I was watching The Game Awards ceremony last week when I realised that more than a half of all nominees have made their games available on Linux. And not just nominees, trophies like the best action game, best RPG, best fighting, best indie game and etc. They all were handed out to honorees that also have made their game playable on Linux since day one. In fact, from 58 titles that have been nominated this year, VR and mobile excluded, 8 were console exclusives and another 8 were not available on Steam due to Riot and Epic Games exclusivity policies. Which means we have been left with 42 amazing video games. And guess what? Almost 80% of them either listed as Steam Deck Verified or playable and have been rated as Gold or Platinum on Proton database. Which is insane. 80% of the most anticipated, best selling and entertaining titles of this year can be launched on Linux without a hassle. And so I think it is time to talk about the current state of gaming on Linux. Video games are the most sophisticated form of art that combines storytelling, music and cinematic visuals to create memorable emotional experiences. And in order to be able to play, in order to render those fancy and realistic 3D images, we need expensive hardware and complicated software. Including graphics APIs, GPU drivers, different libraries, anti-cheat systems and etc. And this is where it gets complicated. Since most PC games were engineered with Windows and specifically DirectX in mind, it was a bit of a technical challenge to make them work on Linux flawlessly. That's why Linux gaming community struggled so much in the first place. And that's why for the last maybe 5 years or so, when I recommended Linux to my friends who love playing video games, I always had to say something vague. Something like "Linux has decent amount of games. You can launch more than a half of your library." But I never was sure enough how much exactly and I knew that experience isn't going to be great. But everything changed in 2022 with the release of Steam Deck. Valve managed to completely transform the landscape of gaming on Linux. It took less than 2 years to make a leap from just a hundred Steam Deck verified and playable titles to 12,000. Pick any of the highest rated games in history that has been released on PC. From the best-selling role-playing games to modern classics. From old real-time strategies to most popular day-to-day online shooters. Almost every former PlayStation exclusive that has been released on PC can be launched on Linux as well. Including God of War, Uncharted, Death's Stranding and Marvel's Spider-Man. Same applies to video games published by Microsoft. Xbox Game Studios has a long list of Steam Deck compatible products and that is what I like about gaming industry. It is so flexible. The fact that Steam Deck has been sold multiple millions since its launch became a market incentive that now forces other developers and big publishers to release their games on Linux. Or at least make them playable with a Proton compatibility layer. Couple of months ago, Steam Deck's library exceeded 10,000 supported titles. And according to the Proton database, more than 19,000 games on Steam were recommended by at least one person. Which implies that every each of them has been launched on Linux successfully at least once. Though the situation is far from perfect. If you take a look at the top 100 most played games on Steam in December 2023, you'll notice that 90% of them work surprisingly well on Linux. But the remaining 10% have one common problem. Every single unsupported title is being shipped with a kernel-level anti-cheat engine that isn't configured to work on Linux. We are talking about massive multiplayer titles like Call of Duty, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Destiny 2, and, the freshest one, The Finals. Anti-cheat software remains to be the single biggest obstacle in a way of Linux gaming community. Why this is happening and what can we do to fix this is a topic for another video. But because of that, millions of people who play those games every month will not perceive Linux as a viable alternative to Windows. Another reason why some people may prefer stick to Windows is a general desktop experience. Valve did a really great job on making Steam Deck experience as smooth as possible. If you are swimming in verified and playable zone, you probably will never bump into a single problem and will not have to tweak even some minor settings. On a desktop though, gaming on Linux still can provide some challenge, especially for the newcomers. It is might be not even related to the gaming itself. You just have to navigate yourself through the process of selecting a distro, figure out GPU drivers, multi-monitor support, to deal with a windowing system that you have and etc. To be honest, to me it is not a big deal. As a PC enthusiast, I don't mind spending half an hour tinkering my system. I treat every new encountered problem as an opportunity to grow, to improve my skills and gain knowledge about computers. But I understand those who might feel frustrated while doing so. If you want Linux market share to continue to go up, we need to be sure that our desktop environments and default distro configurations stays as user-friendly as possible. Well, of course not every distro is designed for catering newcomers' needs and some distros are happy with minimalistic defaults. You know, Linux is a wild west and we all like it this way. I am incredibly excited for what the future holds for Steam Deck and gaming on Linux in general. I still didn't get my hands on OLED model, by the way, but I am going to fix that pretty soon. According to the Steam Hardware and Software Survey conducted in November, 2023 Linux userbase reached 1.9%. And soon, every 50th PC gamer on Steam is going to be gaming on Linux. I really, really want Linux gaming to thrive. Video games are not just the most relevant and advanced form of art. They are also a huge gigantic industry that makes a lot of money. And today, right now, we have a historical chance to liberate PC gaming from Windows. This was Reluctant Anarchist and I have nothing left to say.
