12 ms·
I feel for the Mac users in spirit: Linux users have often received the same answer ("There aren't enough Linux buyers of this game to justify the development/s
by AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
I feel for the Mac users in spirit: Linux users have often received the same answer ("There aren't enough Linux buyers of this game to justify the development/support costs of porting."). OTOH, Counter-Strike 2 actually has a native Linux build even without Proton, so, this particular title isn't a problem for us.
- HansHamster 3y agoIt would be weird for Valve not to support Linux, given that the Steam Deck runs it. They could of course use Proton to run it, but AFAIR (most of(?)) the previous CS versions also had native Linux support. (Not sure about Mac support in the previous releases?)
- milesvp 3y agoIt would also be weird to me for them to not have linux ports of their engines after blogging about the performance and bug squashing benefits of doing so for previous game engines.
- Matheus_17 3y agoI would be interested to read about that, could you post the source on it?
- milesvp 3y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4327908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4327908 This is one of the threads I remember reading about this. The blog seems to be offline, but you might find some luck with the wayback machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20190323200813/http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190323200813/http://blogs.valv... In any event, around this time they found a lot of optimizations porting to linux that they then back ported to the windows client. This was 10 years ago, so the zeitgeist in the company may have changed, but I've certainly taken to heart the idea that you should be cross compiling to at least one different target whenever you can to improve your engineering. The earlier you start the cheaper the cost of doing so as well. (This isn't the only company doing so at the time talking about gains of cross compilation either, and not just games)
- mustacheemperor 3y agoThere was a Mac version of CS:GO, so because that game has been replaced by CS2, anybody playing it last month has lost it now.
- danjoredd 3y agoNormally I am on Valve's side, but I agree that them pulling CS:GO was a stupid move. Anyone else would have been torn a new one for doing that. Even though its not as popular as the others, I just stick to CS:Source and CS:1.6. Can't beat the classics, and they have been around for so long that they aren't going to be taken away at any point.
- RockRobotRock 3y agoIsn't that kind of messed up? CS:GO used to cost money, some users paid for something they can't play anymore.
- Fornax96 3y agoThis happens all the time. I used to be able to play Rocket League natively on my Linux PC. Then Epic bought it and simply pressed delete on the Linux port.
- lights0123 3y agoAnd offered full refunds for those users, even if they had bought it five years prior.
- Fornax96 3y agoI don't see the game in my library anymore, so I guess I ended up doing that.
- porkbeer 3y agoSame happened with facepunches Rust
- 3y ago
- charcircuit 3y agoHalf Life Alyx didn't support Linux on release and I had to play it via proton
- KennyBlanken 3y agoThe only reason Linux now sees support is because it tied in with Valve's desire for a handheld console and them wanting to rattle MS's cage a bit by showing how much better games ran on Linux. It worked; MS has devoted more effort in recent years to fixing gaming issues. The number of Steam Decks pales in comparison to the number of Macs, which now represent 30% market share of desktops, while linux is still stuck around 3%.
- dinkblam 3y agoApple does not have a market share of 30% of desktops. Even it it had, what matters here is actual number of players. Steam stats come in at Windows 96.94% Linux 1.63% macOS 1.43% [1]. So when they say excluded platforms account for 1%, they are right, barring rounding errors. [1]: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
- zymhan 3y agoSteam stats won't account for users who don't install Steam because there are no games they can run.
- mcpackieh 3y agoValve is more concerned with meeting games were they are, not where they hypothetically could be. In the case of Linux (more gamers on Linux than Macs, although it's close), Valve has additional reason to care because they view Linux as insurance against anti-competitive behavior from Microsoft. Clearly they don't feel the same way about Macs (makes sense, because their Windows customers could more readily switch to Linux than Macs). So if gamers are already acquiring Windows/Linux machines to play games, why should Valve waste their resources trying to bring about a hypothetical reality where gamers choose to buy Macs instead? It's not Valve's responsibility to engage in pro-Mac activism. It would be weird if they were doing so.
- KerrAvon 3y ago
- opyate 3y agoAnd now this, getting charged $60 for a remaster. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/26/resident-evil-4-iphone-price/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/26/resident-evil-4-iphone-...
