Tag Archives: linux gamers
Latest Steam numbers show Linux, Mac gamers almost equal
The numbers from Steam’s February hardware and software survey have been published and the results show an interesting development — Linux platforms now accounts for about 2.8 percent of Steam’s users. That may not sound like much, but to put some perspective on that figure, Mac OS users total about 3.07 percent of Steam’s gaming population.
Note that I’m also lumping “Others” (0.82 percent) into the total number of Linux client installs. This is because the category practically didn’t exist until Steam’s Linux beta arrived in October.
Unlike Mac OS though, where Steam has had its chance to propagate since May 2010, Steam for Linux has only been publicly available since October 2012 as a limited public beta. It wasn’t even until February that a Linux-friendly Steam client was officially launched, so this could be interpreted as encouraging news for the future of Linux gaming.
Ubuntu accounts for more than half of Linux-based client installs. The only other Linux distro listed by name is Mint, which accounts for roughly six percent of Linux installs.
Perhaps the rising proliferation of Linux users on Steam will help promote the development of more AAA titles for Linux. It probably wouldn’t be a bad market for developers either, as Linux gamers seem more willing to part with their money than Windows or Mac users. There are currently 131 games on Steam that are compatible with Linux, but the overwhelming majority of those are indie games.
Looking beyond just Linux though, Valve’s stats show 1080p being used on nearly one-third of all systems. This makes 1080p the single most popular resolution while higher resolutions, like WQHD, only accounts for about 4.5 percent.
Steam’s gaming community appears to value up-to-dateness with DX11-capable graphics cards appearing in about 58 percent of systems. Nvidia is the most popular choice with a 52.39 percent share of gamers, while ATI (AMD) and Intel round out the bottom half with 33.92 and 13.1 percent, respectively.
Intel is by far the favored platform with a whopping 73 percent of gamers running systems powered by an Intel chip. Meanwhile, dual-core CPUs prove very slightly more popular than quad-cores while 40 percent of gamers have 6GB of RAM (or more) installed.
Reblogged from: techspot.com
Christmas Present for Linux Gamers From Valve
December 13th, Valve Software has announced the forthcoming opening of theSteam Linux Beta for everyone next week. This announcement was made on a closed mailing list. To Valve, the beta version is now stable enough to be opened for the broad masses of testers. After the opening of the beta, Linux users will be able to play very popular game titles like Team Fortress 2, Serious Sam 3, Killing Floor and others natively on Linux. Now it remains to be seen what other surprises Valve is preparing for us. Right now, Steam game library includes more than 40 games for Linux – certainly enough gaming stuff for the beginning.
Download Steam for Linux Ubuntu 12.04 & 12.10 i686
Or, you can add the Steam for Linux Repository.
Search Linux Games in Store
Wolfire Overgrowth Game Makes Its Linux Debut
The Linux port is said to be better than the
Windows version.
The native Linux support for the Wolfire Overgrowth game has finally arrived.
Wolfire Games has been working on a native Linux port of their forthcoming “Overgrowth” game. This title that’s much anticipated by many Linux gamers now finally has the Linux support available with its new 180 build.
Last month there was the Overgrowth Linux teaser and since then the issues with the Linux port have been worked out and it’s ready to played at scale on your favorite penguin operating system. It’s even reported that the Linux port of Overgrowth is now better off than the Windows version, which also puts it better than the Wine-powered version should you been resorting to that software previously.
The Overgrowth a180 change-log is available from the Wolfire blog. Embedded below are two videos about this latest Overgrowth update on Linux.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTb7mVNviIw?rel=0&w=480&h=270]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Em6bRBXFc?rel=0&w=480&h=270]
Linux Gamers Are Going Crazy For This New Game
Kickstarter financed game with hopes of a Linux
port
There’s another Kickstarter-backed game that may be coming to Linux and it’s causing Linux gamers to become extremely excited. In the past day I’ve received no less than 30~40 emails from readers talking about this possible Linux port of Carmageddon: Reincarnation.
