2500+ games coming all at once thanks to Microsoft?

More than one publisher in the gaming industry is saying Windows 8 is a catastrophe. They are mentioning Linux as an alternative in this article, a Valve rep had this to say (look under the heading On Valve’s interest in Linux):
"The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don’t realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It’s a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.

Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard Entertainment, Rob Pardo, repeated "I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space" adding "not awesome for Blizzard either".

Is it a good idea if UVL has a script ready to add all the Linux entries for Steam games in case the bulk of them become available in a short amount of time? Actually, there could be a more general script to add steam games as they become available.

I've already seen that article.
I wonder how they are going to make those games work on Linux. If it is done via Wine (or similar) they should'n be added, just like NES games in 3DS aren't new entries.
Something like Longene would be different.

However if we'll have to add those 2500 games, the script will be handy.

Valve can't force other developers/publishers to port their games for Linux. They don't even do that for Mac which has been an option for some time now. They might add wrapper/option for running Windows games under Wine though, I guess.

That said, there's no need to anticipate rush of 2500 new games suddenly coming to Linux, not from Steam anyway. Just because the service comes to Linux, doesn't mean all the games do too.

[edited to former state: You may quote my post but not edit it!]

Publishers will do what they think earns them the most money. If it is by bringing their games to Linux they will do it. I don't like Windows 8 so far and think I will stick with Windows 7 for the next years. That Microsoft store thing bothers me as a collector the same as do all the other digital distribution channels - Apple, Origin, Steam.... I like my physical copies, although I know it is - very sadly - not the future.

But I don't expect Linux to be the lead OS when it comes to PC gaming in the future. Mainstream will stay with Windows for quite a while and thus I don't think that AA(A)-titles will hit Linux. Linux would only have a chance if top titles would make it there exclusively. If a AAA-title comes on Windows and Linux, whats the point for someone who has access to Windows to install Linux as well? Only reason would be if the price of the Linux version of the game is significantly lower then the Windows version; and that is something I doubt the publishers will do.

Now the edit link is moved to the post header, and doesn't look like a button. Shouldn't be confused anymore.
-edit-
And have added a quick link to the editing logs too.
-edit-
Added some color to the text diff, and made more noticeable the fact that you are editing an article of someone else.

The title should change too, such as "edit article" should only be for when you're modifying already existing article, "reply" when replying/quoting, and "new post/article/thread" when creating something completely new. Or something in that direction. Current "edit article" for all doesn't distinguish them from each other.

So what about a generalized steam-games-on-the-fly script?

PS: Chris Delay, lead designer at Introversion, Markus Persson and Dean Hall, creator of DayZ have sided with "The Windows 8 disaster".

Windows 8 will be only useful for businesses and such, it's seemingly not made for actual consumers.

I am amused by the irony that employees that once installed Windows games on their office PC will now be turning to non-mainstream means for their unauthorized gaming.

No big surprise that Valve hates Windows 8 – it's got a marketplace, similar to the App Store, which will cut smack dab into Steam's profits. So of course they are going to bash it as hard as they can. They're still going to support it.

I don't think Windows 8 will be a success though either. I thought matching the user interface and interaction paradigms of desktop computer and touch devices was a stupid idea the first time I heard it, and nothing I've seen changed my mind. It's just not how people work. On a phone, sure, we like that kind of stuff, having some widgets for actuality information and updates, etc., or for pad devices that are more for dicking around than anything productive. But for actual work, it just gets in the way, and I think removing the classical interface was a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. That the Surface is kind of underwhelming doesn't help.

But that's the consistent continuation of the cycle we've come to know: 95 bad, 98 good, Me bad, XP good, Vista bad, 7 good – a bad one was due, and it will probably go down the same way it did last time. Most people will stick to (or even downgrade to) Windows 7, until Microsoft fixes their stuff and makes a better version.

98 was bad, it was 98SE that was good. You also missed 2000, which was good too. Then there's the server versions, but we can ignore those.

