Sometimes it feels like I've somehow fallen through the multiverse into a very different and thoroughly weird world. When Valve put Steam on Linux back in 2013 (see our full history), who could have imagined what that would bring us many years later?
At the end of February the Steam Deck should be releasing to the lucky first few who managed to get their reservation in (not me), ushering in a new era of PC gaming on the go. A Linux handheld. Powered by SteamOS 3, Valve's latest bundling of Steam with open source based on Arch Linux. Excitement levels keep rising every time Valve announce something new, but its the posts from developers we keep seeing with units that really gets us excited.
When you have the likes of Shuhei Yoshida, the Head of Sony PlayStation Indies (and former President of SCE Worldwide Studios), putting up a clearly very excited Twitter post showing off a previously PlayStation exclusive running on a Linux handheld (the Steam Deck), you know something big is brewing that's about to be unleashed on the world.
Pictured - God of War on a Steam Deck, credit: Shuhei Yoshida
The gaming landscape is ever-changing but the past few years felt bigger than before. Sony are allowing more previously exclusive games to leave their platform, Microsoft are doing the same and now thanks to the likes of Steam Play Proton - we even get to play them on desktop Linux. Seeing an Xbox Studios or PlayStation Studios logo shine brightly on a Linux box is just such a strange feeling. Thanks to Valve again, we shall soon even see that on the go or on the toilet.
It absolutely is going to be the year of Linux on the de…Steam Deck. Please don't let the multiverse send me back to whatever boring world I came from, I don't want to get off this ride.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeExclusive games never made much sense to me anyhow. Sure they made sense when the console itself made profit, but I'm betting for the price of the hardware in the PS5, that they are no longer making any profit on the hardware and only make profit on the games.
They've always made their profit primarily via software sales (including licencing) and not the hardware (consoles). That's really why exclusivity to push hardware made sense - because then the customers also purchased the OTHER games on their platform (ergo revenue).
Last edited by Beamboom on 26 January 2022 at 6:40 pm UTC
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Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI wonder why Sony are porting their games to the competitor's operating system instead of doing it for an own Linux distro.
I guess the PS5 operative system is technically more close to Linux than to Windows
As far as I remember it's based on BSD (same as Mac OS, just having used a different BSD version). At least older versions were, but they might be using something new/different now.
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slaapliedje Jan 26, 2022
Quoting: peta77Ah MacOS... Darwin kernel, Mach64 based, with BSD-ish userland, and banned GPLv3 software... yay, let's ship with a 15 year old version of rsync!Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI wonder why Sony are porting their games to the competitor's operating system instead of doing it for an own Linux distro.
I guess the PS5 operative system is technically more close to Linux than to Windows
As far as I remember it's based on BSD (same as Mac OS, just having used a different BSD version). At least older versions were, but they might be using something new/different now.
Sorry, was running into issues like that with macOS Monterey on my M1 max... was irritated I had to install the newer version from Brew. It is interesting why exactly they don't ship any GPLv3 software, but you'd think they'd attempt to find alternatives for such things. So far that I know of, they've only replaced bash with zsh, and coded their own samba replacement...
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Mohandevir Jan 26, 2022
Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: Doc AngeloThat makes no sense to me. If the exclusitivity did work out, why are they making things less exclusive over time? This is not beside the point for me, and shouldn't be beside of anyone, because this is literally the topic. I honestly have no idea why you suddenly state that this is "besides the point".
Exclusive games did work out great for them. Then they realized how much untapped revenue there is in PC gaming sales. Think about it this way; the PS4/PS5 are basically PC hardware shoved into odd looking (and loud) cases. The games use OpenGL (or an offshoot of it), so porting them to DirectX or Vulkan should be fairly straight forward, and since all the art exists already, there is fairly minimal amount of development time for opening up games to a whole new group of players. So once a PS# exclusive game's sales hit that curve where either 1) everyone has already bought it at full price that is going to. 2) there have been enough sales that people who are going to buy it have bought it on sale. So the revenue stream for those games are done. Boom, more sales instantly because the game now works on the PC, so anyone who is a Xbox/Nintendo/PC only gamer can also be a Sony customer! More Money!
Exclusive games never made much sense to me anyhow. Sure they made sense when the console itself made profit, but I'm betting for the price of the hardware in the PS5, that they are no longer making any profit on the hardware and only make profit on the games.
