Prison Architect 2 from Double Eleven and Paradox Interactive was recently revealed with an entirely new look, and while the original has full Native Linux support, the sequel will not.
Apart from their main grand strategy games developed directly by Paradox, it seems they continue to move away from direct Linux support with all the other games now. Just like we saw with Cities Skylines 2, Star Trek: Infinite, The Lamplighters League and Age of Wonders 4.
Writing in an FAQ post on their official forum a Paradox staffer noted:
Will the game have Linux support? Will it be playable on the Steam Deck?
Prison Architect 2 is not supported for Linux. We are currently investigating Steam Deck Verification.
So if you want to play it on Linux or Steam Deck, you'll need Proton. Thankfully, Proton does run almost anything you throw at it nowadays, especially single-player games like this. Still, it's somewhat amusing for developers to not support Linux, but support (or look at supporting) the Steam Deck — which uses SteamOS Linux. But the Steam Deck is a dedicated known platform of course, compared to the many different desktop configurations of Linux. But again, Proton should run it just as well on Desktop Linux if it runs on Steam Deck.
Prison Architect 2 is due out on March 26th, and according to the FAQ it will be a "full-fledged game, with old and new features such as the Career mode, the Sandbox mode, and modding tools" and in regards to DLC which Paradox games are pretty notorious to have lots they said "post-launch content and DLCs are not our focus right now".
You can pre-order from:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
We need an option for games to be officially supported on Linux desktop.
I make a proposal for Valve to have a "Desktop" verified tag next to "Steam Deck" verified. This would then allow devs and publishers to officially support a game via Proton on Desktop PC's the same as they do for the steam deck.
I know that in most circumstances the games just run but I want "Official" Support. I don't like the idea of having to rely on Proton to play my games as there are no guarantees the game will run in future and a lot of publishers don't care either.
I have not pre ordered the game due to the CS2 situation but I am really looking forward to playing PA2. I have been happy with what I have seen of the game so far and really hope we can get steam deck support as a minimum.
Quoting: finaldestI make a proposal for Valve to have a "Desktop" verified tag next to "Steam Deck" verified. This would then allow devs and publishers to officially support a game via Proton on Desktop PC's the same as they do for the steam deck.
I know that in most circumstances the games just run but I want "Official" Support. I don't like the idea of having to rely on Proton to play my games as there are no guarantees the game will run in future and a lot of publishers don't care either.
I can almost guarantee that it wouldn't be used. It's the same responsibility as putting out a Linux build and I just don't see publishers biting.
alka.setzer Feb 14
Quoting: alka.setzerProton, gave us emulated Windows games (mostly under Steam), took from us Native games (under our distro/platform of choice).Wine is not an emulator.
I do see what you mean, but look at all the old Linux ports from the first wave of Steam on Linux. Most of the big "native" games are just using a proprietary wrapper (Feral, Aspyr, Virtual Programming), and most don't even launch anymore on current distros. If the games do launch they mostly have graphical corruption or poor performance and stability.
Proton gave us the ability to easily wrap games ourselves with an open source tool.
Some indie games still work great but they are the exception, and often run much better with Proton. Poly Bridge for instance runs at about 20fps with it's native version on Intel integrated graphics, but with Proton it's 60fps.
DXVK and Proton are so good people are even using it on Windows to improve performance of old games. Just look at GTA4, everyone says to use DXVK tp play it on Windows.
Actual Linux "native" gaming should be reserved for open source game engines that improve on the originals, like OpenMW, GZdoom, dhewm3 ect. You can't expect developers to constantly patch up their old Linux games when there is no money in it, but you can expect the open source community to keep the open source engines running.
Kimyrielle Feb 14
Quoting: alka.setzerProton, gave us emulated Windows games (mostly under Steam), took from us Native games (under our distro/platform of choice).
It was inevitable. Still, looking at the sheer mass of Windows games we can now seamlessly play in Linux, compared to the relatively small amount of native ports when got back then during porting heyday...it was still a VERY good deal.
2012: 1/2 (50%)
2013: 5/8 (63%)
2014: 7/12 (58%)
2015: 9/13 (69%)
2016: 6/7 (85%)
2017: 10/15 (66%)
2018: 4/11 (36%)
I guess you could write a thesis about the topic, yet I remember the panic we had after Steam Machines had flopped. We got a lot of ports 2015 and 2016, 2017 AAA releases had already declined and in 2018 even the indies jumped of the boat.
The Linux gaming community was heavily stressed out by then. Aspyr had already pretty much jumped of the boat, Feral released iteration after iteration of the same game series, Humble was sold to IGN and had dropped all Linux requirements. Proton and SteamDeck didn't bring us Ports like the SteamMachines did, but without either of those, there would be no Linux gaming community to speak of.
Quoting: finaldestWe need an option for games to be officially supported on Linux desktop.
I make a proposal for Valve to have a "Desktop" verified tag next to "Steam Deck" verified. This would then allow devs and publishers to officially support a game via Proton on Desktop PC's the same as they do for the steam deck.
This. Native builds are not necessary (even though they are better than Wine - in my opinion - if done properly), but what we definitely need (and what we had when native builds were a thing) is official Linux / Steam Deck support from game devs. Not just relying on Valve and Wine/Proton "to magically make their games work".
Last edited by AsciiWolf on 14 February 2024 at 7:02 pm UTC
Quoting: finaldestI think it clear at this point that native builds on Linux are over.Well, except the percentages of native games are fairly steady. And may start to rise if Godot continues to take off, as Linux is very much a first class citizen in Godot. Note this article from a day ago, where a commenter notes that more than half of the Godot demo reel of games is native Linux.
Every time a game comes out where it mentions not running Linux natively, someone says this. The plural of anecdote is data, but it usually has to be a really big plural. Remembering the last couple of times you saw an article about a game with no native Linux does not qualify.
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