All the comments contain "0 likes" text on the bottom (mobile view). It looks like a part of the comment. I find it quite distracting. It would be nice to make it not blend into the comment text (make it obvious that's a UI, not text), and suppress it when the value is zero. And what about putting it into comment header, so that it does not make each comment two lines longer?

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Quoting: CheesenessI found time to chat with one of my developer friends earlier today who tells me that they see stats for purchases and playtime separately (each broken down by platform), and says that they see nothing which appears to be that "first 7 days of playtime" figure that determines which platform publisher gets paid for the sale.

That's interesting. I wonder why Defender's Quest developer was seeing something else. Or maybe he was simply mistaken how to interpret those numbers? It would be great to have more evidence.

Quoting: CheesenessPurchases are broken down into daily sales per platform. Given GranPC's comments in Reddit thread I linked to, the purchases aren't likely to be linked to play time since he can see purchases from platforms that the game he works on doesn't yet support. If the figures for this data were subject to the first week of playtime, that would result in historical records fluctuating (Valve might be sloppy with some things, but they're not that sloppy :D ).

I wouldn't consider it sloppiness, but a feature. It needs to work that way at least for the porting studios - the numbers for the last week always change a bit. Or, they are not advertised for the last week at all. It could work the same even for "standard sales view". But that's just an idea. If it didn't change at all, it would be even more important to buy from Linux, to keep the sale stats correct. However, what about Android etc sales? Tell me about sloppiness, if all those sales were counted as Windows...

Quoting: CheesenessPlaytime is apparently displayed as daily totals of peak simultaneous players per platform. It's unclear whether an individual user playing on multiple platforms will be counted multiple times (I'm going to imagine that that's the case though - it'd be a nightmare to calculate otherwise and would arguably be less meaningful).

That's great, developers have access to real numbers even from playtime. Which means it's even more important to not just buy from Linux, but actually play from Linux. The results are very visible.

Maybe you would consider writing a follow up article?

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Quoting: Beta VersionIf i buy a game, put it in inventory and after 7 days gift it to my friend which uses Windows - will it count toward Linux?

Yes, if you don't mind cheating...

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Quoting: MamboI think there are a few more things that could be clarified:
- what happens if I play a game that isn't marked as Linux compatible in the store, but does have a Linux depot or a beta branch which I'm trying out?

As already suggested in the comments, if you buy on Linux and then play a Linux version (full or beta branch available) or not play at all (including no Linux version available), it probably appears as a Linux sale.

Quoting: Mambo- what happens if I buy, activate or play using steam-on-wine? Giana sisters twisted dreams, for example.

A Windows sale, most probably. Wine emulates Windows, Steam over Wine reports itself as if running on Windows.

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Quoting: CheesenessI haven't yet found anybody who's been able to confirm that that first week platform assignment figure is even viewable in the Steamworks stats stuff (I am asking around though and will report back with what I come up with), but either way, developers/publishers can see and probably rely on stats beyond the stuff that the article talks about.

If you're able to find out the details, please report back, that would be very interesting.

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Quoting: dubigrasuSo, what if I buy Skyrim on my Linux and just leave it in my account? (no playing no nothing)
Will this count as a Linux sale although is a Windows only game? :)

Actually, there are some indications that it really does :-) Stanley Parable's developer claimed on the forum he could already see some Linux purchases, even though there's still no Linux version available. But this use case is most probably very rare. But yeah, it seems to work this way. On the other hand, it sends the message "even though I run on Linux, I'm willing to buy and play a Windows-only version of this game" (i.e. Wine or Windows in dual boot), so I'm not sure whether it incentivizes developers to provide a proper Linux version.

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Quoting: EikeNow that's interesting!

About the sales counting for Linux, it seems you can "heal" a Windows buy by playing on Linux - wouldn't recommend that, though.

Yes, but it needs to be done in a week after the purchase (the "most minutes played" rule). So you cannot do anything about a game that you owned for a long time and it suddenly received a Linux version.

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Quoting: sonicWell, I bought LoG 1 on GoG for Windows when it was on sale. Developers never mentioned Linux version, so I took it on Windows (I really wanted this game). After one week LoG was on HB with Linux version! Damn, what a surprise! So I was counted as Windows user and had to wait about one year for Linux version on GoG (I really did not want buy it again, on HB. And play it on Windows when Linux version was released? Heh...).

I will not do the same mistake again, sorry guys, I am buying only Linux games now.

That's actually my story as well, almost verbatim.

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This seems to be a modern copy of an old classic Beasts and Bumpkins. I have such a fond memory of that game.

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