Linux gaming surges in popularity – is this the Steam Deck effect?:
Linux gaming has witnessed an impressive uptick in popularity among Steam gamers, going by the latest hardware survey from Valve's gaming platform.
The hardware survey for April 2022 shows that the amount of gamers using Linux has increased to 1.14%, which is still a modest percentage, but it's up quite strongly on the previous month when Linux sat at exactly 1.0%.
While an increase of 0.14% means very little for Windows, it's actually a big leap for Linux, and in fact represents the second-highest level of adoption the alternative platform has witnessed in recent times, going by Valve's figures.
What was the best month ever for Linux, you may well wonder? That'd be November 2021 when Steam's hardware survey reported an adoption level of 1.16%, as Gaming on Linux, which reported on this, pointed out. Interestingly, that adoption percentage had climbed to that peak quite speedily since July 2021, when the Steam Deck was first announced, but since hitting that high, the percentage has drifted slowly downward to 1% in March 2022.
So what's quite remarkable here is that we've seen a large spike, relatively speaking, with a jump from 1% to 1.14% – the biggest leap in recent times in the space of just a month.
I am not a gamer, so why are Linux users not using it as a gaming platform? Is it lack of graphics card support, poor range of available games or are Linux users simply more orientated towards business, programming and other non-gaming aspects of computing? JR.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormreaver on Wednesday May 04 2022, @08:58PM (1 child)
I'm a One Percenter! Woohoo!
I use Linux for all my PC gaming. I also use the Quest, PS2, and PS3. Maybe I'll use the PS4 and/or PS5 ten years from now, when availability increases and price decreases.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:20PM
I too will be heading in the Linux direction. It will be a bit longer, before I take the final plunge though. I have my system setup, all of the games downloaded and no need to give myself more work. By installing Linux, re-downloading everything, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by progo on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:03PM (1 child)
Just parsing out what's in the summary, I think they're trying to say this is a 14% increase, which is -- well -- kinda a surge. If it sticks.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:18PM
In the event that Steam Deck's figures are included in this, then I think it's safe to say that Steam Deck is responsible for the surge. Just try buying a Steam Deck now. You're going to be hit with a multiple month wait list. They seem to be doing quite well, which is rather awesome.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:03PM (5 children)
Is there some some reason to assume Linux user's aren't using it as a gaming platform?
Last I heard Linux was only estimated to hold around 2% of the desktop market (feel free to correct me, it's been a while). So even if the same percentage of Linux users used Steam as on other platforms, you'd still only expect to see Linux users as 2% of the Steam market.
BUT. A whole lot of Linux users feel strongly about Free Software and user freedom, and you can probably reasonably expect a large percentage of those to stay away from Steam's proprietary and DRM-laden service. Gaming is not Steam.
Would that be enough to halve the number of Linux Steam users versus other platforms? Maybe, maybe not. But I'd be willing to bet it's easily a more significant factor than any of JR's proposals.
Steam Deck introduces a new consumer-oriented gaming platform, where the uses don't necessarily care that it's Linux. I would certainly expect that to increase the total number of Linux gamers in the world. Just as the incorporation of Linux into virtually every TV, router, etc. on the planet greatly increased the number of embedded Linux users, mostly without their knowledge. Though probably not by quite such a dramatic amount.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:16PM (4 children)
GOG is a great alternative to Steam. Since, GOG generally releases the games without DRM, though a few may incorporate DRM as a necessary part of the multiplayer component. Beyond that though, they release standalone installers, that don't require internet connectivity for installation. Thus, you can legally burn a backup onto a CD or save a copy to your External SSD or whatever. Then, if they go out of business, you still have all of your games. They do have a client like Steam that makes installation of your collection as simple as Steam does as well and they have achievements associated with the client. Support for achievements isn't universal, though. I.E. don't expect to be getting achievements for games like Master of Magic. But, for a game like Terraria, it does have support for those.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 05 2022, @05:20PM (3 children)
Seconded, I'm a big fan of GOG.
Their catalog is pretty thin on this year's AAA games, but their focus on providing a place to buy the shining gems of yesteryear puts their average game quality head, shoulders, and jet-boots above any other store I've found.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @05:47PM (2 children)
Very true. They have more recent gems like Mount & Blade as well.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday May 05 2022, @10:02PM
For a sufficiently Greybeard definition of recent - that came out 14 years ago.
