[jeffool]

That would also be genius marketing if they wanted to "flex nuts" and see just how strong of a following they could get if they ever did want to try to lure more users away from Windows, given Valve's Win8 complaints.

Of course, if it failed, it'd look odd.

Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal... Well, half the gamers with PCs would be swarming boards to get help booting Linux partitions. Then Steam would just have to get other publishers on board the "offer Linux too" train, like they did with the "one purchase for PC and Mac" strategy.

[masklinn]

> Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal...

Er... unless Canonical is paying for the license, I can't see how that'd happen, Ep3 (if it ever exists) won't be a 2~3-hours side-game bundled with two "full-fledged" games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box)

[jeffool]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did muddle that. See, sometimes they give Portal away completely for free. They've done it two or three times now. What I'm suggesting is that Valve gives everyone a free copy of Ep3 (or HL3, whatever they call it,) for Linux. Then I'm confident you'd see large numbers of gamers installing Linux partitions. And they could still charge for the Win/Mac version.

Of course, that's insanely unlikely. But I think it would be their strongest card in the "let's get everyone off of Windows" . I also think luring everyone to Linux (by filling in their catalog with "one purchase, all platforms" games) is probably cheaper for Valve than creating their own console.

But then, I may well attribute more good will to them (that they'd rather home computer gaming be on an open platform than another closed one, even if it was their own) than they deserve.

/edit: Ohhh, you mean "Portal wasn't a full fledged game, so... Unlikely." I get you. Sorry. Yes, I agree. Like I said here, insanely unlikely. But, as a tool to get more people to get away from Windows and the Win8 store... It would be irresistibly strong bait. And that's definitely in their long term interests.

[jiggy2011]

HL3 will be a huge money maker for them , I'd be amazed if they gave it away for free.

I suppose making it a Linux exclusive for some period of time might not be outside the realms of possibility. But I can't see what that would do apart from piss people off. Especially people who have no idea how to setup dual boot or who have hardware that isn't very compatible with Linux.

There may well be some perks for new Linux users, but probably more along the line of some extra skins for multiplayer or whatever.

[masklinn]

> But, as a tool to get more people to get away from Windows and the Win8 store... It would be irresistibly strong bait. And that's definitely in their long term interests.

They wouldn't have to give it away to do that. Just offer the Linux version 12h before the Windows version at normal price (and pre-announce it) and they'll burn Canonical's server into the ground under the load of gamers trying to get HL3 a few hours in advance.