[AnthonyMouse]

The console game makers don't have any obvious way to cut the retailers (or the console makers) out of the loop. In this case they do: Let people buy games for Linux instead of Windows and get an automatic 42% bump in revenue from everyone who does. Why wouldn't they do it? Especially given that they already have to write portable code in order to support Windows + non-Microsoft consoles + maybe Mac or (depending on what kind of game) Android and iOS, etc.

It's a lot easier to port something to the third OS once you've already done the second one, because the second one caused you to identify and separate all of the bits that are platform dependent, or (better) choose platform-neutral libraries rather than platform-specific ones in the first place.

And if Linux becomes a common gaming platform, and is free and capable of running on all computers, it becomes easier for game makers to ultimately say "we're not supporting Windows anymore, here's a free Ubuntu live CD" -- or just raise the price of the Windows version of the game by 42% more than the Linux version to make up for the 30% cut Microsoft is taking and let the free market do the work for them.

[zanny]

The magic problem is people hate change. They don't want anything to change. They want to get Call of Boring 15 DLC Pack 582 and zombie their brain out for a few hours.

Installing Linux, although in many ways superior (I think iptables is such a better firewall, no need for antivirus because of a good privileges model, Apparmor can be really useful, packages are amazing and almost every Linux distro does them pretty well) is too much of a hassle for the 90% of people that want a computer like they want a hammer or TV. It is a tool, you hit the button, something you want happens. Having to understand the entire thing is slightly more complex than that requires way too much mental exertion.

It is, in the end, why "Linux on the desktop" never happened. It was never the default. It was never on the Best Buy shelf when grannies 15 year old laptop broke and she needed a new facebook machine.

[AnthonyMouse]

I don't think anybody really expects it to happen overnight. But "it doesn't run games" has always been one of the major sticking points behind home Linux adoption. Just the native availability of major titles would be an enormous boost. Then throw in that Microsoft has given game makers a financial incentive to promote Linux gaming because game makers keep more of their revenues when their customers use Linux instead of Windows, and you have the seeds of change.

And nobody ever said it would start with grandma buying a computer with Ubuntu from Best Buy. Standard issue grandma is not a big gamer. Instead the gamers who are already at the margin of Linux adoption, who just need a little push, get it from game makers who now have the incentive to promote Linux adoption because it puts more money in their own pockets. They charge less for the Linux version, or release it a month earlier than the Windows version. Soon a lot of the people who call their computer a "gaming rig" are dual booting Linux, and bitching at any game company whose game requires them to boot into Windows. Only after that happens do you start seeing Ubuntu on computers at Best Buy.

[touristtam]

Yes, but ....

There is a demographic issue there as well: The gamer population on the verge of swapping windows for linux due to game availibility, might be getting through life changes that will reduce their impact as a customer base, although they purchase power might have substantively grown with them. The best bet would be for a video game console base on a linux distribution to serve those linux games, that would not have a entry tax to get published as opposed to the current competition in this market.

Demand seems to always drives supply in this electronic economy (not based on any studies or scientific process; more like an observation).

Just 2 cents.

[uxp]

> "we're not supporting Windows anymore, here's a free Ubuntu live CD"

Oddly enough, somewhere around 10 years ago I bought Quake 3 Arena on a store shelf for Linux, and it came with a SuSE installation disk.