Granted, I think my computer is about that old at this point... I miss Moore's law translating directly to improvements for the user. Though I suppose it does make computing a much cheaper hobby.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday May 05 2022, @10:08PM
Witcher might be a better example - they versions from at least 2018
(Score: 2) by progo on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:06PM
I'm not a gamer either. But I wonder, are there "gamers" who mostly use abandonware that's been thoroughly sussed out to run on alternative platforms and in emulation? It's probably incredibly difficult to poll and track that activity.
If a "gamer" has to be someone who doesn't second-guess spending $1500 on a computer, then yeah, the current market just doesn't care about supporting those people using Linux, as far as I can tell.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Chromium_One on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:10PM (5 children)
JR: I am not a gamer, so why are Linux users not using it as a gaming platform? Is it lack of graphics card support, poor range of available games or are Linux users simply more orientated towards business, programming and other non-gaming aspects of computing? JR.
For *years* it was a chicken and egg problem. Not enough users to lure developers, not enough popular titles to lure users. Absolute numbers have been ticking up while percentages have been bouncing around. Many indies & small studios are picking up cross-platform tools and don't mind maintaining an extra build, which helps, but need more users before AAA studios care much. Proton is bringing in titles and users. Anti-cheat tools going cross-platform helps. Steam Deck alone should cause continuous uptick for a while. Not expecting double-digit percentages any time soon, but if or when it happens that may help convince major studios to do more than just push the extra few buttons to allow EAC to work under Proton. One can hope anyway.
When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday May 04 2022, @11:17PM (2 children)
Agree.
I think the two main things holding back Linux gaming in the past have been:
1 - DRM. While there are a few DRM-free games out there, the vast majority have some form of protection. Linux users skew more toward Free Software than most, so it stands to reason that many will view Steam / DRM as unacceptable. Even if the game were available on the platform, they wouldn't buy it. This reduces the market for the developer and makes the commercial return less certain for the platform
2 - DirectX. Microsoft spent huge money luring studios across to their Graphics library, DirectX, many years ago and continues to support those studios today. Games made with DirectX are much harder to port to other platforms than games made using more portable graphics engines, such as Source or Unity. To make it viable, the sales numbers on other platforms would need to be much larger than 1.14%
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:13AM
DirectX is basically a 100% solved problem. Linux, via WINE, has full support. It sometimes performs better than it does on Windows!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @04:07AM
The directx problem is essentially solved by using the dxvk (directx->vulkan) wrapper. Steam automates this with Proton, and other linux gaming platforms have automated wine setups for doing this.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday May 05 2022, @01:17PM (1 child)
For *years* it was a chicken and egg problem.
Kind of. It also matters how you count users. There were some moves to support Linux among the big title games about 20 years ago but some of the game houses set the categories such that they could claim that Linux had only single digit support. That was done by counting Linux users as Linux users unless they logged in to the game even once during the first month or so from a Windows machine. Then at that point and from then on they were counted as Windows gamers even if they used Linux the rest of the time. That way they could assert that there was no market. So from that it looks like there was something going on within the game houses to prevent Linux from growing and that they would have an excuse to drop it.
Also remember that M$ considers contracts trade secrets so it is difficult to discern what the real constraints are. However, back in the early days of NT, M$ required that in order to get a Windows 95 sticker on the box, software houses had to also develop for NT and its 0% market share. Piggybacked onto the NT software development kit license was some constraint along the lines of blocking development for non-Windows systems. Back then it was the Macintosh, which had most of the good games at the time.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 05 2022, @05:58PM
>Back then it was the Macintosh, which had most of the good games at the time.
Having been a gamer since before Windows existed (well, v3.0 anyway, the first version arguably worth using), I have to disagree. Macs had some good games, even some great exclusives, but they didn't have anywhere *near* most of them. Maybe, *at best*, they had most of the really popular ones, but that was a tiny sliver of the really good ones. And you usually had to wait for years before Mac versions came out, if they ever did.
As for Linux - even the most optimistic estimates have never suggested it had more than a (usually low) single-digit penetration in the OS market. Even under the best-case scenario I can't think of any reason why anyone would expect them to have ever had a larger share of the gaming market than that. Especially given Linux's historical track record of frankly abysmal real time graphic and sound support, even before 3D video cards existed. It's only in the last 10-20 years that Linux has begun to really embrace non-technical home use as something worth focussing significant attention on.
