LGP Announces Two More Titles

dolson writes "Earlier today Linux Game Publishing announced the next two titles that they will be porting to Linux. They are both made by Grim, a Swedish development company, and they are called Ballistics and Bandits: Phoenix Rising. One is a high-speed racing game, and the other is a driving/action game."

Comments

Do Linux Games Sell?

[tealover]

What is the best selling linux game of all time and how does that compare to the best selling PC games?

Just curious. I myself bought the Quake 2 games for Linux but that was a couple of years ago. I primarily play console games now.

That's great...

[Sayten241]

but is it really worth the effort? If you really wanted to play games on your computer just run a dual-boot for god's sakes. I know Windows is expensive, but I'm sure you can find a copy of windows 98 for pretty cheap, and that (as far as I'm awayre) should still play most games. It will certainly be able to play all the games that have been ported to Linux so far.

Not really, but picking up the pace...

[Anonymous Coward]

One industry insider compares the community to the Macintosh community ("Small but fanatical", in his words). Apparently, while the Mac community is still considered a reasonable investment for many companies, the perception of rampant piracy among Linux users was largely bourne out in Loki Software's books. He explained that a niche programming company needed something like 24% penetration at normal game pricing to achieve a reasonable return, but that the last three 'blockbusters' got anywhere between 2%-5% of the estimated Linux base, which was rather surprising given the quality of the software he said (comparatively, they got between 10%-16% of the Windows market, which factored heavily into the design considerations for future product).

I pointed out that there isn't much point to running Quake and whatnot on a server, and he agreed, saying that if Linux ever really makes it to the desktop these companies that were just targeting it in the first place because it was "the next big thing" will revisit it.

Re:Not really, but picking up the pace...

[unixbob]

The fact is, if anyone wants games, they use Windows . . . . Any gamer worth their salt knows XP is where it's at for games

I beg to differ. Anyone wants games they get a console. Any gamer worth their salt knows Gamecube is where your hardcore gamer sits, and PS2 is where your casual gamer sits. Your XBox gamer sits somewhere in the middle and is usually an ex-PC gamer. I will admit that the only thing which keeps XP on my home machine is the lack of commercial quality games under Linux.

The PC gaming market is on the decline anyway. With the cost of a console at about the same price of an average 3d graphics card (£150 for a GeFrorce4 Ti4200, ~£160 for an XBox with 2 games), PC gaming is rapidly becoming uneconomical. With the gap between PC and console games visual tricks diminshing, PC gameing will soon go the way of the arcade. And the Dodo

Or perhaps not

[Anonymous Coward]

Somehow I doubt the reason was piracy among Linux users... It's more likely Linux users bought the game from their local shop for their Windows partition, rather than mail-ordering from a distant location, and paying more to boot.

For example, the Bungie game Myth 2 Soulblighter: there was a MacOS version and a Windows version, with about 45% and 55% respectively on each platform. Loki ported it to Linux. However, out of the many thousands who played it online, I only ever _heard_ of several _individuals_ who were playing it online on Linux, and at least one of those was a programmer who worked at Loki!
Now considering how much more likely high-tech Linux users are to play a game online, and even if a whoopingly low 5% of buyers played it online, that means Loki sold well under 1000 units.
If they did that badly with Soulblighter, how badly did they do with other titles? No wonder they weren't making any money.

What About Tux Racer? ;)

[Milo Fungus]

I think Tux Racer is about the coolest game I've ever played. My very favorite course is "Who Says Penguins Can't Fly?" although I have become somewhat partial to "Path of Daggers" lately. Anyone else out there love Tux Racer?

Forget dual booting

[tjwhaynes]

To all of those who think that dual booting really holds the secret to playing games when most of your work is done in Linux - forget it. This machine here I'm on has Windows 98 and an up to date Linux distro. I bought Black & White almost on the day of release, thinking that I would boot into Windows just to play it. Its a great game, particularly if you liked Populous. But after a week, it has barely seen the light of day. Rebooting back and forth is too much of a pain. When I want to play, it's normally for 30-40 minutes. If I reboot back and forth, it had better be really worth it. I got hold of GTA3 and it's the same story. I got off the first island and it hasn't been played since.

Now I have a healthy collection of Linux games on my box, including a fair number of Loki ports, some of the source code released games (Abuse, Freespace 1 & 2, Aliens vs Predator), and a bunch of improving open source projects, from Vegastrike to Foobillard. And Black & White and the other Windows only games don't provide sufficient allure to make me reach for the reboot.

LGP seems to have the right idea. The games they are porting are good games in their categories and they aren't costing a fortune for the porting rights. They are also managing to get games in more genres than just first person shooters. I hope that LGP hangs around long enough to break even or preferably show a profit. I hope that the Linux desktop market is starting to expand at a sufficient rate that the future for Linux gaming actually exists and that LGP is in a good position to reap the rewards.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes

The trouble with linux gaming is...

[rsilvergun]

...Linux desktops are only going to appeal to consumers to the low end. Since if you're paying $500 for a computer it's no big deal to tack on an extra $50 dollars for a Windows license. But at $200 that extra $50 seems like a lot, especally with the lower profit on cheap hardware, the vender won't want to eat the cost of the OS himself.
Low end computers can't run games like this, they just don't have the 3D hardware. If linux is going to see more games besides a few oddballs (like these two) and the occasional blockbuster (UT2003) than it'll have to make inroads into the general desktop market. Or else much cheaper 3D hardware that has linux support.
Selling games that were released on Windows a year or two ago is not a good buisness model; customers with dual boot machines can often get your game for windows for $10-$20 in the bargin bin. And how many non geeks out there have a linux box that can run UT2003 (or something like it) and are running linux only?

LGP has fewer burdens than what Loki conjured

[AnonymousCowheard]

I spoke with one of the devlopers. Real nice people. To summarize his statment, they are not yet a full-time LGP staff and unlike Loki they are choosing game titles that do not summon exaggerated licensing fees. Loki dove head-first into porting software to Linux and admirably performed verry well despite their financial loss in an earlier Linux market. LGP has the benefits of Loki's base (snickering) because:

1) LGP has chosen to utilize the verry mature Simple Direct Media Layer (http://www.libsdl.org)
2) Interacts with a more mature and aware market for Linux
3) chose applications that do not tend the verry-high royalties Loki crippled under
4) the applications chosen have merit in their gamplay, fun-factor, and presentation.

Majesty Gold! Disciples 2! Bandits! These are fun games that were ignored in the Microsoft Windows markets simply becase there were much more "shiny lures" that attracted all the "fish." LGP spear-headed Tzar, but then decided not to based on the comments of a minority of people in the Linuxgames.com and Happypenguin.org forums. LGP is well on its way to fill the void that Loki over-marketed and here we have a verry predictable startup mustering its nets around as many herring as possible. LGP is in hopes of marketing to all isles of the Linux gamers: Athlon, Pentium, PowerPC, and a few others. We, and owners of our computer software and hardware, have received LGP with baited hering breath. :-) They chose the software on merits as being gamers too and LGP is hardcore gaming! They will only die once, as did Loki! Lets have some fun with their software.