I’ve had to change my game purchasing process since I abandoned Windows.
Not gonna lie, there isn’t a single “Windows Only” game that I miss.
If the dev or the community can’t get it running on linux, it’s not worth it.
This game worked as good as it could until they went out of their way to block Linux. All they had to do was leave it alone and let proton do its thing.
They aren’t blocking linux out of hostility. They swapped anti cheats and are figuring things out. I believe their statement means no NATIVE linux support but seems they are committed to getting it working with proton.
If you’re curious about the new anti cheat, they are using Elytra. Elytra is developed by Embark Studios, The Finals and Arc Raiders devs. Those games run fine on linux but do not have Elytra fully implemented. Certain players are being selected to test the anti cheat but as far as I know, the games are currently using Denuvo AC (not DRM).
You’re right that it isn’t out of hostility. They’ve made that clear. I don’t know if the reality is better or worse though. The reality is that they supposedly want to support Linux, but they are willing to make changes that mean it doesn’t work, and they aren’t going to be upfront about it.
Embark has done a great job ensuring Linux compatibility isn’t broken ever since they said they’d work on it. They’ve been pretty forward about it. I’m thinking that also might be why Elytra isn’t enabled for them yet. It’s not compatible with Linux, so they’re holding off. Wardogs though? They’re going ahead with it, then saying the Linux community made a mistake rather than them. For them, this isn’t a mistake. We just need to be patient for some future date that isn’t given.
The issue is that Linux seems to consistently be an afterthought for them. They say they care about Linux support, but they aren’t acting like it.
Except the community manager did make a mistake and apologized about the message confirming linux support. I’m sure the CM didn’t know what native linux vs proton support meant and assumed they were the same.
The fact that they’ve been up front with linux/proton support clearly doesn’t seem like an after thought. I’m not sure what else you expext them to do when the AC they decide to use doesn’t fully implement linux support yet (this is an assumption based on Embark’s track record)? Maybe they announced proton support too early?
Don’t get me wrong, I refunded my pre order after the last beta announcement but the game is launching in early access. They are pretty upfront and encouraging about refunding their game if you don’t like the early access. Once things are sorted, I’ll buy back in but I’m not also not expecting them to make decisions solely on proton support. If they say they are working on it, I’ll take them at their word.
I mentioned this as a potential issue with Proton when it first started blowing up and was largely dismissed. It’s great that it works. It’s really amazing on Valve’s part what it can do and the gap it bridged. The problem is that it does NOT incentivize developers to support Linux natively. In fact, it does the exact opposite.
EDIT: For those who don’t see why this is an issue - Proton means in the eyes of developers linux users are mostly second class citizens. There are already several cases of developers pushing updates that break proton compatibility and the developers simply shrug their shoulders and move on.
How is it an issue? The alternative is having no compatibility with Linux at all in most cases.
Proton is not a tool to improve Linux support. It’s a tool to improve Linux’ adoption by users. It gives us hope that someday, Linux will be the main gaming OS, that will be worth developing firstly for
The argument that Proton purely drives Linux adoption without disincentivizing native development ignores how publishers behave in reality. Instead of inspiring studios to eventually target Linux as a primary platform, Proton gives them an excuse to ignore the platform entirely while washing their hands of compatibility when updates break things. There are already SEVERAL cases where developers have pushed updates to games that worked in proton previously but no longer do. For Honor, Rust, Apex Legends, GTA V to just name a few. When developers treat Proton as a convenient accident rather than a target, it doesn’t pave the way for a native future. It creates a volatile ecosystem where a single background update can permanently strand players on an unsupported island, with the studio refusing to spend a dime to fix it. Proton keeps Linux users as second class citizens.
Probably not it is easier to develop for Windows. To many variations in Linux installs. I have native Linux ports of games bought decades ago that no longer work. If I had bought windows versions they would still run.
Who cares as long as it works in proton.
Don’t care for native games, proton is fine. Most games I own that provide a native build, I still run through proton because it works better somehow.
