They were one of the biggest Linux gaming supporters in the past, way before Steam was released for Linux (and possibly even Windows too)... In particular, Unreal Tournament had Linux support. But today it's different. No Epic Store on Linux, etc.

Valve angered them and Linux support is one of the few ways they can harm them without significantly harming themselves.

During a big anti-trust fight with Apple about their 30% tax they demanded on Twitter that Valve lowered their fees for everybody to give Epic an advantage in the legal fight.
In the end Valve only lowered the prices for big publishers, but not small.
This angered them.

They were one of the biggest Linux gaming supporters in the past, way before Steam was released for Linux (and possibly even Windows too)... In particular, Unreal Tournament had Linux support. But today it's different. No Epic Store on Linux, etc.

Epic Games is a lot different than in the times of UT, it's a lot more corporate. You think of the company in terms of the developers but when I think of Epic I think of Tencent who owns 35% of the company, Sony who owns 5% and a Danish hedgefund who owns 3%. It's easy to say that Tim Sweeney can just veto them if they oppose Linux but to cross them could spell a lot of problems for Epic. Lets not forget that Gabe started to support Linux only when Microsoft started to try to get a possible stranglehold on how programs can work on Windows with soft threats. Linux was nothing more than a bet being hedged by Gabe.

They were one of the biggest Linux gaming supporters in the past, way before Steam was released for Linux (and possibly even Windows too)... In particular, Unreal Tournament had Linux support. But today it's different. No Epic Store on Linux, etc.

Valve angered them and Linux support is one of the few ways they can harm them without significantly harming themselves.

During a big anti-trust fight with Apple about their 30% tax they demanded on Twitter that Valve lowered their fees for everybody to give Epic an advantage in the legal fight.
In the end Valve only lowered the prices for big publishers, but not small.
This angered them.

They have also said that if Valve reduced their commission on Steam games from 30% to 12%, they would stop doing exclusivity deals and put their games on Steam. Yet the Epic Games Store still has far less users than Steam and is still not profitable. They have lost most of their revenue on exclusivity.

They were one of the biggest Linux gaming supporters in the past, way before Steam was released for Linux (and possibly even Windows too)... In particular, Unreal Tournament had Linux support. But today it's different. No Epic Store on Linux, etc.

Valve angered them and Linux support is one of the few ways they can harm them without significantly harming themselves.

During a big anti-trust fight with Apple about their 30% tax they demanded on Twitter that Valve lowered their fees for everybody to give Epic an advantage in the legal fight.
In the end Valve only lowered the prices for big publishers, but not small.
This angered them.

They have also said that if Valve reduced their commission on Steam games from 30% to 12%, they would stop doing exclusivity deals and put their games on Steam. Yet the Epic Games Store still has far less users than Steam and is still not profitable. They have lost most of their revenue on exclusivity.

And their Games are back on Steam.
They play a losing game just like Valve.

Both are trying to get rid of the dependency that threatens their business most.
Valve wants to get rid of Microsoft, for like 90% of their users is on that platform and it has done multiple attempts to take down their business utilizing said platform.
Epic wants to get rid of the Stores and especially Steam, because they demand a 30% cut, but without them they can't sell games.

For both they have to fight an opponent with a bigger user base and a more feature rich platform and other bigger players have tried and failed to overthrow.
Valve mercilessly exploits the stability it gets from being privately owned.
Epic can't use that stability.
Epic uses the money it gets from investors and anti-trust law, because that're the tools it has access to.

Neither of them has won real terrain yet.
Both are currently running on their own bandwagon, but nobody of importance has yet jumped on it.

The market has changed considerably since the early days of Unreal Tournament, and so has Epic themselves.

UT on Linux was pretty much just one staff member's internal hobby project. Games back then were simple enough that one dev could do this kind of port on their own, and Linux's marketshare was small enough that they could get away with telling other Linux users "you guys are smart enough to troubleshoot if you have any issues, I can't offer much in the way of tech support."

But twenty years later, properly supporting Linux in this day ain't so simple anymore. Software projects are far larger, and the market is just barely big enough that support without support wouldn't fly. But the market still isn't big enough for the corporate executives to see it as a profitable investment. Epic isn't supporting Linux for the same reason that most other developers aren't supporting Linux.

There is also the fact that Linux is seen as Valve's thing now, and Epic seems very keen on spiting Valve at every opportunity. I'm not quite conspiratorial enough to think that this is the real reason why Epic won't support Linux, not when there's a more obvious economic explanation. But at the same time, I can believe that it may be one extra reason they've taken into consideration, just not the main reason.

Last edited by missingno on 14 October 2024 at 2:13 am UTC

Valve mercilessly exploits the stability it gets from being privately owned.

Epic is also privately owned too, but the Chinese company Tencent is also a large shareholder of Epic.

Tim Sweeney is a fanny. That is all.

Valve mercilessly exploits the stability it gets from being privately owned.

Epic is also privately owned too, but the Chinese company Tencent is also a large shareholder of Epic.

Surpirsing.
They don't seem to act like it.
Well, my mistake.

I personally see this as a win. It makes it very easy for me to pick where I put my money and support.

The answer, as usual, is not that the universe is cruel, but that it doesn't care.

The reality is Epic were never pro-Linux to begin with. And now even less so, because they're a massive company chasing the biggest slices of the pie, we barely even register for them.