On the future of Linux support from Paradox

[Grzegorz Grzybek]

Linux gamer here too (all DLCs for EU4, CK2, HoI4, Vic2, Stellaris, HoI3, I:R (just base game for now)).
As a company from country which is in ZoC of the country where Linux was born - you just have to support Linux!

That gives you the geeky/nerdy perks distinguishing you from other bland companies.

Oh. And I completed Victoria 2 on Linux too (wine/proton, but still Linux).

 

[kudlaty]

Hey, fellow penguin user here as well. Trying to keep up with DLCs of 3 major titles I play fairly often (EU IV, HOI IV and Stellaris). PDX's support for Linux is one of the major arguments when I have to decide which company to support with my wallet. And since I do not posses Win OS on my computer anymore, the choice is usually obvious. Not everything runs smoothly on Proton, plus, as everyone that moved from Win do Tux can tell, performance on Linux is oh so much better for paradox titles. You guys are doing a marvelous job on that front. Please do not abandon Tux users, we are niche audience, but really hardcore and committed to devs that support our platform of choice.

On other side, I think there is a wider transition of Win users towards various Tux distros, even LTT (which is a mainstream channel and for not so tech-savvy folks) has had a couple of tux gaming-related videos in recent months. So Linux may be finally getting more attention from casual users, not only tech-geek types. This would not be a good moment to abandon a platform, which has been supported for so many years. I hope that PDX will still support Linux for their PDS titles.

 

[Leshpar]

I am a Linux only gamer, and have been for well over a year now. Windows is a horribly antiquated os and Microsoft needs to be dethroned. One of the biggest ways to do that is to help support Linux now. The more people releasing high quality games for Linux the more people will switch or realize it's even an option.

Gaming on Linux exclusively is more possible than ever now with things such as lutris, steam play, and gog. The numbers may not make financial sense now, but I can guarantee if more people continue to support and release natively for Linux more people will start using it because it IS the superior os.

I am extremely passionate about this and I would never go back to windows. There is a chance here to make something like Ubuntu take over market majority for os's in time. Please continue to support Linux. For the future of PC's and gaming.

 

[Shams]

Hi all,

Just wanted to pop in and say that I/we hear you, really appreciate the passion and that you make your voice heard in such a constructive way.

We evaluate Linux on a case by case basis and try to squeeze it in as often as we can. Some devs have experience with Linux and it becomes easier/cheaper to include. For others it's like when Han Solo handles Luke's lightsaber - there's a lot of "ah...uh"-ing and becomes a huge distraction and expensive.

So no promises either way - we'll do our best.

Regards

 

[norgra]

Hi all,

Just wanted to pop in and say that I/we hear you, really appreciate the passion and that you make your voice heard in such a constructive way.

We evaluate Linux on a case by case basis and try to squeeze it in as often as we can. Some devs have experience with Linux and it becomes easier/cheaper to include. For others it's like when Han Solo handles Luke's lightsaber - there's a lot of "ah...uh"-ing and becomes a huge distraction and expensive.

So no promises either way - we'll do our best.

Regards

Thank you. All I can really ask is that you try to include us in as many of your games as possible.

 

[LiamD]

Hi all,

Just wanted to pop in and say that I/we hear you, really appreciate the passion and that you make your voice heard in such a constructive way.

We evaluate Linux on a case by case basis and try to squeeze it in as often as we can. Some devs have experience with Linux and it becomes easier/cheaper to include. For others it's like when Han Solo handles Luke's lightsaber - there's a lot of "ah...uh"-ing and becomes a huge distraction and expensive.

So no promises either way - we'll do our best.

Regards

Really happy to know Linux is still always in your mind to support when possible. Thanks for all the games already here, Stellaris, Battletech and Surviving Mars are personal favourites of mine.

 

[shmerl]

We evaluate Linux on a case by case basis and try to squeeze it in as often as we can. Some devs have experience with Linux and it becomes easier/cheaper to include. For others it's like when Han Solo handles Luke's lightsaber - there's a lot of "ah...uh"-ing and becomes a huge distraction and expensive.

Thanks! I hope Hardsuit Labs who are working on Bloodlines 2 have someone experienced in Linux development, and it won't be like "ah...uh"-ing a lightsaber for them

By the way, do you see Stadia potentially helping funding desktop Linux releases? Since it's still not exactly the same, it requires a few modifications, but possibly support costs for regular desktop Linux releases should be easier to compensate due to [potentially] big Stadia's user base? I suspect not all developers would see it that way, and some will just release for Stadia and skip desktop Linux, but Linux gamers would really appreciate if Stadia's success could in return benefit desktop Linux gaming proper.

 

[alka_setzer]

Hello,

Dropped in to just say thanks to Paradox Interactive, the publisher, for allowing studios to support linux, and to Paradox Development Studio the studio for allowing me play my favourite games on my OS of choice (Linux).

It's thanks to this support that I've gifted or recommended your games and the ones you publish also to friends and family (which are on other OSes and consoles).

Also thank you for supporting the Paradox launcher, even if that is not a priority to you and may not be considered important by all users. In this topic why not open source it and work with the itch.io libraries and launcher to save some resources.

To finish up without linux support I wouldn't be playing these games today:

• Stellaris (Paradox)
• Tyranny (Paradox)
• Cities: Skylines (Paradox)
• Magicka (Paradox)
• Surving Mars (Haemimont)
• Tropico (Haemimont)
• Shadowrun (Harebrained)
• Battletech (Harebrained)
• Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian)

So thank you for supporting Linux

 

[beekay201]

I've been running Stellaris on Arch ever since I bought Stellaris. Even before that, I've been running CK2 on Arch ever since I bought CK2. I'm not going to use Ubuntu, or any of those distros. I don't like it. Too much clutter. The way I see it, there's nothing Ubuntu does that I can't accomplish on Arch, just as easy if not more. Hell, I'm glad I don't run a distro that all of a sudden decides to drop support for most software (I would think 32 bit software out there makes up for most of it, a small percentage will be done just in 64bit).

