21–30 of 115 posts
Mostly technical speculation: The horrible binary compatibility story of Linux userland.
Socio-technical speculation because everything is now multiplayer: Less effective DRM on Linux means more cheaters ruining the game for others, in the worst case losing more players than Linux adds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Steam hardware survey doesn't really support your claims about Linux hardware specs vs Windows: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw... Let alone MacOS, which is more supported than Linux but has comparatively much poorer hardware stats.
According to your link, 0.81% of Steam users are running Linux. And they're spread out over a number of distributions, with the largest share at 0.20% for Ubuntu 18.04. Seems to support the claim that it's a very small and fragmented user base.
It makes me feel old to remember buying physical media that will still work today, 30 years later. My fictive grand kids will be able to play those games long after the worms have gnawed my bones. Whereas my library of virtual assets will probably evaporate into ether before I'm even retired.
I would love that you be right. And by far, I strongly prefer physical media.
However, physical media is no guarantee either.
- Sometimes, the pain is on purpose: some apps require an online activation, and the corresponding service, 30 years later, is not available anymore.
- Sometimes, it's a lack of foresight from the developers (i.e overzealous Windows version checks, refusing newer versions).
- Sometimes, it's plain dumb stupidity (the installer is a 16-bit windows executable).
If you're not convinced, I suggest you try installing, say, Wipeout XL (for Windows 95) on a recent laptop (spoiler: at this point it's easier to play the PSX version on an emulator).
I think that Epic Killing Linux native is a shame but I also think that Valve has a long plan to make it a viable platform, and it's only begun, where many assumed they hit and missed.
The fact their VR headset will run on Linux too...
It looks like this won't matter too much to future of Linux gaming is all I'm saying.
If money and users are there, it's a different ballgame.
There will be a non-zero number of people who will have purchased those games precisely due to there being a linux client available for them. Pulling support for a client of a competitive online game like Rocket League is fundamentally closing the game to those players - as they will be unable to compete online with other players (be it on PC or on the other platforms). I really don't like Epic's change in behaviour…
UE4 itself can build to Linux, so this move just baffles me. If anything, I thought Epic was going to push harder on Linux.
Nontechnical speculation: Just a power struggle with Valve. Mostly technical speculation: The horrible binary compatibility story of Linux userland. Socio-technical speculation because everything is now multiplayer: Less effective DRM on Linux means more cheaters ruining the game for others, in the worst case losing more players than Linux adds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to your link, 0.81% of Steam users are running Linux. And they're spread out over a number of distributions, with the largest share at 0.20% for Ubuntu 18.04. Seems to support the claim that it's a very small and fragmented user base.
The post you replied to is about hardware specs, not the size of the user base.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slightly, but only slightly exaggerated. It's not cost-effective to support a platform with such small user-base, especially when it is a crapshoot of specs on the order of 90s PC gaming. Probably much simpler just to make a solid Windows build that plays nicely with WINE.
The Steam hardware survey doesn't really support your claims about Linux hardware specs vs Windows: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw... Let alone MacOS, which is more supported than Linux but has comparatively much poorer hardware stats.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
UE4 itself can build to Linux, so this move just baffles me. If anything, I thought Epic was going to push harder on Linux.
1% of desktop market is counting pennies for AAA studios.
> EGS will never have a Linux build This feels like a strange thing since the Epic engine is available on Linux (I used it for dev just a couple of months ago). I am not disputing the statement, the op makes a good case for atleast Tim being quite anti-Linux. I just feels really weird that the game store wouldn't ever get to a platform the engine is already on. It feels short sighted by Epic. Or I guess it just isn't…