New Online Game Distribution Client Coming To Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New Online Game Distribution Client Coming To Linux

IndieCity, a software client similar to Valve's Steam and Desura, will soon be making its way to Linux boxes...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTI0MDM

[schmidtbag]

while i appreciate their efforts and interest in independent gaming, I don't think this project idea is worth their time. Even desura doesn't seem to get much attention and it strives to have pretty much the same goal. The sad thing is it seems like for every 5 commercial linux games released, there's another download manager (or package manager) released too. I know these online marketplaces are popular but unless indiecity has some really compelling feature that nobody else has, I don't see this project being a success.

[Shahrizai]

Don't forget, they already survive on Windows where Desura and Steam are also available.
If they come to Linux, then they will be available for a larger audience, where quite many are Inidie-fans (because earlier, we simply didn't have many other options (disregarding Wine ofc)).

Think of it this way: If they release a Linux Client and include all the Linux-friendly Indie games that are being made, their marginal cost (the extra cost of one extra individual downloading the game from their client) is close to 0. In other words, they will only earn money on it. You don't see the project as a success? I see it as a huge success!


Not to mention the triumph for Linux in general; If Windows have it? Why shouldn't we have it too?

[mattmatteh]

if games start to support linux more who would be maintaining the games for linux ? i am very interested in steam coming to linux but concerned that i would go to play a game one day to find out some lib is changed or something is not supported anymore.

[shmerl]

I'm not sure what is the point of any "clients" as far as they just sell DRM free games. If it's going to be DRMed - there is no point at all for sure.

[F i L]

if games start to support linux more who would be maintaining the games for linux ? i am very interested in steam coming to linux but concerned that i would go to play a game one day to find out some lib is changed or something is not supported anymore.

That isn't a Linux specific problem... it's true, libraries on Linux might be faster-moving targets (with 6 mount/rolling-release cycles of most Linux distros) compared to Windows/Mac, but it's the same balance of work/profit that goes into any commercial software. If a game on Linux isn't making enough money, it's not worth the developers time to maintain it. Games can always distribute their own versions of libraries that become overly difficult to link against (which is often what happens on Windows anyways), in fact, that will probably happen quite a bit.

[elanthis]

I'm not sure what is the point of any "clients" as far as they just sell DRM free games. If it's going to be DRMed - there is no point at all for sure.

It's all about marking and discovery.

The reason people sell on iOS and Steam despite the steep fees is simply because selling to 5,000,000 people and letting the distributor take a 30% cut is a hell of a lot more profitable than selling to 100,000 users and keeping every penny of the sales. That's why Steam sales are so incredibly popular even with the developers/publishers: much higher volumes of sales more than make up for the reduction in per-sale profits. Likewise, being on a third-tier distribution platform like IndieCity is a lot more profitable than being on a personal website that even less people will ever hear about.

Advertising is so pervasive and seated in our culture simply because it really is just that powerful. A run of the mill ad can increase profits by very drastic amounts, despite how annoying ads are to most of us. Even if the ad isn't trying to actually sell something directly, like how the i7 CPU is advertised on TVs (or even Qualcomm Snapdragon now, interestingly) because that increases the number of people who choose to buy an i7 laptop or desktop from a PC manufacturer (who are Intel's actual customers) rather than one with an AMD CPU. People buy what they know a lot more than they buy what they actually reason is the best, and advertising makes sure people know your product or service exists. Being on a game distribution client is a very effective form of advertising to the PC gaming community. That's critical.

Sure, as you point out, getting your game on Desura or IndieCity is almost pointless compared to being on Steam, since they'll net you a very small potential userbase compared to the bigger app stores. It's ideal to be on _both_ the big and small portals, of course, since that nets you the largest potential market. If you're only going to be on one or the other distribution platform, the big app stores are far and away the better options, naturally. However, if you're going to be a hipster indie no-DRM advocate about your game, it's a lot better to be on Desure or IndieCity than to be on nothing at all.

[schmidtbag]

if games start to support linux more who would be maintaining the games for linux ? i am very interested in steam coming to linux but concerned that i would go to play a game one day to find out some lib is changed or something is not supported anymore.

That isn't much of a possible issue anymore. Games for the 2.4 kernel would often break compatibility with 2.6 and newer but there hasn't been a major kernel change in nearly 10 years. With Linux it's pretty easy to just install a program demands whether your distro has it or not (you can usually just copy the compiled software from another distro).

[shhfyrt]

Hi that's a great post thanks a lot for that.