
You've never done anything for any reason other than profit? Or are Valve shareholders of a different species than you? Maybe you'd be right if they were Ferengi.

Again, my point is some people (don't know if it's your case too) are thinking Valve is doing all of this in a "holy crusade of pushing Linux game for the greater good"

Let's pretend this was true, a very effective way would be for them to subsidize the development of Linux versions of the most popular games at the moment for example, but this wouldn't make them (Valve) profit more with sales than they already do with those games being windows only (again they profit in both cases)

SPEAK... With the ghosts?! 😮
It's a feature of the game :)
+ Click to view long quote

I don't know why they do what they do, and I don't really care. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In fact, even if they're only doing it for profit, I don't have the slightest problem with it. I'm just saying, there's no way to rule out other options.

Sponsoring popular games would not be an effective use of resources, regardless of the reason. Porting the game takes some time and you do not know if it will be popular even at the time of completion of the port. Besides, how many people play just popular games? How many games are you willing to give up just to jump on another platform? For this, making Linux a popular gaming platform seems to be the best way.
kokoko3k Oct 6, 2021
Hopefully Valve adds an easy way to implement GE's Proton into the steam deck. There are already tools like protonup that automate the aforementioned 5 minute process
Why?
If Valve wants you to use ProtonGE, the straightforward way is to ship it by default alongside "vanilla" Proton.
Are there licensing issues i'm not aware of?

I feel that most people who buy the deck are looking for a simple handheld comparable to the switch or something alike, and wouldn't want to go as far as to open the shell or change to a desktop environment in order to use it, or wouldn't be confident that they wouldn't break something along the way.
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What i say is that Valve doesn't need to add anything to implement (nor to implement anything).
All the implementation is already there; Valve just need to ship protonGE alongside Vanilla Proton.
Mohandevir Oct 6, 2021
But it's definitely not primarily a hardware play (they aren't making anywhere near enough units, by several orders of magnitude)

Why so? I always tought it was a matter of offer and demand, in the hardware market... You want to have enough inventory to meet the demand, but not too much of it so as not to get stuck with it. If there is a demand, why wouldn' Valve try to ramp up the production of Steam Decks?

At this moment, it's pretty hard to have a clear idea of Valve's intentions, due to the chip shortage that's draining nearly all resources, but I doubt they wouldn't try to meet the demand. That's what I would do if I was launching a new product, at least.

The Steam Deck presale gave Valve a good insight of what's to come for the Steam Deck, imo. Let's wait and see, but it would be weird if they didn't decide to capitilize on the opportunity, imo.

Edit: I mean, it might not be primary now, but who knows, it might come to this, at some point.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 6 October 2021 at 2:30 pm UTC
CatKiller Oct 6, 2021
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But it's definitely not primarily a hardware play (they aren't making anywhere near enough units, by several orders of magnitude)

Why so? I always tought it was a matter of offer and demand, in the hardware market... You want to have enough inventory to meet the demand, but not too much of it so as not to get stuck with it. If there is a demand, why wouldn' Valve try to ramp up the production of Steam Decks?
To make a credible console, you need to be aiming at sales of around 100 million units, and you need everyone to know that you're aiming for that kind of audience for your platform so that everyone buys in. Low sales breaks the entire model. Valve aren't making anything like that many. Nowhere near. You need to sell worldwide to normal people in normal shops. Valve aren't doing that, either.

As a demonstration device for Linux gaming, you only need to sell a few million devices; the important thing is to get people talking about it. That's perfectly in line with what we've seen about Valve's production capacity. As a demonstration device for Linux gaming, your primary audience is PC gamers. You need to already have a Steam account to buy a Steam Deck. For a console, having competitors making similar devices running the same OS and the same games would mean that you'd lost, and badly; as a demonstration device for Linux gaming, having competitors making similar devices running the same OS and the same games means that you've won, and someone else is doing your work for you. Valve have said that they want other companies to make similar devices.

I'm sure that Valve are very satisfied that there's lots of demand, and they'll scale up production to make as big a splash as they can. It's just not at the scale of a console and isn't doing console things. They've said themselves that it's an experiment, to gauge their assumptions about where they've got to.


Last edited by CatKiller on 6 October 2021 at 3:31 pm UTC
BielFPs Oct 6, 2021
I don't know why they do what they do, and I don't really care. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Spoiler, click me

It's okay to be ideological about this, I'm only stating that Valve isn't. It's just business.

