Feel free however to grab these to great titles from our resellers who still have stock available.

We didn’t have an update in May, as very few issues seemed to be similar, and we simply dealt with them on an individual basis.

This month we have a couple of new issues to discuss.

X3: Hanging or Crashing

This issue has been affecting a small number of people, where X3 seems to be leaking memory. We are in the process of assigning a new staff member to look for this issue, as a matter of priority. The problem does not seem to affect everyone, as many players play for long periods of time with no problem, where some can hit the problem in five minutes of play.

While we acknowledge that the bug does indeed seem to be there, it may be some time until a fix can be provided, as it may take some time to locate such an elusive bug.

Sacred Networking Bug

The networking bug in Sacred that we have talked about previously seems to be more widespread than first suspected. We have found what could possibly be a solution, and we are hoping to have a patch out soon. However we are still working on a few other issues to resolve before the Sacred patch is ready.

We have listened and created the reseller download system.

From today all resellers will be able to sell downloadable copies of LGP games, and these will be cheaper than boxed copies. LGP is not selling downloadable versions directly, as to do so would seriously damage the ability of the reseller chain to compete meaningfully.

When buying a downloadable game you are guaranteed the following:

1. All LGP games will be re-downloadable from LGP itself for as long as we are in business
2. All full downloadable games, while keylocked, will always work, even if LGP shuts down
3. In the unlikely event of LGP going out of business, all downloaded games will be placed onto the bittorrent network (in a keylocked state obviously) so that they will remain in circulation for as long as people demand them.

Rental Option

We have also listened to those who wanted ridiculously low prices on their games. We have created the LGP Rental system. Any downloadable game is now available for rental. This means you can pay just a fraction of the price, and have the game for a week, or for a month. The rental games DO require internet access to start up, but apart from that are exactly the same as the full game. I know some of you will dislike this, but really, it is rental, we have to have stronger security on it. The downloadable purchased game does NOT require internet access to start the game.

Right now, the only games we have that are available for download or rental are the three newest games that have the LGP Key System, X3, Jets’n'Guns, and Sacred. Other games will follow as we get time to add them into the system.

I hope that this will be what you all wanted, and will give everyone, even those that want their games for next to nothing, the ability to play LGP games. If you can think of other things we can do with downloads, please do comment here and let us know. I wont promise that LGP will do everything that people ask, but I can say, and I think we have now proved this, we DO listen {:-)

A lot of people have made the complaint ‘but I can get this game for half the price on Windows’.

Sure, you often can. But that isn’t the point. The point is, Linux isn’t Windows. We try and release our games at a price that is comparable to, if not a little lower then, a new release game on other platforms. For example, our newest three games have been priced with X3 at £30, Jets’n'Guns at £15, and Sacred Gold at £27. Compare this to 3 new releases for Windows, Sims 3 at £40, Spore’s expansion at £20, and Street Fighter IV and £30. The prices are comparable.

We agree that most games we produce have already been out on Windows for a while, but thats the big point. Why does a Linux user care about what is available on another platform? It is a new game to THIS platform. A couple of years ago, I saw a copy of Doom 1 for the PS2 for £50 when the engine was already open sourced and you could buy the windows version for about a pound. Thats what happens on other platforms.

So, thats one reason.

The other is, the price reflects what it costs us to make it.

We have to pay developers who often have to spend months rewriting large portions of a game. Porting isn’t a 5 minute job, stick it in a Makefile and gcc will take care of the differences. Not even close. Developers take months making the games run on Linux, and we have to ensure we can pay them properly for their work.

Another question we are often asked is ‘I bought this game for Windows, can I just download a copy for Linux because I’ve already paid for it’.

The answer is no. It will always be no. We get no share of revenue from the sale of the Windows version. I understand why people are reluctant to pay for it twice, but look at it from our point of view. We spend months making a game, and then people expect us to give it away for free because they gave money to another company. Thats like going into McDonalds, buying a coke, drinking it, then going into BK and asking for a refill! The product is the same, the company is different.

When it comes down to it, we know we cannot compete with Windows games on price for the game. We take a finished Windows product and make it run on Linux. This means by the nature of our business we will release after the game is available on Windows, and the shelf-life of a Windows game is so short that it is highly unlikely we will release the game while it is still on the full price new releases shelf. And so it comes down to this:

We release games for the Linux OS. If you are going to dual boot, or have a second Windows machine for gaming, then you will be able to get it cheaper. Just like if you own a PS3, a game for Windows will be £10 cheaper when it comes out. Or if you own a mac, the games will be at the same price level as Linux games, sometimes earlier, sometimes later.

If you want more games for your OS, then you need to buy the ones that are available. If you just want cheaper, then buy for Windows, but don’t complain when there arent enough games for Linux.

Welcome to a new monthly report for the LGP Blog. Here, I’m going to run though the common problems people have reported over the last month here at the customer services team, and report on how these have been resolved, or how to work around the problems. We are not addressing all the issues, just the top two or three that lots of people have had problems with, those that we think it would be helpful for people to be able to read up on!

X3: Reunion – Problems on a number of ATI cards – Patch Available

This problem manifests itself with the game crashing after the loading screen when starting a new game on a small number of ATI based graphics cards.

Finally after weeks of trying, we have managed to reproduce the error on one of our test servers. Our technical team have finished working on the solution and the patch is now available for everyone to download in our updates section.

X3: Reunion – Problem with the game not starting

This problem is one reported by a number of people who have been trying to run X3 using open source drivers for their graphics cards. Unfortunately, at this point in time, neither the ATI or Nvidia open source graphics drivers are capable of running X3, due to the requirement of Shader Model 3.

You can find out if your current setup can run X3 by downloading our Test Tool and checking that the Shader Level reported by the test tool is at least 3.0, and that Direct Rendering is possible.

So, without further ado, here is a photo of just over 200 copies of X3 Special Edition all in one place!