Here's an interesting data point for you, The Pale Beyond a polar exploration game set in an unforgiving frozen wasteland managed to do well on the Steam Deck. Released back in February from Bellular Studios, it is Steam Deck Verified and on desktop Linux it has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB.
Not seen it before, do check out their trailer:
Direct Link
More about the game: "When its sister ship failed to return from a dangerous polar expedition, a crew is assembled for a perilous rescue mission aboard The Temperance. When the Captain mysteriously disappears after the ship becomes stuck in the ice, players will be forced into Captaincy and manage the 24 crewmates (and 12 sled dogs!). Keeping the crew and sled dogs safe, fed, and warm is key. However, surviving the ice will matter little in the face of mutiny. Every vote will count, so keep the crew on your side."
They also run the Bellular News YouTube channel, where they talk about the gaming industry. In a video posted up on March 29th, a section talked a bit about the game and mentioned clearly how it had sold 10% of copies on the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck part starts at 5:10 to quote: "I can actually give you a very interesting number from our game, The Pale Beyond and it really shocked me. So 10% of The Pale Beyond sales are actually Steam Deck".
Direct Link
Certainly looks interesting, going to have to take a look at this one myself!
You can buy a copy on Humble Store and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
We're no longer the 1%!Well. Maybe the non-SD Linux sales are 1%. It isn't in the video.
Beta Version Mar 30, 2023
Steam Deck only or Linux overall?They very clearly said specifically the Steam Deck.
Steam Deck only or Linux overall?They very clearly said specifically the Steam Deck.
They did, but do we have information yet that Steam is displaying that information to developers?
Now, the steam deck is basically a console meant to play first and foremost, most of the people who wake the device are going to play.
So it stands to reason that people using SD are going to play and buy more than the average steam user on pc.
So maybe the weight of the steam deck in the market is far superior than our sad 1%. If other developers are having similar figures it would mean we are not negligible anymore ^^
Maybe Liam could reach to some developers to ask about sd sales and check whether this is a trend or an exception? 😁
rustybroomhandle Mar 31, 2023
Steam Deck only or Linux overall?They very clearly said specifically the Steam Deck.
They did, but do we have information yet that Steam is displaying that information to developers?
As mentioned in the video they can see the hardware used.
Here goes a funny thought. Around 1% of the users who doesn't their steam client are running Linux, SD or otherwise. But how many people got steam to play some CS or pubg or other popular game but never pay anything else? Actually, probably a lot of users simply start steam because they marked the start on boot checkbox but they don't mind it at all.
Now, the steam deck is basically a console meant to play first and foremost, most of the people who wake the device are going to play.
So it stands to reason that people using SD are going to play and buy more than the average steam user on pc.
So maybe the weight of the steam deck in the market is far superior than our sad 1%. If other developers are having similar figures it would mean we are not negligible anymore ^^
Maybe Liam could reach to some developers to ask about sd sales and check whether this is a trend or an exception? 😁
there is a common trend among devs that do linux-native game releases to see a higher-than-1% linux purchase share
there are several takes on when and why this happens... your take for the Deck is novel to my eyes, quite interesting, and left me wondering if the same might also accounts for a portion of the non-deck linux purchase's extra weight too (after all linux users are more privacy and resource-conscious than average, so the ones that do run steam might be more prone to actually buy and play too)
we do know from previous takes that linux users tend to avoid piracy and also vote with their wallets (me included) when they see linux native titles
sheers!
Last edited by Marlock on 31 March 2023 at 3:00 pm UTC
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