Sponsoring popular games would not be an effective use of resources, regardless of the reason.

On the contrary, popular games can separate a company from being a big profitable one to bankruptcy. Take Nintendo for example, a multi millionaire multinational company which holds in 3 specific franchises: Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. It doesn't matter if they have less games that other platforms, or if the competition have more capable performance, because people are willing to buy their products in order to play those popular ones. And if for some reason they launch an console without those games, then it would fail for sure.


Porting the game takes some time and you do not know if it will be popular even at the time of completion of the port.
They still could do it by sponsoring already consolidated games (like the ones in this article for example). If Linux was the only platform that steam supported, then Valve would need to do this (like consoles do for example). Since Valve profits from both systems they don't have any reason to heavily push one of them.

Besides, how many people play just popular games?
A whole lot, and this article is the illustration of it. When you're a big company selling something quantities of sales matter (sometimes over quality unfortunately), 1 game played by thousands matter more than 100 games played by 10 people, you may don't agree with it but it's the reality.

How many games are you willing to give up just to jump on another platform?
This is the main problem I stated in my first post, the fact that you have to "give up" on something in order to play on Linux. For average consumers (aka the majority of people who give money to game companies) if you have platform A that you can play 1 and 2 and Platform B that you can only play 2, then they tend to choose platform 1 because they don't need to "give up" on anything.

For this, making Linux a popular gaming platform seems to be the best way.
In a long term? sure we both are aware of it, but talking about the current time "Linux" is the guy holding people to play their favorite games. Yes yes I'm aware this isn't the case, but for most of the people they see the in this way unfortunately.
Eike Oct 6, 2021
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To make a credible console, you need to be aiming at sales of around 100 million units, and you need everyone to know that you're aiming for that kind of audience for your platform so that everyone buys in. Low sales breaks the entire model. Valve aren't making anything like that many. Nowhere near. You need to sell worldwide to normal people in normal shops. Valve aren't doing that, either.

As a demonstration device for Linux gaming...

I don't think it needs to be one of these two. You'd need to target dozens of millions if your console is competing with the big two, if it's not compatible with anything else and if it wants to fetch exclusive triple A games. None of this is true for Valve. I wouldn't know why they'd need to target so many.

But it can still be viable, without having to be something "special for Linux". As long as they can sell without loss (or maybe compensate little losses for the smallest Steam Deck with the big one(s)), they're fine. More hardware to sell games for, as that's their main business.
Cyril Oct 6, 2021
... that Phasmophobia requires Cortana to use the voice functions of the game, ...

Wow, that's so braindead.
They did this to take advantage of the Cortana's AI, despite the "Windows dependency" part, I think this was actually pretty smart of them.

That's a sure way of making sure your game is completely unplayable in 5 years is what that is.

at the worst case scenario, they disable this feature and the game do work.
you seem like someone who prefer an game to never exist than to exit for a few time.

Disclaimer, I know nothing about this game, if the feature is entirely optional, then sure, that's fine.

If it's a core part of the game, then making it depend on some tech existing and shipping by the operating system is braindead. API's change, technologies change, it's not like the Cortana API has been standardized. In a few years Cortana will change enough that the game would be borked.

Adding voice recognition to games is a smart idea, sure. Just the technology used to implement it was wrong. They could have used some third party library (open source preferable of course) they could ship and not worry about it changing.

Again, if the feature can be disabled and is entirely optional, then sure, go nuts.
+ Click to view long quote

I'm just really surprised how nobody mention that Cortana is a shit that spy on people...
Ehvis Oct 6, 2021
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I'm just really surprised how nobody mention that Cortana is a shit that spy on people...

Same as Google, Siri, Alexa and such. Nothing new there that is worth mentioning. At least in a game it stops listening when you quit playing.
Mohandevir Oct 6, 2021
But it's definitely not primarily a hardware play (they aren't making anywhere near enough units, by several orders of magnitude)

Why so? I always tought it was a matter of offer and demand, in the hardware market... You want to have enough inventory to meet the demand, but not too much of it so as not to get stuck with it. If there is a demand, why wouldn' Valve try to ramp up the production of Steam Decks?
To make a credible console, you need to be aiming at sales of around 100 million units, and you need everyone to know that you're aiming for that kind of audience for your platform so that everyone buys in. Low sales breaks the entire model. Valve aren't making anything like that many. Nowhere near. You need to sell worldwide to normal people in normal shops. Valve aren't doing that, either.

