WTH... Steam is NOT coming to Linux?!?

[Edvard]

With the recent brouhaha over Valve software's Steam content delivery service possibly being ported to Linux, this latest bit of news is a bit of a puzzler for many:

Question: Final question, and one I’m sure you’re not super-keen to answer, but I promised one of our tech guys I’d ask it. What truth is there to rumours that you’re also working on a Linux version of Steam?

Doug Lombardi: There’s no Linux version that we’re working on right now.

As Digitizor and others report, the dream is over...


...or is it?

[Josh]

Why would they? There really isn't a market for linux gaming. Most of the gaming which is done on Linux is done through Wine or some form of Wine anyways.

[zridling]

Two reasons: proprietary code (of course), and simple numbers. If there's not money to be made, there's no reason for them to spend the time. I don't figure gaming will ever be sufficiently open source, except for games you don't want to play!

[Edvard]

@Josh:

Most of the gaming which is done on Linux is done through Wine or some form of Wine anyways.

Of course it is.
But Steam isn't about porting so much as content delivery, so find some developers willing to use cross-platform engines (see Unigine, ferinstance) or bundle games that work well in Wine and I guarantee you've got customers.
Besides, everyone I've talked to about this has told me the Mac platform has never been a platform of choice for games, so it's just as mysterious to them why Valve would build an official Mac port that's getting all kinds of fanfare at the moment.
So the question remains, why wouldn't they build Steam for Linux, especially when so much work has already been done on it?
As far as market share, read on...

@Zaine:
At what point does gaming have to be sufficiently open source for Linux users to magically become a gaming force?
Of course proprietary code is always going to be a sticky point for the philosophy-conscientious among the Linux crowd, but you develop Linux ports of quality, popular games and I bet some exceptions will be made.
Besides, nobody said you couldn't have proprietary software on your Linux box, did they?

As far as numbers are concerned, money to be made and the market thereof, simply read here how 2DBoy and Frictional made out with their games:
http://jeffhoogland....for-linux-games.html
What was that?
10-12% of total profits from a platform that only has 1% of the desktop market?
When asked to donate, Linux users donated almost twice the average?
No market for Linux gaming? 

Nuts to both of you... 
(ahem... the fresh-roasted kind with an even ratio of peanuts to exotics  )

[Deozaan]

Why would they? There really isn't a market for linux gaming. Most of the gaming which is done on Linux is done through Wine or some form of Wine anyways.

-Josh (August 27, 2010, 09:03 PM)

Every game I play these days, with the exception of one, is from Steam or can be run on Linux without the need for Wine. If Steam were to come out for Linux, and somehow all the games I own on Steam were to work on Linux (two very different things), then there'd really be no reason for me to stick with Windows.