PDX, I thank you for all these titles released on my platform of choice. I never bought a game that only supports Windows. You were one of the first to get some of my money, ONLY because you came out with proper GNU/Linux support.
Stop doing that, and I'll stop buying your games or recommending any of your games to friends, simply because I won't be able to share experiences and/or play with them, because the game doesn't support my platform of choice, therefore I won't recommend it - even if it is a good game, I wouldn't know, it doesn't exist for my platform. It's all or nothing with me PDX. I'm not one of those people who will bow down to freaking Wine or Proton. Not available natively, it's not for me.

If you do end up continuing Linux support due to this thread and/or others, that's great. I'll be just as passionate about you as I am or was. I'll continue buying your products, even if sometimes I don't even play them. Yes, I've bought stuff that I haven't even played just to support devs on Linux. It's how passionate some can be.

 

[huyderman]

Just want to voice my support as well. I'm an exclusive Linux user on PC and been that for 6 or so years now. Paradox adding Linux support was actually one of the reasons I finally dropped a Windows partition because I never bothered dual-booting any more when I could just play my favourite games on Linux. Over the last years, I've spent literally thousands of hours in PDX games, and generally buy most of the games and DLC at full price on launch. I'll be going to my third PDXcon this year, and regularly evangelize for Paradox being a great company in my circle of friends, and I really hope you'll continue supporting Linux.

 

[finaldest]

Just dropped into this thread to say thank you for all the Linux support given up to this point.

I have purchased the following titles including ALL DLC's due to having Linux support. Without such support non of these purchases would have taken place so thank you for all the effort in making my Linux gaming experience better over the years.

1.Cities In Motion 1+2
2.Cities Skylines
3.Stellaris
4.Surviving Mars
5.Prison Architect (Purchased prior to acquisition by Paradox).
6.Battletech.

I hope you continue to offer support going forward as I would really like to see a future Cities Skylines 2 and Prison Architect sequel on Linux.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Sickday]

I love Paradox games, not only because they're fun, but because they support Linux. I've used Linux since middle school which severely limited my gaming potential at the time, but that isn't the case anymore.

These days plenty of games are shipped with Linux support and I've had no problems purchasing Paradox games simply because I know most times it will work just fine on my machine. Every Paradox game I've bought so far has only been played on Linux and I think you all do fantastic work.

Please reconsider dropping Linux support as there are definitely people out there looking forward to the games you make for the very reason of possible Linux support.

 

[GamersOnLinux]

Linux gaming is a big move for any Windows gamer. I finally switched all of my 6 gaming PC's over to Linux Mint in 2017. Even removed dual-boot to Windows. Full-time Linux gaming!
I have a hard time affording brand new games and pre-order games, so I mostly purchase from Steam, Humble Bundle and GOG sales, but I have a large Linux gaming list!
I run LAN parties with all of my games and in some cases purchase multiple copies.

For example, I just got Magicka 2 on Sale, but I bought 3 copies.

There are a lot of Linux gamers out there and we are growing rapidly. I'm sure many companies had to make decisions to not Support Mac back in the day when Mac gaming was new and look at Mac gaming today! Almost every game has a Windows and Mac port.

Another good point is Valve supporting Linux and Proton (Wine)
If millions of gamers are on Steam daily a small portion of them are Linux gamers. If Valve thinks Linux is worth investing in, then companies should follow suite. Sometimes risk doesn't make sense on paper, but in reality it might mean more $$ and more success on all platforms.

Please Paradox, keep supporting Linux! I have a feeling anyone on staff that love Linux gaming are passionate about furthering Linux gaming progress.

Thank you for your interest and support of Linux!

 

[Orochi_Kyo]

I just registered to say thanks to Paradox Entertainment for their support on Linux.

Im a Linux user/gamer but more important I live in a third world country. Why I came up with this?

Because as a third world country gamer Im struggling to buy games while the only economical support of a family of four is me. The only reason I dont have to appeal to piracy and still support game developers/publishers like Paradox is Steam. I found quite uninformed what Fredrik Wester said at the Gamelab forum, basically a first world bubble point of view from someone who doesnt have to save money for some months to get his favorite game.

Steam is great at least for me, not only because the local currencies, but even they have a local server for my geographical zone for steady downloads and stable online experience even when my zone isnt quite strong on revenue for Steam as Europe or North America is, but something I like from Steam is that despite this fact, Im still a valuable customer for them. Because of this, I still available to support devs, at least paying for their games so they can get a cup of coffee and some cake while they are developing their next game.

Consoles are a luxury on my country with new games costing as much as half the monthly basic salary, so having a nice PC accessible market in terms of pricing and support is important for me.

Thanks to Paradox for what they did so far for Linux gaming and keep releasing games on Steam. I truly appreciate it.

 

[DE3me]

What are the stats based on? I use all platforms depending on where I am and what I do. Mac, Linux, Win. But I doubt I "generate revenue" much while on Linux. Seamless transition with steam cloud is a major feature and supports my decision to buy (even when on Windows).

Since the development of Windows post 7, I'm moving away from every day use of that platform.

Same here, I use Win and Linux and even if I usually play on my Win machine it is nice that I could do the same without much problems on Linux.
It is weird that Linux support takes up so much, because from my experience Linux users are more able to find solutions for themselves. Unless Linux users also find more critical problems, which would also be a good thing would it not?