As a demonstration device for Linux gaming, you only need to sell a few million devices; the important thing is to get people talking about it. That's perfectly in line with what we've seen about Valve's production capacity. As a demonstration device for Linux gaming, your primary audience is PC gamers. You need to already have a Steam account to buy a Steam Deck. For a console, having competitors making similar devices running the same OS and the same games would mean that you'd lost, and badly; as a demonstration device for Linux gaming, having competitors making similar devices running the same OS and the same games means that you've won, and someone else is doing your work for you. Valve have said that they want other companies to make similar devices.

I'm sure that Valve are very satisfied that there's lots of demand, and they'll scale up production to make as big a splash as they can. It's just not at the scale of a console and isn't doing console things. They've said themselves that it's an experiment, to gauge their assumptions about where they've got to.
+ Click to view long quote

I get your point, but I see a "flaw" (might be too strong a word)... No other company will be able to challenge Steam Deck's pricing ranges. Valve was able to offer agressive pricing because they mainly sell games. Those that could challenge them are Sony or Microsoft, who knows how to undersale consoles and get the money invested back on game sales. DELL's potential UFO will never be able to challenge the Steam Deck on this aspect... Just like any other PC handheld that we've seen up to this date. The Steam Machines suffered from too high prices in the same way.

I'm quite sure that the Steam Deck will stay relevant for years, in this market and will be the leader of the segment. Let's hope Valve is aware of that and ready to face the challenge.
Cyril Oct 6, 2021
I'm just really surprised how nobody mention that Cortana is a shit that spy on people...

Same as Google, Siri, Alexa and such. Nothing new there that is worth mentioning. At least in a game it stops listening when you quit playing.

No it's not the same Cortana is installed by default on Windows and you can hardly disable it (majority of people won't anyway).
Yeah it stops listening in-game, but then continue listening back at your desktop, lol.
elmapul Oct 6, 2021
Yes that's why they can safely invest in a new concept like this one. Valve is in a unique position where they're consolidate as the top game store in the world and doesn't have shareholders to answer too, but this doesn't mean they don't want profit.

If for some reason investing on linux would result only in expenses they would never invest on it.

I didn't say they didn't want to profit from it. I wrote that we can't be sure why they're doing it, and I listed profit as one option.

You've never done anything for any reason other than profit? Or are Valve shareholders of a different species than you? Maybe you'd be right if they were Ferengi.

i certainly never wasted billion of dollars into something not expecting profits in return.

Do you have billion of dollars?

You think all the billionaires giving away their assets to charity are doing it for profit? Some of them do it for taxes, but part of it gives away so much that it doesn't make tax sense. They're doing it for something other than monetary gain. Some do it for a good feeling, someone else to be accepted back into the human race (Gates). Nobel, for example, created the Nobel Prize because he wanted to improve his reputation.

I keep saying valve can do it for profit (which I personally don't think is a bad thing), but they doesn't have to. They can count on losses to be acceptable or they can even guess that they might be profitable, but we don't have the information to say they're doing it for profit. Even that profit may end up being a side benefit of their efforts to do it for a different purpose.
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you forgot to mention 2 things...
yes there is tax exemptions but there is also:
1)an free publicit for the company.
2)political influence (for example, if you government give up this idea of using linux/teaching how to use linux , to gain technologycal independence, then we will not remove our contributions to charity/jobs)

but yeah, you are right, if i was billionaire i would use part of my money for an good cause, i was just kidding.

the main issue is: most bilionaries made their profit in ethical questionable ways, so its a matter : the means justify the ends.
Purple Library Guy Oct 6, 2021
Yes that's why they can safely invest in a new concept like this one. Valve is in a unique position where they're consolidate as the top game store in the world and doesn't have shareholders to answer too, but this doesn't mean they don't want profit.

If for some reason investing on linux would result only in expenses they would never invest on it.

I didn't say they didn't want to profit from it. I wrote that we can't be sure why they're doing it, and I listed profit as one option.

You've never done anything for any reason other than profit? Or are Valve shareholders of a different species than you? Maybe you'd be right if they were Ferengi.

i certainly never wasted billion of dollars into something not expecting profits in return.

