id Software: Linux Hasn't Produced Positive Results

[FreeBooteR69]

I agree with others here. hiding a binary somewhere on your website without much fanfare isn't going to garner much attention. If the average GNU/Linuxer doesn't know it exists, how would they know to buy it? In any case, aren't we kind of over cooked on the whole FPS thing? I'm no great big fan of Steam, but at least if you look up the game on the Steam client, you will see what platforms are available for your game, in a way that isn't obfuscated. People also do still buy games from store shelves, having the DVD with the GNU/Linux binary, as well as the box stating it's available for GNU/Linux as well as Windows will increase visibility for your sales. Really if your not going to put even a minimal amount of effort, how do you expect to sell anything on any platform?

[Xake]

Well, me I bought the latest humble pack only for one thing:
Psychonauts in native Linux...

[nightmarex]

I bought a few of the HIB's, not sure I am going to anymore with steam looming around the corner, not to mention the absolute garbage ports I encountered (had to play limbo via wine lol) . Do these people realize Linux users use x86_64? Actually that bothers the F*** out of me. 32 bit ports and packages for Ubuntu... possibly a rpm or two as well... FU HIB, I don't use those effing distros and I use 64bit.

As for Id I own Q3A and RTCW I tried to get them to run on Linux with crap results (mostly RTCW and it's need for the Windows files lol) . As long as they keep OS'ing their Engines I don't care if they go Windows only, we can rebuild it, make it stronger lol.

[artivision]

I agree to all. Also Linux gamers are the 10% according to a known company (with dual installations), and will be more in the future (Linux is accelerating). Any way ID-tech5 runs bloody fast on Wine, and ID-tech6 will be OpenGL only (voxel-raytracing).

[9a3eedi]

I think id should take another look at Linux now that Steam is out. They can totally monetize their games by porting it to Linux, unlike before, where Linux support was basically unmarketed, and in order to play id games on Linux you'd have to resort to using some wierd utilities coupled with the Windows version of the game.

He also thinks the PC is no longer a prime gaming platform, and all games in the future will be in Virtual Reality, and totally fucked up Rage.

How the mighty have fallen.

Wasn't rage generally considered to be "ok"? Not amazing, but not bad either. Personally, despite the texture popping (which eventually got really reduced), I really liked what they did with the megatexture stuff.

Also, I think Virtual Reality is going to be great. It wasn't so good in the 90s because the technology just wasnt there yet. Now that we have super high resolution retina displays and really thin and portable electronics, I really think it's much more feasible now.

[madjr]

The id way:
1. Sell games with Windows-only executable
2. Put free (as beer) Linux executable on website
3. HOW Linux users could "pay bills"?

agree with this

I for one don't think it would get huge amount of extra sales as most linux users who wanted to play it are already doing so in WINE (it's Gold and works pretty well). So is a bad way to measure success, because lots of linux users are already counted as windows sales...

WineHQ - Rage 1.0 (Gold):

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=24511

But that's the problem, he is focusing on not very reliable immediate figures.

That model has never really worked well for a "platform in development" that is linux.

The most successful models proven to work at this moment are the Humble bundles and kickstarters. They're bringing in by themselves more games than we can handle and thanks to that we have 2 great engines too: Unity and Source (and hopefully we can also get Unreal engine on board).

If the momentum continues even Carmack will bring their games back, heck maybe even offer Rage on Steam for linux too

[bug77]

Gee, could this lukewarm reception have anything to do with the fact that all id games since Quake2 and maybe Quake3, I don't know, sucked? Imho, anything past Quake3 was little more than a tech demo.

[dfx.]

what a shame

Ubuntu Software Center can be as a good demonstration that almost all of the Linux users don't want to pay a cent for software.

indeed, when i pay for a game, i'm paying for its storyline, gameplay & art & sound effects design, direction, voice acting. in short: for its assets, anything but software, thank you very much.
i may be willing to pay for development work or actual software, which comes with sources & ownership included, NOT software licensing/renting.

Linux is not a good platform for developers to make money on. And IDSoftware had to feel it on their skin. Put in a lot of effort to port and have additional expenses for nothing.

yeah, i see that appointing a single guy for [source-code] platform support maintaining job is such a fucking "effort" for a corporation, uhu, riiight.

Gee, could this lukewarm reception have anything to do with the fact that all id games since Quake2 and maybe Quake3, I don't know, sucked? Imho, anything past Quake3 was little more than a tech demo.

you couldn't be more spot on, brother !

__
of course [binary] maintenance for a bunch of GNU/Linux distributions is a tough shit. but that's why you should not even try to sell games as a software. software is the last thing valuable in games.

this is really news of ID's shame. they fucked up big with Rage on Windows and Doom 3 wasn't that good either anywhere. Raven Software managed to make much better games with their tech.
couldn't dumb down their stuff enough for consoles, couldn't manage with Windows video driver fuckery and couldn't bear a game with actual story & standing out gameplay instead of poor tech demo (how the hell it looks worse than Half-Life 2 _and_ runs worse than Battlefield 3 on my hardware, on Windows ⁈) even if their lives depended on it.

now it's not profitable enought ? well, selling stuff is a job for the marketing department. how you market is your own damn problem. Psychonauts is a masterpiece, Spec Ops: The Line is outstanding, Max Payne 3 is not bad, but they all are commercial failures. game does not market itself, assholes.
"It creates goodwill among the Linux crowd, but that is about it."? don't need the goodwill of your fans and customers ? well, fuck you too ! nothing markets a game "better" than indifference, broken promises and failures, yeah !

[e8hffff]

Bad timing on their part as the Linux gaming scene is just starting to move.

Does anyone care about Quake franchise? It was an 80's-90's game that was fun for networking but very limited game for single player. Yeah there was some offshoots that used the engine, like Hexen and other titles, but. Having little to no environmental interaction Quake engines have manly sported good graphics and readily accessible play server software, nothing more.

John Carmack, sorry to say you haven't proved yourself as a good game maker in this new century.

[entropy]

Wow, how tiresome can a keynote get...
I barely made it to 0:50.

Btw, what a cheap guy he is.
At 0:41:00 he shares what a perfect code base they had when Rage shipped and it
was only due to the graphics drivers that spoiled the release for about 50% of the user base.
Somewhere at the beginning he explicitly pointed out AMD.
It took them 6 years to get that rather mediocre game shipping and they obviously
didn't manage to communicate with AMD early enough and then passing the buck?
It works for the Valve Linux team...