Quoting: ShmerlBut I'd rather welcome their attitude towards Linux community, instead of whitewashing the greed of legacy publishers who have more than enough money to make Linux games (and even make a profit), but don't.

There's a difference between condoning a behaviour and expecting it. It doesn't matter what we all think of most companies' greed, the fact remains that they will keep doing what they think is most profitable for them. If you make predictions based on what you think people should do, I'm afraid you won't win your bets too often.

No one here is saying we don't want native games or don't appreciate those publishers, but the bigger the company, the more likely it is to disregard considerations other than profit, and it would be lunacy to expect all of them to operate on virtue and principle.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: tonR

Quoting: SalvatosI'm speechless. It's like you intended to post this to a completely different community. Take it easy, mate.

The problem here is some "elitist" (Publs, devs, some ignorance journalist and so-called gaming fans, etc. etc.), accused us the "3rd world citizens" (I'm using that term on purpose) as pirates! They accused or "called" us too poor to buy their games.

I understand, but the post I quoted was basically throwing a fit at everyone here at GoL for siding with EGS (?) even though we have plenty of users from such countries and we almost all see EGS as an adversary. It's just weird.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library GuyAnd targets will move--not so much existing games, which will probably keep working on Steamplay at least as well as native Linux games. But new games will keep on doing new things, relying on new Windows-only middleware that it will take time for Proton to get working. So for a Linux relying on Proton, there will always be the risk of delays--or even complete failure to get something running--even if we gain market share that would otherwise guarantee same-day releases.

Actually, in my view, this is the point where our (hypothetical) increased market share starts to work in our favour. Devs will be used to the income from Linux gamers making up a substantial share, thanks to Proton. They'll have a clear choice between building software with cross-compatibility in mind and cashing in on all sales at release, or spending additional time (and wasted effort) after release to make their game playable on Linux and grab the rest of the pie. From a practical standpoint, and again this depends on Linux being a sizable market, the choice to rely on cross-platform middleware from the start becomes basically common sense (well, not that it isn't already, but it becomes more obvious to people with dollar bills in their eyes). Companies that act only on profit not only want as much money as possible, they want it as fast as possible.

But either way, we're not even close to that yet. For now we need to continue our slow growth and rely on motivated and like-minded developers who care more about getting their passion projects into the hands of more people while making a decent living than about squeezing more and more money out of our pockets. Fortunately, those do still exist :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: namikoEdited for clarity. - Nami

Quoting: tonROpen steam > Click: Publisher link > Click: Option (Gear Icon) > Click: Ignore this creator

Don't act so quickly. This is Paradox Interactive's former CEO, not their current one.

Don't blame former employees for being dicks. If this guy heads up a new company and reiterates what he said in the past, then yeah, ignore that developer/publisher.

According to the article: former CEO and now the Executive Chairman of the Board. Not sure which one has more power between the two, but it sounds like a fairly horizontal change of position to me, if not a higher rank.

Quoting: orochi_kyoSome first world people around here should burst the first world bubble you live on, Im pretty sure you feel so important you live on Europe, Canada or USA but Steam is a good store for anyone else who live outside of those big walls you put around your country borders, offering currencies and local servers, yeah Steam have a central america servers to offer me steady download and cool online gaming. IM pretty sure most of you doesnt even know where my country is. Enjoy EGS, an elitist store for first world kids.

I'm speechless. It's like you intended to post this to a completely different community. Take it easy, mate.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Linuxwarperthere is also the risk of Proton not working anymore. When devs develop for Linux they will experience issues, file bugs and then get it all fixed.

Not to discount the rest of your argument, but I don't find this part to be particularly tied to Proton. We've seen native ports (and software in general) become broken and never get fixed, and Proton support doesn't have to be a one-and-done thing: they can keep supporting and patching the game to maintain Proton compatibility. It's more a matter of how committed a dev is to supporting Linux than how they choose to do it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: gradyvuckovicWe also shouldn't assume Proton would be so effective that it would draw over huge masses of gamers overnight. Never underestimate how difficult it is to ask someone to change something as crucial as OS.

People hate change, just look at how difficult it has been for Microsoft to get people off Windows 7. Windows 8 officially became available to the general public in 2012. That's 7 years ago! 7 years of bombardment of advertising, 7 years of desktop notification reminders on Windows 7 telling people to upgrade, then several years of offering Windows 10 as a free download, and even sneaky tactics like shipping Windows 10 as a free automatic update to Windows 7. For years Windows 7 hasn't been available in retail stores on laptops/desktops for years, and installing Windows 7 on a modern PC is a nightmare as drivers for modern hardware have to be sideloaded into the installer, among other countless problems. Windows 7's EOL is coming in less than 12 months.

Fortunately for us, in some ways, switching to Linux can be seen as a less drastic change than "upgrading" your Windows version from a UI point of view (e.g. the whole Windows 8 tiling fiasco). Nothing short of a world-changing revolution will make masses of people switch to Linux overnight, but every milestone we reach and every mistake Microsoft make results in more people willing to give it a shot, and in turn more people being happy with the change, and more people hearing about Linux, and so on. We have to be prepared for the long run because this was never something we would win in a handful of years. Fortunately for us, we already live in a time where a GNU/Linux OS is damn comfortable. And for many of us, outright better than a Windows OS, never mind the fewer video games.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: BeamboomI have to give it to you guys though: I kind of envy the confidence at display here. It takes SOME confidence to actually believe one has understood something that pretty much the entire multi-billion industry fails to see... ;)

Well, to be fair, the fact that the GNU/Linux desktop in general and Linux gaming in particular have gotten to where they are today is baffling under any kind of business-minded consideration. I think the ideology at our roots actually plays more of a role than we may sometimes admit. Just seeing Paradox recently saying that they will still consider porting future games to Linux on a case-by-case basis even though they have barely been turning a profit on them if at all, to me, is quite impressive. Many companies would (and have) just give up on us completely and choose easier ways to make more money (the DLC example being a very good one).

I'm not too much of an idealist, but in this case our track record shows that we can at least keep some hope alive despite slim odds :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Which ultimately doesn't matter if the games work fine on Linux anyway and the user base has grown enough that the devs are willing to provide said support via Proton when something breaks.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I don't think any deliberate action on our part will be large enough to have a meaningful impact, to be honest. Even if you somehow got every Linux Steam user to join that kind of effort, we're still less than a percent of the market, and the wishlist situation will likely settle back somewhat by the end of the sale (especially now that Valve have reacted to the complaints).

By the way, Valve seem to have made more changes tonight. There are now Qualifier Tasks you can do to increase your capacity instead (/on top of) the in-game quests: Play a new game; Review a game; Add 3 items to your wishlist; Watch a broadcast; each is worth 500. I like that they are focused on community features and giving visibility to indies (by linking the "new game" task to the free-to-play section of the store). That's what I like to see in the sales - besides the discounts obviously.

And thankfully, now when you redeem points for recently played games with achievements, "Any extra achievements will still be available to redeem later, you won't lose any points!" That throwing away of extra points was a weird gimmick.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I think if the recipient plays it on Windows within the first two weeks it will count as a Windows sale. I hope that the reverse is true for Linux users receiving gifts from Windows users.

View this comment - View article - View full comments