Steam's Linux Efforts Were Influential To Microsoft, Other Companies

[Adriano ML]

Steam is just a digital store. People don't really care that much about it. It doesn't offer anything more than an easy way to buy games. It's a glorified Google Play.

If it was just a glorified digital store it would not be as popular, or already be overtaken by its competitors.

Steam solved SO MANY problems in pc gaming it's not even funny. Patching games, installing games, making sure you have all dependencies, finding game servers, inviting friends and so on used to suck. Steam made iterating trough patches much faster, it also allows for testing specific branches the developer may want to keep from the wide public.

They also added many useful features like a forum for each game, a screenshot system that works THE SAME WAY regardless of game. You get to easily share then with friends and so on.

Steam does have it's share of problems or functionality that haven't been improved for a long time, but nobody else has been able to do it better while keeping compatibility with traditional pc games that don't have a strong and unified API tied to then, like MS is trying with their windows store games. It's easier to start with a clean slate like MS is doing, and they still manage to fail.

As long as people care about their back-catalog (something Steam has pioneered, they don't care if a game was released on steam 12 years ago, it will work, unlike consoles or even how pc gaming used to be) people will keep using steam.

[starshipeleven]

What Valve was able to show is that PC gamers won't move to Linux. I don't think Microsoft would do anything crazy on Windows, but if they did, and somehow Valve's Steam monopoly was threatened on that platform, PC gamers won't just get up and go to Linux. They would drop Steam like a bad habit and buy their games from whatever MS was offering.

Steam is just a digital store. People don't really care that much about it. It doesn't offer anything more than an easy way to buy games. It's a glorified Google Play.

Yeah right. People would drop Steam and the hundreds of games they bought with it like a bad habit (note that games you "purchase" on steam aren't really "bought" nor "yours", they don't work without Steam. Gabe wasn't an idiot). Yeah right. I totally see that happening.

For gamers on Steam the only thing they ask to the OS is performance (all else is dealt with by Steam, see other posts), if Linux get better performance than Windows they will just migrate, period.

[cj.wijtmans]

A lot of gamers won't switch to linux gaming simply because legacy applications/games they would lose. One great thing that would help the cause would be wine support for DX11/DX12 being good. I am still hopeful Vulkan could help in this regard.

Unfortunately WINE wont cut it. Its nice to set up for people who are "decent at computers". Not so much for the average person is it?

[pal666]

Valve's Steam monopoly

are you on drugs? there are companies selling games for windows without steam who have larger revenue than valve

[pal666]

That's not going to happen. There is no momentum behind Linux gaming.

the only kind of momentum which matters is availability of games. and you have to be blind to not see this momentum

[cj.wijtmans]

If it was just a glorified digital store it would not be as popular, or already be overtaken by its competitors.

Steam solved SO MANY problems in pc gaming it's not even funny. Patching games, installing games, making sure you have all dependencies, finding game servers, inviting friends and so on used to suck. Steam made iterating trough patches much faster, it also allows for testing specific branches the developer may want to keep from the wide public.

They also added many useful features like a forum for each game, a screenshot system that works THE SAME WAY regardless of game. You get to easily share then with friends and so on.

Steam does have it's share of problems or functionality that haven't been improved for a long time, but nobody else has been able to do it better while keeping compatibility with traditional pc games that don't have a strong and unified API tied to then, like MS is trying with their windows store games. It's easier to start with a clean slate like MS is doing, and they still manage to fail.

As long as people care about their back-catalog (something Steam has pioneered, they don't care if a game was released on steam 12 years ago, it will work, unlike consoles or even how pc gaming used to be) people will keep using steam.

True, steam is literally a package manager. You can even select if you want the beta or release repo of a game.
MS did not learn from GFWL.

[pal666]

I see there's *TOO MUCH* on-purporse fails for a big but efficient corporation like Valve is supposed to be (is it?)

i see there's *TOO MUCH* people with tinfoil hats

[pal666]

so what now? are they still commited to Linux?

yes, they are

[icewater]

"Any day now..."

I'm not sure how this comment relates to what you quoted. The quote looks accurate to me.

To me, "early days" does not imply "*This* is the year of the Linux gaming system!" in market-share terms. It's more about having functional alternatives.

There are top-tier Linux desk/laptop environments now that offer a functional (and IMO superior) alternative to the closed commercial offerings for those who want them.

Similarly, Steam's Linux effort has made it possible for people who would not game on a Microsoft machine under any circumstances, like me, to get back into gaming again. That's what we are "in the early days of".

[L_A_G]

"Any day now..."

Do you have dyslexia or something because that's pretty much exactly what I didn't write.