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Steam On Linux Now Has Over a Thousand Games Available

Posted by Soulskill on from the year-of-linux-on-the-console dept.

An anonymous reader writes: This week the Steam Linux client has crossed the threshold of having more than 1,000 native Linux games available while Steam in total has just under 5,000 games. This news comes while the reported Steam Linux market-share is just about 1.0%, but Valve continues brewing big plans for Linux gaming. Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

41 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. If Xorg would fix... by Rei · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...the bug that prevents me from having accelerated graphics in Linux, I'd be among that 1%. Until then? Reboot... reboot.... reboot... reboot...

    --
    "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
    1. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, this is open source, so when bugs are found, they are fixed quickly.

    2. Re:If Xorg would fix... by ledow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is that the OP of the bug report has only tested on nVidia binary drivers, by the look of it, and has not managed to reproduce on nouveau. Only an nVidia engineer has said that it was an X bug, nobody else, and that's hardly gospel.

      Maybe it's just a cock-up in their binary driver? Who knows? And it doesn't look like an awful lot of people have the same problem.

    3. Re:If Xorg would fix... by armanox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hard to say. It could be broken like the nvidia engineer says, and everyone else just allowing something to work that the spec says shouldn't.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    4. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Vintermann · · Score: 2

      That is the wrong question to ask. The right question is "why should we not blindly the believe the guy who says the bug isn't in his code?" and the answer ought to be obvious.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    5. Re:If Xorg would fix... by ledow · · Score: 2

      How many of those multiple people have done what was requested in one of the very first replies - test under nouveau, where they stand a chance of debugging? None. How many tested not on Fedora, as suggested? None.

      An offer to debug is only useful if people have a tiny clue what's going on. In this case, we know exactly what the problem is - there's an unshared pixmap trying to be used as a shared one.

      And, as someone points out in the thread, there is NO instance of an unshared pixmap being created in the code and passed to those functions. So either there's a patch being applied somewhere, or the nVidia driver is talking nonsense or breaking itself.

      How to debug? Ask nVidia to provide a debugging version of their MASSIVE driver so someone can get a clue about where the original pixmap it has a problem with came from.

      More likely, there's an interaction at play here - a distro combination with the XR+R options with a particular version of the nVidia binary and maybe even some memory corruption (where something not a pixmap at all is being passed to the shared pixmap functions!).

      But without a line number, a clue, an origin, a pointer, etc. then it's impossible to debug.

      Like all things - you need a reproducible, and bisectable, bug in order to be able to get close to a reason in any significant amount of code. You can't break into or debug the nVidia binary AT ALL unless you're nVidia. The XOrg stuff doesn't look like it ever creates an unshared pixmap in or around these functions. Nobody has worked out if it's a Fedora specific, nVidia-driver-specific, or even card-specific bug.

      And it affects precisely, what... 2/3 people on that thread.

      If you want help in fixing bugs, you have to do most of the legwork, ESPECIALLY in open-source projects. Because likely you're the only one it affects and until a common ground can be found, nobody can reproduce it.

      Like my entire day's work every day in IT:

      If I can't reproduce it, I CANNOT fix it.

      If it always works when I try, even as your user, even on your computer, even doing exactly what you said you did, whether that's a printer not working, or a driver crash, or an obscure bug, I can't do much about it. If I can't make it happen in front of me, I can only stab in the dark as to the cause until I get lucky.

      Try it on Nouveau.
      Try it on Ubuntu, say.
      Try it on the previous nVidia driver and the latest (if it isn't already).

      When you get the bug in TWO places, someone can start drawing conclusions about the cause. If it works on Nouveau, it's probably not a hardware bug. If it works on Ubuntu, it's probably not a Fedora-specific bug. If it works on other nVidia versions, it's ALMOST CERTAINLY an nVidia bug.

  2. Year of the... by MacDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Linux desktop/gaming/etc. They don't just have linux games. They're going to be shipping linux hardware! Nice hardware. I'm excited to see titles like Dying Light treating Linux as first class citizens.