And it seems like every time the bid distros start converging on a reliable, well-supported set of multimedia subsystems, somebody has to come along with a new and better idea for something that breaks backwards compatibility. Which from the developer perspective then fragments "Linux" into a collection of related OSes, each of which has to be independently ported to and and tested. Great for driving forward the evolution of the desktop GUI - not so great for getting game developers on board. Only the most enthusiastic are willing to support what is effectively a half-dozen different OS platforms that, combined, make up only a percent or two of the total potential game market.
I've been rooting for SteamBox success since the days the distro was first announced. Not because I say any great appeal in the ridiculous-looking branded PCs from partner manufacturers, but because it would provide a powerful unifying force in the desktop Linux community. Ubuntu was already providing that for more "office" oriented apps, with even a lot of non-derivative distros seemingly striving for "Ubuntu compatibility", but their real-time multimedia and 3D subsystems left much to be desired in terms of out-of-the-box reliability. And just as they were starting to really whip those into a gaming-worthy state, they pulled out the footgun with Unity, Wayland, etc.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:13PM (4 children)
I do play games from time to time... on a game console (Switch). I played games on Linux in the past (NWN, Introversion games), but these days I'm not interested in PC gaming any more. I try to keep my PC clean from proprietary software and most gaming software falls into this box. Also, all the DRM/always-online schemes made me loose interest in PC gaming. I don't feel it as a loss, as I run a fairly old system as my main desktop, no need to keep pushing for newer hardware. For the Switch I use for gaming I always use/buy a cardridge-version when available. With the little amount of time I have available for gaming, the Switch just does what it needs for me.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2022, @10:10PM (3 children)
Now if only owning the cartridge meant you could play without downloading tons of updates first . . . .
Agreed for always-on bullshit and the anti-cheat spyware.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @07:40AM
I yet have to encounter the first game that needs that (to enforce an update to it), you can start the game without updating. But to be honest, I do download the updates when available. I'm also aware that the games could contain DRM, but at least it's contained to that system, which is build around it. Also, the design of the switch assumes that there are times a network connection isn't available (being a hand held). Game developers have to take that into account, instead of just assuming it is connected.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @01:44PM (1 child)
What you want is GOG, nearly any game on GOG allows you to download an installer. Which you can then burn to a backup and keep forever. From that installer, you install the game and the game is functional. There are a few internet enabled games that may/may not require internet access to function and/or just the multiplayer part to function.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:01PM
I gave up on GOG. They changed to having steam keys instead of drm free downloads. Then they screwed with "local pricing". No. Bye.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday May 04 2022, @10:42PM (1 child)
SteamDeck is now the best possible robotic controller the money can buy.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2022, @10:50PM
...until SkyNet debuts.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 04 2022, @11:29PM (4 children)
On my new PC, I decided to not set up a dual boot system as I have done for the past 25 years, instead running everything under Linux. I thought of trying the virtual machine approach, having Windows run inside a Virtual Box, but the advice I read said Wine was the better approach. To run a dual OS setup using a virtual machine, I read you really need two graphics cores, such as a dedicated card and the integrated graphics, and graphics cards are hella expensive right now. So, Wine it is.
For games, there are several options, and I'm still exploring them. For Minecraft, I use a clone called Minetest that runs natively in Linux. For LOTRO, I use vanilla Wine. For Roblox, there's this Grape Juice project that tailors Wine for Roblox. Steam is another way.
Minetest is pretty good. I can't say how well it compares to the real Minecraft, as I haven't played the latter at all, but it seems to match the look and feel of Minecraft play that I have seen in videos of gameplay of the real thing. The clone has networked multiplayer over LAN and WAN, connection to online libraries of DLC, and the ability to design your own content.
So far, LOTRO has worked flawlessly in Wine. Roblox has an issue with mouse pointer functionality, and Grape Juice has a patch for that which I haven't tried yet. Apart from that, Roblox works fine.
As for Steam, so far I have tried only a few games I got through Humble Bundle. The Linux port of SpaceChem works flawlessly. The Linux port of Aer, Memories of Old, doesn't work at all. I have yet to try the Windows version of Aer under Wine. When I tried Aer on an older computer with Windows 8 and a Radeon HD5450 card that is now over a decade old, it worked, but was so slow the game was not very playable.
