So, “the next release will be a surprise, and sooner than people think”? Yes, Mafia 2 will be released for Linux next month. One year before its release on other platforms. :P

Ok, we’ll see.

Of course, I am just teasing people by saying that, and not giving any real information {:-)

Release Date confirmed to be 11 September 2009″

That’s great news. I didn’t expect to see the announcement this soon. I’ve waited for this game since the announcement the game was coming to Linux. This will be an instant buy (boxed version of course. :)) I’m going to buy this game three times: one box for myself, one box for my Linux using friend and one box for… the shelf, just an additional buy to reward LGP for bringing this great game to Linux.

Well, Shadowgrounds: Survivor is ready, but now I’m wondering what will be the next game LGP will bring to Linux. I don’t think you can say something about it, but I just give it a try: Are there any new projects already in development we don’t know about? Are you close to a deal to bring a new game to Linux, which will be announced soon?

I also hope Sacred 2 (and its addon) will be released for Linux. Let’s hope sales of Sacred: Gold will be good enough.

S***w the bribe money! I’m willing to learn SDL, OpenGL and openal and do it myself!

As for the subject at hand, I fully agree.
If you are buying a Windows title, you should not expect to get the Linux title for free. (Especially given the fact that the Linux title is being ported by a second entity.)
Far worse, people tend to forget that if you buy a Windows title – even if it’s being used it under Wine, your vote counts as a Windows user, (As opposed to buying a Linux title) and by doing it, you perpetuate the “tiny Linux games market share” problem.

- Gilboa

Ah, btw. now that Ascaron went bankrupt, would there still be any chance left to see Sacred 2 ported by LGP any time in the future?
AFAIK the Addon for S2 will be finished but they’re already bankrupt by now.

And Patrick, they tried selling boxed Linux version. (Quake 3 had one, I have it :D)
But apparently they did not sell too well. Most Linux people had already bought the Windows version and used the binary from their website.

As for Survivor, an announcement is due any day now. You can always tell a release is close when the LGP website gets boxart, which it has now got.

id Software develops great games, but I don’t like their downloadable installers. To run their games on Linux, I have to buy the game for Windows. Buying the Windows version to be able to play a game on Linux? Ridiculous. You don’t buy a Xbox game to play it on your playstation, so why should someone be forced to buy a game for a plaform he doesn’t use to be able to play the game on the platform he does use?

I don’t want to buy the Windows version. Doing so only means more sales for the Windows platform. I want Linux to become a big platform. I want Linux to have a great market share. I don’t want to see Microsoft everywhere around me. Buying Windows versions only makes Microsoft grow. People look at those sales results and they see all of those sales for the Windows platform, so they think: “See how many times the Windows version is sold. Windows is the platform to release games.” Good sales for the Windows platform means even more games for the Windows platform. If the Windows platform has good sales they won’t even think about releasing their games for other operating systems. Why should they? They earn enough money by only selling the game for Windows.

I want Windows games to have worse sales results, so developers will for other ways to earn money. If games for Windows don’t bring enough money, developers will go searching for other ways to get any money. If they see there’s a company, like LGP, who releases games for Linux and they see they can earn more money by releasing their games not only for Windows, but also for Linux, they’ll think about doing a Linux release. As long as people don’t buy native Linux games, but instead buy the game for Windows to play it on Linux, developers won’t even think about doing a Linux release. Their Windows sales are good enough, so why should they even care about doing a release on Linux?

That’s also why I hate WINE. In my opinion WINE is no good for Linux as a gaming platform, but only hurts the Linux platform. LGP just released Sacred: Gold. People keep on complaining about LGP prices and what do they do? They buy the (much cheaper) Windows version of the game and play this version on Linux using WINE. To all those people: You’re no good for the Linux platform. You’re only increasing sales for Windows, instead of increasing sales for Linux. You’re only making the Windows platform bigger, instead of the Linux platform. Developers and publishers don’t know you’re playing the game on Linux. You buy the game for Windows and they see an additional sale for Windows. They don’t see good sales for Linux, so they think: “Okay, Linux users don’t want to pay for games. Why should we even bother to develop or release games for them. Wow, look at those Windows sales. Those are great. This certainly is the platform for games.” It doesn’t matter if 25% of all those Windows games aren’t even played on Windows. They count as a sale for Windows and it’s only a win situation for Microsoft.

If you like Linux and you want to play your games on Linux, then don’t buy Windows version, to play them using WINE, but instead contact those developers and publishers to ask for a Linux release. If there’s a release for Linux, then buy it.

There’s another reason why WINE is bad for Linux games. Developers don’t see a reason to put any effort and time into a Linux release. Why should they? They know about the existance of WINE and they know Linux users can play Windows games using WINE. The WINE community does this for free. It doesn’t cost a developer anything get the game running on Linux. Why should they even bother about putting time and money in a native Linux release, as the WINE community does this work for free. Those Linux gamers just buy the Windows version, so there’s no loss in sales. Linux gamers still buy the game and the developer doesn’t have to do anything to get the game running on Linux. Would you put any time and money in something other people can do for you for free?

Nowadays Linux gamers are satisfied, because they can play games on Linux. Developers are satisfied, because they don’t have to do anything to get the game running on Linux, but they still earn money from those Linux users who buy the Windows version.

Now imagine there’d be no WINE. This means Linux users would stop buying any Windows games, so sales for the Windows platform will decrease. Developers will see a lost in sales, so they go searching for a way to earn more money. Because there’s no more WINE, Linux gamers can’t play anymore games, so they’ll be screaming for games: “We also want to play games, please release your games for Linux.” Developers will see all those Linux gamers screaming for games and they’ll think: “Hey, there are a lot of Linux users who are asking for our games. Maybe the Linux platform can earn us some additional income. Let’s try it. Let’s release a few games for Linux and see how sales are for this platform.” Because Windows games don’t run anymore under Linux, Linux users are forced to buy the Linux version. That’s the end of all those people buying $10,- Windows games to play them on Linux. People will buy the Linux version, instead of the Windows version, so Linux sales will increase, while sales for the Windows platform will decrease.

That will make Linux grow. Other developers will see those sales results for Linux games and when people start asking for Linux releases on their forum, those developers will also start thinking about doing releases for Linux. More and more games will be released and the market for Linux games will grow. More games for Linux, means less reasons to keep on using Windows. For most people games are the reason to keep on using Windows, but with more game releases for Linux, there’d be no reason to keep on using Windows. Those gamers can now safely switch to Linux and Linux can grow. This way Linux can finally become the ruler of the desktop.

But to accomplish this, people have to buy Linux versions, instead of Windows version. I don’t want WINE and I don’t want to download an installer. I just don’t want to buy a Windows version, as I don’t want the Windows version to have even more sales. I want to see native games for Linux and I want to see good sales for the Linux version.

Remember I’m not a proffesional in marketing and sales, I’m just a customer. I only say how I think about it and I only describe what I think will happen.

By the way: What’s status of Shadowgrounds: Survivor? The product page still mentions 30 March 2009 as release date. Can this release date be updated? It looks so amaturistic to have a expected release date of five months ago. Can you tell us anything about its release date? If you really don’t know when the game will be released, why not change the release date to just “2009″ or “Q4 2009″? That looks better than a release date of five months ago while the game is still in development. I hope the game will be released soon. I’m really looking forward to this game.