    1. Re:Year of the... by blackraven14250 · · Score: 2

      I think he's going more for the "here's just one random example" than "here's the specific example I'm excited about".

    2. Re:Year of the... by MacDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

      outdated by November 2015

      LOL, you didn't even read the specs did you? 6th gen intel processor. Not haswell. Not new 5th gen broadwell. 6th gen skylake. If anything, it's so cutting edge, I'd worry about it shipping in time for xmas given Intel's lousy track record with broadwell.

      Also, 970m isn't going anywhere any time soon. It's going to be early/mid 2016 at the soonest before Pascal GPUs ship out of nvidia.

      Also(!) Zotac tends to ship barebones systems in addition to full systems. Don't like the RAM/disk provided? Get a barebones and choose your own.

    3. Re:Year of the... by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      trackballs and wireless keyboards allow the best of both worlds.

      Because honestly after sitting at a desk for 8 hours at work, sitting at a desk when I get home just seems to blur the line between recreation and work a bit too much.

  3. It will never be the year of Linux Gaming. by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just like the year of Networking it will never happen. If it happens it will just keep creeping up until you notice it is everywhere and then look back and wonder when was the year of X.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  4. Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a significant share of that 1,000 games.

    I'm very disappointed when I see a Windows only game, but I can understand why the big developers do it.

    I'm even MORE disappointed when I see a game that works with Windows and Mac but not Linux. Once it works with Mac or Linux making it work with the other is trivial. Don't give me the coca garbage - if it runs at full-screen you really don't have to mess with that a lot.

    The indie guys are really leading the charge, and based on very visible results with the Humble Bundle "Triple Compatibility" seems to up the success of the bundle, and I heavily suspect it's why they tend to make the one or two Linux compatible games in a heavily Microsoft centric bundle the "Pay at least $10 to get" game.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    1. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And my experience has been pretty much the opposite. Generally speaking, indie developers focus on Linux last and so it ends up invariably being the latest version of the code base. And as for not being tested properly, I've had very few issues** with most indie games (a few mouse control issues) which seem to be about the same level of issue with games in Wine under Steam (so, either it's a hardware issue or it's a general programming issue).

      On the other side, a lot of games for Wine simply don't work. This is a combination of a lot of things, no doubt, but even under the best of circumstances it's a very convoluted process that basically demands installing dotnet and DirectX native libraries--both of which have install issues that require either a complex issue of installs or simply copy/pasting files to fill in gaps. And even then, obviously, there's issues*.

      Honestly, though, as someone who owns 210 of those SteamOS/Linux games, I've had very few issues with Linux gaming.

      * DirectX setup now crashes on me, which unfortunately happens on Steam during the first run (and possibly subsequent runs) of a game. The solution is to move/remove the dxsetup.exe from the game's folder, which is obviously a bad hack.

      PS - A short list of Windows games that work under Wine in Steam (with DotNET 4.0 and DirectX files installed):

      The 11th Hour, Alien Swarm, BlackSoul Extended Edition, Blockland, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, Cinders, Coldfire Keep, Company of Heroes, Crazy Taxi, Crow, The Darkness II, Darkout, Deadlight, etc

      Obviously, a lot of Bundle games (in fact, they're the only ones I own through Steam). And not obviously, in the same span of game about 33% Windows (possibly Mac too)-exclusive don't work. But so many games are for Linux as well, that 49.52% of my collection is for Linux. And a good many of those are DRM free and merely listed in Steam for convenience sake (ie, they're not installed through Steam). So, yea, I'm not sure what your anecdote really amounts to.

      ** One counter example is EvoLand which apparently requires the 32-bit version of Google Chrome's flash (32-bit Chromium flash if you change config.js might work, but I wouldn't know since this is a 64-bit system and I don't have some of the other required 32-bit libraries). So, yea, apparently they didn't adequately test that. But, then, EvoLand on Windows is apparently a mess as well. And I ended up going with a 32-bit Wine prefix because so many games seemed to not work in Windows 64-bit, but that might just be a Wine deficiency.

