The main hurdle for Linux gaming right now is kernel-level anticheat. Kernel-level anticheat is increasingly common in multiplayer games, and it does not play well with Linux. This makes it difficult to play new multiplayer games on Linux.
Of course it's easy to argue that kernel-level anticheat gives way too much system access for a simple video game. But it's currently the most effective form of anticheat, and I don't see it going away anytime soon.
> This makes it difficult to play new multiplayer games on Linux.
There are so many multiplayer games that don't use invasive kernel-mode anticheat. I and my friends have been playing them for quite a long while now.
I agree that there are games that won't work because their invasive kernel-mode anticheat won't run under Wine or Proton (and their devs haven't bothered to port it to Linux). Honestly? I'm quite fine with that. There are so many great games out there; I'm totally okay with never again playing the insignificant percentage of them that demand full control of my computer.
You're right, and I realize my post implied that multiplayer was a complete non-starter on Linux, which isn't true. Kernel-level anticheat is mostly found in big, mainstream releases (especially competitive shooters). Of course, these games happen to be very popular, which gives them an outsized impact.
Personally, I know that the upcoming Battlefield 6 is making me question if I want to switch to Linux once Windows 10 support dies. For a lot of people, being able to play 99% of games on Linux doesn't matter if they can't play one specific game they enjoy. It's a situation that just sucks all around, and I don't see it getting fixed anytime soon.
> Of course, these games happen to be very popular, which gives them an outsized impact.
On the one hand, true. On the other hand, I wonder how BF6's day 1 demand will compare with that of Silksong!
> For a lot of people, being able to play 99% of games on Linux doesn't matter if they can't play one specific game they enjoy.
Sure, yeah, agreed. And the only thing that's wrong with that is that they can't play the game they want to play.
> Personally, I know that the upcoming Battlefield 6 is making me question if I want to switch to Linux once Windows 10 support dies.
Yeah, BF6 demanding Secure Boot be enabled is fascinating. All that effort and they currently do (and will continue to) have cheaters. Plus, all it takes is one buggy widely-used kernel component to render the whole Secure Boot exercise pointless.
Bear in mind that I'm quite a fan of first-person shooters when reading the following:
It seems to me that the big-name Military-Themed Murder Simulators are all released on both PC and PS5 these days. It seems like many of them support attaching a mouse and keyboard to the console and giving you mouse+keyboard control. Honestly, if I ever get the urge to play one of those flashy-but-not-at-all-good-enough-to-justify-the-price-let-alone-the-invasive-kernel-mode-combination-snoopware-and-backdoors things again, I'll just get a copy for PS5 and attach a mouse and keyboard.
Were I fifteen, I'd be likely to jump through the hoops they're presenting. But, I'm definitely no longer fifteen... and over those years, I've played so many -frequently way better- incarnations of whatever game the big studios are serving up this year. I guess it's a pity for them that years and years of accumulated experience have turned me into something of a low-key snob. ;)
I don't see why you're being so snarky about popular games just to say that if you were to play them, you would do it on the proprietary system, PS5, which you already own. That's not sticking it to anyone at all.
> I don't see why you're being so snarky about popular games...
You misunderstand me. I've wasted a ton of my life playing video games. I've played a huge number of video games. If you enjoy violent FPS games, you've not played many games, and you especially haven't played any very good multiplayer FPS games, you're likely to like this year's AAA Military-Themed Murder Simulator (MTMS). As I mentioned, fifteen-year-old me would have surely enjoyed this year's installment of MTMS, as fifteen-year-old me had played many, many fewer games in the genre than mumble-year-old me has.
If I wrote video-game-storefront video game reviews [0], there's a type of positive review that I'd end up writing for many of the games I play. It goes something like
"If this is the first or one of the first games of this type you've played, then definitely get a copy and play it. If you like the genre at all, you'll have a great time. If you have played many games of this type, then consider playing something else, or maybe replaying one of those games. It's a totally competent game, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. But it doesn't do anything or go anywhere that many other games like it haven't already."
There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a competently executed game that doesn't do anything that hasn't already been done before by most of its predecessors. Folks who really want more of the same will enjoy the game, and folks who haven't yet had what you're offering will love what you've done. It's hard to make a competently executed game, and it's dreadfully hard to make a groundbreaking one. There's no shame at all in "merely" making something that's solid and decent.
Hopefully now you better understand what I'm talking about and why? If you're still confused, or things still don't make sense, I'm happy to attempt to answer additional questions.
> That's not sticking it to anyone at all.
Sure? I agree? I'm not of the opinion that I'm sticking it to anyone here. The huge dev shops don't want to make their extremely invasive kernel-mode anti-cheat work on Linux, but are fine with having their software run on the PS5. I don't know if their kernel-mode anticheat runs on the PS5, and I don't particularly care. I'm 110% fine with them doing whatever they feel like to my PS5, which is a dedicated video gaming appliance. I'm not fine with them doing whatever they feel like to the computer I use for my day-to-day business.
Why would I believe that I was sticking it to someone when I pay them money for a copy of the game they made? That'd be a really stupid way to think. That's like book-burner levels of stupid.
[0] ...and maybe that's something I should start doing...
I'm confused by your assertion that you're shocked. Would you quote the parts that shock you? If some of what's shocking isn't what I've written, please do make sure to mention what you believe I intended to convey but did not write down.
The only game I've heard of is Rust, and apparently they just need to include a library or something to that effect to make it work under Wine, but refuse to do so because they think people will cheat on Linux. I'm pretty sure people cheating are mostly cheating from Windows. I don't care about the Rust game enough to be bothered.
Of course it's easy to argue that kernel-level anticheat gives way too much system access for a simple video game. But it's currently the most effective form of anticheat, and I don't see it going away anytime soon.