- surgical_fire 3y agoHere's to hoping that with gaming on Linux gaining prominence (thanks in no small part to Wine/Proton and Steam Deck), Linux overcomes Windows as the go-to OS for gaming.
- pjmlp 3y agoNever going to happen, after all Proton emulates Windows.
- beebeepka 3y agoProton Is Not an Emulator
- CelticBard 3y agoPINE
- xethos 3y agoAnd Windows 10 can emulate the Super Nintendo. But multiple consoles are not as cheap as the Windows box you already have, more annoying to setup or stow, and don't have some little QoL addons, like freezing the game. What you're emulating is irrelevant. What matters is which provides a better experience to you, the end user. One choice is actively being worked on, while the other (despite under-the-hood perf. improvements IIRC) seems to garner more loathing and disdain with each release.
- dartharva 3y agoDoesn't Counter Strike 2 have major performance issues on Linux? There exists a huge outcry of it not being playable on the Steam Deck.
- f1refly 3y agoPerformance is about equal to the windows build, the problem is most likely that steam deck hardware is not sufficient to play counter strike 2
- sevagh 3y agoMac users are voluntarily in the walled garden of a _trillion dollar company_, it's a bit different from Linux.
- ankurdhama 3y agoCare to explain your definition of "walled garden"?
- AdmiralAsshat 3y agoAre you suggesting that they are more or less deserving of sympathy?
- sevagh 3y agoMuch less, much much less. Imagine paying $4,999 USD for a device from a company with $2.8T market cap and blaming anybody except Apple for the drawbacks of your platform.
- xcv123 3y ago> Imagine paying $4,999 USD for a device from a company A high spec Mac Mini is $1299 USD (10 core CPU, 16 core GPU, 16 GB). Anyone paying $4,999 for a Mac Studio/Pro is doing media creation for work and doesn't give a fuck about games or will have a separate console/PC for that. Those are workstations, not for gaming.
- TheRealDunkirk 3y agoBut that's the trouble: there's more than enough hardware in a Studio to game with. Saying that people who need a "media" computer don't care about games is silly. I used to run $5,000 PC's for CAD/FEA, and you better believe I ran games on it after hours. I've had high-end Mac laptops for software development work for 10 years now. I keep buying the ones with GPU's. They ALL suck for gaming. Not for lack of hardware! My $4,000 Intel MBP with a Vega 20 runs Elder Scrolls Online (NOT a demanding game) at 720p and 30 FPS. It runs BETTER if I force it to use the internal Intel "GPU". So I bought a $700 PC which runs the game at 4K, "high" settings, and an unwavering 60FPS. A friend just bought an M2 Studio. It manages to run the game at 4K, but < 30 FPS. On the fastest computer in the world, currently! I have another friend who boots Windows on a cheese grater Mac Pro to play World of Tanks. Lots of people WANT to play games on Macs, but wind up moving back to Windows. IMO, this terrible situation is on Apple. They have the resources to fix this ecosystem, and buy a seat at the table, the same way Microsoft has, at so many tables.
- AussieWog93 3y agoI've released software on Linux. The biggest problem isn't the small market share (3% of desktop users is still a decent chunk of customers), but the lack of standards and fragmentation making good QA basically impossible.
- porkbeer 3y agoSteam solves this by picking a distro or 2 to officially support, and the other users quickly adapt.
- struant 3y agoBecause it isn't really 3%. It is 300 distros with 0.01% each, and the fragmentation keeps getting worse.
- rvz 3y agoThis is the factual reality of the matter. 300+ distros to test and you can't support them 100% of the time like you can with Windows or macOS and give a guarantee to your customers that it works on your OS. Unfortunately, the Linux fans continue to ignore the worsening fragmentation issues.
- piperswe 3y agoSteam includes the Steam Runtime, a container-like environment that provides a single target for Linux game developers. In fact, it's commonly used by NixOS users to run proprietary software that wasn't built for NixOS.
- NekkoDroid 3y agoOther than the Steam Runtimes there is also Flatpak as a container-like environment to target if you want a stable environment that is shared accross distros if you aren't specifically making a game that is published on Steam
- mcpackieh 3y ago