5 ms·

I would say that nowadays is not that difficult to have a game that works on both Windows and Linux. Also, it is a legit thing to point out when and developer

by sweden 8y ago

I would say that nowadays is not that difficult to have a game that works on both Windows and Linux. Also, it is a legit thing to point out when and developer complains about the lack of sales.

bitL 8y ago
Seriously, how many Linux users you know that pay for software? How much would that increase indie's sales? By 2?
- Impossible 8y ago
  I think in OPs case a Linux port could have a non-trivial affect on sales because he's on the front page of hackernews and people that see this post and feel sorry for him will buy his game and not play it because he supports Linux.
- tokai 8y ago
  The humblebundle sales showed clearly that linux users are ready to pay much more for video games than windows users are. I have personally used hundreds of dollars on linux compatible games.
  - Impossible 8y ago
    When was the last time you paid for an indie humble bundle though? I think it proved that for a short moment a very small percentage of users were supporting games at a higher rate than the majority in order to support a cause, but once the novelty wore off they went back to not caring. I just don't think there are enough Linux users out there that are also regular gamers to make Linux support worth it for most titles. Sure there are exceptions especially if you're building a game that disproportionately appeals to that audience (like KSP or Zactronics), but in most cases its not really worth it.
    - tokai 8y ago
      >When was the last time you paid for an indie humble bundle though? Some years ago, but that is explained by a sharp decline in the quality of games included in their offers (which was about the time they dropped ensuring that their bundles were compatible with the three platforms). A better question would be when I last spend money on (game) software for linux. The answer is 28 hours ago. I concur that the market is small. But when your sales are small too, it is not smart to throw away access to a market with a higher proportion of dedicated users and consumers. From the perspective of tech, less time may have been "wasted" on infinitroid if the developer used more off the shelve solutions that would help with multiplatform targeting. In the end we are just basing our arguments on our gut feelings. I doubt very much that Valve would push as hard for gaming on linux as they are doing if they didn't see the potentials of sales for the platform in their data. But time will tell.
meritt 8y ago
There's not a ton of information available on the breakdown of sales by platform, but the data that is out there shows Linux sales usually compromise ~2-4% for cross-platform games [1]. If you get linux support "for free" by utilizing an engine, then absolutely go for it, but even major companies with massively popular games are still skipping out on first-class Linux support [2], due to the low market share. [1] https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-statistics-from-multiple-developers-part-5 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-stat... [2] https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/president-of-blizzard-responds-to-the-linux-petition-petition-owner-creates-childish-response.5080 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/president-of-blizzard...
- seabrookmx 8y ago
  It's also exponentially harder to make a Linux port for a AAA game than for an Indie game, for many reasons. The most obvious ones being that most indie games are made with an off the shelf cross platform engine (Unity, unreal), and that AAA titles require a lot more hardware resources, and optimization of this usage is often platform specific (what helps OpenGL might not help DirectX, etc).

by sweden 8y ago

I would say that nowadays is not that difficult to have a game that works on both Windows and Linux. Also, it is a legit thing to point out when and developer complains about the lack of sales.

bitL 8y ago

Seriously, how many Linux users you know that pay for software? How much would that increase indie's sales? By 2?

Impossible 8y ago
I think in OPs case a Linux port could have a non-trivial affect on sales because he's on the front page of hackernews and people that see this post and feel sorry for him will buy his game and not play it because he supports Linux.
tokai 8y ago
The humblebundle sales showed clearly that linux users are ready to pay much more for video games than windows users are. I have personally used hundreds of dollars on linux compatible games.
- Impossible 8y ago
  When was the last time you paid for an indie humble bundle though? I think it proved that for a short moment a very small percentage of users were supporting games at a higher rate than the majority in order to support a cause, but once the novelty wore off they went back to not caring. I just don't think there are enough Linux users out there that are also regular gamers to make Linux support worth it for most titles. Sure there are exceptions especially if you're building a game that disproportionately appeals to that audience (like KSP or Zactronics), but in most cases its not really worth it.
  - tokai 8y ago
    >When was the last time you paid for an indie humble bundle though? Some years ago, but that is explained by a sharp decline in the quality of games included in their offers (which was about the time they dropped ensuring that their bundles were compatible with the three platforms). A better question would be when I last spend money on (game) software for linux. The answer is 28 hours ago. I concur that the market is small. But when your sales are small too, it is not smart to throw away access to a market with a higher proportion of dedicated users and consumers. From the perspective of tech, less time may have been "wasted" on infinitroid if the developer used more off the shelve solutions that would help with multiplatform targeting. In the end we are just basing our arguments on our gut feelings. I doubt very much that Valve would push as hard for gaming on linux as they are doing if they didn't see the potentials of sales for the platform in their data. But time will tell.

meritt 8y ago

There's not a ton of information available on the breakdown of sales by platform, but the data that is out there shows Linux sales usually compromise ~2-4% for cross-platform games [1]. If you get linux support "for free" by utilizing an engine, then absolutely go for it, but even major companies with massively popular games are still skipping out on first-class Linux support [2], due to the low market share. [1] https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-statistics-from-multiple-developers-part-5 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-stat... [2] https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/president-of-blizzard-responds-to-the-linux-petition-petition-owner-creates-childish-response.5080 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/president-of-blizzard...

seabrookmx 8y ago
It's also exponentially harder to make a Linux port for a AAA game than for an Indie game, for many reasons. The most obvious ones being that most indie games are made with an off the shelf cross platform engine (Unity, unreal), and that AAA titles require a lot more hardware resources, and optimization of this usage is often platform specific (what helps OpenGL might not help DirectX, etc).