    2. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 2

      First of all - no ZOOOMMM!!! I totally see that's a smart-assed comment.

      I want to address it anyways.

      I have 0 versions of Minecraft, and I'm not running the OSS knock-off version.

      The Unreal and Quake engines rock on Linux, and I guess the Half-Life engine is it's own? Portal is awesome on it also.

      Does Minecraft work on Linux? I refuse to check, just don't care enough. I love pissing off Minecraft fans by saying "When I was a kid I had an Atari 2600, it looked like crap but it was awesome because it was all that we had. Then came the 8 bit Nintendo, the Super Nintendo, the 64, then you got realistic 3D with the Unreal engine and it just keeps getting better, then YOUR generation declared "Good stuff sucks!". They went back to Atari looking graphics programmed the with sloppy code forcing high-end multi-core high-RAM hardware to run shit 8-bit graphics!"

      I've just about started fist-fights with that observations.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    3. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by amorsen · · Score: 2

      Please explain how installing 32-bit libraries magically makes your system slower when they are not in use.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    4. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by Microlith · · Score: 2

      I've just about started fist-fights with that observations.

      Probably because it's profoundly and willfully ignorant, along with being unnecessarily antagonistic.

      You should probably try not being an asshole.

    5. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >> Once it works with Mac or Linux making it work with the other is trivial.
      >
      > Are you for serious? Maybe if your middleware supports Linux yea, otherwise not so much.

      Of course he's serious.

      Once you get past coding for DirectX only, the gap between that and the next thing is MUCH smaller. That's why Mac companies are doing the most interesting Linux ports right now.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    6. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Trolling? There's no harm in running a mixed-mode system. It makes your kernel slightly larger and means 32-bit shared libraries will be loaded when and only when you're actually using 32-bit programs. You still get the speedup for software compiled in long mode. Given that the CPU designers baked the support logic into your CPU anyway, there's really no downside ot using that support when it makes sense.

      --
      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
  5. Nice by Greyfox · · Score: 2

    It seems like Steam is enjoying some success where Loki failed. I'd guess PC gamers are subsidizing Linux development at the moment, an advantage Loki lacked. Has anyone put an Xtrek client up on steam yet?

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  6. I'm a Member of That 1% by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The summary maybe should have mentioned something more important: SteamOS is basically Debian Linux with Steam libraries. Valve likely wants to release SteamOS hardware and is pushing for ports/originals that target that platform. If this takes off, it's great news for gaming in Linux as it's just a matter of installing the right packages to be able to run these games. In fact repo.steampowered.com already has packages that you can install on 64 bit Debian to be able to select SteamOS as a session on your Ubuntu or Debian box. But you don't even need to go that far -- if you're running Ubuntu and have a steam account, please try this: apt-get install steam. It's that easy and like the article says there are many great titles. I highly recommend Faster Than Light.

    Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

    Could we please stop this shit? Please?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by armanox · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's equally easy on Fedora (I think you need to enable RPMFusion first) - 'yum install steam' and you're good to go.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    2. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by waspleg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      it's not just likely, they already have a bunch of companies releasing stuff in November.

      There is also a Steam community group where they post announcements, with a DIY section. It's also meant as a console/htpc replacement not as a desktop replacement.

      If and when it's stable/good enough I might eventually actually be able to run Linux as my primary desktop with some SteamOS packages on the side (Windows 7 Ultimate at home, because I'm a gamer). I'm glad they chose Debian instead of Ubuntu in the end because that's not what they said they were going to do early on.

      However the assholes spamming every game thread with "When will there be a Linux version" then often being very snarky, rude and arrogant about it aren't helping the cause much.

    3. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by quantaman · · Score: 2

      Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

      Could we please stop this shit? Please?

