There's Now More Than 1,100 Games On Steam For Linux

[sarmad]

Considering PS4 and XB1 launched with only few dozens of games, even with so little AAA titles Steam Machines are launching with far more titles and probably even more AAA titles. So, I would say the Linux market has a very good opportunity of picking up once Steam Machines arrive.

I am hoping for some Ubisoft and Kojima games. Assassins Creed and Metal Gear Solid would be great.

[curaga]

@smitty3268

They are not changing the soname with GCC 5 libstdc++.

[carewolf]

Do you have proof about this, or are you just wildly accusing people of crap you don't understand here?

libstdc++ is VERSIONED, which means that unless they are doing something stupid (and i haven't looked into it, so tell me if they are) all old binary applications should still work perfectly fine. Because they'll link to the old version (.so.1) while new apps compiled with the new libs will link to the new version (.so.2)

From the discussions here it sounds like Arch are. Though in all likelihood they just shipped it too soon and ran head first into these issues before they were all sorted out. Wouldn't be the first time Arch broken everything by being just a little too eager to adopt new versions of something.

[emblemparade]

Right now, most distros are in the process of f*cking up libstdc++ backwards compatibility. You know, because GCC developers couldn't find a better way to introduce the new features of GCC 5.1. Isn't it amazing when the developers of core Linux userspace components (glibc and libstdc++) don't give a damn about compatibility.

This should not be a problem: for the most part, Steam game packages come with their own versions of libraries that are known to work, and use current-path linking to use those instead of the ones provided by the system. (This, of course, is not the "Linux way" usually, in which operating systems make sure the whole distribution does not duplicate libraries, but Steam is a deployment system on top of the base operating system, and with an entirely different set of requirements.)

Of course "should" doesn't mean that they all actually do this. I'm sure there will be growing pains as devs learn to deploy better on Linux. Part of the excellent goal of having SteamOS is that devs can target that particular OS as a reference platform instead of testing on a hundred free operating systems, and then it would be up to the distro managers to make sure they comply with that reference platform. This is a brilliant move that is an important contribution to Linux game development. Even if SteamOS doesn't get used by users much directly, it is incredibly valuable to the dev process.

By the way, the problem of incompatible library versions has plagued Steam games on Windows, too. That's the main reason why many Steam games install their own versions of the Visual C++ runtime, DirectX, etc. Packaging for Linux should follow suit.

* I am speaking from personal knowledge: I develop games with Linux as my primary platform, and I always include my custom built libraries to avoid any kind of conflict with the base operating system.

[eidolon]

Yeah, right, it's because just a year after its release Steam is already largely incompatible (!!!) with modern Linux distros.

Valve would probably reply to most problems encountered on other distributions with something along the lines of only Ubuntu and the upcoming SteamOS are officially supported.

On GOG there are now almost 250 Games for Linux available. And all of them are DRM-free!

A smaller catalog of games for Linux when compared to the number of games for Linux available from Steam, Desura and GamersGate, although GOG maintains a smaller games catalog overall regardless of the operating system. Only Ubuntu and Linux Mint are officially supported by GOG, although the majority of Linux-supported titles on GOG are provided as distro-independent tar.gz archives (in addition to .deb packages). I prefer the way GOG handles bundles when you already own one or more of the bundled games.

I'm waiting for Shadow Warrior on GOG to be available for Linux; the Shadow Warrior page on Steam needs to be updated to reflect that it is now available for Linux, although it is mentioned in the announcements.

I bet they forgot to update their article as 95% of their 12.04 users already switched to 14.04 or more, and Steam keeps working well for them

That should be updated to include Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, "Updated the steam-runtime for Ubuntu 14.04 compatibility".

What game(s) are you hoping to see on Linux next?

Oh, I don't know, how about Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2: Episode Three? Hopefully Valve isn't distracted developing a smartwatch instead of working on the next Half-Life installment.

How many Steam Linux games do you own?

68, but some of those were acquired prior to their availability on Steam for Linux, and that number also includes games purchased elsewhere (e.g. Humble Bundle, Inc) that have been redeemed on Steam.

Realistically, how high do you think the reported Linux gaming marketshare will rise once SteamOS is stable and Steam Machines hit the retail channels?

Given what is known at this time, I think Linux's Steam market share has a chance of hitting 5-8% in the next 2.5-3 years. I do not think Steam Machines in their current form will necessarily be the driving force behind this growth (though they will be part of it), and I don't expect Steam Machines in their current form to amount to much (I do think there will be some initial hype in November, but that the hype will begin to wane in the first quarter to first half of 2016); however, if Valve adapts its approach, Steam Machines might go on to have a palpable impact in subsequent iterations. If there is a major announcement in the near future, obviously this assessment could completely change. Dropping a bombshell certainly wouldn't be uncharacteristic for Valve.

In terms of Linux gaming market share beyond Steam, I won't hazard a guess.

[rikkinho]

hm

the problem with linux gaming today is the garbage amd drivers, ppl with amd have a nightmare experience with steam linux, running dota 2 or cs go with amd is horrible, with intel or nvidia no big difference from windows

[chimpy]

I wonder how long until Linux overtakes OSX in both number of games and number of users. Maybe end of next year?

[eidolon]

Realistically, how high do you think the reported Linux gaming marketshare will rise once SteamOS is stable and Steam Machines hit the retail channels?

Given what is known at this time, I think Linux's Steam market share has a chance of hitting 5-8% in the next 2.5-3 years.

Short of releasing any major Linux exclusives (which Valve has stated it won't do*, and which other heavyweight development companies are also unlikely to do), if Valve makes alterations to how it conducts its monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey, that could also impact the reported market share.

*(Technically it was in reference to SteamOS specifically, and while that leaves wiggle room for Linux exclusives as those wouldn't constitute SteamOS exclusives, I think it is clear the intent was that Valve won't engage in exclusionism against any platforms it already services.)

[TheOne]

Short of releasing any major Linux exclusives (which Valve has stated it won't do*, and which other heavyweight development companies are also unlikely to do), if Valve makes alterations to how it conducts its monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey, that could also impact the reported market share.

*(Technically it was in reference to SteamOS specifically, and while that leaves wiggle room for Linux exclusives as those wouldn't constitute SteamOS exclusives, I think it is clear the intent was that Valve won't engage in exclusionism against any platforms it already services.)

Maybe a pre-release first for SteamOS strategy would work

[smitty3268]

From the discussions here it sounds like Arch are. Though in all likelihood they just shipped it too soon and ran head first into these issues before they were all sorted out. Wouldn't be the first time Arch broken everything by being just a little too eager to adopt new versions of something.

Ahh, I see. I didn't imagine any distros would be using it yet, since they only released GCC 2 days ago.

That's pretty bad, then.