Microsoft Blocks Linux Game Port From Happening

[Nth_man]

Another example of Linux being a good platform for games, otherwise this would not exist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq2Ttj4_YHc

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/grid-autosport-released-for-linux-steamos-port-report-video-and-review-included.6353

[SystemCrasher]

That seems like a trivial distinction to me.

That's a fate of so many M$ partners. Nokia ended even worse than that: M$ "not authorized" their (smart) phones production. And leading smartphones vendor is no longer allowed to manufacture (smart)phones at all, R&D team fired, office sold, etc. Smouldering wreck everywhere. Cool, isn't it? That's how partnershit with microsoft usually ends.

[droidhacker]

They have not blocked it, they simply have not authorized it. maybe they will some day, maybe they will not. But they have not sent out a statement saying, "there shall be no linux version of this game" That would be blocking.

There is no legal or logical distinction between "not authorized" and "blocking".

(only A), which is what is written in the contract, is logically equivalent to (not (not only A)), where (not only A) is what everyone wants.
The only difference is your point of view. The former is regarded socially as passive, the latter is regarded as active, and active is deemed more hostile by "normal" people who don't fully understand the law and logic.

Frankly, I actually doubt very much that a clause like this that limits the game developer from publishing for competitor platforms, is even legally binding. Maybe in the US, but I find it unlikely that it would hold up to the EU. The issue at hand probably comes down to not starting a conflict with evil anti-competitive M$, since the friction between them may get in the way of the handing over money to them for future software.

The sad part about this, is that if this form of contract is legally unjustifiable, there can't actually be a ruling on it unless somebody takes up the cause, which means (a) getting their hands on the form contract that M$ uses (it may be possible to coerce them via EU courts), and (b) actually taking it to court. That, of course, costs money. You might think that their platform competitors might want to take up the cause, but the problem there is that the ruling would impact the equivalent clause in THEIR contracts as well, so that probably wouldn't be in their immediate best interests.

[soulsource]

"Ori is powered by the Unity Engine" - then good that it isn't getting a linux port. Frankly i'm kinda tired of all the mediocre unity games for linux.

Wait, so you are saying that if exactly the same games would have been made with another engine they would suddenly be better games? That doesn't make much sense to me. If they had exactly the same assets, the same story, the same gameplay, the same UI, etc. and only parts that are (nearly) invisible to the player would be different, their quality would miraculously improve?

[dungeon]

Who really cares, it is couple hours single play title and seems works fine in wine:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManag...sion&iId=31866

with force-d3d9, maybe even with force-opengl should work or whatever

[kpedersen]

"Ori is powered by the Unity Engine" - then good that it isn't getting a linux port. Frankly i'm kinda tired of all the mediocre unity games for linux.

I agree but I guess it isn't their fault. Unity, as a tool targeted twards indie / hobby developers makes for an extremely bad tool for professional quality games.
We evaluated it on a project at work before we realized that it has the exact same issues as the Adobe Flash development tools making it impossible to write quality, tested and maintainable codebases. It barely works with continuous integration for example.

Also, the linux support is very poor and supports only the "current" distros without any backwards compatibility to something like RHEL6 or those using the very latest libc.

[soulsource]

Oh, and another thing: There are several extremely good titles using Unity, take Cities: Skylines, Pillars of Eteenity, or Kerbal Space Program for instance.

[unixfan2001]

It microsoft. They are Linux's best f(r)iends. And ppl like unixfan2001 aren't exactly picky in choosing their f(r)iends...

The fact that you believe not being a zealot is somehow a bad thing says more about you than it does about me.

That's a fate of so many M$ partners. Nokia ended even worse than that: M$ "not authorized" their (smart) phones production. And leading smartphones vendor is no longer allowed to manufacture (smart)phones at all, R&D team fired, office sold, etc. Smouldering wreck everywhere. Cool, isn't it? That's how partnershit with microsoft usually ends.

For the love of god, can you stop spreading that much freaking FUD? First of all, Nokia laid off 24,500 employees and closed production and research in Finland, Germany and Canada almost a year before acquisition of the mobile branch by Microsoft. At the end of 2012, they were so broke, they had to sell off and lease back their headquarters.

Secondly, it's kind of ludicrous to claim Microsoft shut down smartphone production literally days after the Lumia 950/950 XL has become widely available.

[unixfan2001]

It microsoft. They are Linux's best f(r)iends. And ppl like unixfan2001 aren't exactly picky in choosing their f(r)iends...

The fact that you believe not being a zealot is somehow a bad thing says more about you than it does about me.

That's a fate of so many M$ partners. Nokia ended even worse than that: M$ "not authorized" their (smart) phones production. And leading smartphones vendor is no longer allowed to manufacture (smart)phones at all, R&D team fired, office sold, etc. Smouldering wreck everywhere. Cool, isn't it? That's how partnershit with microsoft usually ends.

For the love of god, can you stop spreading that much freaking FUD? First of all, Nokia laid off 24,500 employees and closed production and research in Finland, Germany and Canada almost a year before acquisition of the mobile branch by Microsoft. At the end of 2012, they were so broke, they had to sell off and lease back their headquarters.

Secondly, it's kind of ludicrous to claim Microsoft shut down smartphone production literally days after the Lumia 950/950 XL has become widely available.

[YYYY]

If MS had balls, they would allow it and trust the best would win/sell.
Well, since Ballmer, they lost balls, but gained erratic odd dancing and yelling on the stage. Miss him >:-)