      This is the one time it might actually apply (though maybe it was properly 2014). Two years ago major game being ported to Linux were virtually non-existent. Now 20% of the games from the largest game store on the Internet are suddenly available and generally functional.

      For Linux desktop users that exposition of commercial software is completely unprecedented.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    4. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by nine-times · · Score: 2

      Valve likely wants to release SteamOS hardware and is pushing for ports/originals that target that platform.

      Yeah, they announced a bunch of pieces of hardware in the past week or two, and it looks like they're pushing out Steam Boxes in the fall. This means you'll be able to buy a game console that's basically commodity hardware, running Linux and Steam.

      It would only make sense that Steam will try to expand their library of Linux-supported games before the launch.

    5. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by The_Dougster · · Score: 3, Informative

      I recently got it working on Gentoo with the usual fiddling around. A portage overlay makes this pretty painless and there is a decent guide. http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/St... It's just a matter of building appropriate compatibility libs somewhat akin to supporting 32-bit binaries on a 64-bit system. I was impressed enough that I did a little re-partitioning to allocate a couple hundred gig sandbox for Steam to live in. Some of those games are big!

      What's cool is that, for me, linux steam came with the batteries included. I have a fair smattering of games for it that I've already accumulated just as a side-affect of their being cross platform titles.

      --
      Clickety Click ...
    6. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by present_arms · · Score: 2

      I have Steam installed on a pure 64bit Linux distro and I've had no issues so far.

      --
      http://chimpbox.us
  7. Re:Redolent of the past. by RogueyWon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Exclusivity bribes are on the wane even in console gaming land. Modern development costs means that the size of the bribe needed to provide the game's publisher with confidence it can still turn a profit despite locking out part of the market is getting ludicrous. If a developer/publisher expects that a platform will generate enough sales to be worth the porting costs, the general rule these days is that they will do the port.

    Valve is notoriously secretive about its sales figures, but it's increasingly clear that the Steam platform is a direct and significant competitor to Sony's Playstation platforms and, more crucially, Microsoft's Xbox platforms.

    Valve are not in a happy commercial place for so long as they are dependant upon their platform sitting on top of one of their competitors' products. They had a bad scare with the Windows 8 app store (though it turned out to be essentially a false alarm on this occasion). So it's entirely unsurprising that they are encouraging alternatives to Windows.

  8. this is 2015 by stud9920 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tuxracer and xbill don't count as games anymore

  9. GOG.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    GOG.com will get there with almost 1000 games and also a lot of games for the Linux platform! ;-)

    1. Re:GOG.com by The_Dougster · · Score: 2

      Actually DosBOX runs like a champ. I was playing Wing Commander Privateer in a fullscreen DosBOX session a long time ago, and it's been improving ever since. Since GOG mostly runs their stuff from within a DosBOX anyways, all of those titles are de-facto linux titles as well.

      --
      Clickety Click ...
  10. Wasn't it 2013 already? by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wasn't the Year of Games on Linux already in 2013? Why can't we settle with that? That year was the launch of Steam for Linux and the stream of games begun. We don't have to have every single game on the planet to be ported to Linux before we can celebrate.

  11. Wow, that's.... by pastafazou · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....almost a game per user!!!

  12. Wow! A thousand??? by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 2

    Now there's more games than gamers!

    Seriously, yes, I know -- or at least suspect -- there are more than a thousand Linux gamers on Steam out there, but really...when you've got barely 1% of the gaming market, it's a little silly to say 2015 could be the "Year of Linux Gaming." At some point you have to disconnect yourself from wishful thinking and hyperbole and just say "yeah, it's getting better, but it still has a very long way to go."

    --
    In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  13. It has been for me, started with Civ 5 by Maltheus · · Score: 4, Informative

    It started with Civilization 5 last summer. It got me to install Steam. I ended up buying about eight games since. I'd probably buy a lot more games, if more of them supported Linux. We have money too, ya know.