The one place where Wine is weak is if you want to use cracked Windows software. I was not able to get a cracked Adobe Acrobat Pro working in Wine. I'd rather not use such commercial software at all, but Acrobat is the only way I've found to get around the few lacks in the various free tools that handle PDFs. LibreOffice will not put the fonts of your choice into the text entries of a PDF form you export from it. I have looked at the LibreOffice source code and found out what the problem is, but haven't had time to try implementing the missing functionality. Okular, I learned, still can't quite annotate PDFs in a fully portable way. Or perhaps the problem is that neither Firefox nor Chrome correctly displays the annotations of an annotated PDF.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 04 2022, @11:42PM (1 child)
I played a fair amount of Cities Skyline on Steam on Linux a few years back, no complaints. Tried to play Kerbal Space Program the same way and had endless headaches but did manage to launch a few vehicles into orbit / lunar impact.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Techlectica on Friday May 06 2022, @06:12PM
You can get a native port of KSP for Linux from GOG. No issues.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday May 04 2022, @11:57PM (1 child)
quick fyi, Steam's Proton is a pretty solid implementation of WINE that is optimized for gaming on linux.
What most people don't know is you can use Proton to run stuff outside of Steam on it's own. So far it's worked with everything I've tried it with but admittedly it's been mostly my older game tittles that are already reported to work well with WINE so YMMV. (Though the current releases of Final Fantasy XIV, Neir:Automata, and Halo: Master Chief Collection have worked flawlessly so far)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/8/1679189548052683985/ [steamcommunity.com]
And here is a database of games supported by Proton
https://www.protondb.com/ [protondb.com]
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @01:47PM
I didn't know or even think about Steam running non-steam games via Proton. That is absurdly awesome. Makes sense as it's just a tailored version of WINE, but that isn't something they had to do.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:20AM (3 children)
Virtually all single player games work on Linux, often better than on Windows. Linux also has much better compatibility with old games from the Windows 98 or early XP era that don't work with Windows 10.
But while most major anti-cheats are now compatible with Linux, most game developers block them. As a result, of the top games on Steam by active users, most are not playable on Linux.
Counterstrike and Overwatch are probably the two most well-known multi-player games that work on Linux, and since Overwatch isn't on Steam, it doesn't show up in the surveys.
Several games do not even allow you to play by running the game in a VM.
Because why would you want a community of people who almost never pirate or cheat and are positive influences on the community to be able to play your games!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @09:14AM (2 children)
THIS
Would upvote if I could.
Example: Insurgency Sandstorm.
Runs **far** better on the same computer under linux than under windows.
But cannot join an online game, because the 'Easy Anti-Cheat' blocks it.
Apparently getting an advantage by simply installing Linux counts as cheating.
Being *able* to install linux for free is somehow unfair, when the requirements to be able to get linux are just ... to be online in the first place???
The only reason I still predominantly boot Windows is because of developers seeing linux as 'nice to have'. but insignificant.
Thank Gabe Steam gets it!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @02:00PM
Steam Deck is supposed to have some support for Anti-Cheat software and I'm pretty sure I remember Easy Anti-Cheat, specifically. I believe it requires developer support, though. So, it's still up to the game devs to actually make it work. Would be nice, if that somehow ended up translating into Linux support of Anti-Cheat software. Or better yet, the death of Anti-Cheat software, but I digress. I get that it's somewhat necessary for multiplayer, but there's enough DRM abuse without including Anti-Cheat issues too. For example, 7 Days to Die uses Easy Anti-Cheat. Yet, it still doesn't stop hackers / cheaters from hacking/cheating. While it does cause troubles for players with somewhat poor connections. I know I had trouble when I had a barely usable connection and I know a steam buddy that's had troubles as well, due to poor internet connection. 7DTD is much better as a co-op game and generally can't support more than 20-50 players at a time. A 20 player server is usually quite stable, while a 50+ player server usually has serious troubles. Things like super lag, enemies not spawning, or worse yet, animals not spawning (good food source).
Yes, it would be nice for devs to support Linux and for Anti-Cheat software to just work on Linux. I'd be happier, if Anti-Cheat and always online for singleplayer, weren't things.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 05 2022, @06:04PM
Heh, you said it yourself
>Runs **far** better on the same computer under linux than under windows.
Running better gives you an advantage, ergo you must be cheating! [end sarcasm]
(Score: 5, Informative) by stretch611 on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:34AM (5 children)
First let me answer your questions...
