Thursday, August 16th 2018

Valve Apparently Working on Compatibility Tools Allowing Windows Games to be Played on Linux

Keen-eyed Linux and Valve uses have noticed what could seemingly be a big reveal and shake-up to games' compatibility with the Linux platform. If you're a die-hard Linux fan, or even if you're just a curious dabbler in that operating system, you know that there aren't many concerted efforts of bringing game experiences to that operating system. A good port requires many more hours than game developers are willing to put into it - let alone compiling a native implementation of their game for that OS.

However, Valve, being the most important digital games distributor through their Steam platform, know there's an untapped source of income in that part of the market. And if developers won't do it themselves, then Valve seem to be willing to take the matter into their own hands. This speculation arises from Steam's GUI files, which when looked at with SteamDB's Steam Tracker, include a hidden section with unused text related to an (as of yet) unannounced Steam Play system, which "(...) will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems."
Adding more credence to the Linux compatibility tool (and we say Linux because it's the alternative platform to Windows which has the potential to offer more new users to Steam than any other), the GUI file suggests Steam Play will offer official compatibility with "supported tiles" while also letting users test compatibility for "games in your library that have not been verified with a supported compatibility tool." Of course, these last titles, being outside of the "whitelisted", supported titles, may not work as expected, and may present all sorts of technical problems. Still, some might not.
Sources: GitHub, via Ars Technica
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54 Comments on Valve Apparently Working on Compatibility Tools Allowing Windows Games to be Played on Linux

#51
DeathtoGnomes
GlacierNineThe idea is not that they're trying to get hold of the market of gamers already using linux.

The idea is that if Microsoft dicks them over by, for example, dragging game developers into the windows store, then Steam can simply continue to operate on Linux - which may well cause a shift in OS usage if people want to migrate. They can't do that if Linux remains a garbage gaming platform.
Gaming is one of the biggest reasons I never went over to Linux.
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#52
Ravenas
I am very supportive of this. I use Windows on my desktop due to the lack of support for other platforms in the gaming community. Steam has championed this movement for cross platform support, however, the idea of running Windows games on Linux isn't new. IE Wine... No different. Wine has been semi successful at doing exactly what Steam is attempting to do. The only difference is Valve has lots of finances to backup the development.
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