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With Linux support coming to GOG in the future, it's good to gather some feedback and show CD Projekt Red (who are GOG's sister company) whether their users want their games to be released for Linux. This is primarily about future titles (such as Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077) since that's what CD Projekt Red are working now at present. But if you want to mention interest in the past titles (Witcher 1 and 2), feel free to comment as well, but don't expect that to be an easily accepted request, since working on past titles is a less probable event naturally.

If you wonder what's the point of asking this here, GOG has many Linux users, so it's easier to gather feedback here, rather than let's say on CD Projekt Red forums.
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* Wishlist entry for the Witcher 3.
* Wishlist entry for Cyberpunk 2077.

For timeline of events on this topic, see https://www.gamingonlinux.com/wiki/The_Witcher_3_Linux_port
Post edited January 25, 2018 by shmerl
I'd like to see that, but depending upon what libraries they used, it could be very, very hard.

Mostly because MS decided that they needed to have their own set of 3D libraries even though OpenGL was perfectly satisfactory at the time and quite mature.
See the wishlist entry added above. I think they are already quite used to cross platform development, since REDengine is ported to PS4 and Xbox One already, besides Windows. And at least PS4 is using a completely different graphical API (neither OpenGL nor Direct3D). While otherwise it's a POSIX (FreeBSD) based system. So, no MS APIs there already.
Post edited March 18, 2014 by shmerl
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shmerl:
just posting something you may have missed

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/cd_projekt_red_considering_the_witcher_3_for_linux_if_steamos_takes_off
Yes, I saw that, it came from an interview with CD Projekt Red. They gave their usual non answer about distro fragmentation there.

This thread and wishlist is for gathering feedback and letting developers know that more people are interested.
Post edited March 19, 2014 by shmerl
Personally, i really hope that all The Witcher series 1 & 2 come to Linux.
=> If i remember well, the first one was based on aurora engine (the one from Bioware) and then should be using OpenGL. I imagine there could be lot's of work to port them on Linux, but i "grip" when i see release for MAC & Console and no Linux. Seriously.
=> For the futures game as TW3 and Cyberpunk, no Linux mean to me that CdRedProject isn't as much serious in their "fight" that they said and i was too naive.

so i hope and future will tell.

ps; if sentences are incomprehensible, please correct me, thanks :)
I will say this it's a good thing that CD Projekt RED and gog.com will be adding support for Linux on gog.com in the Fall.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition should be easily ported to Linux.

However The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 might not be feasible yet from a economic business point of view to release for Linux because CD Projekt RED almost went bankrupt with that one The Witcher video game that was supposed to be released for the consoles and CD Projekt RED is only now recovering with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. CD Projekt RED right now also employees 210 people from what I read a few months ago and all those 210 people need to be paid as do the 70 employees that work for gog.com as well.

CD Projekt RED also opened up a office in Los Angeles, California, USA which has to be paid for. CD Projekt RED also is spending like $20 million dollars (USD) from what I heard on developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and when marketing starts for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it will go up to probably $100 million dollars (USD) if not more.

So ask yourself this. Will it be economically viable from a business point of view to release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 for Linux? When only probably not even 1 million PC gamers who play on Linux will not even purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hun? I mean Windows is 95% of the market right now while Linux is like 2% of the market.

For indie video game developers and indie video game development companies it's easier for them to release the PC versions of the video games that they develop for sale on Linux because they don't have to spend tens of millions of dollars (USD) or hundreds of millions of dollars (USD) on marketing and big budget development like AAA video game publishing companies and AAA video game development companies do.

I know some of you people especially Linux PC gamers will hate me for saying this but you need to understand how business works and to make a profit and not lose any money.
Post edited March 19, 2014 by Johnathanamz
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Johnathanamz: I will say this it's a good thing that CD Projekt RED and gog.com will be adding support for Linux on gog.com in the Fall.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition should be easily ported to Linux.

However The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 might not be feasible yet from a economic business point of view to release for Linux because CD Projekt RED almost went bankrupt with that one The Witcher video game that was supposed to be released for the consoles and CD Projekt RED is only now recovering with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. CD Projekt RED right now also employees 210 people from what I read a few months ago and all those 210 people need to be paid as do the 70 employees that work for gog.com as well.

CD Projekt RED also opened up a office in Los Angeles, California, USA which has to be paid for. CD Projekt RED also is spending like $20 million dollars (USD) from what I heard on developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and when marketing starts for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it will go up to probably $100 million dollars (USD) if not more.

So ask yourself this. Will it be economically viable from a business point of view to release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 for Linux? When only probably not even 1 million PC gamers who play on Linux will not even purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hun? I mean Windows is 95% of the market right now while Linux is like 2% of the market.

For indie video game developers and indie video game development companies it's easier for them to release the PC versions of the video games that they develop for sale on Linux because they don't have to spend tens of millions of dollars (USD) or hundreds of millions of dollars (USD) on marketing and big budget development like AAA video game publishing companies and AAA video game development companies do.

