[ut3] More salt on an already sodium-rich wound
Keith Z-G
keithzg at gmail.com
Thu Oct 13 06:51:26 EDT 2011
But it breaks down a bit when you realize that more people played the
previous UT games on Linux than OSX (yet there's an OSX port of UE3). Plus,
if they're expecting less, then why not require less in terms of license
fees? Or charge based on units sold? That's just foolishness on the hand of
the middleware devs, then, if they're so determined to avoid making any
money when they could. And meanwhile the Humble Bundles have repeatedly
shown that rather than pirate the software, Linux users will willingly pay
MORE than Windows or even OSX users for their software, so Thomas' claims
aren't born out to any measurable degree in the real world. So neither point
quite works.
On the other hand, I do agree that it's a perception problem, but I think
it's that here you have companies who make millions of dollars selling
software and only allowing people to see their code on a for-profit basis,
and they're confronted with an entire operating system that's given away for
free with code that everyone is allowed to see. It's not at all surprising
to think that they'd feel hostile to something like that. It probably
changes from company to company whether it's merely misgivings and
inaccurate fears ("they get code for free? then they'll never pay for
ours!") or outright hatred ("these damned socialists are ruining the
software industry!") or some degree of both.
I don't expect it to change any time soon, but oh well, I don't have much in
the way of time or budget for games these days anyways.
On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 3:27 AM, Robin van Ee <robin.vanee at gmail.com> wrote:
> I knew that, but I'm quite sure they're not selling it for cheap and
> maybe a million USD is a little off, but the principle remains the
> same.
>
> 2011/10/13 Thomas Ilnseher <ilnseher at eit.uni-kl.de>:
> > Am Donnerstag, den 13.10.2011, 11:17 +0200 schrieb Robin van Ee:
> >> Yeah, Speedtree is probably it and saying that Linux support will earn
> >> you amounts that are way over a million soon is just ignorance.
> >> It's after all a business, and Linux isn't quite popular. Also, Linux
> >> users have a label that says they just pirate commercial software. I
> >> say that is true to some degree. The people that believe "free"
> >> software stands for "gratis" and not freedom for example.
> >> So I do think Linux does attract a lot of piracy.
> >> And then, a million USD is a lot of money.
> >
> > Just to mention: this was just an example. I pulled these numbers right
> > out of my ass! I don't even know IF their license model really is like
> > this, it was just a wild guess. But I can assume it's something like
> > that
> >
> >> Especially for a platform
> >> that probably won't earn it back for years.
> >>
> >> In other news; I was digging around in the CryEngine 2 headers on my
> >> Windows desktop the other day and found some headers that mentioned
> >> Linux (in fact, Linux was in the filenames). I found none that said
> >> anything about Mac OS-X, so I'm guessing they're doing some
> >> experiments with Linux support for Cryengine.
> >>
> >> As a game developer however, I see that both are used for triple A
> >> productions, but the most popular engine at the time seems to be
> >> Unity3D. Unity too, is making it's way to Linux but they're not really
> >> actively working on it. Unity will spawn a lot of developers that can
> >> use every platform they can get their hands on, so that would probably
> >> be the most beneficial for gamers. Whereas triple A studios cancel Mac
> >> ports (yes, I'm talking about Bethesda here) without a word and will
> >> probably just laugh at the suggestion of a Linux port.
> >>
> >>
> >> 2011/10/13 Thomas Ilnseher <ilnseher at eit.uni-kl.de>:
> >> > My assumption is following: Their license model is
> >> > a) you pay, say $10M for teh initial license
> >> > b) you pay then $1M or so for every supported platform.
> >> >
> >> > So, they can't get the license for Linux, because they don't want to
> pay
> >> > $1M for the license, 'cause they can't make enough money out of the
> >> > Linux port (to repay $1M). I don't have any clue how much Ryan costs
> to
> >> > port that stuff, but I assume something in the $100eds of K, so $400K
> or
> >> > so.
> >> >
> >> > And maybe they just find it to pay off to get the licenses for iOS,
> >> > Android and stuff.
> >> >
> >> > But that's just a wild guess.
> >> >
> >> > -Tom
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Am Donnerstag, den 13.10.2011, 02:03 -0600 schrieb Keith Z-G:
> >> >> Ja, from what Ryan "our man Icculus" Gordon has said it was a piece
> of
> >> >> middleware that the company in question wouldn't license for Linux.
> >> >> That's the part where it's almost conspiracy-level nonsense, since it
> >> >> isn't even that Linux would or wouldn't be a profitable port, it's
> >> >> that some company hates Linux enough they don't even want to make
> >> >> money off of it. Ryan claimed we wouldn't believe it even if we heard
> >> >> what it was, so, my bet's always been on SpeedTree ;) Not because it
> >> >> makes sense, but because it doesn't, and that'd be the most
> ridiculous
> >> >> roadblock for a port ever.
> >> >>
> >> >> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:35 PM, oldkawman <oldkawman at netscape.net>
> >> >> wrote:
> >> >> If I remember correctly, the issue was a need for a license
> >> >> which they could not obtain for linux. Looks like everyone
> >> >> else can get it, but just not linux. I am thinking we lost on
> >> >> that.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> On 10/05/2011 11:54 PM, Keith Z-G wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > So now UE3 has been ported to Windows, Xbox360, PS3, OSX,
> >> >> > iOS, Android . . . and Adobe Flash.
> >> >> > http://beyondunreal.com/view_story.php?id=13516
> >> >> >
> >> >> > What's up next, OS/2? Silverlight? Will they not rest until
> >> >> > it has been ported to every possible platform that isn't
> >> >> > standard Linux?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> > --
> >> > Thomas Ilnseher <ilnseher at eit.uni-kl.de>
> >> >
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> >
> > --
> > Thomas Ilnseher <ilnseher at eit.uni-kl.de>
> >
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