Blizzard Entertainment Planning A Linux Game For 2013

[oliver]

1. Calm down !
2. I really hope english isn't your native language, otherwise it looks like you left school in the age of 10.

Please read the sentence again:

"this port is being done internally by their own developers, which isn't a huge surprise given their past public statements and already existing internal linux client work"

-> It's not a big surprise that the port is done internally. This has nothing to do with the game being a surprise or not
-> It's not a big surprise that the port is done internally, cause they already did internal linux client work. This shows that blizz has internal Linux knowledge, therefore doing the port inhouse instead of hiring externals to do it.

I hope everything is clear for you right now.
If they really wanted to bring a Wow linux client, they could have done that years ago. They could also do it NOW, cause it seems to be working already. But this will not happen.

Imo it will either be D3 or SC2, but my bets are on SC2 .

Yes, you want it to be SC2, yet that is unlikly.

If you have Diablo III.exe, Wow(-64).exe and Starcraft II.exe on your system, do this for fun:

strings *.exe | grep -i linux.

Guess how many hits you'll get from D3? Yes, zero. So D3 is highly unlikly.
SC2 does have a hit, so it does seem possible, but still unlikly. (I forgot on the top of my head what this string was)
Wow however, actually has the following:
IsLinuxClient
as one of the strings. So even the 2013 builds still have this functionality and it is quite likely a Wow client internally still exists and is used to this day.

So if we are talking about minimal effort to port, then Wow stands a good chance.

And the 'why haven't they released this years ago' ... is kinda asking the obvious. They didn't want to. While to us it seems obvious, they could release an unsupported client, it will still require possible extra support questions and thus cost blizzard's support staff extra time and thus money they don't want to spend.

[gamerk2]

And the 'why haven't they released this years ago' ... is kinda asking the obvious. They didn't want to. While to us it seems obvious, they could release an unsupported client, it will still require possible extra support questions and thus cost blizzard's support staff extra time and thus money they don't want to spend.

More or less. Thats why you typically see ports from studios say "Ubuntu Linux" instead of "Linux". Supporting one distro cuts down a LOT of costs, since you technically don't have to support every Linux distro under the sun. Nevermind that WINE is a major disincentive to undergo such an effort. The working line of thought: The people who want a game on Linux already buy it, and run it through Wine. Therefore, there is no profit to be made undergoing a port, no matter how trivial.

[aironeous]

"Just say no" to Kung fu pandas.
Sorry but when Blizzard put that up on the website I thought it was a joke. When I found out it was not a joke I unsubscribed. I don't care if the CEO eats bamboo and shites paper and the staff are all - and have always been - pandas, that crap doesn't belong in the genre as a playable character so they lost my money.
Coming to linux won't make a difference to me.
Always on DRM (Diablo 3) that doesn't fly with me either, not getting my money.
Torchlight 2, that'll get my money though.

[Ishayu]

"Just say no" to Kung fu pandas.
Sorry but when Blizzard put that up on the website I thought it was a joke. When I found out it was not a joke I unsubscribed. I don't care if the CEO eats bamboo and shites paper and the staff are all - and have always been - pandas, that crap doesn't belong in the genre as a playable character so they lost my money.
Coming to linux won't make a difference to me.
Always on DRM (Diablo 3) that doesn't fly with me either, not getting my money.
Torchlight 2, that'll get my money though.

Ah, you must be one of those god awfully stupid lolpanda trolls we saw around this time last year.

Pandaria is beautiful and short of a few mistakes in PvP which are being rectified way faster than previously this I the best expansion so far by a lot shot. Cataclysm was fucking shit, especially compared to this.

Sorry you missed out because you think blizzard copied Kung Fu Panda, even though Pandaren were in Warcraft lore since 1998 and was added to wc3 as a joke. They almost got added to tBC too.

I'd personally love to see WoW on Linux. I'd play the living daylights out of that thing.

[IanS]

Speaking of Warcraft 3 and its pandas, I would actually rather see that game ported than WoW. WoW costs too damn much, both in expansions, subscription, and time commitments to do (and continue to have access to) any of the fun end game stuff. I dropped that game like a bad habit a few years ago, haven't touched anything after Lich King. If they want to get me back to WoW they would have to move to a business model like the Guild Wars games where all I have to do is buy the game and they provide the server access as a free service to game owners.

[Hamish Wilson]

Thats why you typically see ports from studios say "Ubuntu Linux" instead of "Linux".

You do know that two examples does not exactly equal a trend, right?

You notice most Indies don't say this crap.

[aironeous]

Holy crap that was exactly what I did not want to hear again for the thousandth time^
One ....more......time...
I don't care if the CEO himself is a panda, get it out of the game, it does not belong in the genre.
I don't care if god himself is a panda and we are all pandas inside and the cartoon movie called kung fu pandas was never made it is still a retarded character and the very very very last choice that should have ever been made and most stupidest and most childish like character you could ever choose.
If there was no kung fu panda movie someone would have thought of it (as a doll, cartoon, tv show, something) anyways because the animal is a kiddy cutie icon that does not belong in the genre as a playable character warrior period.
It does not belong!
Next expansion - hello kitty class
Strawberry shortcake death knights
My little pony mounts

NO!!!! Stop it now!

[nightmarex]

Torchlight 2, that'll get my money though.

I hope to God they bring TL2 to Linux and soon.

[IanS]

I hope to God they bring TL2 to Linux and soon.

I wouldn't hold my breath. I was looking it up during the Steam holiday sales to decide if it would be worth buying, but from what I have seen from their devs a Linux port is a low priority and a ways out if ever. So I skipped them over this round, waiting to see if anything changes by the time the summer sale comes around, I got enough games to keep me occupied until the official Steam release and then a bunch more games I own should finally become available to play natively, so I don't mind waiting.

[Hamish Wilson]

Runic Games are rather like Team Meat in that they think Linux is only worth supporting to get into the Humble Indie Bundle. Which is somewhat unfortunate, but means we will likely see a port of TL2 in a later Bundle, just like we did with Shank 2 (whose devs seem to have a similar mindset).