Steam Play - Play Windows games via Steam on Linux

[Tom B]

This is huge news. Basically steam is now acting as playonlinux/lutris and allowing you to launch games via WINE. But, valve haven't just done that, it turns out that they paid the DXVK developers which is why its progress has been so rapid and impressive. They have their own fork of WINE called proton that they're using in Steam.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1696055855739350561

 

[Tom B]

This seems like an ok idea but as others have said it will probably mean developers will have an excuse to not put any time into developing linux native games.

Games developers might even use/re-purpose the tech to release non-native games across platforms like they did with cider (bundled wine) on mac os.

Honestly, short-mid term it doesn't matter. The reason I need to keep a windows installation is for gaming. If I can play my favourite games on Linux I'd prefer that, even at the expense of a few frames. If they can get 90% of games within 10% performance of Windows then people will switch. Most people don't care about the ideological difference between WINE and native games. Does my favourite game run or not?

If more people play games on Linux we should see better driver support for gaming hardware and more developers caring if/how their games run on Linux.

This breaks the catch 22: People won't switch to Linux because their games don't work, Developers won't won't support Linux because there's not enough market to make it profitable.