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As of Tonight, 1900 Steam Games For Linux (phoronix.com)
New submitter KGIII writes: "After a recent Steam change, there were more than 1,900 Steam Linux games listed as Valve ended up including yet-to-be-released Linux game ports. That total including unreleased Linux games is now up to 2,009! But in terms of released Linux game titles available for download right now, the 1,900 threshold was crossed tonight to end out February." It's getting there. All of you gamers might just be able to make the choice to move to Linux soon. It looks like there are quite a few more games coming down the pipe. This is a good thing as it gives gamers more options for their operating system. I imagine this bodes well for the SteamOS project and for the dedicated SteamOS devices.
I know several people who dual boot, and only keep Windows around for game playing. The sooner more people can ditch Spyware 10, the better.
(Quickly scans list....) STILL no Half LIfe 3.
*terrible* for many means less FPS on major titles while running three 1080p monitors. In my experience if I would have noticed those FPS then the game probably wasn't running particularly well in windows either.
One thing I have noticed is that load-times in Linux can actually be faster depending on the filesystem used.
Steam carries a lot of good games for linux now but there are still a number of big franchises that haven't made it across. I don't think they will make the move until they move to their next major engine release.
That said I suspect that game developers are going to be watching microsofts movements with their push for a windows store again and won't want to be stuck in windows if microsoft starts putting in over the top requirements.
Dunno why that is the complaint. I play games happily in Linux and don't have a problem with the drivers. Borderlands Pre-sequel runs absolutely fine....
Valve just needs to make HL3 and Portal 3 exclusive for Linux. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I've since migrated to Windows for gaming, but years back I ran World of Warcraft under Wine on Linux, and got far better framerates than I did on Windows. YMMV.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
If you are a gamer that wants to know you'll be able to pick up the Big New Thing on Linux... we aren't there yet. That day may come soon-ish, but we aren't.
But if you are someone who is primarily interested in--or at least sufficiently satisfied by--the wide indie game market, Linux has been there for a little while now. Hungry indie game studios generally build with tools that make building for Linux easy, don't build games that hit driver edge cases, and they are hungry for the money the smaller Linux market provides.
I know one minimally technical gamer who uses Linux exclusively for work and games. He's very satisfied by the indie game market. He's an exception... but he's a sign of times to come.
Balrum, Gloiath, And So It Was, Soul Axiom, and Fairies vs. Darklings: Arcane Edition were among the latest Steam Linux game releases. Meanwhile, the Steam Windows game count is at 7,560 and OS X is at 2,900.
It is not hard to imagine 10,000 Windows games being distributed through Steam in the not too distant future.
But there are at least two numbers that matter more that a simple count of games. The first is sales. The second is the breakdown between casual Indie games and the somewhat more ambitious and demanding AA and AAA titles --- another $3 gem-drop game like "Fairies vs Darklings" takes Linux gaming only so far.
> basically the same performance as on Windows.
This isn't true at all. Windows 10 has been mopping the floor with Linux in terms of game performance - this has been shown again and again with SteamOS. It's also why Vulcan is such a big deal - it has the potential to level the playing field for titles that embrace it.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
If there was tier one games that exclusively used OpenGL then there might be something to compare. Until Vulcan is mature and many experienced big-budget developers deploying for exclusively Vulcan then there will continue to be nothing fair to compare against.
Impressively, X-COM Enemy Unknown not only manages to melt my squad into zombies, but also melt my laptop into slag under linux but not windows with AMD proprietary drivers. Otherwise, I am quite happy with the performance of games on linux. Most seem more than acceptable.
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
I switched to Linux as my main operating system when Windows ME came, and stopped dual-booting around the time Vista came. During the past 8 years without dual-boot, I haven't bought a single new game; just played a few old ones in Wine, and a few open-source ones from time to time. But a couple of months ago I installed the Steam client for Linux, and have so far paid for 22 new games in those two months. So I'm definitely one of those customers that simply wouldn't be using their products if it wasn't for their Linux support. I also have many friends who dual-boot Windows and Linux, but only use their Windows install for gaming; most of them still have a few games keeping them on Windows, but seem ready to move to Linux-only in the near future, and that is mainly thanks to Steam. If one thing is gonna lead to much-predicted "year of Linux on the desktop", I think it's Steam.
Second this. I haven't played games on Linux for years but when I was playing WoW I was typically getting less than 40fps on Windows (DirectX) but >60fps on Linux (OpenGL). Same hardware, it was a dual boot system.
In the short term, and in the long term. People will not switch operating systems just for those games. Most people won't even switch given the current size of the Linux catalog. Get it out of your head right now.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
I often get snooty comments from work colleagues about how I'm playing Triple A, or Double A (or some such arbitrary designation of gaming quality) late. Then when some AAA game comes out on Linux I get comments along the lines of "well you haven't got (insert arbitrary game) on Linux"
I am happy with my game collection (177 of 210 games in my library play natively on Linux) and with quality ports coming from companies like Feral on an increasingly regular basis and newer engines like Unreal 4 (and I assume Source 2) supporting Linux natively things can only get better.
I have more than enough quality games still to play I'm currently playing XCom2 and when I want to take a break from that I'm part way through Alien Isolation, SpecOps: The Line and Metro Last Light. When I finish them I'll have Saints Row 4, ARK: Survival Evolved and I may replay Bioshock Infinite since I've got a better graphics card for XCom. I'm sure by the time I've worked my way through those there will be more games available.
That's impressive. Those 1900 triple Z titles outnumber the amount of Linux users by some margin... ... I'll get my coat :)
Unlikely, unless someone subsidizes steam machines hard. Because a steam machine really costs a TON of money compared to a PS4 or Xbone. Toss in a decade's worth of premium membership (PS+ or Xbox Live Gold) and you'll approach the cost of a decent steam machine.
You have to remember the goal is to have a machine last around 10 years or so for a console (both the PS3 and Xbox360 are around that age), so an equivalent steam machine should last just as long for that price. Unfortunately, the cheap steam machines with their i3 processors and midrange graphics are unlikely to do it. To get something better you have to spend over $1000+. Which is equivalent to a PS4 + 12 years of PS+, or an Xbone + 10 years of Xbox Live.
And even the legendary advantages of Steam are going away - the steam sales aren't all that great, and both Sony and Microsoft are giving away fairly decent games with their premium memberships (I will say Sony is more Indie-oriented, while Microsoft seems to give more mainstream games).
I suppose a question is - what is Valve working on? Given like the last game they released was years ago...
I don't think that's entirely fair - there are some compelling titles available for Linux. I just don't think it's enough - especially for gamers like me that have well over 300 titles in their steam library and don't want to give up 70% of them just to run an OS that will not play the remaining 30% as well as Windows will.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
This is exactly why I run a Linux virtual machine as a guest in my windows box, and I run Linux at work. I realize this isn't a viable solution for everyone, but it works great for me. There are some things Linux just does orders of magnitude better. I just don't think gaming is one of those things. I prefer the right tool for a given job.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
I actually don't think they are targeting the console market. I think they are taking pre-emptive defensive moves against a microsoft led store being bundled with the primary PC OS.
So me this reminds me of the browser wars. Except this time it is where to you buy your software. Back when the browser wars happened and IE was bundled with windows Linux was not a viable option. Today, Linux is, it just doesn't have the market penetration. The software itself though is mature and easy to use. If through pushing linux compatability, 10% of the market share is non-windows, then they will have done enough to ensure their multi-platform market share is valuable enough.