Steam For Linux: A Respectable Showing 372
An anonymous reader writes "Valve has just released its February, 2013 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the results are absolutely mind blowing. Linux is now standing strong as a legitimate gaming platform. It now represents 2.02% of all active Steam users."
That's in keeping with what new submitter lars_doucet found. Lars writes: "I'm an independent game developer lucky enough to be on Steam. Recently, the Steam Linux client officially went public and was accompanied by a site-wide sale. The Linux sale featured every single Linux-compatible game on the service, including our cross-platform game Defender's Quest. .... Bottom line: during the sale we saw nearly 3 times as many Linux sales of the game as Mac (Windows still dominated overall)."
2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not bad at all. Is Microsoft shaking in their boots? Not really. Are they watching carefully? You get your ass. Is this an opportunity to upend the horrorshow that is Windows 8? I hope so.
Is answering your own questions a bit douchy? Perhaps.
Windows Phone. 5% = Failure. Linux 2% = Victory (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Windows Phone. 5% = Failure. Linux 2% = Victory (Score:2, Interesting)
You have a point but:
1) Windows "smartphone" share a few years ago: maybe 60%? Linux share in gaming/desktop has always been low
2) Predicted Windows Phone market share, according to "analysts": 20% or so? Linux desktop: No idea, probably they never bothered to predict
3) Marketing budget: Even with what Steam spends on it Linux must be close to 0 compared to Windows phone
4) shelf space Windows Phone compared to Linux? See 3 I think.
5) Steam for Linux on market: officially since 1 month. Windows Phone? A lot longer.
So I think it is quite accurate and not exactly biased to say 5% for Windows Phone is a complete failure while 2% for Linux desktop gaming is respectable/as expected (which obviously is not the same as "victory").
A Thought (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes more people use Windows, but when XP and 7 finally have their support ended, the people using those Microsoft platforms will be forced into using precisely what they are avoiding, the 'modern' interface. It's going to be interesting to watch if they move to Mac, Linux or suck up to Microsoft and push themselves into that new UI.
Let's say they pushed themselves into that new UI. Now after months and years of using that, they will be hooked into it by Microsoft's hooks. At that point, switching to Mac or Linux would be extremely difficult due to the UI differences. It would be devastating for the future of Linux without a similar UI, that's what worries me. For Linux to have any future, the users of these OS's which support is ending, need to jump in our (Linux) lake and let their feet get wet.
That's how I'm thinking, it may be difficult for some to understand what I mean. In any case, Defender's Quest shows that there is money in the Platform. And I don't give a hoot what Microsoft is doing, I have already jumped in the Linux lake and no interest in going back again. But there are a lot of folks that, apparently, enjoy being chained up and forced to do things. You can't save the world, so grab whoever you can, unchain them, and run as fast as you can before the roof caves in.
Seems a little incomplete. (Score:3, Interesting)
When you buy a game on Steam, you get access to it in all available Steam formats. That means that for people who may use OSX, Linux, and Windows (as I do, for example) may not necessarily count as a "linux" sale, even though I'll play some of the purchased games there.
Re:Why buy for Mac when they run Windows (Score:3, Interesting)
I bought a Mac in 2009 because it was (and still is) the only platform where I can use Photoshop/Lightroom/Steam/vim/ssh/git/ruby natively.
Re:Direct link to results (Score:4, Interesting)
Is _Wine_ in there?
I use Wine in XP mode to play L4D2 on Fedora 64-bit. I know Steam knows who plays in Wine, but is it part of the stats?
I also have the Fedora client from OpenSUSE, but I usually just play L4D2. Viz. It's the best quick-game for me atm; but before Wine I played a lot of AssaultCube, which is brilliant on older hw and laptops on older connections.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Proves that more intelligent people are gamers... as more computer illiterate people use Mac than linux.
Almost ever single OSX users who is someone who rejected a platform where gaming is great (Windows) to move to a platform where gaming was so/so. Given the capacities are not hugely different and price leans higher that means that anyone who picked OSX over Windows probably doesn't game much. Moreover the Apple crowd in general has been aging and I suspect Steam type gaming is much more popular ages 10-30 than ages 30-50.
In the case of Linux the capacities are hugely different. The more advanced Linux window managers have no Windows or OSX equivalents. There are no GUI desktop environments with the level of configurability of KDE for Windows or OSX. Many of the applications for Linux have no equivalents, though they have competitors which are vastly more expensive. ETC...
I think it is not unreasonable you are looking at two very different populations.
Re:A respectable showing. (Score:2, Interesting)
You make it sound like Valve is a poor struggling indie company and not a major player.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Firstly, I'd wager that the effort Valve has put in to Linux support is pretty much 2% of their total. The way they seem to work is to undertake a lot of different things, most of which aren't wildly profitable.
Secondly: games on linux is a chicken-and-egg thing. I use *ux daily for work, but my home desktop has been a windows machine forever, because I sometimes want to play games. Most (but not all) of the games I play are Valve titles, so being able to play them on ux makes it more likely I'd give linux on the desktop a serious try, or recommend it to a friend, than before. If they can bring more big developers to the platform (either through improving emulation, or by leveraging the upcoming "steambox" to encourage developers to make their games compatible), then Linux on the desktop becomes a viable choice for home computers for a lot of people that it just isn't at the moment, and then selling games to Linux users becomes more profitable in a spiral of awesomeness.
Every publisher seems to have their own Steam-like service, and the threat of Xbox Live, Windows8 Marketplace and Win8 phones actually interoperating to give one Steam-like system across the PC, pocket and living room is obviously a huge threat. As we've seen time and again, if you're beholden to Microsoft for your business, then you won't be in business for long, so they are pushing an alternate platform through a number of avenues and initiatives to make sure that they have a Plan B for when MS decides that they want to be the sole gatekeeper for the entire Windows games market.
Re:wtf (Score:2, Interesting)
When steam for Linux starts getting AAA titles within a few weeks of the windows release then they will have something worth talking about.
The Cave: released Jan 23 2013 - Double Fine Productions / SEGA
Let me guess, this doesn't count as far as you are concerned cause it isn't Call of Black Ops or whatever the latest shitty FPS is?
Re:Wow (Score:3, Interesting)
Steam for Linux isn't really about bringing games to existing Linux users. This is preparation for their Steambox hardware. They're creating a market for viable game development on Linux, so that when they release the Steambox, developers won't be hesitant to develop for it. By using Linux, they don't have to provide Windows licenses for every device, thereby keeping the cost of the device down.
So you see, the existing Linux userbase really isn't an important factor in this, though that it does exist and they are interested in games, certainly furthers their goals.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Dude. I've been running Linux for years without wiping the computer. My desktop has been a steady upgrade cycle from Ubuntu 8.04. I recently upgraded from 12.04 to 12.12 with absolutely zero trouble.
Years ago, sure. Somewhere around Ubuntu 6.4 I had a heck of a time running upgrades. Let's not even consider early SuSE variants, or RedHat in the days of 4.x. For the past five years, however, every computer I run has upgraded flawlessly every time.
I run Linux on all my computers, both desktop and laptop. The company I work for runs Linux on all the servers, all the development machines, and recently switched their customer care group from XP to Linux with an XP-like theme.
None of us have the kind of bitter experience that you are describing. I think your vitriol is rather outdated.
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