Do you have billion of dollars?

You think all the billionaires giving away their assets to charity are doing it for profit?
+ Click to view long quote
Yes. Bad example.

Mind you, in the very specific example of Valve and Gabe Newell + core team, I am not actually certain what their motivations are and am willing consider it plausible they could not just have but be acting on some relatively normal, human motivations. At a minimum, I'd want to say that the ways Valve pursue profit are seriously shaped by a certain style and set of beliefs and values--so for instance, they have a strategy of dealing with threats from Microsoft by pushing for open platforms in part because they like open platforms and want to think a strategy pushing them will work (I hope they're right). So I agree with you on your main point.

But this is a rare case. All those billionaires "giving away" tons of money are mostly doing it with the assistance of huge money-management companies like Price Waterhouse Cooper or whatever, and they don't actually give the money away. What they do, is dodges like putting the money into a "charitable trust", which is an organization theoretically dedicated to giving money to charity, which gets tax breaks because of this, but which they control and which has few rules about how much money actually gets given. And their press releases talk about this money in this trust which they control and which is still being invested for profit but paying less or no tax, as if they had just given all that money away. But they haven't, they've just shielded it from taxes. Billionaires do a lot of that stuff.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 6 October 2021 at 5:08 pm UTC
elmapul Oct 6, 2021
... that Phasmophobia requires Cortana to use the voice functions of the game, ...

Wow, that's so braindead.
They did this to take advantage of the Cortana's AI, despite the "Windows dependency" part, I think this was actually pretty smart of them.

That's a sure way of making sure your game is completely unplayable in 5 years is what that is.

at the worst case scenario, they disable this feature and the game do work.
you seem like someone who prefer an game to never exist than to exit for a few time.

Disclaimer, I know nothing about this game, if the feature is entirely optional, then sure, that's fine.

If it's a core part of the game, then making it depend on some tech existing and shipping by the operating system is braindead. API's change, technologies change, it's not like the Cortana API has been standardized. In a few years Cortana will change enough that the game would be borked.

Adding voice recognition to games is a smart idea, sure. Just the technology used to implement it was wrong. They could have used some third party library (open source preferable of course) they could ship and not worry about it changing.

Again, if the feature can be disabled and is entirely optional, then sure, go nuts.
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many games are shipped with specific versions of directX for that reason, things break over time.
im not sure about speach rec/ia stuff, if its possible to ship with an specific version of it.

i was planing to make an game using speach recognition since the windows vista days, one of the reasons why i gave up was because its only avaliable for windows, but looking back it seems like an stupid idea to give up on the game due to it, and to blame microsoft for spending billions of dollars into making an feature then making it windows exclusive, its not their fault if the opens source comunity couldnt produce something but they could, then i rather see this feature and any derivative software that come as consequence to exist than to not.
one of the things people told me about it was:
"linux dont have niche features that no one uses"
but even computers for layman users was seen as an niche stuff before apple and microsoft proved that there is demand for this market, IBM lose the opportunity to make billions due to their lack of vision.
even stuff like GUI was an niche in the past.

if the open source comunity cant see that speach recognition is an platform rather than an gimmick, and join efforts to make an "minimum viable product" for developers who want an derivative product, instead of making tons of desktop enviroments that no one asked for to solve problems that could probably be solved by customizing KDE and fragmenting the developer efforts to support then all...
then we cant blame microsoft/google/apple for creating such tech.

honestly i tried to find an solution, but by the time that i found both an game engine and speach rec solution for linux, the speach rec tech was no longer free to use (google solution)
now im looking for an alternative, meanwhile working on other game ideas.
honestly using an open source library would be an priority if such thing existed, but it dont, and the main issue is: it need training data wich we refuse to do, telemetry if you will. or at least an public repository of voice samples, mozilla tried to create that one, and there are some projects of open source speach rec traning material and data somewhere but no where near an drop in replacement for the proprietary solutions.


Last edited by elmapul on 6 October 2021 at 4:53 pm UTC
CatKiller Oct 6, 2021
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I get your point, but I see a "flaw" (might be too strong a word)... No other company will be able to challenge Steam Deck's pricing ranges. Valve was able to offer agressive pricing because they mainly sell games. Those that could challenge them are Sony or Microsoft, who knows how to undersale consoles and get the money invested back on game sales. DELL's potential UFO will never be able to challenge the Steam Deck on this aspect... Just like any other PC handheld that we've seen up to this date. The Steam Machines suffered from too high prices in the same way.

