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Valve Software Launches Linux Blog, Confirms Work On Steam Client for Linux
New submitter oakgrove writes "Valve Software confirmed today in a new blog devoted specifically to Steam on Linux (called Steam'd Penguins) that for more than a year, a Steam client has been in the works for Ubuntu Linux 12.04. 'We've made good progress this year and now have the Steam client running on Ubuntu with all major features available. We're still giving attention and effort to minor features but it's a good experience at the moment. In the near future, we will be setting up an internal beta focusing on the auto-update experience and compatibility testing.' The blog post also says that a working port of Left 4 Dead 2 is currently playable, and that their goal is to bring performance in line with the Windows version."
Anything to get our minds off of HL3/HL2Ep3.
Valve have a golden opportunity here, in several ways:
1. Ubuntu is a first stepping stone. Once they have the Linux experience, they can target all kinds of Linux based platforms & set top boxes, as they become popular. It's just like UbuntuTV in a sense - It takes a stable operating system and tailors it to a niche market, adds the back-office sauce into the soup, and you suddenly have a serious iTunes/Netflix contender (technologically anyway).
2. I believe game producers are going to see this as a blessing: Valve becoming the major conduit through which serious games flow into the Linux world, paving the road for those producers into user's desktops, while providing billing, game discovery, content distribution, and community tools. Nobody else is doing this at the moment with Linux, except for Canonical who have created their own "App Store" application (which by the way is pretty good!). So imaging Canonical's "App store" on steroids, for games! Once enough games are built for Linux, why would anyone use Microsoft Windows for gaming?
3. When you are first to capture a market, you become the dominant player. The longer you're the dominant player, the more difficult it becomes to unseat you from your throne.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...
Man, it is hard to make some people happy. Here's one of the more successful game companies trying to make a serious effort to bring better games to Linux, and after 8 comments, there are 6 complaints about it.
Better they should do like Sony and just say "Fuck you, no Linux"? Or like Microsoft who tries to make with the lip service while trying to stab OSS in the back?
I mean, there might be some really evil intent behind Valve working on bringing Steam to Linux, but maybe a "wait and see" attitude might be called for at least until they give some indication of trying to screw Linux users over.
It could also signal to a lot more game developers that people who use Linux would be interested in some good games.
How can you be mad at a company that's selling great games from last year for like $5 or $10? Especially right behind EA announcing that they're going to charge $70 for Battlefield?
Part of being a discerning customer is being able to tell who's trying to kiss you and who's trying to bugger you.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I have 44 bought games on my steam list, all on a box that only runs windows so that I can play games. Thank you for giving me dream that one day I can get rid of all the windows installs in my house.
One could also view Valve's move as a somewhat defensive one.
Apple hasn't exactly been shy about the fact that The App Store is exciting and mandatory on iDevices, and exciting-and-optional-for-now on OSX.
Microsoft hasn't exactly been shy about copying Apple in these matters(and while their 'games for windows live' initiative is risible, their xbox work shows that they are to be treated with caution).
Valve has a comparatively well regarded distribution mechanism; but they face the potential of being squeezed by platform vendors who want to own the store.
Now, as long as Redmond wants their $20-$100 bucks a box to make sure that Win32 and device drivers are working, and Apple wants their somewhat larger slice to provide the full package, Valve has a pretty limited incentive to try to upset that arrangement. Neither business is easy, and only the dominant player stands to make any serious money.
However, now the platform guys want to own both the platform and the store. That can't be good for the independent shopkeeper, now can it?