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Is LGP Going the Way of Loki Software?

Posted by Soulskill on from the bad-news-bears dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After the demise of Loki Software, Linux Game Publishing sprouted up in its place, and for the past nine years has ported a number of games to Linux. But LGP may now be sharing the same fate as Loki. Linux Game Publishing hasn't updated its blog or news pages in months, has stopped responding to e-mails, and its only active ports are games they began work on in 2002/2003."

8 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Is this really surprising? by SkOink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When Wine is good enough to run Warcraft 3, what market is there for a company selling ports of decade-old games for $40-$50 each?

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    ---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
    1. Re:Is this really surprising? by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Has anyone tried getting the games at Good Old Games to work in Wine? I know they're older titles comes with a pre-configured DOSBox (works 100% better than DIY DOSBox and is 100% X64 Win7 compatible) so those shouldn't be a problem, and since ALL their games have the nasty DRM stripped out and use a simple .exe installer the games there should be easier to get going than all those infested with SecuROM or Starforce. And of course at $5-$10 the price is a hell of a lot better than the prices you get for ported games.

      So how about it? Has anybody given the games at GOG a shot on Linux?

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      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    2. Re:Is this really surprising? by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Informative

      "As long as WINE has to reverse engineer Windoze there's going to be a demand for porting various games to Linux to run them natively."

      On the other hand, I just installed a Windows game from 1998 on my Linux laptop and it ran fine -- heck, it even let me select the correct widescreen video mode -- whereas I doubt you'll find many Linux binaries from that era that will still run on an up to date distro.

    3. Re:Is this really surprising? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the point is that it's cheaper to make a game run under WINE than it is to do a full native port. Games don't require any platform integration, so no one cares if they aren't using native widgets - in fact, they're more likely to complain when they do. If you care about the Linux market, just add a guy to your QA team who tests it under WINE and pay a couple of consultants to add the missing features to WINE (or just get your devs to avoid them). It's much cheaper than paying a third-party company to do a full port.

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      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Speculations anyone? by Lotana · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well the article does little more than point out that LGP are not responding to hails and stopped updating their information. There is really no concrete facts to conclude that they are finished, thus all we can do from here is guess.

    So lets say they are dead (Which might not be the case), what do you think killed them?

    Could it be that there is just not enough Linux gamers that are willing to pay to see Windows games on their platform to sustain a porting company?

    Could the original Windows publishers be at fault? Perhaps they are not willing to share the code for the porting purposes.

    Could it be just a case of poorly run company that finally had their decisions catch up to them?

    Really with so little information any guess is as good as another.

    Aside: Anyone know why Loki folded? A quick search only states "financial troubles", which is not really helpful.

    1. Re:Speculations anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Loki's "financial problems" were largely mismanagement. Lurid tales of the owner using the company accounts as his personal ATM for buying cars and designer dresses for his wife; choosing games to port based on prestige and vanity over sound financial consideration of licensing costs and such; and other things. Loki was making money; their management just pissed it away faster than it came in, while shining everyone on until it eventually blew up.

        See, it's true that "the market is small," as other posters will point out, but porting is a pretty low-overhead proposition. You hire a couple of programmers, negotiate a licensing deal, and get porting. The game design, art, music, and other assets are all done already. It's much more like running a game company in the eighties, when you could have a couple of guys working out of a garage, than the gargantuan multi-million-dollar enterprises that you see today, so it really doesn't matter so much if the market is kind of small, as long as there's a market.
        (Plus, as the Humble Indie Bundle showed, there is money out in Linux-land. They got about 25% of their revenue from Linux, outdoing Mac users, even.)

  3. LGP Still Lives! by flnca · · Score: 4, Informative

    LGP's blog shows that the company is still active. Last update was from April 5, 2010.

  4. News post update from the site: by PBoyUK · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Wed, June 23 2010
    Is grateful to Slashdot for finally noticing that LGP exists, after militantly ignoring any game release we have made for the last 5 years, as soon as reports of our death come through, we get a front page story. Slashdot - Your support of Linux is inspirational. For others who wonder, we are very much alive. We have had a couple of staffing issues, but work is progressing on more than one unannounced title. We will offer furether updates as and when there is news to update you with."

    Seems like ya'll have hit a nerve! For me, I've bought 2 LGP games in the past, and enjoyed them, though they were certainly not AAA titles. I do wish they were more forthcoming with information though.