2016 Will be the Year of Linux Gaming

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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So I was browsing Steam this morning and I noticed something very interesting. Every 1/4 games has Linux support... granted a lot of the titles are old school. Okay that's great, but are they any good? Yes, they're fantastic. A lot of them are early access, but they are great. So let's look outside of Steam. GOG added Linux support, small developers are making games as fantastic as The Dark Mod, and for the most part they're all free. There is one shortcoming however I feel by late 2016 this gap will no longer persist. Triple A titles aren't really a thing. Don't expect to load up Fallout 4 (we need F4 on Linux!) without caveats.

Disclaimer

This is not a Windows/Mac sucks thread. I would prefer it if a mod removed your post if you try and turn it into that. All forum rules apply. Thank you.

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Now we just gotta hope something happens like Valve buys AMD, and starts turning out insane gaming hardware with first class linux support. And then I woke up =/

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I have a question. What is a AAA game?

The wikipedia says :

In the video game industry, AAA (pronounced "triple A") is a classification term used for games with the highest development budgets and levels of promotion or the highest ratings by a consensus of professional reviewers.

And that's just the part with a number of citations. In that case what is high budget? and in the other case, 70% of my Linux games fit that category.

I don't think we can say AAA is a thing these days. I dont think it exists. If it does, I dont think anyone can come to a consensus of what it is.

A few off my list that I think would fill the traditional category of AAA

Civ 5, XCOM, Borderlands 1, 2, Bioshock, (do valve games count? All valve games). I could list more but people might contest them.

Fallout 4 will not come to linux but that's because of bethesda, not because its a AAA game.

The main games that I haven't seen any movement in moving to other platforms are larger multiplayer games or mmo types like guildwars.

I think next year will be very interesting. Many engines already have or are improving their Linux and mac support this year and with a good base of games by the end of this year supporting multi platforms, I think more developers will make Linux versions of new games.

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While I agree that there are more and a more games coming to Linux, even big AAA game check out Borderlands, XCOM, Valve, and a few others standing out from the crowd, I still feel that until Linux supporters and developers sort out a "universal" way to make it happen and be up to date it will still be just a hobbyist thing rather than a real competitor in desktop/PC gaming.

I say this not as a complete noob on this side of things, but as an outside observer with out the dev knowledge, what I see is not promising. I know I will be told by people who are into this I am wrong but this is just how it looks.

There is not a reliable, in the sense that it will be up to date and supported, graphics API. I know I can hear it all ready. Yes there is Open GL, it is frankly out of date. And yes Vulkan will save the day I know, but where is it? I know they are working on it and it is supposed to be good, but there is no real world, by which I mean not just a tech demo, games with it that I can play and compare to the same game running DX 11, 10 or 12. Or even on different OS's At least not that I can find.

And the drivers (while in varying quality on both vendors) are not up to scratch, not aweful but not quite good enough to keep an avid gamer, who can get high fps and quality on another OS, on Linux because it is better else where. I say this not as my own opinion, I very much like Linux and where it is going, but as a view in from the outside with no knowledge of the current goings on inside the free and open source world.
Although I hear kernel drivers are coming soon for AMD at least that are supposed to be a big step up, I look forward to this and hope it is part/sign of bigger things and more support coning from bigger developers.

Yeah this could change in the space of a year but I just don't expect it to happen at a high enough rate and level of quality that will draw over the gamers that like their graphics and could care less about ethics, open source, speed, compatibility, and all the other fantastic benefits of linux. For them the best option for range of games with the most and highest quality settings for visual effect is windows. Linux just is not fast enough and pretty enough for them. I hope this changes but what linux desperately needs right now is feature parity and speed parity or excess. When both option looks the same, have the same visual options and run as fast or faster, then gamers will move over from windows.

Just some thoughts and opinions.

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It was just an example. Yes, Source games are numerous but the rate at which others convert is no where near the pace of what small devs are cranking out. Most of my games are early access or from a freelance dev... but then again I don't spend enough time gaming to drop money on something unless I know I'll like it. Thanks for the heads up.