  14. effect on Microsoft. by neghvar1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know numerous people, including me, who hold on to Windows because we are avid gamers of a wide variety of games which are not supported on Linux. If game support became a “killer feature” for Linux, then Microsoft would likely receive a significant reduction in users of their OS and Office suite.

  15. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not going to argue that every one of those games is fantastic, there is certainly a lot of questionable quality in there, but the problem isn't nearly so bad as you make it out to be.

    Steam lists 1001 games that run on Linux and have enough user ratings to give it a score, and 791 of them have good user ratings (defined by 70% or more of user reviews being positive for the title). 168 have mixed reviews (40%-70%). 42 have bad reviews (0%-40%.

  16. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, 1,000 games is a good thing. Sadly, 985 of them suck ass, which makes this a meaningless statistic.

    99% of everything is crap, so your 'statistic' falls right in line with that. Besides taking a cursory glance at the game list shows that there are a lot more than just indie darlings and ancient properties are becoming available. Stuff like Civilization V, Borderlands 2, and the Portal games are on the service and Linux compatible. Heck, Cities: Skylines and Hotline Miami 2 were released just yesterday.

    So, yeah, there's a lot of crap on the service, but there's a decent number of reasonably good games coming to Linux, too. You might have to work a little harder to find the good stuff, but so what? The fact that companies are starting to see Steam on Linux as a viable platform to even attempt to bring games to is definitely a good thing.

  17. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Vintermann · · Score: 2

    Sadly, 985 of them suck ass, which makes this a meaningless statistic.

    No, the statistics are still valuable, unless you make an argument that Windows has a higher percentage of shitty games. Absent any other information, it's reasonable to assume the percentage of awful games are similar on all platforms.

    (But in fact, I think that the existence of more shovelware-friendly middleware on Windows means Windows has a higher percentage of bad games).

    --
    xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  18. Re:% of total sales by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 3, Informative

    You know after posting this I went to steam to check top sellers, in the front page ALL of them support linux. There is even one that supports linux but does not support mac (Dying Light)! The situation improved far faster than I expected...

    Most AAA tittles still don't support linux, I originally thought that the AAA would support linux before the more indie tittles would, supporting multiple platforms require a lot more QA and I thought the AAA would be the only ones with enough money and time to do it.

  19. Re:Probably not subsidizing... by DamnOregonian · · Score: 2

    In a way, it does make it easy to get your game running on multiple platforms. The base dependencies for Steam are also basic middleware installed on virtually every Linux machine, and Steam ensures that it is there. SDL/OpenGL are easier to use than DirectX (IMO, I concede), and making sure that Steam enforces the dependencies across multiple flavors of platforms does in fact overcome the most difficult aspect of Linux development- dealing with the nightmare of different ways or slight variations in the details for pulling in dependencies on different platforms.

    Need the 32-bit version of of the Pulseaudio libraries, but you refuse to install that stuff on your machine? Don't worry, Steam has you covered.
    Steam is, in essence, a portion of the middleware, a compatibility layer, to a point.

  20. Think of the children by rwa2 · · Score: 2

    Ironically, I finally gave up running Linux on my main home machine about a decade ago so I could play Left4Dead, which was one of the first "big" Valve titles ported to Linux. Now I'm sorta addicted to World of Tanks, which works under Linux with wine/PlaysOnLinux but isn't a very good experience.

    I have 2 kids, though, and I'm not going to buy them each a Windows gaming PC, so I set them up with a multiseat Linux box for their minecraft:
    http://trumblings.blogspot.com...

    Steam works pretty well, so my son has started playing other stuff... TF2, War Thunder, and I think I'll gift him my extra copy of Portal 2 and Goat Simulator.

    So yeah, maybe still have one Windows PC as the gaming box for the "Windows exclusive" titles, but Steam on Linux will certainly open a broader market for them for secondary / multiplayer LAN setups.