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It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

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Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#31

Post by bartwe »

thioordc wrote: post #3
h2odragon wrote: post #2

Steam really has done an amazing job making Linux systems viable gaming platforms. The manner in which they've done so shows a delightful understanding of the "unix philosophy" in so many ways, too. Last month I was doing hardware changes on our home systems, my daughter's steam install and mine copied to new systems with a quick "tar" and no fuss; which was a very pleasant discovery. They've rarely if ever (that I'v…

Yeah I rarely ever “like” a company but Valve has done so much it’s honestly amazing. The 30% they take is soooo worth it for developers who don’t have natural Linux support.

In that case i'd like a refund as we ship a native linux version ourself

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#33

Post by peatmoss »

gravypod wrote: post #7
smallpipe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting

Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one o…

Apart from a few games purchased on GoG, everything I buy is on Steam. It’s been a very consistent experience for a long time. My first Steam “purchase” was me plugging in the CD code from a copy of Half-Life purchased ~1999. Everything I’ve purchased since then is playable in minutes—most of it playable on Linux.

The killer feature of Valve / Steam for game developers is customer trust. For me, that trust has translated into a resolute refusal to buy games on any other platform.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#34

Post by slightwinder »

MaxGanzII wrote: post #10

Steam is a trap though, no? You buy software, but if you leave, you lose it all. Is that correct? there's no way to retain what you've bought?

There are DRM-free games on steam, but how many people maintain backups of their games? And this is not limited to steam. Most distribution these days on PC is digital, and even consoles moved there. If you lose your account for whatever reason, you will lose them all. Same problem with other content (video, audio, etc.). As long as there is no law protecting the customers from those things, it will remain a problem.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#35

Post by edflsafoiewq »

deng wrote: post #23

Yes, that's why you still have these 'ubuntu_12' folders in the Steam installation, since they have never updated this in the past 9 years. So in reality, native Linux development has pretty much failed, and they have put all their money on Proton. That is probably the right decision from a business perspective, but it's pretty much a defeat nonetheless.

What's wrong with it? Having the Windows APIs turn into a portable abstraction layer is certainly amusing, but having wine sitting underneath the program is really nice (essentially for the same reason a VM is). For one thing, winedevs are way better at linux support than random gamedevs.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#36

Post by Wowfunhappy »

alex_smart wrote: post #32
thrower123 wrote: post #29

I think it is incredible that after all these years the best target for Linux gaming is still a Windows compatibility shim.

Why wouldn't it be? What were you hoping would happen?

Presumably, they were hoping for native Linux support.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#37

Post by hn8788 »

deng wrote: post #23

Yes, that's why you still have these 'ubuntu_12' folders in the Steam installation, since they have never updated this in the past 9 years. So in reality, native Linux development has pretty much failed, and they have put all their money on Proton. That is probably the right decision from a business perspective, but it's pretty much a defeat nonetheless.

I think it was Supergiant Games who said that because Proton is good enough, they're don't plan to provide native Linux versions of their games in the future.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#38

Post by dartharva »

MaxGanzII wrote: post #10

Steam is a trap though, no? You buy software, but if you leave, you lose it all. Is that correct? there's no way to retain what you've bought?

You can absolutely retain what you've bought: all content is saved in the steam/steamapps/common folder. If you want you can rip those files out and run them separately with cracks or Steam emulators like Goldberg, but the supporting infrastructure and dependencies for games (like multiplayer services, matchmaking, official support) will be lost. Many games prefer to rely on Steam's platform and support for core features by their own design.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#39

Post by cma »

gravypod wrote: post #7
smallpipe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting

Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one o…

> They allow you to generate steam keys (at no cost to you) and sell them on your own website.

Only if you charge the same as Steam, i.e. you can't pass the 27% (still pay payment processing) savings on to customers, unless it is a limited time sale.

Re: It‘s been 9 years since Valve rolled out the Steam Linux beta

#40

Post by meibo »

gravypod wrote: post #7
smallpipe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting

Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one o…

They also have quite a bit of useful Middleware nowadays, like Steam Input and Audio, which are both great.

Their controller wrapper obsoleted all of the messy third party tools you used to need on Windows, and they have a sharing platform for controller profiles.

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