I know some of you people especially Linux PC gamers will hate me for saying this but you need to understand how business works and to make a profit and not lose any money.
While I don't really know half a thing about Linux, most of this sounds very reasonable. I could see a Linux version a little further down the road, though, if the other versions sell well and if the new Linux support here at GOG works out as planned ( and possibly attracts new customers ).
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Johnathanamz: CD Projekt RED also opened up a office in Los Angeles, California, USA which has to be paid for. CD Projekt RED also is spending like $20 million dollars (USD) from what I heard on developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and when marketing starts for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it will go up to probably $100 million dollars (USD) if not more.
Marketing money will be provided by external investors, not by CD Projekt Red, so they don't count as their expense.
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Johnathanamz: So ask yourself this. Will it be economically viable from a business point of view to release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 for Linux? When only probably not even 1 million PC gamers who play on Linux will not even purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hun? I mean Windows is 95% of the market right now while Linux is like 2% of the market.
Market size of Linux globally is irrelevant, we are talking about gaming market, I already mentioned this point multiple times. Gamers are only a subset of all global users. See percentage of Linux sales in the Humble Bundle. They are way higher than 2%.

From economic perspective, it can be feasible, but we don't know all the details of their situation, so it's rather hard to evaluate. But for sure there is more hope for newer titles than for older ones. Porting older titles which they don't work anymore on is a bigger hurdle than porting their current projects. Also, from the functional perspective there isn't much need in it, since both Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 work in Wine. Witcher 3 on the other hand won't, since Wine still doesn't support DirectX 11. So necessity of the native port is way more real for the Witcher 3.
Post edited March 19, 2014 by shmerl
I hereby express my interest in The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassin's of KIngs, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Cyberpunk 2077 for Linux. I already own the first 2 games on GOG but will rebuy them on Steam, and will proceed to purchase the remaining 2 items on GOG and Steam as well for the sake of uniformity. Do so, GOG, and my money shall be yours.
Funny enough, was just looking over NeoGaf to see if there was any interesting news and saw a topic about this. Witcher 2 Linux beta found added to the Steam registry.

http://steamdb.info/sub/40356/#section_history
Hm, that's quite interesting. Since Witcher 2 was released for OS X already using OpenGL 3, making a Linux version should not be impossible. But I've heard it uses Direct3D - OpenGL translation layer, and it's not a fully native OpenGL version.
Post edited March 19, 2014 by shmerl
I'm pretty sure they've already been doing some work on it.
After Valve released ToGL, games are considerably easier to port from DirectX to OpenGL.
I don't know how CDP-Red's code works, but it shouldn't be hard for them to fork ToGL to something more optimized for the RED Engine.

github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL
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andrenseven: I'm pretty sure they've already been doing some work on it.
After Valve released ToGL, games are considerably easier to port from DirectX to OpenGL.
I don't know how CDP-Red's code works, but it shouldn't be hard for them to fork ToGL to something more optimized for the RED Engine.

github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL
Valve's library is limited to Direct3D 9, while Witcher 3 uses DirectX 11, so that won't help here. It's useful for porting existing older titles, but with new ones developers really should implement OpenGL support proper.
Post edited March 20, 2014 by shmerl
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Johnathanamz: I will say this it's a good thing that CD Projekt RED and gog.com will be adding support for Linux on gog.com in the Fall.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition should be easily ported to Linux.

However The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 might not be feasible yet from a economic business point of view to release for Linux because CD Projekt RED almost went bankrupt with that one The Witcher video game that was supposed to be released for the consoles and CD Projekt RED is only now recovering with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. CD Projekt RED right now also employees 210 people from what I read a few months ago and all those 210 people need to be paid as do the 70 employees that work for gog.com as well.

CD Projekt RED also opened up a office in Los Angeles, California, USA which has to be paid for. CD Projekt RED also is spending like $20 million dollars (USD) from what I heard on developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and when marketing starts for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it will go up to probably $100 million dollars (USD) if not more.

So ask yourself this. Will it be economically viable from a business point of view to release The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 for Linux? When only probably not even 1 million PC gamers who play on Linux will not even purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hun? I mean Windows is 95% of the market right now while Linux is like 2% of the market.

For indie video game developers and indie video game development companies it's easier for them to release the PC versions of the video games that they develop for sale on Linux because they don't have to spend tens of millions of dollars (USD) or hundreds of millions of dollars (USD) on marketing and big budget development like AAA video game publishing companies and AAA video game development companies do.

I know some of you people especially Linux PC gamers will hate me for saying this but you need to understand how business works and to make a profit and not lose any money.
It is most definitely worth it not only from a DRM free standpoint, but from a purely business standpoint too. Not to mention that marketing and such is completely static whether they support linux or not. See these two links which show that sales are pretty comparable to mac in a lot of cases and the number of purchases are higher than you would expect from looking at steams numbers:

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-statistics-from-multiple-developers.2963

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-game-sales-statistics-from-multiple-developers-part-2.3015

Plus, the fact that they already have a mac port on games reduces the amount of work they need to do significantly. On top of that, they will be pretty much the second AAA game in the last few years natively supporting Linux which should boost sales significantly. When you are the only seller on the block, everyone comes to you. :)