Blizzard Entertainment Planning A Linux Game For 2013

[Hamish Wilson]

Anyway, I see your points. However, I still don't see them as reasons to why I would be annoyed by devs making statements that they will make a native Linux game targeted for Ubuntu

Mostly just because of the Ubuntu label applied - if they just said they would only offer officially offer support for X distro/distros it may actually be different, but by doing this they attach the "one distro to rule them all" baggage that a lot of Ubuntu fans used to proclaim (although I admit that has died down quite a bit in the last few years). Plus it adds to fears of Unity integration and USC only distribution (if these two did not exist there probably would be a lot less fear). And technically there is no reason for it - there are set binary standards they can adhere to that have worked for almost fifteen years.

Oh, Desura recently came... now Steam is coming. Unigine Engine ... Unity 4.0 ... Nvidia finally starting to push out proper drivers. Not to mention all the articles that are gaming-related here on Phoronix. Obviously, SOMETHING has started just recently, or at least picked up a substantial pace

Oh, Quake 3 recently came... now Doom 3 is coming, Unreal Engine 2, LGP, ATI and Nvida are investing in new drivers... (welcome to 2003)

Still, no, I am not blind when it comes to seeing that some things are gaining certain momentum. But this did not just start recently, I have been gaming on Linux for years including with commercial titles, and as someone who has watched this community grow and even tried to help in my modest little way, it does bother me that some people feel they can just write that all off now that we are gaining something new.

[Shahrizai]

Oh, sorry, did I say "money"? Hmm, yes I did... Well, I meant "resources" .. :P

Anyway, I see your points. However, I still don't see them as reasons to why I would be annoyed by devs making statements that they will make a native Linux game targeted for Ubuntu

And yes, of course you are right, this is not the start of Linux gaming, that started ages ago (Must never forget Tux Cart). But please, you know what I mean ... oh, you don't?
Oh, Desura recently came... now Steam is coming. Unigine Engine ... Unity 4.0 ... Nvidia finally starting to push out proper drivers. Not to mention all the articles that are gaming-related here on Phoronix.
Obviously, SOMETHING has started just recently, or at least picked up a substantial pace

[Hamish Wilson]

I really don't see the problem here. I would MUCH RATHER have "Supported on Windows/Mac/Ubuntu" than "Supported on Windows/Mac".
Besides, the gaming on Linux have JUST started! And they have to start somewhere...!?
Starting with Ubuntu ... which have a large userbase, lots of distros based on Ubuntu, and a company with money in their back... it is a natural choice to start with Ubuntu.
And I find it extremely weird that I would see a complaint about announcements about games coming to Linux. Shouldn't we be happy about that? I certainly am.

We are happy about that, but this is not the start of gaming on Linux and the problem here is that Blizzard is buying into a delusion which has been dismissed for well over a decade. Other gaming companies have been supporting Linux for years without resorting to these half-measures, and they have a lot less resources than Blizzard does. Look into the history of Linux gaming and you will see it is not technical problems such as their being multiple distros or this idea that free drivers are somehow going to prevent people from playing their games (not directed at you), it is in fact our relative lack of buying power. Please, look into the history of Linux gaming and you will see that Blizzard is being just as ignorant about this as you are (and please do not take that as an insult).

Also, the fact you described Canonical as a company with money, considering their major problem is their inability to make a profit...

[Shahrizai]

So they will port an already released game? Fine.


It's getting tiresome to read this with every major announcement of a Linux port. :/

I really don't see the problem here. I would MUCH RATHER have "Supported on Windows/Mac/Ubuntu" than "Supported on Windows/Mac".
Besides, the gaming on Linux have JUST started! And they have to start somewhere...!?
Starting with Ubuntu ... which have a large userbase, lots of distros based on Ubuntu, and a company with money in their back... it is a natural choice to start with Ubuntu.
And I find it extremely weird that I would see a complaint about announcements about games coming to Linux. Shouldn't we be happy about that? I certainly am.

AND if Blizz really does release WoW for Linux (Ubuntu), I might just start playing it. Simply to throw some money in their faces, no other reason
And I would do it with a smile

[crazycheese]

And NVIDIA is what you should pick if you want Open Source drivers to catch up.

No. You should send bugs about opensource driver problems, send donations or send hardware.

Because, if you want Africa to catch up, you don't buy Japanese products, you buy African products to stimulate the economy.

The time poll comes and 90% of users have nvidia claiming "help opensource, buy nvidia", opensource will be completely ignored further on.

Your phrase is like "kill for peace", I don't get it.

[Ishayu]

it's not like packages for every distro under the sun aren't going to be made available by the community in under a week anyway.

Indeed. They're even managing it with Steam which is rather difficult at the moment, but Blizzard games are very portable. You can move them around your Windows or OS X directories at will and it still works just fine. Just tarball the darn thing and turn it into whichever package format you like in seconds.

[kazetsukai]

Speaking for myself, I choose nvidia because it works.

And NVIDIA is what you should pick if you want Open Source drivers to catch up. If developers code against standard OpenGL 3/4 instructions on the feature-complete NVIDIA driver, lack of that support becomes bugs on all other drivers in the ecosystem.

Developers should code for the highest common denominator in this case so that the lack of GPU features become prioritized bugs in Open Source driver development.

OTOH, NVIDIA should be more of a community member and participate in nouveau driver development. They could could greatly help by providing documentation on power states/ clock frequency adjustment and other basic, low level initialization. If NVIDIA would commit to bringing Nouveau to feature-complete power management and 2D acceleration for each generation I'd imagine the community would respond a little better to them.

[blackout23]

Wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard just release SC2, Diablo 3, and WoW on Linux at the same time since Sam Latinga (creator of SDL) was directly involved in developing most of their game engines wouldn't be a stretch to think they have Linux native clients of those three games. Most likely Warcraft 3 would be the only one left out.

I'd love to see that not for myself but it would be a pretty cool contribution to the Linux World.

[DMJC]

Wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard just release SC2, Diablo 3, and WoW on Linux at the same time since Sam Latinga (creator of SDL) was directly involved in developing most of their game engines wouldn't be a stretch to think they have Linux native clients of those three games. Most likely Warcraft 3 would be the only one left out.

[twelvedogs]

who cares if companies target ubuntu?

it's not like packages for every distro under the sun aren't going to be made available by the community in under a week anyway.