Nightdive Studios confirm Linux and macOS ports of System Shock are cancelled

Quoting: EagleDelta

Quoting: JarmerThis is typical from them. DONT. EVER. SUPPORT. NIGHTDIVE. Horrible developer that somehow continues to exist despite lots of other good devs going under :(

What else have they done wrong?

The Remasters they've worked on have all been well received.

I get the meltdown over false promises (or to be honest, it's probably moreso just because Linux is involved, you probably wouldn't see the same backlash even if the aspect of false promises persists)

But to say Night Dive are bad or they "don't deserve support" who would you support then? They're the only Dev team in this infiltrated industry that make sensible and genuine ports/remasters, not for making quick buck over people's nostalgia, not recycling games that don't need the remaster investment, but purely out of passion. They just released a remastered for a very obscure weird game called PO'ed, go take a look at that game and tell me with a straight face an executive greenlit that project thinking It would bring in money.

I think we must understand that unless we become a not insignificant chunck of the market, expect the 2nd class treatment to continue, any other interpretation is just living a fantasy dream, a higher market share is the only thing that'd make Linux support a serious thing for companies to consider.


Last edited by Pyrate on 22 May 2024 at 3:54 pm UTC

Aaand from wishlist to not interested... Their lose.

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: EagleDeltaNever go into Crowdfunding of any kind thinking you're money is related to being a customer. It's NOT, you're an investor that doesn't get any stake in the company or payout. Instead you get exclusive content and (usually for physical products) earlier access to the product than the rest of the public.

That's just practically quoting Kickstarter's entire cop-out line. And it would be fine if it was actually even vaguely structured like that. But it's not. It's "pledge at this level, get these rewards". Or "meet this goal, we make this promise". At that point, there needs to be accountability. But KS hide behind their "you're an investor" line and shirk all responsibility.

I mean, that is the definition of what Crowdfunding is, though. Lots of Investors never make their money back that they put into a company. You don't have to use it, but there are a ton of independent Board Games and Video Games that simply wouldn't exist without Early Access or Crowdfunding. Otherwise, you're generally looking at a big publisher, who are less trustworthy in most cases than most Crowdfunding sites are (Kickstarter isn't the only one out there).

You're not a "bad gamer" or anything for not wanting to support Crowdfunding, but also know that alternative is also something we complain about as well and it simply takes lots of money and/or time to make games, even small ones..... and that's with GameDevs making far less than their counterparts in traditional Tech.

Quoting: finaldestI have removed the game from my wish list as will not support a studio who refuses to keep to their promises.

I have noticed a lot of publishers drop support for Linux and mac since the rise of Valves Proton (PDX as prime example). As much as I love what Proton has done for Linux gaming, I am now getting worried with the big decline in official Linux support through native builds.

I think the Linux gaming community needs to make a push for official support using Proton as an option. I don't like relying on Proton simply because the publisher can simply wash their hands and claim no support was guaranteed unless on windows. I have no problem using Proton but I want official support should a problem arise.

Native builds are currently really hard to support due to sub-par support in Game Engines for Linux + Vulkan. As it stands now (and as it seems to be going with parts of Proton like DXVK) Proton is a more performant and reliable "engine" or "target" than trying to build a "Linux Native" binary using Unreal/Unity/etc.

Also, Proton IS native. It is, for all intensive purposes, a gaming API for Linux. Not an emulator or "compatibility layer" really, but an API. It just allows Windows API calls to be mapped to Linux and/or Vulkan ones. If you've ever worked on connecting services together, this is exactly how we build things in code - connecting disparate systems together with a shared "language" - be that REST, GraphQL, gRPC, or something else.

Quoting: PyrateThey're the only Dev team in this infiltrated industry that make sensible and genuine ports/remasters, not for making quick buck over people's nostalgia

I was involved in several talks where they proposed contracting people for porting works... and naw, Nightdive is definitely in for the quick buck. The bottom line is what they care about, not the games.

Quoting: finaldestI think the Linux gaming community needs to make a push for official support using Proton as an option. I don't like relying on Proton simply because the publisher can simply wash their hands and claim no support was guaranteed unless on windows. I have no problem using Proton but I want official support should a problem arise.

FWIW, although it's currently not that common, "official support and testing for the game in Proton" is the second-highest-paying tier of my "more Tux, more bucks" hierarchy. Quick précis of the tiers, since I've laid out the full reasoning here enough times that people are probably annoyed by it.
Full price: native games
Half price: games with official support for Proton
75% off: Deck Verified Windows-only games
90% off: game happens to work in Wine (for now)
Won't pay anything: game doesn't work on Linux at all.
The more a game dev supports me as a Linux gamer, the more financial support I'm willing to give them in exchange.

Quoting: elmapulthere are tons of open source projects that already deliver a lot of things...
and tons of kickstarter projects with broken promisses...

yet people only fund the second

Makes me think . . . there's nothing necessarily stopping open source projects from doing kickstarters to get a bit of funding. I mean sure, the open source thing already exists in some form, and you can probably already get it for free, but the point of the kickstarter is for the new features you're promising to come into existence, and just like with a normal kickstarter nobody will get them if someone doesn't pay for them (with either money or time). You could do the thing, have some feature goals, give people some nice exclusive things for different backer levels, all the usual schtick should work fine.

[quote=EagleDelta][quote=scaine]

Quoting: EagleDeltaNever go into Crowdfunding of any kind thinking you're money is related to being a customer. It's NOT, you're an investor that doesn't get any stake in the company or payout. Instead you get exclusive content and (usually for physical products) earlier access to the product than the rest of the public.

Okay, but I'm not arguing the definition of crowdfunding. I'm noting that KS doesn't look, or encourage a crowdfunding engagement mentality. KS encourages engagement through awards and promises. But they have no accountability when their platform is used to blatantly break those promises.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyMakes me think . . . there's nothing necessarily stopping open source projects from doing kickstarters to get a bit of funding. I mean sure, the open source thing already exists in some form, and you can probably already get it for free, but the point of the kickstarter is for the new features you're promising to come into existence, and just like with a normal kickstarter nobody will get them if someone doesn't pay for them (with either money or time). You could do the thing, have some feature goals, give people some nice exclusive things for different backer levels, all the usual schtick should work fine.

Fish Folk did that, and succeeded in just a few days. I was happy to back it for a few quid after they revealed a Bomberman clone as part of the suite of multiplayer games that it offers.