Linux only needs to hit a “small but not insignificant size market” for the large publishers to start supporting it. They won’t support it if they lose money doing so, but if it continues to grow eventually they will lose money by not supporting it.
Steam machine should provide another bump, just like steam deck.
From a game developer’s perspective (who isn’t a pro linux dev or anything), they can support a platform. They support Windows 10. Or Windows 11. They can support Ubuntu. They can support SteamOS.
Linux’s fragmentation has always been an issue in this regard, as they can’t legally support thousands of different possible system configurations.
HOWEVER,
I think supporting Proton + SteamOS would be very reasonable for a dev. That is a specific platform, its codebase can stay unified with the Windows version, and support for that would practically mean effective support in other Linux distros.
Linux only needs to hit a “small but not insignificant size market” for the large publishers to start supporting it. They won’t support it if they lose money doing so, but if it continues to grow eventually they will lose money by not supporting it.
Steam machine should provide another bump, just like steam deck.
And issue is it needs to be a specific platform.
From a game developer’s perspective (who isn’t a pro linux dev or anything), they can support a platform. They support Windows 10. Or Windows 11. They can support Ubuntu. They can support SteamOS.
Linux’s fragmentation has always been an issue in this regard, as they can’t legally support thousands of different possible system configurations.
HOWEVER,
I think supporting Proton + SteamOS would be very reasonable for a dev. That is a specific platform, its codebase can stay unified with the Windows version, and support for that would practically mean effective support in other Linux distros.
And SteamOS by itself is getting big.
Agreed. And truly developers don’t need to actually “support” Linux; mostly they just need to not intentionally block games from working.