Graphics Support... Linux graphics support nVidia and it supports AMD? To me that sounds like complete support in modern times. I know that intel integrated graphics are supported but not great for games, intel also has discrete graphics (higher end) coming down the pipe and from what I understand intel is helping to support those in linux too. So graphics support is not a problem. That being said some people can't stand proprietary drivers on linux... this only affects nvidia. There are free software alternatives for nvidia cards but they are not as good. (but they do work) As for AMD, their proprietary drivers are lacking support now and the opensource version is widely used and works quite well z9and efficiently.)
Poor range of games. Not an issue... Except if you need to have the latest AAA fad. Most of the AAA games are built by the big publishers... the same publishers that don't want to support windows after release because it costs to much money ti support. Sounds counter-intuitive, but I am sure you all know what it is like trying to get any support at all out of the big publishers like EA, Ubi, Bethesda... ... ... They may ask for your system info and accept a bug report, but you know you will never hear from them again. If they don't want to truly support games on windows, what makes you think that they would ever add a build for another OS, especially when you can be tempted to buy it without support to try with WINE(Which they will not support either.)
As for other (non-AAA) games on *native* linux... I find that companies that truly support their games are more likely to issue linux builds. These are the companies that when you file a bug report, they actually research it and try to fix it. Of course the companies that do this are the ones that are more likely smaller and/or independent studios. (Also the ones that are not beholden to Wall St.) One big thing that I noticed is that some companies cite that despite being a minority, more bugs are reported on linux than other platforms. But while some of these are linux bugs most are cross platform bugs, but linux users are generally more tech savvy and more comfortable filling out bug reports than people that do not even know what is in their computer other than what Best Buy tells them.
That being said you would think that there are not any native linux games at all... But wrong.... well over 10,000 on steam alone and that figure is a bit old. There are literally enough titles that even shovelware/crapware/asset swap bs has made it too linux. But there are actually plenty of good titles too. Enough to keep a native linux gamer busy for the rest of their life... if they have no problem avoiding AAA titles. (But there are a few AAA titles that actually have been made native too.)
Personally, as a full time gamer... I have plenty to play without leaving native linux... and a variety of genres as well... Much like other aspects of linux software you may not have thousands of different software titles to do what you want but there are usually at least a handful of native programs that will do it... For the rest, there is always WINE/Proton. More often that not most windows software will work with WINE/Proton to the point it is at least playable. The big exceptions to this are massively egregious DRM, and anti-cheat. Valve does a lot for these but it usually takes a mild amount of dev support... for example, one of the largest Anti-cheat applications out there, Easy Anti-Cheat, actually can work with WINE, but the developer has to enable that. Some do when told how... But some (specifically Epic) don't. Epic has already said that they will not change Easy Anti-Cheat on fortnite so that it can run on the SteamDeck... But seeing how there CEO Sweeney has been anti-linux for years, and seeing how they compete with valve now, why would they want to let valve's hardware run their games?
As for linux for business and other applications being a factor... Overall I think this helps linux gaming. After all, if you are a programmer on a development machine or an engineer on a cad machine, designer on a graphics/multimedia machine, all these machines are good as gaming machines too. Plus why install two OS's when one will do? But there is one caveat... Many (not nearly all) people who work on a computer all day generally do not relax by going home and sitting on another computer for the rest of the day. And if you work from home it kind of makes it harder to stay in the exact same place all day.
I think that JR's question is not touching on the reasons and that it comes down to 3 things for the lack of linux gaming... The exhausted with computers I mentioned in the last paragraph, the people that want the latest fad AAA games, and just the un-informed.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stretch611 on Thursday May 05 2022, @04:43AM (4 children)
(I have a tendency to write long articles so I decided this was not really needed in my first response but hopefully still relevant to others...)
I am a gamer but I am exclusively linux. The last computer that I had with windows installed was an old athlon dual core from over 15 years ago. Everything in my house now is linux only.
I have over 1600 titles in my steam library. I am an addict. (my steam profile [steamcommunity.com]) I have been gaming on linux since before steam was on linux, and I just recently had my 9th anniversary on steam last month which coincides with steam launching on linux just over 9 years ago. The vast majority of those titles (75-80%) are linux native titles, with the windows titles mostly coming from bundles that I got with linux native titles. Admittedly as an addict, I bought a lot more than I actually played and even guessing 200 titles played might be a little much.
