Linux games have always been one of the goals of free software. If game developers could only be persuaded to develop for Linux, the daydream goes, the operating system would start to gain serious market share. The last few years have lent hope to the dream, but the progress remains slow — so slow, in […]
Linux games have always been one of the goals of free software. If game developers could only be persuaded to develop for Linux, the daydream goes, the operating system would start to gain serious market share. The last few years have lent hope to the dream, but the progress remains slow — so slow, in fact, that its realization is starting to look questionable.
The first large scale effort to sell Linux games commercially was Loki Software, which ported games like Civilization and Railway Tycoon around the turn of the millennium. It quickly failed financially, leaving Linux gaming largely to minor free-license games like Pysol and Tux Racer, and to efforts to run Windows games using WINE.
Today, online games sometimes support Linux, but the dream of native Linux games remains. Fueled by months of announcements and speculation, the dream received a huge leap forward in January 2012, when the Valve Corporation officially released support for Linux on Steam, its online game distribution system. Six months later, Valve announced the Steam Machine, the specs for several lines of gaming computers running Linux. Meanwhile, gaming companies that previously ignored Linux began experimenting with it.
On social media sites, these developments received the attention that you might expect from the first alien contact. This time, gamers insisted, things would be different. This time, Linux would come into its own as a gaming platform, after which anything seemed possible.
This current version of the dream has lasted twenty-one months — not bad, for incarnations of this particular dream. However, it is starting to look a little insubstantial.
One sobering aspect — although not necessarily a permanent setback — is the delay of the Steam Machine. A dozen manufacturers are working on their versions of the Steam Machine with Valve’s blessing, and Alienware has even exhibited a prototype.
However, while a few beta machines may go out by the end of 2014, none of the manufacturers are likely to have a commercial product until well into 2015. Like most new hardware from new manufacturers, the Steam Machine seems to be suffering from a combination of over-optimism and development and production delays, which raises the possibility that many versions may never come to market.
More concretely, the kindest interpretation of the Steam site’s stats is that development of the Linux gaming market is a long term strategy, more likely to be a matter of a decade than a year or two.
Consider: in February 2013, the optional Steam Hardware and Software Survey showed that just over 2% of its users were running Linux. Apologists noted that Linux support was new, and insisted it could only increase, yet for over a year, the general trend has been downwards, until in August 2014, the percentage of Linux users was 1.06%.
Steam is a popular site, with a broad selection of games, so the reduction is unlikely to have much to do with its faults. Nor are its figures completely unusual.
In January 2014,GamingonLinux.com, listed sales and comments from ten gaming companies, most of which relied on Steam for much of their income. In most of the ten companies listed, OS X sales were 2-5 times higher than Linux sales, and in no case did Linux games outsell OS X games. Nor did any company list Linux sales as more than six percent. In fact, in most cases, Linux sales were under three percent.
The one encouraging part of the GamingonLinux.com statistics is that a number of the developers listed expressed continued support for Linux. Most of this support was based on hopes for Valve and Steam, although support did seem to vary depending on awareness of cross-platform libraries and Linux development methods.
However, Puppy Games, one of the companies that responded to GamingonLinux.com’s survey, has recently expressed some reservations on Twitter about its support for Linux.
Softpedia noted that Puppy Games has been expressing reservations about continuing to develop for Linux. One tweet from Puppy Games revealed that “To date we’ve made just **$12,000** from Linux games in total for all time for all four of our games! This will not do!” This figure, apparently, was 1% of Puppy Games’ total profits, although later tweets revealed that this figure was only for sales through Steam.
In another tweet, Puppy Games wondered “if other devs have seen similarly paltry sums and whether considering continued economic relevance of Linux.”
No companies responded to Puppy Games, but by now many must be aware that Linux is not the untapped market that commentators once imagined. At best, the potential has been overly anticipated. The gaming companies may not be rushing through the door, but some do seem to eyeing the exit.
As I write, commercial Linux gaming is a bubble, consisting more of speculation than realized potential. It depends almost entirely on Valve carrying on its support, and at least one version of the Steam Machine being successful.
This might sound ominous, except for the fact that Valve seems to be taking a long-term approach. Valve has emphasized repeatedly that it is interested in an open alternative to Windows and OS X, and this interest might even survive the failure of Valve’s current plans.
However, the success of Linux gaming does not depend on Valve alone. The slow development of Linux gaming suggests that the development companies have failed to understand their market. Perhaps they have underestimated the size of the potential market, or its possible appeal to Windows users who are already using what — to them — is a perfectly adequate operating system for gaming.
In particular, they may lack insight in the psychology of Linux users. The first figures for Linux users on Steam suggest that the potential audience was curious, but was unimpressed by what they found — almost half did not become regular users. Perhaps they were disinclined to pay for games, or disliked digital restrictions management, although these complaints have largely gone unvoiced. Or perhaps Linux users are simply disinclined to participate in manufacturer’s polls. However, whatever combination of factors is involved, it seems that you cannot sell Linux games the way you sell Windows games.
Yet another possibility is that commercial Linux games are happening too late. Although Steam can offer the popular games, a small but growing number of free-licensed games like 0 AD and Unknown Horizons are starting to emerge, many of them featuring contemporary graphics and game play.
True, these games seem to have small audiences, but they are more in keeping with the free software ethos than any commercial game. Give them a few years – commercial games may have trouble competing with them.
To say that commercial Linux games are a failed concept would be premature. However, we can now say with certainty that their success depends on that of the Steam Machine, and, perhaps, the manufacturers re-examining their approach — all of which should make for an exciting next couple of years.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Bruce Byfield (born May 13, 1958) is a Canadian journalist who specializes in writing about free and open source software. He has been a contributing editor at Linux.com, and his articles have appeared on the Datamation, LWN, Linux Developer Network, and LinuxPlanet sites.
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.