I'm quite sure that the Steam Deck will stay relevant for years, in this market and will be the leader of the segment. Let's hope Valve is aware of that and ready to face the challenge.
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It's that they're willing to let other companies make similar devices that shows that they aren't going for the sell loads of hardware to get locked in ecosystem sales console play. I agree (and have said in comments elsewhere previously) that other companies aren't really going to be able to.

Hardware companies don't have Steam to lean on, so they need to make profit on the hardware itself, and at the low end the aggressive pricing of the Deck shuts that out. At the premium end there could be profit, but for current and near-future technology the Deck has hit the optimum compromises so that a more expensive device would be a worse device: higher resolution screen means worse performance and worse battery life, a better battery means a heavier device, and so on. Maybe in a couple of tech generations there'll be space. I think it's naïve, maybe, certainly optimistic, for Valve to think that everyone's going to leap in and make SteamOS devices and solve their worldwide logistics things for them.

Microsoft, of course, does have a gaming software ecosystem to lean on for profits, and releasing an Xbox-branded handheld that plays Windows games could really put a spoke in the wheels of the Steam Deck.
Mohandevir Oct 6, 2021
Microsoft, of course, does have a gaming software ecosystem to lean on for profits, and releasing an Xbox-branded handheld that plays Windows games could really put a spoke in the wheels of the Steam Deck.

But they said that the Steam Deck is an Xbox Handheld.

https://bgr.com/tech/phil-spencer-hints-that-the-steam-deck-could-be-the-portable-xbox-of-our-dreams/

Edit: This said, it feels like Valve is using the Steam Deck and SteamOS 3.0 to try and create something similar to Google and Android with many OEM jumping in the fray along with their own hardware and, who knows, custom SteamOS versions.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 6 October 2021 at 5:38 pm UTC
CFWhitman Oct 6, 2021
They don't need to say this exactly, they can just keep saying as they says today "Sorry we don't have support for your platform" and let the users do the math.

They can do this as long as they don't care about missing out on any sales that would go to Steam Deck owners. In that case, they don't really have to say anything. How important this is to them depends on how many Steam Decks end up being sold.

I don't think so, specially if this results in "more games being available to my console". Remember that not all Steam Deck buyers are Linux fans (most don't even care about which system they're running) so more games (specially the not support popular ones) are a great motivation for people to change (which was my first comment).

Imagine for example, if there was a (legal) way to run Nintendo games in the play station, where the procedure would involve just tweaking the system's console, even non technical users would have interest in doing this procedure because it would mean "more new games" as result.
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This seems out of touch with mainstream users.

If users could practically run Windows from the SD card, then there might be a more significant percentage to actually do that, but my experience with SD cards and with Windows suggests that would not be a terribly pleasant experience, assuming it's possible without messing up the existing operating system.

Changing the operating system to Windows is not something the majority of people will be interested in doing (especially not permanently).

Yep

Yes, very much so. Valve making sure Windows will install is in no way the same thing as supporting it. The person writing that article makes an assumption. Nothing I have heard from Valve suggests they will be supporting Windows. Valve's "support" of Windows will consist of making sure there are no absolute roadblocks to using it as far as I have heard them say up to this point.

You seem assured that running Windows on the Steam Deck will be a very common thing. The only way that this will happen is if things don't work out the way Valve wants them to at all. If the Steam Deck were to flop once released, then Valve might consider actually supporting Windows installations to sell through the remaining units.

Most people don't replace the operating system on any device they buy. I say this as someone who is perfectly willing to do that myself, but is self-aware enough to know that I am in the minority.
CFWhitman Oct 6, 2021
What i say is that Valve doesn't need to add anything to implement (nor to implement anything).
All the implementation is already there; Valve just need to ship protonGE alongside Vanilla Proton.

I suspect that there are legal obstacles to them shipping protonGE, or they would already make it available through Steam.
What i say is that Valve doesn't need to add anything to implement (nor to implement anything).
All the implementation is already there; Valve just need to ship protonGE alongside Vanilla Proton.

I suspect that there are legal obstacles to them shipping protonGE, or they would already make it available through Steam.

Everytime that somebody suggest to install a WMF patch with a link included, Kisak delete it because is a "legally problematic workaround"
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