Steam HW survey: Mac are 1.35%, Linux 1.90%... but is the industry reacting to this?
Steam HW survey: Mac are 1.35%, Linux 1.90%... but is the industry reacting to this?
The PC gaming industry (AAA and such) seems more sensible the economy of money around the Apple Platform, for sure. But we're talking about iOS gaming... not exactly what keep the industry busy with complex technologies like RayTracing, cutting edge PBR textures and gigallion of cinematic rendered Quadruple-A art assets.
Epic Game Store is a special offender on two different side (outside the common BS from EA or Ubisoft). On the Unreal Engine side they claim full support, on their Store it's 0 (zero).
I wonder... are they actually making more money on MacOS rather Linux... or they are just "keeping their door open with Apple": stats are clear, you're more likely to see a Linux PC equipped with a RTX 4080Ti than any Mac. What kind of cutting edge gaming they are offering on their store for their exclusive Mac customers?
Only thing I can think of it's... just Fortnite. Fortinite is the only reason why they are sided on Mac side, even if market is lower. I think Epic would probably prefer to see Apple AAA gaming experience to fall in the void, rather promote Windows alternative to their customers (in which, in the end, would greatly help Apple-AAA if they embrace open software devices like Proton, Vulkan etc.).
In the end, I think Epic reflect perfectly the mindset of the AAA industry. Linux de facto boicotting (ie: Anticheat that disable linux support), it's not a real preference towards Apple.
...they just want to deal with Microsoft and/or Sony only (notice how Nintendo is mostly ignored too!). They see with fear adding factors to the top of the chain: Linux is an absolute no-no due it's democratic nature... which add deep uncertain to those accustomed with a single emperor/pharaoh figure.
What I've heard from gamedevs is that Linux games are their lowest sales and their highest bug reports. Some of that may be from working on a system they aren't used to, but it just reinforces the idea that they aren't going to make money there yet.
I know a couple game devs and absolutely blasted them for that take.
We have had quite a few indy devs make the point that the "Linux" bugs are generally cross platform issues and Linux users are more likely to raise a bug report and tend to raise more useful bug reports.
Which means avoiding Linux due to higher bug reports is just hiding from technical debt.
That used to be the case but I wonder if it still is.
Modern software is loaded down with telemetry and crash reporting. So the software itself is likely doing the reporting at this point.
Linux definitely has more weird permutations with regards to software and hardware and would expect it to produce more issues just based on that.
As already told, this is no sense from logical stand point.
I mean, if someone come to you and tell "there's job to do here"... that's definitely not a nice experience. The real problem come when you realize that "nobody is telling you anything": that looks like a nice experience, but that's just the proverbial moment before "the shit hit the fan".
If someone give you a bug report they, generally, don't go around and file a bad review: they saw something wrong with your product and, wherever you're gonna fix or not, they go on with their lives. (now, if you get a really motivated person, usually it mean you got someone who investigate with you the problem with their file log etc).
On the other side, the "windows customer experience", they don't file bug report, hell no. So, what they do? What do you think it's the most natural thing someone do (if not filing bug reports) when their game crashes.
I think you guessed it: bad review on your steam page. "I paid, things don't work: gotta let everyone know the thing you made doesn't work"
On this note, I wonder if there is any correlation between review scores and operating system. If there are any devs on steam lurking here willing to contribute some data, it would be interesting to have a look at.
Well, of course they have the highest bug reports. Linux users naturally report bugs due to their history in open source.
Right? Like how dare someone try to help me make my product better!
I am shocked that the people who are more likely to know how to file a good bug report end up filing more bug reports
I remember reading that Epic went after Apple more to "test waters". While Apple has a significant presence in the mobile world, it was something like 2% of their revenue from Fortnite. Losing the legal fight wouldn't hurt them much (other than having to pay all the lawyering fees), but winning would mean they'd have grounds to fight Sony's hold on the Playstations, which is where a very significant portion of their playerbase is. Get rid of Sony's tax, EXTRA PROFITS!!
As for the hardware survey itself, Mac will never reach a point where it's a significant (>10%) of the players, first because of money, as macs and macbooks are stupidly expensive, second by not having as many titles as Windows. I know you also need to pay a fee to develop for iPhone, but I have no idea if that also applies to Mac, possibly not? Third, it's extremely unlikely to ever get a portable device similar to the Steamdeck.
On that portable front, we'll essentially see Valve vs. Microsoft, as the former would much rather not have to rely on Windows, something that makes even more sense with every Win11 update. Microsoft obviously doesn't want people to ditch Windows, so expect a "special portable edition" for some handhelds in the future.
we’ll essentially see Valve vs. Microsoft, as the former would much rather not have to rely on Windows
Valve has been working on exactly that for a decade now. It's why they created SteamOS, Steam Machines, and Proton. The current high point of all that work is the Steam Deck but it's possible we could see an official return of console like Steam Machines.
The underlying problem is if games stop getting Windows releases and instead go directly to Xbox / PlayStation / Nintendo consoles only.