Quoting: vulturethis one is tied to GCN and features not exposed in APIs

That probably refers to things such as async compute, features of Vulkan/DX12/PS4/Xbox1 which aren't in OpenGL or DX11. That feature at least isn't GCN specific; Nvidia's claimed support hasn't worked so well in practise but their upcoming generation of GPUs may do better,

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Quoting: Mountain ManChances are good these will count as Windows sales.

In some cases this would be a problem but it won't happen here.

When a game has different publishers for the Windows and Linux versions then only one of them is going to get paid for any given sale, and the store selling that game or bundle might have bought the keys from a publisher that wasn't involved with the platform that the consumer is using. If we check Steam for a game ported by Aspyr or Feral we will see that they are listed as the developer and publisher of the port but other companies are listed for the Windows version. For games ported by them it is important to check the publisher when buying from anywhere other than Steam or their own stores.

In this case though if we check on Steam we see that every game in this bundle only has a single developer and publisher. There is no where else that the keys could have come from so we don't need to worry that the wrong company will get paid.

I'd still buy using a browser running within Linux because I'm sure that Bundle Stars like all other e-commerce sites keeps stats on things like that, and I'd redeem them on Linux fairly quickly because Steamworks provides quite a bit of data to publishers. I sometimes find the amount of information being kept about consumers troubling, but when it comes to what platform I buy games for I want this widely known.

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Quoting: PolochampsCompete with players from other platforms possible?

There is cross platform play between Windows and PlayStation so I'd be shocked if Linux was by itself.

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Quoting: EikeAin't this data the one discussed on this website for years now, defaulting to Windows and not switching to any other system if not played on this system shortly after the sell? And... I wonder when this sell is being accounted for key resellers - probably when they bought loads of keys long time ago?

Not quite, you're thinking of purchasing directly from Steam; it will decide the platform based on what the purchase was made from, overriding that if the game is installed/played within a week or two, and if a game has multiple publishers depending on platform it will make payments as appropriate. What we're talking about here is buying from a different retailer which has purchased keys from a distributor who may or may not be the publisher responsible for the platform the consumer of that key actually uses.

Key resellers typically don't make any effort to match keys to the platform the sale is being made to, and even if they did there isn't a mechanism for that to be overridden if the key is bought using one OS but redeemed and played using another. Some retailers will have separate pages for Windows and Mac versions of the same game, and the Mac and Linux versions often have the same publisher, so we can sometimes get porting company paid that way.

Edit:

Quoting: EikeImplementing/using [analytics] software costs additionaly money and time.

Steam has to know what OS a game is being installed on in order to supply the right files. Valve only have to implement something to provide stats for that once for every publisher who uses Steam to have access to that information.

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Quoting: CybolicThey are indeed Linux compatible, but the keys themselves are registered as Windows sales.

As others have pointed out that isn't correct in this case. The Steam store can choose the publisher to pay based on the platform the purchase was made from, and checking Steam for ports from Aspyr and Feral we see they are listed as the publisher for Linux but another company is for Windows. Other stores buy keys from a publisher which may have no involvement in the Linux port. If we check Steam we'll see that the games in this bundle are all published by Forever Entertainment S. A. regardless of platform.

Quoting: EikeFor every game and every company, some boss will inevitable some day ask if it was worth supporting Linux.

They'll be wondering this even before porting, and will likely include analytics software within the game to tell them this and more. Given that Steamworks will tell publishers where sales are being made, detailed player stats, how web surfers found a store page, etc, we can be sure that at the very least there will be aggregate data about which platform keys were redeemed on.

Edit: Looks like some restrictions are starting to appear on SteamPlay games.

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Quoting: Stupendous ManOn the Steam sale so far I've only bought Grid Autosport

Steam lists multiple developers and publishers for this, depending on platform. Buying from Steam on Linux gets money to the right place, see further down about buying from Steam using a phone.

Quoting: Stupendous Mana few days ago I bought Shadow of Mordor and Cities Skylines from GMG

GMG have a few versions of SoM, with keys from either Warners or Feral. The latter did the Linux port so only buying that one will get any money to them, the platform you used to buy or activate the key doesn't matter. GMG list the developer and publisher, and also the source which I assume is who they got the keys from (often the publisher but maybe another distributor in some cases).

It looks like GMG are being misleading here and may have tricked you. One of those is from Feral and says it runs on Mac but they also did the port to Linux. Another is from Warners and says it runs on Mac or Linux but they only published the Windows version. The only one on sale at the moment is also from Warners.

It wouldn't be the first time that GMG have behaved in a way that some people thought was a bit dodgy.

