It's Been 3 Years Since Valve Launched The Steam Linux Beta, Now At 1,600+ Linux Games

[dungeon]

3 years and 1600 titles later still below 1%. Earlier the excuse was lack of games, wonder what the new excuse will be. Maybe at one point they'll realize it's not that people are stupid for Linux, they just don't want it because it's awful? Noooo, that can't happen, cognitive dissonance is in the way.

That question is probably the best to ask Windows gaming users - so Windows users of steam, as percentage by far just depends on them .

1% actually mean numbers of steam Linux users is on raise probably by 60%, of course steam Windows users are on the same raise... games for both platform are also on raise and then percentage stay the same I think there was 90 millions of steam accounts and now 215 millions, etc...

Why Windows but not Linux, same question 20 years ago and now

[johnc]

The biggest selling point of consoles are the games, of course. And I'm not talking about numbers but the actual titles. All the big developers are targeting consoles. PC Master Race is lucky to get some leftover attention in the form of a half-crippled, barely-working port.

Steam Machines are in even worse shape. They don't even get the typical crippled PC ports of the big titles, and they don't have the draw of the big games that the consoles do.

Valve will really have to step up and bring their A-game if they expect this thing to work. Otherwise all that effort is just going to wither on the vine.

[anarki2]

3 years and 1600 titles later still below 1%. Earlier the excuse was lack of games, wonder what the new excuse will be. Maybe at one point they'll realize it's not that people are stupid for Linux, they just don't want it because it's awful? Noooo, that can't happen, cognitive dissonance is in the way.

[emblemparade]

I use Linux 99% of the time, including for gaming. I run Steam native on Linux, and also Steam for Windows using WINE: a surprisingly high number of games work just fine that way,

However, I still dual boot into what I call "GameOS" (Windows 10 now) for some games. Unfortunately, this happens even for games do support Linux. One problem is that some ported games are buggy and possibly missing some graphical features. So, I just get tired of fighting it and reboot into Windows.

Also, I am big fan of NVIDIA 3D Vision, and that feature is simply not supported in Linux, so I have no choice, even if the game is otherwise ported well to Linux.

As for Steam Machines: as much hope as I have, I am still doubtful about their success. For now, it still makes more sense to install Windows instead of Linux on your Steam Machine: you will get the exact same features, but a much wider game catalog. Even if the difference is $100 for the Windows license, it still seems to be worth it. For now.

I'm even an early adopter of the Steam Controller. So far it's been disappointing: I don't see it revolutionizing gaming. But, I am willing to give it a chance to live up to its potential.

A lot is riding on this: gamers might finally have an open platform for gaming, in which they no longer restricted to the very expensive walled gardens set up by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and can play a wide catalog of games both old and new, AAA and indie.

[adakite]

Satellite Reign and Alien Isolation. 100% of my Steam lib is Linux

[leech]

162/256 games in my library are on Linux. I only buy Linux games now. No one is betting on SteamOS or SteamMachines to compete with consoles. The best I hope for is that when game companies do a cost/benefit analysis of publishing a client on Linux that the value is positive. That is the goal I hope SteamOS and Steam Machines help achieve.

If this were truly the case, why would they sell them at Gamestop? I think when you look at the numbers (granted they're not 100% accurate, as I'll detail under this comment) 1600+ games for a 'new' console released in Gamestop that has better specs than the PS4 and Xbox One (even the cheapest models basically do), for those people that are console spec junkies, but have never been PC gamers (the same young people who loved Star Trek Into Darkness) are going to think of them as a new Console, and will suddenly have the choice of Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U for their console fix. And the claimed 1600+ games for it make it have the largest library of all of them.

Now the problem with saying there are 1600+ games for SteamOS. Some of them are pretty rough (which is why there was that pull of the SteamOS logo from some of them). Just last night I was trying to get Trine 3 working through my Steam Link. I had to keep running into the other room to click on things with the mouse/keyboard just so we could get the controllers to work (steam controller and xbox 360 controller). you start it up, and it has a full screen configuration UI, that at first I could only configure by hitting the 'select' button to tab my way through entries, then select them. It was pretty painful, seems perhaps a firmware update to the controller fixed that, or because I was able to change the config from keyboard+mouse to controller. Either way, initial setup was horrid, and then it crashed on us a few times, and I had to turn down the Anti-aliasing on the 4th level or so because the framerate just decided to die. They also haven't fixed muli-monitor support with the Link.

Of course some of these issues may be due to my own fault, but Trine 3 launching a configuration screen where the controller only sort of works, and The Chaos Engine does the same thing. I'm wondering how well SteamOS itself would handle it, maybe I'll stick it on a drive somewhere.

[Brillus]

That's funny. "Thinks" and "things" mixed up...

Anyway, two of my favorite games are Portal-based games (1, 2, Portal Stories: Mel, etc.) and The Talos Principle.

Oh Talos Principle supports Linux, I have to tell a friend of mine who only uses Linux I am sure he will Like the game.

(Valve should have keeped the pinguine.)

[GraysonPeddie]

That's funny. "Thinks" and "things" mixed up...

Anyway, two of my favorite games are Portal-based games (1, 2, Portal Stories: Mel, etc.) and The Talos Principle.

[Brillus]

My Favorite Linux-Steam Games (under Linux I do only causal gaming)

Eryi's Action (http://eryisaction.com/) VERY funny plattformer. 2 Fun facts: a) It seems the Linux version is only avaiable for Steam. b) The Linux Version runs better than the Windows Version; under Windows the game is unplayable on non-us-keyboards.

Cave Story+: Also a nice plattfomer.

I also tried Bioshock Infinite and Serious Sam 3 under Linus however then I had already finished them on Windows.


The one thing I really missing in the Linux-client is a option to download the Windows Version of games not aviable for Linux and run them under Wine.

[staggerlee]

I only buy Linux games now.

Me too...