I generally will not even use proton with the games I have sticking with native titles. The big exception I allow myself is nostalgia. Games I played before I went to linux only, and well some games before there even was a windows. Essentially I will play anything over 20 years old on WINE/Proton like C&C Remastered, Stronghold series, and even some old arcade games like Pac-man, Ms Pac Man, Contra, Gauntlet and other classics. (FWIW I do know about MAME and other emulators, but for me piracy is only an option when legally acquiring something is futile in one regard or another.) Generally I allow myself this with games that are so old, its not like they will ever see a new release on linux.
I don't have an issue with WINE/Proton... Technically it is marvelous and quite remarkable with the devs that have made it what it is today. It is great for allowing people to leave windows and actually be able to still play a large majority of their library.
However, I believe in paying people that support linux... Buying a game for windows that works on WINE does not accomplish this... In fact, imho, it does the exact opposite, The developers that refuse to support linux get paid, and it tells them that without any effort on their part will get them money from linux users giving them no incentive whatsoever to actually support linux. All while the WINE/Proton teams doing the actual support work get none of the money paid for the game. (I know valve pays them some... but you know they get nothing from the game devs after an actual linux sale.)
So without many AAA titles, what is left on linux native?
Well, Civ V and Civ VI both have linux native versions. I believe they are actually considered AAA games.
7 Days to Die is a great FPS/Zombie/Survival/Crafting game.
Factorio is wonderful.
Transport Fever 1 & 2 are great native train/transportation simulations.
Core Keeper and Lumencraft are great new indie games with linux versions.
I have been playing Iratus:Lord of the dead recently after grabbing on sale... It is much like Darkest Dungeons and of course both are native linux.
KeeperRL is a great Rogue/Dungeon Keeper hybrid. The Developer will even give you a copy of the game for free if you donate the value of it to a Ukrainian charity. (Or to a wildlife/animal rescue charity.)
Rise to Ruins is a good city/villiage builder.
Elemental War is a great Tower Defense game I like and its sequel gets released on Friday.
Touhou Monster TD is another good Tower Defense game with an anime feel (not nude.)
But speaking of nude... yes even those are prevalent for linux native... Visual Novels galore, jigsaw puzzles and Match 3 games and even Shoot'em Up arcade games like Shot Shoot My Waifu.
Puppygames is a developer with a few good linux shooters as well (and some solitaire games.)
Tabletop Simulator and its sequel Tabletop Playground are essentially networked board games to play with your friends.
Missile Command Remastered, Breakout Remastered, and Black Widow Remastered are all recent remakes of their respective classics all published by none other than atari itself. Plus their is a native Atari Vault collection that is native linux.
Starmancer, Rotund Rebound, Shortest Trip to Earth, Undermine, Volcanoids, Rain on Your Parade, Dino Eggs Rebirth, Mini Metro, Rise of Industry... and just a ton more native linux titles. There really is no reason for many people to need a windows only game.
I have a steam deck on the way... and when I get it I will continue to support linux NATIVE gaming.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @02:21PM (3 children)
Not sure, if Terraria has a Linux native client. It does work though and is a super awesome game. I am also a Dungeon Defenders +aholic and it works on Linux, but don't know about natively. 7 Days to Die is the other of my top 3 played games on Steam. All three of those I have 3000+ hours in and have serious replayability and/or progression. Dungeon Defenders is one of those RPG games where you can keep playing for thousands of hours and keep getting top tier gear that just take that long to get. The community is much smaller than it used to be, but it's still there and active. You really need to join the Dungeon Defenders Runs and Giveaways Discord server to get the most out of the game, though.
Beyond those three that work in Linux, the only top game that I really wish ran well on Linux, but doesn't is Space Engineers.
I'm going to need to give Linux another good run, because I'm not going to stick around for Windows 11. They're doing all of the things that make Apple/Google walled off gardens and then some.