Windows 8 is like it's actually new version of Windows Mobile rather than the desktop operating systems, and it blatantly ignores the many reasons work computers are desktop computers instead of tablets or similar, the separate pointer devices and non-virtual keyboards are just too good for productivity.

Valve will probably not specifically support Windows 8 any more than Windows 8 supports applications for older versions of Windows. So their customers who err to "upgrade" to Win8 will still be able to buy more games. But, Valve will follow customers. If enough of their customer base moves to Windows 8, Valve will support it as well. They do those automated hardware surveys that include OS information and such for a reason.

So Steam is pushing Linux. There's a lot of behind the sceens goings on suggesting they are seriously preparing for a possible future where Linux has the majority gaming market. Comparably, their Mac support looks like it their embarrassed of it. Note the [Linux] link at the top of the site, but no [Mac] link (there is a Mac link, click it and see, but its just not promoted). Yet despite all the push, the site is still highly Windows-centric. For instance, listing games by date using any of their services will list them but Windows the date. This leads to annoyances such as arranging the Greenlight list by date, showing only Linux games, but then seeing newly added Green light Linux games on page 8 of 9 rather than the top of the list. That Linux Linux I just mentioned, the "Featured Linux Games" there are actually Featured Windows Games with Linux versions (note, rumor has it that this will be corrected today, but still). In fact, I can find no Linux related service on their site that is not defined by the Windows versions of the games. Since their are doing so much more for Linux than Mac and still don't seem to have a way to not only script a usable list of Linux releases but users can not even manually compile such as list, I'd say there is never going to be an easy way to script Linux steam releases into UVL. At least, not until Linux has a the majority market share. Even then, the problem flips the other way when we start getting Linux exclusives on steam. There're going to have to distinctify Linux, Mac, and Windows entries.

I can't remember if it was there when Mac support was added, but it could be a way to advertize that it's there now.

Steam Client Beta Announcement
Steam Client for Linux was originally targeted only to Ubuntu and installable only there. It is now possible to package Steam for installation on any distro. This means Steam will show up in package managers, have their dependency tracking, files will be put where they are supposed to go, and all users of a computer can be easily granted access to Steam. And developers need not include redundant libraries in their downloads (smaller downloads). Though in this arrangement, they will likely have redundant downloads separately in case a user finds that they are required (many commercial-proprietary Linux developers have include drop-in library options). This also opens the possibility of Steam for FreeBSD and several other UNIX-likes as well.

Note, like the Desura Client which is also not distro specific, the ability to install the client does not guarantee games will work on any given distro. Its likely that individual game developers will continue to target only Ubuntu for the time being. But as many Linuxers have discovered, if you can run it on Ubuntu, chances are you can run it on any distro.

And to further complicate matters. Not all Linux games show up in searches of Seam's services.
For example, Factorio. Will not show up in any Linux filtered searches at all. I wonder if any Mac games suffer from this as well?

EDIT: Hold off on that. Factorio does show up in searches in Norwegian and Brazilian. That makes perfect sense since Factorio will be available in English and Czech.

Greenlight and Steam workshop search is a bit finicky, but games that are in Greenlight are NOT in Steam (yet; and with exception of the obvious ones that've passed the gather-sufficient-interest part).

Edit: Factorio itself is in Concepts section of Greenlight, not in the get-into-steam-store part, so that's likely reason why it doesn't show up in searches unless you specifically search in the concepts section.

Yes I was aware of that and Factorio did show up for me in the Concepts search. But it disappeared when the Linux filter was active. This Small Man was another example. However, Steam seems to have corrected the problem now. At least for these two examples.

