The question that is always asked about all of the new PDX IPs: will it natively support Linux?

  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
I believe that PDX has given up on Linux and Mac.. just have a look at all the recent releases.
It's still a fair question. PDS (the in-house Paradox team) supports Linux and Mac. PDX (the publishing team) I think leaves it up to the individual studios to decide. Star Trek: Infinite is coming out for Windows and Mac (probably because it's based off Stellaris, which is already cross-platform), though not Linux. The other upcoming PDX games look Windows-only.

In this case, the Steam page currently only mentions Windows. There's actually a surprising amount of devlogs on the steam news archive, so development plans have been public for a while and only the Paradox publisher association is new. Thus, I wouldn't have high hopes for non-Windows platforms any time soon.
 
Yeah I really don't know anything about the business side of the gaming industry, but I still can't understand this...PDX has entered the Linux-sphere (including with their IPs developed outside of the in-house studio) BEFORE Steam deck came around. But now, after it did and is compelling devs to support that, isn't also supporting Linux more trivial (so, cheaper and cost-effective) than it's ever been? In that sense, why do we see PDX moving away from it? I just don't understand.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
I just don't understand.
The straight forward and obvious answer is that isn't financially viable to develop games for Linux. Even if it is now cheaper to develop games for Linux, costs are only half of the equation because you if aren't making any sales then is doesn't matter how low your costs are since you aren't going to be making enough, or any, money. Windows just dominates the PC gaming market and I seriously doubt it is worth it for Paradox to develop games for Linux or Mac as there are probably not enough, or ever going to be enough, players for it be financially worth it. I can't image they just randomly decided to stop supporting Linux. Its entirely likely that the number of people who play their games on Linux is so small as to be a rounding error in their total number of players.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Well, they haven't been supporting Linux for all of their current-gen games in the last ten years for no reason.
They tend to support mac and linux on games made on their own Clausewitz engine like Vic 3.
For the games made by other devs that they only publish, its probably up to the individual studios what they want to do.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Well, they haven't been supporting Linux for all of their current-gen games in the last ten years for no reason.
Of course, but things change. Maybe they thought there was a potential market there that didn't materialize. Maybe they made some changes to their internal studio structures that made it harder to support Linux. And on and on and on. At the end of the day, Linux is a hyper-niche OS and it should be entirely unsurprising that Paradox is pulling back support on it.
 
Hello!
The game is going to be in Early Access first, so for now Windows is our one and only platform. We may have other platforms in the future but it's not a plan now as we are not even close to the release stage. We'll cross that bridge when we get there and let you know if we plan to release the game on other platforms. :)
 
Hello!
The game is going to be in Early Access first, so for now Windows is our one and only platform. We may have other platforms in the future but it's not a plan now as we are not even close to the release stage. We'll cross that bridge when we get there and let you know if we plan to release the game on other platforms. :)
Thank you for the answer!
 
I think one major point you are missing here as to why Paradox went for Linux 10 years and doesn't anymore is simply Proton...

They don't really need to put any extra work into it anymore when it works anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love native support and I try to give extra support to studios who do this, but in the end it just isn't that decisive as 10 years ago anymore.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
They have supported Linux in past years because Steam seemed to go that way (SteamOS). However, Steam invested in getting "native" Windows games to run smoothly on their OS (check out Proton). Developers are not incentivized to pay the extra cost of Linux development/support as it no longer appears necessary. If you check ProtonDB, their latest third-party release, such as Age of Wonders 4, runs perfectly fine.*

* I ignored CS2 as it doesn't run fine on Windows in the first place.
 
  • 1
Reactions: