Steam VR Marketshare Already Larger Than Steam Linux Marketshare

[pal666]

I only brought two games in the last 10 years. On Steam. Project Cars, and Project Cars 2. Both were promised to have Linux ports.

never buy promises. never buy non-ported(yet) games, it is counter-productive.

[mastercoms]

https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/923316344187006976

https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/923337078699524096

https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/923337423081259010

https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/923611586006102016

https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/923612219799101440

[duby229]

I don't think Valve has any clue what Linux marketshare for gaming really is. Their methods for collecting information via a voluntary survey that can't be voluntarily triggered is exactly the problem. For those of you that know how to collect statistics, you'll know sampling methods here are seriously flawed. If it can't be voluntarily triggered then it cannot be a voluntary survey, statistics would have to be collected from -anyone- at as close to random as possible. If it was a volunteer survey then it would have to made so that end users can trigger it themselves at any time during the survey period.

Really all they are doing right now is collecting from a social subset that most linux users don't fall into.

EDIT: Additionally, gamers are gamers regardless and many of us have giant libraries that we've collected through years. Steam does not require people to purchase a game over again to play it on linux. There would be literally zero point in making people pay twice for the same game. If you want to answer the question about marketshare value then you cannot inquire about what platform a game was purchased on. Instead you have to look at in game time spent, that's the only way to get real actual marketshare values as they currently are.

[microcode]

This is the real reason.

People who buy VR headsets are more likely to spend money on games.
Most games does not have a free VR upgrade, so they need to buy new games. On linux they might already have the game on windows and simply start playing it on Linux instead.

On top of that, there are not that many AAA VR titles with very much content, so you need to buy games more often to actually keep having new gameplay. Sure, Holopoint, The Lab, Job Simulator, Space Pirate and Audio Shield are fun games but if you play either of them in more than 1 hour straight or play them 10 hours total you will be bored and you will need to buy a new game. These 10 hours are often way more fun than traditional games, but due to the lack of content you simply cannot be entertained for as long.

I have spent 100 hours in cities skylines which i bought during a sale, spent 200 hours in Garrys Mod, 90 hours in Oblivion, 70 hours in Skyrim, 100 hours in Counter-Strike 1.6. Out of those games the only game which counted for steam was Cities Skylines, the others I either bought a long time ago or are not available on Linux. I have more games, but most of those are indie games i bought in some bundle or on a sale for less than $10 which doesn't account for neither much playtime nor money to the publishers/developers.

Also, if you buy a headset for $500 it's rather likely that you want to spend a lot of money so you can actually use the thing. The 3 people I know which own a Vive pretty much instantly spent $100 on VR games and have spent even more since, I cannot say the same about the people i know which switched over to Linux.

For what it's worth, paid VR "games" so far appear mostly just a way to sell the tech demos you normally have to release for free or not at all, or just bolted-on VR view features which also amount to a tech demo. They have every right to spend that cash, and developers have every right to seek it, but I'm not impressed yet with the software (the devices and drivers are amazing though!). I'm waiting for full cockpit driving and flying simulators with chair-scale force feedback close enough to the real thing (without breaking your neck when you mess up).

[MagicMyth]

I don't know about anyone else but I would really like it if Valve would simply show what platform each of my games counted for. We would all then be certain that nothing strange is going on. I can't help but wonder if a ton of my Humble Bundle purchases that later got Steam keys show as Windows purchases. It would also allow Valve to actually verify if they are measuring it correctly via the community. Right now it seems whimsical how they do it: "if I purchase on a blue moon and play for 3 days after (but not after midnight) it counts to the Linux god but otherwise the jealous Windows will claim it for itself!". OK I might be muddling the rules up with some movies but its something like that (apparently)

At least GOG will mention during purchase if what I am buying is not available on my platform, demonstrating they are certainly aware what my preferred platform is. Yes I do buy old Windows games DRM free on GOG. They are easy to get going and kept in their own Wine environment and play great over Steam Link. Ironically it is a PITA to do that with Steam.

[theriddick]

I'm waiting for full cockpit driving and flying simulators with chair-scale force feedback close enough to the real thing (without breaking your neck when you mess up).

You do realize those things are available today already, just check out YT for the many videos of people doing it. The thing that will NEVER change is the cost of such devices, sorry to say but that's life. Reliable motor and hydraulic tech will forever be expensive (not talking about cheap steppers on 3d printers here).

If you are serious then I would suggest start saving now. Me personally, I feel VR isn't attractive until 4k OLED or near abouts is a standard! Oh and 110+ POV would be nice, some coming out already do 170 or so.

[L_A_G]

buying games before they are ported leaves porters without payment. always buy after port, buy from linux client and play on linux during first week to assure that sale is accounted as linux one and porters get your money. otherwise everyone will think that linux is too small market (because it is when you pay windows devs only)

In case this is news to you, some of us just haven't been using linux on the desktop for very long or have been dual booting to play games that don't have a Linux version announced or in the works.

Also, if you don't play a game you've bought in a week the sale will be logged as being for the OS you actually used to buy the game.

Me personally, I feel VR isn't attractive until 4k OLED or near abouts is a standard! Oh and 110+ POV would be nice, some coming out already do 170 or so.

Umm... The screens used in VR headsets have already gotten to the point where resolution improvements are literally pointless simply due to the limitations of human eyesight. There's obviously still a lot of improvements that can be made in size, cost, ease of setting up the tracking and getting rid of the wires, but resolution has pretty much been solved. There's some minor improvements that can still be made to screen response time, but image sharpness is a solved issue.

[theriddick]

In case this is news to you, some of us just haven't been using linux on the desktop for very long or have been dual booting to play games that don't have a Linux version announced or in the works.

Also, if you don't play a game you've bought in a week the sale will be logged as being for the OS you actually used to buy the game.



Umm...

What nonsense you speak, sorry but your quite wrong. I have already read and heard from countless people that the VR helmets out atm still have allot of pixelation and screendoor affects. Perhaps your eyes are quite bad so you can't see the difference between 1200p and 2160p. I can assure you, many people CAN!

[L_A_G]

What nonsense you speak, sorry but your quite wrong. I have already read and heard from countless people that the VR helmets out atm still have allot of pixelation and screendoor affects. Perhaps your eyes are quite bad so you can't see the difference between 1200p and 2160p. I can assure you, many people CAN!

There was a lot of talk about screen door effect with the Occulus Rift developer kits (the DK1 was specially bad with it's 640x800 per-eye resolution) and how it needed to be sorted out in the consumer version. The consumer version of it, and the HTC Vive, both use displays that are enough of a leap forward in terms of pixel density to solve the problem. Even the PSVR, which has an even lower per-eye resolution, doesn't suffer from screen door effect.

What you're hearing is really just a combination of outdated information, sour grapes, FUD-induced placebo and just straight up FUD...

[rene]

never buy promises. never buy non-ported(yet) games, it is counter-productive.

yep, fully agree, only wanted to make a point, too – also when I brought them I already assumed we never get to see the Linux port, yet that was the only game I wanted to play anyways, ... I can still pick up my Quake III Linux metal case from the basement for the good warm feeling.