Yep! You are both right, but was Sony forced to support the Steam Deck? Couldn't they just release their builds for Windows and be gone with it? Then, if it works on the Steam Deck, consider it a nice to have?
It's the extra step to aknowledge the existence of the Steam Deck, support it and, by association, support Linux that amazes Liam. This is the angle that he wanted to highlight.
Got it right Liam? Because I share the same point of view.
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Quoting: peta77Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI wonder why Sony are porting their games to the competitor's operating system instead of doing it for an own Linux distro.
I guess the PS5 operative system is technically more close to Linux than to Windows
As far as I remember it's based on BSD (same as Mac OS, just having used a different BSD version). At least older versions were, but they might be using something new/different now.
Not sure about the PS5 but the ps4 "Orbis" OS is FreeBSD9
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slaapliedje Jan 28, 2022
Quoting: MohandevirThis is pretty much my thought too. Though with Sony's history of being Linux friendly... then not, then again... then at least using open source stuff... it makes sense. I think with their mindset, it's simply a matter of 'hey, new platform, maybe we can sell more games!' Think of it like Sega. They also publish games (or at least allow them to be ported by someone else) for Linux, they no longer have their own hardware platform to make exclusive games for, but likely make far more money now than they did with say selling the Dreamcast. Sonic popping up on the Nintendo is weird for us old people who remember the hardcore rivalry that was there.Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: Doc AngeloThat makes no sense to me. If the exclusitivity did work out, why are they making things less exclusive over time? This is not beside the point for me, and shouldn't be beside of anyone, because this is literally the topic. I honestly have no idea why you suddenly state that this is "besides the point".
Exclusive games did work out great for them. Then they realized how much untapped revenue there is in PC gaming sales. Think about it this way; the PS4/PS5 are basically PC hardware shoved into odd looking (and loud) cases. The games use OpenGL (or an offshoot of it), so porting them to DirectX or Vulkan should be fairly straight forward, and since all the art exists already, there is fairly minimal amount of development time for opening up games to a whole new group of players. So once a PS# exclusive game's sales hit that curve where either 1) everyone has already bought it at full price that is going to. 2) there have been enough sales that people who are going to buy it have bought it on sale. So the revenue stream for those games are done. Boom, more sales instantly because the game now works on the PC, so anyone who is a Xbox/Nintendo/PC only gamer can also be a Sony customer! More Money!
Exclusive games never made much sense to me anyhow. Sure they made sense when the console itself made profit, but I'm betting for the price of the hardware in the PS5, that they are no longer making any profit on the hardware and only make profit on the games.
Yep! You are both right, but was Sony forced to support the Steam Deck? Couldn't they just release their builds for Windows and be gone with it? Then, if it works on the Steam Deck, consider it a nice to have?
It's the extra step to aknowledge the existence of the Steam Deck, support it and, by association, support Linux that amazes Liam. This is the angle that he wanted to highlight.
Got it right Liam? Because I share the same point of view.
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Doc Angelo 
Jan 28, 2022
Quoting: BeamboomI've actually never felt Sony were much against Linux at all. Keep in mind that on their PS3 they even allowed Linux to be installed as "otherOS".
They sold the PS3 with Linux support in order to save on import tax, because it technically can be imported as "home computing device", instead of "gaming console". That's literally the only reason why they did that. Not because they "love Linux" or something.
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Quoting: Doc AngeloOoh, I didn't know about that!Quoting: BeamboomI've actually never felt Sony were much against Linux at all. Keep in mind that on their PS3 they even allowed Linux to be installed as "otherOS".
They sold the PS3 with Linux support in order to save on import tax, because it technically can be imported as "home computing device", instead of "gaming console". That's literally the only reason why they did that. Not because they "love Linux" or something.
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slaapliedje Jan 29, 2022
Quoting: Doc AngeloWell, the PS2 had a Linux kit for it. So there were other reasons.Quoting: BeamboomI've actually never felt Sony were much against Linux at all. Keep in mind that on their PS3 they even allowed Linux to be installed as "otherOS".
They sold the PS3 with Linux support in order to save on import tax, because it technically can be imported as "home computing device", instead of "gaming console". That's literally the only reason why they did that. Not because they "love Linux" or something.
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Doc Angelo Jan 30, 2022
Quoting: slaapliedjeWell, the PS2 had a Linux kit for it. So there were other reasons.
They did that, of course, for the very same reason. Sony tried to export the PS2 as home computer as well.
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