There are definitely a lot of good games you can play without selling your soul to Microsoft. Which is what Windows 11 is turning into. You will be forced onto a Microsoft Account eventually and they are still, seriously pushing the Microsoft Store. One could have hoped that Windows 8 / 10 had killed that particular beast off, but it's too much of a scroodge's paradise for it to go away. Which leads me to the Linux camp. Which is great, but even the hardware manufacturers are doing their best to kill Linux support. UEFI anyone? Built-in chips to authenticate Windows? I mean, just stupid stuff. Hopefully Linux is here to stay and will continue to be as awesome as it has always been. Free, Open, and continually getting better. Also, screw the UI changes for UI changes sake.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Thursday May 05 2022, @09:54PM (2 children)
Terraria does have a native linux build, so does Dungeon Defenders (But not Dungeon Defenders II)
Other wildly popular indie games that have linux builds (all 1 million copies or more sold)
Stardew Valley
Factorio
Rimworld
Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together
Valheim (Their developers admitted that they use linux at home)
Core Keeper (likely will become just as popular as Terraria and Stardew Valley.)
Loop Hero (very popular, not positive if it hit 1 million copies though)
As of today... There are over 2500 games that work on a steam deck. (This includes things through Proton, but doesn't include literally thousands of games not tested or any games that require a mouse/keyboard.) (Article here [boilingsteam.com].)
One month ago, 54 of the top 100 games worked on the deck. This is from Steam's list of most popular games based on active users playing on their servers. (Article here [boilingsteam.com]) Again, it includes proton, but some still need to be tested and others may work on linux if they don't work on the deck due to keyboard control and other issues. Also, that number may be higher now.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday May 11 2022, @01:36PM
Dungeon Defenders II suffers from Microtransactionification. They also turned it from a mostly Tower Defense based game into a mostly FPS based game. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened (aka Dungeon Defenders III) seems to be dead on arrival, sadly. I helped by joining their kickstarter at the $100 4-copy level, because I absolutely love the first Dungeon Defenders and still play it regularly! Unfortunately, DD:A didn't do well and from the sounds of it, they did some weird stuff to it. Possibly trying to please the DDII crowd and the DDI crowd, which in my opinion aren't the same. I think they killed all the capital they had with their Dungeon Defenders fans by doing what they did with DDII. Now, they have a Dungeon Defenders gone Rogue sort of Rogue like / lite or something like that. Reusing their DD:A assets to help keep the lights on. The sad part is that, if they go bankrupt, DD1, may be taken with them. Since a lot of the online functionality relies on servers that they maintain.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday May 11 2022, @02:12PM
Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together are quite interesting, but I'm not as big of a fan. Might be, if I had someone that I played with regularly that also played. Not much help there for the singleplayer version, but I've been playing less singleplayer games overall.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @04:28AM (1 child)
As a linux gamer, steam is pretty much my goto.
As a shop, purchasing is easy.
I've not found the DRM onerous, though the anticheat systems for multiplayer games is a bit more ehhh...
I've brought a few games just because they had a native Linux port.
I tend to go for more indi type titles, big AAA don't tend to interest me much.
And proton often tends to "just work" when there's something I want to play that doesn't have a native port.
Will likely get a steam deck when it's finally available in my area.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @02:30PM
Steam is great for an "Easy" Linux gaming system. GOG also work for some things, but most of the support is for Windows, Windows Installers, etc. They may eventually offer good Linux support, but I wouldn't hold my breathe. However, they are a great place to purchase "archival games". I.E. Master of Magic, one time purchase forever, kind of thing. You can find a ton of old games that you can purchase on GOG (Having it's roots in Abandonware). They even fixed multiplayer in a GameSpy multiplayer game. GOG is where I buy the games I want to add to my "forever collection" kind of thing. I may own a copy on Steam, but I really own the copy on GOG as I can legally make a backup of the software and it's designed for you to do that. As GOG has standalone installers that let you install the full game. Not download the game through Steam's proprietary system. Though, you can also do that with GOG's game client. Which I would say is #2 to Steam's as I've used other companies systems and generally, they universally suck, and/or are limited to a small collection of games.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @05:27AM (3 children)
Then it's simple, stop game developers from SUCKING MICROSOFT'S COCK!
Problem solved.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @07:26AM (1 child)
It's simple, we kill The Batman.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday May 05 2022, @05:17PM
I'm Batman.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:05PM
You do that by voting with your wallet. As they will add Linux support, if they see enough gamers dumping Windows for Linux.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @10:06AM (1 child)
Does my assetto corsa working with just minor glitches on wine and proton count as a linux installation?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:08PM
I'm guessing that it's counting the gaming platform, not the specific games played on that platform. Thus, you playing a Non-Linux game on Linux, should count in their Linux Gaming list.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"