Posted by
michael
on from the chopping-off-heads dept.
nicku writes: "According to this email to retailers that was leaked, LokiGames is closing on January 31. I'm sad to see them go, I own 3 of their excellent ports..."
No more N64 controller...anyways, ya, sucks that Loki isn't doing well, but honestly, the Linux game market isn't nearly as profittable as the Windows one. Maybe it's because a lot of Linux users have a Win partition and rather than wait for 'Awesome Game X' to get ported, they buy the Win version...
-Henry
-- "Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
Entertainment and limited leisure time.
by
Bigger+R
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The point of games is entertainment. We've all got limited leisure time. You have to WORK to get a linux box tuned for games. Even then the return on your investment has a smaller pay-off than the windows-environment hassles, because there are fewer choices.
I have a couple of boxen, both W2K and *nix. I really wanted to make it happen, but I just found that I enjoyed playing more than configuring.
I'm just sorry the chickens and eggs did get sorted out(if the "leak" is indeed real).
-- Beta only seems to work for Google. Such a shame.
opensourcing everything
by
antistuff
·
· Score: 5, Informative
It looks like a lot of people are saying that loki should make everything opensource. Rather than respond to each thread, ill just post the general response here. They cant. They dont actualy make games, they port them, and the orriginal maker still has the copyright for it. Loki isnt allowed to just release the source to it. Rather than release the source, I hope they sell all their games for like $10 or somthing in a going out of buissness thing. I only bought three of thier games and there are a couple more I would like.
Loki is _not_ dead because they entered a market that couldn't support them. Scott has mentioned several times that he had no intention of showing a profit for a few more years, at least. Loki's intention was to become the defacto standard for porting games to linux, and to capitalize on that ability in a year or two more down the road, when Linux sales _really_ started to generate revenue. At that point in time, they would have developed all the tools necessary to port games to Linux (like an installer, SDL, and so on), and have shown that they have the skill to do it quickly and professionally when they were handed the ball.
The problem for Loki came when all the venture capital dried up. It shouldn't for them, their plan was always sound, and based on profit in a year or two more. Their problems started when the market crashed, and with how quickly all the VC dried up.
Some very short sighted people pulled their money out of Loki, and they... well, they suck;) Don't invest in a five year plan, and then pull out 1/2 way through just because the market crashes.
Loki, a victim of circumstances, and a lack of investment fortitude. The sad part is that if Loki could have lasted until the summer, I'm sure that VC would have returned.:/
SiN didn't work...
by
Wee
·
· Score: 3, Informative
...with NVidia cards. Well, at least not with my Geforce2. The game simply would not work for a great majority of linux gamers. Word of that got out (too late for me, but others must have heard about about the video issues). Combine that with the fact that it was something like 3 years old when the port was completed and you have a darn good reason why the game didn't sell. I don't think some abnormality endemic to Linux gamers was the cause.
Even if you were simultaneously porting an upcoming Win32 title, you'd still face the "why can't I get a binary free?" issue. Loki had that in spades with Tribes2, but it sold pretty well. (Most people wanted to binary for servers anyway -- id ruined people on that count, IMO.)
I wouldn't use SiN's sales figures as anything but an anecdotal tale.
-B
--
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Re:SiN didn't work...
by
puetzk
·
· Score: 4, Informative
excuse me? I have beautiful accelerated 2d AND 3d on my Radeon 7500, using the opensource drivers included in XFree 4.2.
The opensource ATI drivers are IN XFree86! they do very much exist, and they rock it up (about 90 FPS in quake3 at 1024x768, the 'pretties' all on:-). Nothing groundbreaking, but at $99 OEM not shabby. The card even does dualhead (and I'm using that, so it's not wasted).
Plus, I have decent 2d performance, unlike my roomate GeForce3, which could get pasted to the wall by my old mach64 in 2d, much less anything current. The GeForce mad-fast in 3d, I admit; but that's all you get, and it is plenty unstable too:-(
Matrox has weak 3d cards (albiet spectacular 2d), but quit lying about the radeon support. It is right there, in the standard XFree86 and kernel codebases, without needing any extra parts. It could hardly get any simpler:-)
-- The Matrix is going down for reboot now! Stopping reality: OK. The system is halted.
they announched Chapter 11 a few months ago. That was pretty clear that the end was near, but not certain. Now they are saying the doors close at the end of the month.
Re:This is what happens....
by
SirGeek
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Nationwide ?
I NEVER was able to find any Loki Games (which I would have purchased on Principle)..
I mean , Yes.. I can download ISO Images for FreeBSD but I STILL buy the 4 disk set each revision just to help support the project.
Slashdot Mirror
No more N64 controller...anyways, ya, sucks that Loki isn't doing well, but honestly, the Linux game market isn't nearly as profittable as the Windows one. Maybe it's because a lot of Linux users have a Win partition and rather than wait for 'Awesome Game X' to get ported, they buy the Win version...
-Henry
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
The point of games is entertainment. We've all got limited leisure time. You have to WORK to get a linux box tuned for games. Even then the return on your investment has a smaller pay-off than the windows-environment hassles, because there are fewer choices.
I have a couple of boxen, both W2K and *nix. I really wanted to make it happen, but I just found that I enjoyed playing more than configuring.
I'm just sorry the chickens and eggs did get sorted out(if the "leak" is indeed real).
Beta only seems to work for Google. Such a shame.
It looks like a lot of people are saying that loki should make everything opensource. Rather than respond to each thread, ill just post the general response here. They cant. They dont actualy make games, they port them, and the orriginal maker still has the copyright for it. Loki isnt allowed to just release the source to it. Rather than release the source, I hope they sell all their games for like $10 or somthing in a going out of buissness thing. I only bought three of thier games and there are a couple more I would like.
Mess Stuff Up
I try and purchase any Linux games I see on store shelves. I was surprised to see Railroad Tycoon II in my local Best Buy a few weeks ago.
I thought that *maybe* Linux gaming was starting to become more main stream. Truly a sad day for Linux gaming
~.Evanrude
Loki is _not_ dead because they entered a market that couldn't support them. Scott has mentioned several times that he had no intention of showing a profit for a few more years, at least. Loki's intention was to become the defacto standard for porting games to linux, and to capitalize on that ability in a year or two more down the road, when Linux sales _really_ started to generate revenue. At that point in time, they would have developed all the tools necessary to port games to Linux (like an installer, SDL, and so on), and have shown that they have the skill to do it quickly and professionally when they were handed the ball.
... well, they suck ;) Don't invest in a five year plan, and then pull out 1/2 way through just because the market crashes.
:/
The problem for Loki came when all the venture capital dried up. It shouldn't for them, their plan was always sound, and based on profit in a year or two more. Their problems started when the market crashed, and with how quickly all the VC dried up.
Some very short sighted people pulled their money out of Loki, and they
Loki, a victim of circumstances, and a lack of investment fortitude. The sad part is that if Loki could have lasted until the summer, I'm sure that VC would have returned.
Even if you were simultaneously porting an upcoming Win32 title, you'd still face the "why can't I get a binary free?" issue. Loki had that in spades with Tribes2, but it sold pretty well. (Most people wanted to binary for servers anyway -- id ruined people on that count, IMO.)
I wouldn't use SiN's sales figures as anything but an anecdotal tale.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
they announched Chapter 11 a few months ago. That was pretty clear that the end was near, but not certain. Now they are saying the doors close at the end of the month.
Nationwide ? I NEVER was able to find any Loki Games (which I would have purchased on Principle).. I mean , Yes.. I can download ISO Images for FreeBSD but I STILL buy the 4 disk set each revision just to help support the project.
UPS Sucks