With Valve On Linux, Has LGP Lost All Relevance?

[gbudny]

They can't offer them for free to those that already have the Windows and/or Mac OSX titles.

"palu says:
August 10, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Would you consider SELLING installers for the windows versions of the games LGP supports?

The idea would be that the installer was a little cheaper for the end user (which would be why they’d bother buying the installer). It would include LGP’s DRM and be download only (and since you aren’t transferring the gigabytes of data or printing disks/manuals or mailing things across the world the distribution cost would be pretty low and including the DRM would prevent pirating).

SELLING installers might be a way to expand LGP’s market to cheap dual-booters. They might not be willing to pay £30 for the Linux port of X2 that they already own for windows, but they MIGHT be willing to pay £15 for an installer.

I’m only asking because reading this blog post brought up the idea, not because i have some collection of windows versions of LGP supported games (which i don’t).

Reply
Michael Simms (CEO and head of Development) says:
August 11, 2009 at 3:33 am
That isn’t a terrible idea, actually. I will have a chat with some people and get some legal interpretation on some of our contracts, and see how it fits in with the Windows EULA of games, and maybe, just maybe, you may have hit on something there.

No promises, but I do kindof like the idea! I do think it may end up being a legal quagmire to do it without breaking the games EULA which will usually say no modifying. But we’ll see!"

http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/...ndows-version/

[Kristian Joensen]

To compare LGP and Ryan Gordon, think of it like this, LGP is paying for the privilege of doing Linux ports for companies while Ryan Gordon is being payed by companies to port their games to Linux and/or Mac OSX. That is a huge difference right there.

[gbudny]

So titles where LGP did the Linux version will likely not be SteamPlay titles if they appear on Steam at all.

There are other problems with Steam for Linux:

"And no, Valve will not let us release Postal 2 on Steam, sadly."

http://www.desura.com/games/postal-2...k-be-on-desura

[KameZero]

There are other problems with Steam for Linux:

"And no, Valve will not let us release Postal 2 on Steam, sadly."

http://www.desura.com/games/postal-2...k-be-on-desura

That's odd, they accepted postal 3 but not 2?

[gbudny]

That's odd, they accepted postal 3 but not 2?

Yes.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/10220/

[GreatEmerald]

What little I've seen of Left 4 Dead 2 looked really, really boring to me. (That has nothing to do with the quality of the game, it's just a genre that doesn't appeal to me.) Actually, looking at the Valve Corporation catalog of games, the only one that really interest me are the Portal games. Though I've heard good things about Half Life, so I'll try to keep an open mind about them at least.

(And yes, I realize I'm probably in the minority here, of a group that's already a minority.)

Hmm, I'm actually in pretty much the same boat here. I can't stand watching TF2 and L4Ds, they bore me to no end. And I can't even tell why. I usually don't get bored while watching any other games, and I like FPS games. The only other game that bores me like that is League of Legends... And yes, Portal and Half Life sound interesting to me as well.

[float4]

Games have no relevance, hence game companies (any) also have no relevance.

unfortunatly true.
linux/gnu is mostly used for work , u can have a few game here and there but as a
gaming platform its irelevant.

you can learn howto make them by yourself, everething there : compiler / api ,,,, well its enougth

[gbudny]

unfortunatly true.
linux/gnu is mostly used for work , u can have a few game here and there but as a
gaming platform its irelevant.

This is a joke?

[Hamish Wilson]

There are other problems with Steam for Linux:

"And no, Valve will not let us release Postal 2 on Steam, sadly."

http://www.desura.com/games/postal-2...k-be-on-desura

Yes, I do agree that this is a problem. Still, because of this is why we got treated so well by RWS on Desura.

[rustybroomhandle]

The "no Postal 2 on Steam" thing has nothing to do with Linux at all. I'm not even sure why this qualifies as "problems with Steam on Linux".

Valve have a right choose what they want to sell on their platform, for whatever reasons they want. In this case I am guessing it's due to the tasteless nature of the game in question.

As a consumer you are not locked in to a single vendor. If Steam does not offer something you want, then buy it direct or from Desura, or wherever else it's available.

If your local butcher does not sell kosher/halaal/free range/pure organic/other specialty meat, then go to another butcher, yaknow?