Although PC based, Steambox will by tightly hardware controlled in a similar manor to other game consoles. In contrast, every effort will be made to make the software choices unrestricted. It was once said Steambox would ship with Windows and have a Linux option officially supported. This is nothing new. The PS2 had an official Linux Kit option and the PS3 shipped with an option to boot another operating system (unofficially provided by strategic ally IBM. Who officially modified their favorite Linux distros to work on the PS3, and officially recommended YellowDog Linux for use on the PS3.) So other consoles have allowed and even supported running Linux as an aftermarket 'accessory'. But Steam's Windows with Linux option for the SteamBox was spoken about _before_ Windows 8. Now there's a different offer on the table. SteamBox will ship with Linux, Windows will be an unofficial aftermarket accessory. So will this mean SteamBox will not play Windows games unless consumers install Windows? Not likely. Valve will is investigating several ways to run Windows games on Linux. The current options are not up to standard and most require too much cooperation by 3rd party developers to ensure 100% compatibility. Valve's strategy will be a custom developed solution of streaming the games. Video, audio, data will be streamed to the client and input will be streamed back to a server. SteamBox users who do not install Windows will play Windows games by remote. Once again, this makes the market one of selling a service, not game products. But SteamBox will not be streaming only. There will be as many as 3 SteamBox models. 'SteamBox Good' will be the entry level, stream everything option with no point whatsoever to install Windows. 'SteamBox Better' will have a decent CPU and run games natively. If consumers want Windows, this one fits the bill. Its also equally suitable for any other Linux distro one desires to use instead of Steam's pre-installed selection (most likely a Steam branded Ubuntu). 'SteamBox Best' is premium. Basically a high quality PC in a small form-factor.

The Xi3 Piston is not the SteamBox. But Valve will be supporting the Piston since its is a PC.

I do not think I'll ever play these streamed games. I dislike the very idea so much that I've not even considered trying the already existing services for it (e.g. OnLive). In other words, I'd rather get emulation than streaming any day. Streaming would be acceptable if I believed it did not suffer from network latency significantly, I actually did not lose ability to play the games when the streaming service dies or has hiccups, etc. It's like all the DRM in the world but made Worse by immeasurable amount.

UPDATE:
You still cannot easily get a Linux or Mac release date out of Steam. Their release dates are for Windows versions, even in cases where the Windows version was not the first to be published on Steam. If the company bothers to post in "news" or "updates" about the Mac or Linus version, this can provide a date. However, most company fail to acknowledge they've added a Linux version at all, and only a few more than that acknowledge added a Mac version.


I actually don't mind streaming in theory, including network latency, if its an appropriate game. Action games, bad idea. Turn-based, plan-and-execute, adventure games, no problem with these.

The release date on Steam is usually the very first release date (original release date, or at least one of the previous retail only releases) or the date it became available on Steam for any platform. So they are not always correct even for Windows. This is mostly because that release date seems to be responsibility of the publisher/developer rather than Steam itself, so you need to go through News posts when it was released for additional platforms and do other digging for the first platform in some cases.

Also, beta and early access releases are not considered real releases and even if they become available earlier are not necessarily the actual release date (see Reus for example, it's still in pre-release beta access in Steam for Mac&Linux with final release still in future).

I suspected this. But the language on the site suggests that they've finished the job and are moving on to their next project. They pretty much say they botched the presentation of Reus and they don't really get specific on what actions (if any) were taken to correct any of the problems with their presentation. They seem to be admitting guilt but continuing on as if they didn't.

I don't think Steam currently handles well non-simultaneous releases on multiple platforms, there's just news postings about it on occasion and sometimes pumping the game up in the new games lists but no actual dates recorded except for those news posts.

Well, they are not perfect yet. But this handles the issue pretty darn well:
Linux:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=#sort_by=Released_DESC&sort_order=DESC&category1=998&os=linux&page=1
Mac:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=#sort_by=Released_DESC&sort_order=DESC&category1=998&os=mac&page=1

Those show the same dates as the actual store page, which doesn't give platform independent release dates. So you still are working with date that is not necessarily the actual one for the particular platform you're listing them for.