Steam already has more than 1500 games for linux

How many times have we heard that there are no games in Linux… fortunately the situation is changing little by little and, although there is still a long way to go, we are increasingly seeing more AAA video games available for the penguin system.

Before the arrival of Windows 8, playing on Linux was practically synonymous with using emulation libraries such as WINE, with the losses in performance and stability that this entails. Then Valve took advantage of the controversy originated with Windows 8 and its ModernUI interface to announce SteamOS, a GNU / Linux-based operating system oriented to video games.

Since then, more and more video games have been ported to Linux and the Steam catalog already exceeds 1500 titles, a figure still far from the 6464 titles for Windows, although it is close to the 2323 titles available for OS X.

No one can deny that Linux is slowly growing as a video game platform, although most are indie titles we find titles like Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Shadow Warrior, Metro Redux, Bioshock Infinite, Dirt Showdown, Hitman Absolution and many more.

Windows 10 has been a tremendous success for Microsoft and DirectX 12 promises to greatly improve performance and realism in video games, something that can be an obstacle to the advancement of Linux as a video game platform. However, the penguin also reserves a weapon, Vulkan , the new API of the Khronos Group that comes to succeed OpenGL and that promises very large performance improvements and that is also cross-platform, unlike DirectX 12 that is limited to Windows 10.

The future of Linux in video games will not be easy, however little by little it is improving in this sense and fortunately today the excuse that "in Linux there are no games" no longer serves. Also the manufacturers of GPUs must put the batteries and improve their drivers for Linux that generally are below those designed for Windows.

Source: eteknix