Quoting: GuestDonate button would have been very sane, what they did is not sane; I don't think Valve can even pull this off properly.

Let's be open for a second: On the internet, the amount of people willing to come back to a page and donate for something they downloaded from there is a really good approximation to zero. I think the best approach would be a "pay what you want" button -before- downloading it, and allowing them to cancel their payment for up to a week after download in case it didn't live up to their expectations. That would be at least a nudge to make people give something to a modder for their work.

But I otherwise agree that what they did there is not sane. ;)

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Shipping a game with exactly one playable map isn't called a F2P game, it's called a "playable demo".

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I like it that developers now pick up the creative ideas that EA actually had in the past, so that we don't have to buy the garbage they are releasing these days. I am going to pick that game up for sure. Now the only thing missing is a good The Sims clone for Linux. :D

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Quoting: subEven if you get the Linux binary "for free" because your engine supports that target,
it doesn't mean you won't need to invest into additional support due to platform specific issues.
That's additional money probably not even covered by the Linux sales.

So for now it seems lots of developers are fine with 1-3 % as they might consider it
a test bed for SteamMachines and build up the required know how.
But if - for some reasons - SteamMachines/SteamOS fail, I bet most of those developers
won't still invest into Linux for 1-3 %.

A lot of devs stayed away from Linux in the past because of the thought of having to support three dozen different distros scared the hell out of them. Rightfully so. Then they apparently realized that they don't have to do that at all and officially picking the largest distro for the "token official support" is good enough. Which it is. Because most of us don't exactly need help to install the newest graphics drivers on our systems. One of the commonly accepted facts about Linux users is that they are a LOT more tech savy than the average computer user. I'd be surprised if we'd make up more than our fair share of the 3% of revenue in terms of support costs. It's probably less.

Second - the point is that they don't have to invest anything if the engine they're using deploys on Linux with basically one mouse-click. To the devs it's not an investment in this case, it's deploying on another platform for basically free and earn a bit more money doing so.
The question is a completely different one when considering a port of a game that can't be deployed on Linux just like that. Porting costs money and you won't do that unless it's somehow profitable. But if multi-platform deployment and cross-platform APIs like Vulkan become the new norm anyway, the need for ports might be largely a thing of the past soon. At this point I might point out that the re-branded Linux that is Android is actually the market leader in the mobile devices segment, so the industry -will- have to support multiple platforms at least for any game supposed to run on mobile devices. The days where you could develop for Windows only and be done are already over for all practical purposes.

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Quoting: GuestWould be interesting to see if there is any systematic difference between Steam-only titles and those also available DRM-free outside Steam.

My guess would be no. The issue with DRM is that it's really hard to avoid even in the Windows world, but we're still not exactly graced with an oversupply of AAA titles (all of which seem to be Steam-only on Linux), so I'd guess most people chose supporting Linux conversions at all over making a DRM statement and maybe convince the publishers that supporting Linux isn't worthwhile (that would be shooting ourselves in the foot, no). Boycotting high-profile games on Linux over DRM doesn't seem to be the smartest choice right now. That being said, I would still not buy titles from companies that put an intrusive DRM on top of the one Steam already provides. Anything made by Ubisoft and Rockstar is thus out of the question, but neither publisher seems to be keen on releasing on Linux anyway, so it's all good.

In general - I think the greatest thing that happened to us in the past few years isn't even Steam coming to Linux (although that was of course a great thing), but the fact that now every major engine can deploy on Linux with relative ease (not sure what part Valve played in that, perhaps they pushed that part a bit, too?). Which makes it a no-brainer for devs to support the platform. Getting 3% more sales for almost 0% additional costs - why would anyone pass on free money? In the end, the multi-platform support of engines has considerably eased the stranglehold Microsoft had on games development, which is THE most important factor we had to overcome, in my opinion.

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NWN1 and NWN2 were the only RPGs in history designed from the ground up with modding in mind. It would be a total blast being able to have them run in a modernized OSS engine one day. Because I can't see the gaming industry ever making a game like them again.

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Another vote for the "I hope it's Skyrim" camp. It's an older game for sure, but there are enough mods for it around to keep it interesting for a while longer. Shadows of Mordor and GTA V, if I am not totally mistaken, are both games that force you to play a male character, so my interest in either is limited.

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I am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

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They said they'd add more games over time. Not sure if all publishers are going with the model and for some games it might not be feasible to add them (those published without a CD key). But I think it's a great idea overall!

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I installed LoL a while back, but lasted in that game for like an hour before its utterly immature community got to me. It's just too unfriendly for my taste (I belong to the camp that doesn't think trash-talk and insults are ok just because it's the internet). So yeah, they can keep their game. No big loss.

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