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Well... AMDGPU is going to be ground breaking.... and open source. I expect it to do a lot.

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Good observations. I believe it isn't that the resources aren't there... Because they are... But rather it comes down to lazy devs. AMDGPU is going to change a lot. When SteamOS launches in November I expect a big change in how games are developed. Actually I get better performance on Linux with my games then I ever did on Windows, and that's with the open source driver. The ONLY issue I've ever had is tearing in the Witcher 2

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Partially. There will still be a closed source component (more than one actually), they are interchangeable with the open drivers. One of the big changes is going to be how it interacts with the kernel, with the new set of drivers both the open and closed parts should be interchangeable, and the closed part should be much easier to work with potentially suffering none of the current problems both nvidia and amd drivers suffer from in that regard.

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This and if you've been gaming for a while, i think the better thing that question that should be asked is WHY should should you jump on to Linux?

All ethics / privacy / Politics non-sense aside. all your games are on Windows, and there's more of it on there. Developers just need to get on the ball and just release it on Linux. i never really understood the exclusivity that Windows had. Yeah Windows is massive, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people on Mac or Linux either. you want to make the most money, then release it for everything, not just one thing. for example when Corsair released the RGB K65 exclusive for Best Buy, I bet they would of made WAAAAY more money if they released it on every single store and e-tailer. but for all Linux users, Microsoft releasing numbers stating that 75 million people (and Growing) is just installed Windows 10 is just going to discourage developers to port their games for Linux even more. SteamOS will make a excellent streaming machine, but as your primary gaming OS, if you have been gaming on Windows for a while and you have a lot of games, then probably not, but for new people getting into gaming, people who don't game very often, SteamOS will be perfect.

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Simple matter of market saturation and the company's bottom line is all. Invest 50,000 man hours into a program, release to Windows, instant 75 million strong userbase potential.

Even investing half that time again into a linux version of the same program, for less than 5% of that amount of people isn't justifiable to the CEO's that want their fat checks on the side and have grown accustomed to having plenty of extra money to sweep under the rug. All for the least amount of effort and investment.

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Valve wont buy AMD I believe, X86 licencing anyone.

Problem is fragmentation with Linux, so many package managers, so many kernel revisions running, so many distros, so many desktop environments etc oh the choice is overwhelming.

But as much I want Linux to take off I don't think it will, I don't even Linus thinks that, but ah well we are happy in our little corner :)

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Word of the wise

I'm sorry... but I REALLY don't want to see this turn into a flame war. People will look over this and get butt hurt for no reason.

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That said, there is worth in making portable code, not just for Linux but in general. Portable code means code that can more easily stand time. But investors are rarely interested in long term goals.

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it wasn't my intention at all really. i have every right to disagree about a particular topic.

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Exactly. We need a standard for crap like this.

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I understand and respect that. I'm just sick of every thread becoming a penis competition because someone can't accept change.

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I'm fine being in a corner. At least I know Novell isn't spying on me.

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Or wait... Now they're Micro Focus. Either way

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It's becoming like it was with the measurement of the speed of light. One day they realised they could measure the speed of light with greater accuracy than the meter was defined. Thus they inverted the definition and measurement. Defining the meter as the distance light travels in a certain amount of time. Science felt weird for a while, but then we got over it.

The same thing is happening to the concept "Triple A titles", thus it is only natural to invert the argument: Triple A titles are the games that don't work on Linux. This definition will also feel weird for a while, eg. Fitz the Fox will be a triple A title, but then it'll pass, and no one will think twice about it.

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Linux for gaming is a myth. Pure and simple.

Look at Apple. They have had a single OS, with the same if not better open GL support for a lonnggggg time now.

They have a fair market share, a lot of their computers do come stock with a video card fast enough to play most games on medium with lower resolution.

There is little to no reason not to make more games available for apple, but yet it does not happen.

That should tell you something right there.

If a multi billion dollar corporation does not have a platform that is good for gaming, then how in the hell do you even dream that linux is going to do much better.

And forget the thousands of shitty side scrollers and puzzle games. I am sorry, but I just do not even consider those to be games.

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