The latest in a slaw of Kickstarter-financed games following the very successful Wasteland 2 project is Carmageddon: Reincarnation. I haven’t heard about this title previously until yesterday I began to be carpet-bombed with emails talking about this game possibly coming to Linux.
Right now it’s up in the air whether or not this game will come to Linux since they’ll only provide the native Linux client should they pull in $600,000 USD in financing. Right now there’s $335,155 in crowd-sourced financing available of their $400,000 USD goal and they have 12 days left to completion. If they reach $600,000+, as their first “stretch goal” they will provide a native Linux client. In addition, a Mac OS X version will be worked on too at that same level. Below is the mention of the Linux client from their Kickstarter page.
Yes, it’s our first STRETCH GOAL! Let’s get to $600,000!!
You’ve ALL been asking… No wait, LOTS OF YOU have been asking if we can commit to bringing Carmageddon: Reincarnation to extra platforms. And two of the most popular requests have been for Mac and Linux versions of the game.
So, we’ve been doing the work here to assess how much it would cost us to port our technology and then the games to these OS’s’s. We’ve rounded down the resulting figure a bit (because it would look strange and untidy otherwise), and today we’re announcing our first STRETCH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL, based on that figure. So, we are willing to commit to porting the game to both Mac and Linux, if we reach:
$600,000!And you’ll just have to take our word for it that it’s a bargain at the price. All our tech, on your Mac thing or Linux device, running Carmageddon: Reincarnation! (Although obviously it’s not such a bargain if only one of you wants it on each platform.) But we believe the market IS there, because you’ve been telling us – and many other developers here on Kickstarter – that it IS!
So, if we reach: $600,000!
We’ll be committing to supporting Mac and Linux, and you’ll be able to select a version to download at the same $15 and above price. And, like the DRM free version, the shipping date for these versions will be further out, towards the end of 2013.
That’s it for this SUPER STRETCHY Update today. And hey guys… You never know what TOMORROW will bring…
Carmageddon: Reincarnation is the sequel to the Carmageddon game that was released back in 1997. It basically comes down to an anarchic driving/racing game. This game is set to be powered by their own in-house engine that’s dubbed “Beelzebub.” Embedded below is also the Kickstarter video for this game.
Those wishing to contribute to this game or to learn out other information, visit the Carmageddon: Reincarnation Kickstarter page. There’s also other Linux games using this crowd-sourced financing method.
by Michael Larabel
Tomes of Mephistopheles Alpha Released
Kot In Action, the developers behind the Steel Storm series, has announced the alpha release of their forthcoming Tomes of Mephistopheles title.
For those where this is the first time hearing about this new Kot In Action title, the developers describe the game as “a first-person action-RPG dungeon crawler. With its fast-paced fluid combat, a multitude of medieval and magical weapons, an in-depth custom spell system, and randomly generated persistent worlds, ToM is a pinnacle of the genre.”
Like Steel Storm, this new game is also using the DarkPlaces engine. DarkPlaces is the very advanced open-source Quake Engine modification that also powers Nexuiz, Xonotic, and other games.
Those interested in trying out Tomes of Mephistopheles can try out the alpha for $10 USD, which the developers are using to fund the game’s development. More details about the game can be learned from the ToM web-site or from the alpha trailer video embedded below.
Alexander Zubov, the founder of Kot in Action, wrote an email to Phoronix with additional details. Zubov wrote, “We are really hoping that with the help of Linux gamers we can raise the money needed to continue game [development] full time for at least few month so we could make bigger advancements with Tomes of Mephistopheles and Steel Storm 2. To accomplish that we need to sell 3,000 copies of Tomes of Mephistopheles (Steel Storm 2 hasn’t made it into alpha yet as we are still digging up Unigine to determine whether it will be feasible to make the game using Unigine vs DarkPlaces).”
It certainly would be interesting to see Steel Storm 2 running off the Unigine Engine, which is far more advanced than DarkPlaces, but we’ll save that for another article.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py7HJiOeJjw&w=480&h=274]