For Cities Skylines see the next comment ...

Quoting: Stupendous ManTrine 3 from the Humble Store as well as a heavily discounted DLC for Europa Universalis 4

The same developers and publishers put those out on all platforms so the money will go to the right place. Steam will tell them what platform you activated the keys on, and although it won't affect who gets paid it is good that they know their efforts for Linux have benefited them so it is good you've done that.

Quoting: Stupendous ManI bought them all from my android phone but activated the codes on Linux

The store you bought it from will see that you were using Android but that won't affect what platform the key is counted as. The exception is when buying directly from the Steam store, where the platform (and in the case of Grid Autosport who gets paid) will be set after 1 or 2 weeks, based on where it was played the most, or if not played where it was installed (or activated?) first, or if not installed/activated then it'll default to Windows.

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Quoting: MrTennessee17Just wanting to be sure...If purchased npw, all will count towards Linux sales right?

In this case it is on Steam with a SteamOS/Linux icon so purchasing from there will be fine.

If purchased on Linux it'll count as a Linux sale even if it isn't available on Linux yet, eg The Stanley Parable was getting Linux sales long before it was ported. Note that this only works with purchases made on Steam itself, and playing the game in the first week or two on another platform will override that. What you wanted to know was if the porters get paid though, which isn't quite the same.

When Aspyr or Feral port a game they publish it too, and for purchases on Steam which publisher gets paid depends on the platform; if we look up one of their games on Steam we can see multiple publishers. If a port is coming but isn't out yet then they aren't going to be paid even though the publisher knows that the sale wasn't for a platform they provide for. I hope that the SteamOS sale a while back with as-yet unported games was an exception but there is no evidence of that.

Other stores get Steam keys from a certain publisher so we need to take care that this was the company we want to support.

Virtual Programming aren't a publisher so things are a bit different, and we don't know how it works with them. Maybe they are paid a set fee, maybe it is a percentage of sales for the ports they've done. The publisher is going to be able to see what platforms a game is used with on Steam even if the key was bought from another store, but only VP and the companies they work for know if that affects how much they are paid.

For in-house ports payment may not matter but it would still be good for the developers to know their efforts were worth it. That means if buying and playing on Steam then doing so using Linux, and if buying a Steam key from elsewhere then redeeming it on Linux preferably fairly soon after buying.

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Quoting: Keizgon3D Realms, if you pay attention to steamdb, is obviously about to drop their entire DosBox collection (+25 games). The real question is, why are they stalling?

Possibly waiting until the bundle those are in expires.
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/bundle/killer-bundle-6

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The company which ported Alien:Isolation to Linux will not be paid for sales from Humble. Buying from retailers other than Steam can benefit the porting companies in other cases though.

If you buy a game from Steam it can work out what platform you use and pay the appropriate publisher. For Alien: Isolation the Steam page lists:
Publisher: SEGA, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux)

Other retailers sell Steam keys which they've purchased from a publisher. In this case Humble say the publisher is SEGA, so that is who will be paid regardless of the platform used when purchasing (or redeeming the key on Steam).

Feral and Aspyr both seem to have adopted a policy of multi-platform games using Steamplay so purchasing for one platform will work on others too. I admire how customer friendly that is, but it does mean that they don't get paid for purchases from the other publisher. There were some exceptions eg Call of Duty: Black Ops for Windows or Mac but I don't know of any from the last couple of years or which affect Linux.

Sometimes retailers will have the same game listed twice, with different publishers and for different platforms. For example Gamersgate have Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY from both Warner Bros and Feral.

There are also retail operations run by Aspyr and Feral. These are the most profitable for them, with the retail cut going to them rather than eg Valve if the purchase was from Steam.

I don't know how it works for Virtual Programming who did the ports of Bioshock Infinite and Witcher 2. They aren't a publisher, so maybe they got a flat fee or maybe the publisher gives them a cut of sales.

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Quoting: FiBuAshes of singularity is using dx 12.
...
I was really suprised with my gtx 760 performance on dx 12 too. It is much worse than on dx 11!(Except that as I said before the game designers have a good relationship with AMD .)

The developers of that (Oxide) have said that if anything they've worked closer with Nvidia than with AMD. They also say that the performance issue you've seen is mostly because while Nvidia's drivers report support for asynchronous compute that appears to just use slow context switches within the driver rather than have actual hardware support and performance would be even worse if Oxide hadn't disabled that feature when an Nvidia GPU was detected. Commenters at other forums have run benchmarks specifically to test for that feature and confirmed that it works for AMD but not Nvidia. More detail here

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