A few devs who did have commented that Linux users are like <1% of players but most of the crash reports or things like that. That was before the Steam Deck blew up though, so now you might have more Linux players, but those mostly use Proton, so why do you need a native Linux version.
I think it’s still nice to have just so that way if for some reason Proton suddenly disappears alongside Wine (alongside all their forks and other related things) in some catastrophically low odds event you can still play the game or use the program.
This was true, but a big part of that reason (as followed up on by some other devs) is that Linux users are usually tech-savvy, and frequently work on software. They contribute more bug reports because they know how to report a bug. You’ll have more bug reports, but not necessarily because there’s more bugs (though that too), and as a bonus the users reporting them will probably be able to help you fix those bugs a lot better than the average Windows user.
yea dependencies seem like a real issue here, I don’t think Linux supports side-by-side versions like Windows does, Windows will just install every version of DirectX and libraries like that
This absolutely happens. Team Fortress 2 Classic dropped Linux support outright a few years ago in favor of Proton support since it’s easier on the devs to do, and even as an avid Linux user I don’t blame them.
As others have said, tiny market, but also that it often requires more development for the Linux port to get going, and even more development to actually make it run well. Like for instance, Civilization series usually release with Linux and Mac ports, but those are done by a third-party company which I imagine does add additional costs, and those suck regardless.
Not like it’s a bad thing necessarily, the vast majority of native Linux ports I’ve tried were either severely out of date, had significant performance issues, crashed a lot or had some quirks that would make it not worth playing anyway. It’s probably just easier if developers focused on proton compatibility instead.
It’s not about compiling, it’s about testing and support. Each officially supported version needs to be tested - which means having yet another set of test systems sitting around - and supported by the support team. And not only is Linux a splintered market in its own right, making testing and support a significant operation, but there isn’t the same kind of single-point OS support that you get from Microsoft and Apple.
On Steam store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/, all Linux operating systems combined have around ~2% users, compared to the MacOSX ~1.4%. This is only a recent trend, as for the longest run Mac had more Steam users than before. And building a native Mac game was more straight forward than on Linux.
Nowadays its completely different than before, thanks to Proton integrated into Steam. This means even though there is a higher percentage of Linux players on Steam, there is less reason to make native Linux games. That has some advantages: Windows binary through Proton has feature parity without the devs needing to understand the underlying Linux system and libraries, less work for the developers means higher probability of supporting Linux for longer time, thanks to Proton and the auto selection of Proton version for each game its also less worry for the end user. It does not matter what system libraries you have installed or what operating system you are using.
It would be nice to have, but in reality there is no real need for native Linux games from developers or for the end user / player.
Market share and yes, Proton/WINE ultimately lessens the need for a native Linux port.
In a fair number of cases, even when there is a native Linux port, Proton/WINE has worked better than the native game.
If Linux gets to 5-10% of the market, we’ll probably see them come back for platform specific optimization reasons. However, without a larger market share and with the translation being so good these days, there’s not a lot of need.
If the least used operating system. Why limit your audience to such a small niche to begin with? Game development isn’t cheap. You tend to not want to lock out your chances of recouping that by blocking 90% of potential players
It’s still an argument, given that this historically wasn’t the case. And Mac used to have a bigger share of the pie. Do they even make Mac only games anymore?
But those numbers pretty much prove my point. Unless you’re already set up to be making games specific to a system, there’s no point in starting from scratch to only name something for 1-2% of the market.
If the least used operating system. Why limit your audience to such a small niche to begin with?
… which is no longer true. Also supporting Linux does not mean its limited to Linux only. This is in addition to Windows. And supporting Steam Deck comes with some extra goodies for the publisher, as they get some extra marketing in Steam itself and by videogame outlets, fans and YouTubers speaking about it. Do not make the mistake and look at numbers without taking context into account.
Your argumentation only explains why devs didn’t create Linux native applications in the past. I said its no longer the case. So don’t misunderstand me. What you said is true for the past, not today.
The short answer is in many cases it’s just not worth it. Maintaining a Linux build is not free and the possible market share gain is fairly minimal. Add to that the possibility you get it for free through proton and your reasons for investing the dev effort shrink.
I’ve heard an argument for maintaining Linux builds because Linux users will provide better bug reports but that mindset is unlikely to ever survive in a big studio
It does not matter. The point I was referring to you is that Linux is no longer the least used operating system and why its not limiting to that operating system when creating native Linux support. And no, its not about Native Linux Only games, its Native Linux games in addition to Windows games.
Your argument which I quoted is no longer an argument today.
This is not what you said. This is not pedantic. ok you know what you are right and happy birthday. No need for toxicity here. If you don’t even know what you are saying and changing your argumentation over the discussion we had.
I didn’t say anything (you might notice I’m not op). What I am saying is that you are willfully misinterpreting the spirit of op’s argument. Also, nice touch saying no toxicity and then being toxic. Very classy
You added “only” in there. You can compile a game for each OS natively (and many games do). Native in this context refers to the binary itself (ELF, EXE, bin, etc), and the OSes that can run it without using some kind of compatibility layer.
I was playing Apex and any time there was a Playstation player on my team the framerate dropped down to like 5FPS for minutes at a time. So I think it’s still struggling
Interesting. Once you are in the game, I think it’s all Epic servers, so should work, but it’s possible there’s still some weird PSN connection that may stop it from working.
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