With Valve On Linux, Has LGP Lost All Relevance?

[float4]

Games have no relevance, hence game companies (any) also have no relevance.

unfortunatly true.
linux/gnu is mostly used for work , u can have a few game here and there but as a
gaming platform its irelevant.

you can learn howto make them by yourself, everething there : compiler / api ,,,, well its enougth

[GreatEmerald]

What little I've seen of Left 4 Dead 2 looked really, really boring to me. (That has nothing to do with the quality of the game, it's just a genre that doesn't appeal to me.) Actually, looking at the Valve Corporation catalog of games, the only one that really interest me are the Portal games. Though I've heard good things about Half Life, so I'll try to keep an open mind about them at least.

(And yes, I realize I'm probably in the minority here, of a group that's already a minority.)

Hmm, I'm actually in pretty much the same boat here. I can't stand watching TF2 and L4Ds, they bore me to no end. And I can't even tell why. I usually don't get bored while watching any other games, and I like FPS games. The only other game that bores me like that is League of Legends... And yes, Portal and Half Life sound interesting to me as well.

[gbudny]

That's odd, they accepted postal 3 but not 2?

Yes.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/10220/

[KameZero]

There are other problems with Steam for Linux:

"And no, Valve will not let us release Postal 2 on Steam, sadly."

http://www.desura.com/games/postal-2...k-be-on-desura

That's odd, they accepted postal 3 but not 2?

[gbudny]

So titles where LGP did the Linux version will likely not be SteamPlay titles if they appear on Steam at all.

There are other problems with Steam for Linux:

"And no, Valve will not let us release Postal 2 on Steam, sadly."

http://www.desura.com/games/postal-2/forum/thread/will-rest-of-fudge-pack-be-on-desura

[Kristian Joensen]

To compare LGP and Ryan Gordon, think of it like this, LGP is paying for the privilege of doing Linux ports for companies while Ryan Gordon is being payed by companies to port their games to Linux and/or Mac OSX. That is a huge difference right there.

[gbudny]

They can't offer them for free to those that already have the Windows and/or Mac OSX titles.

"palu says:
August 10, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Would you consider SELLING installers for the windows versions of the games LGP supports?

The idea would be that the installer was a little cheaper for the end user (which would be why they’d bother buying the installer). It would include LGP’s DRM and be download only (and since you aren’t transferring the gigabytes of data or printing disks/manuals or mailing things across the world the distribution cost would be pretty low and including the DRM would prevent pirating).

SELLING installers might be a way to expand LGP’s market to cheap dual-booters. They might not be willing to pay ?30 for the Linux port of X2 that they already own for windows, but they MIGHT be willing to pay ?15 for an installer.

I’m only asking because reading this blog post brought up the idea, not because i have some collection of windows versions of LGP supported games (which i don’t).

Reply
Michael Simms (CEO and head of Development) says:
August 11, 2009 at 3:33 am
That isn’t a terrible idea, actually. I will have a chat with some people and get some legal interpretation on some of our contracts, and see how it fits in with the Windows EULA of games, and maybe, just maybe, you may have hit on something there.

No promises, but I do kindof like the idea! I do think it may end up being a legal quagmire to do it without breaking the games EULA which will usually say no modifying. But we’ll see!"

http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/08/09/why-you-wont-get-a-linu-installer-for-the-windows-version/

[Kristian Joensen]

The problem for LGP is their business model of licensing games to publish. LGP as a publisher can very well be hurt by Steam entering the market, as a Valve is in effect the publisher of games there. LGP is in both the porting and publishing business. They fused them together whereas Ryan Gordon only does the porting for others as a contractor. If Valve will be offering SteamPlay for Linux titles LGP won't be able to compete because they will have to charge a second time for the Linux ports they publish. They can't offer them for free to those that already have the Windows and/or Mac OSX titles. So titles where LGP did the Linux version will likely not be SteamPlay titles if they appear on Steam at all.

[rustybroomhandle]

This article is a lame desperate attempt at being controversial. Valve will be porting Valve games, that's it. The existence of one developer does not render other developers irrelevant.

Michael, stop posting crap. This site used to post frequent useful technical articles, and while I am sure that does not get you as many ad clicks, this article is junk.

[gilboa]

I wish LGP got to port newer X3 titles.

I pledge 100$ for either X3AP or X-rebirth (heck, I'm willing to pledge 200$ for both).

Heck, if I wasn't busy maintaining an existing startup, I'd consider starting a kick-start project to port Egosoft titles.... *

- Gilboa
* On the other hand, my OpenGL skills are, err, lacking.