Gaming and Linux. “Blasphemy!”, they cry. “You can’t game on Linux!”. As someone who uses Linux operating systems for both professional and personal purposes I see this sort of thing spouted all over the place, usually by someone who’s either been in the Linux world for a very long time or who has very little experience in that community. Hence my inspiration to write this series of posts: to show the many ways in which one can game on Linux, how far it’s come and where it’s going next.
In part one of this series I’ll be discussing the minimum barrier to entry, native Linux games. In subsequent parts I’ll be discussing more advanced methods for playing games on Linux that would otherwise be locked down to other operating systems *coughs* *Windows!* *cough* *cough*.
- Part 1: Native Linux Games
- Part 2: Wine, DXVK
- Part 3: Virtual Machines
- Part 4: Looking Glass
Native Linux Games
There’s an extremely common (however misguided) belief among both Linux and non-Linux users that there are no games available for the platform, and even less support. This is mostly an outdated idea, as even 5 years ago it was much more the reality. But today in 2018 the reality is rapidly changing.
Take the most ubiquitous and widely recognized PC gaming platform currently available: Steam. Steam (at the time of writing this post) has just over 4000 titles available on Linux. And I know what you’re thinking (mostly because I’ve heard it a hundred times), “Pft, and that’s 4000 tiny indie games that no one cares about.” Well that’s where you’d be wrong. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not claiming that every game you could ever want to play is available, definitely not. However, many of them probably are:
- Rocket League
- Dota 2
- Civilization VI
- Team Fortress 2
- CS: GO
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Cities Skylines
…and so many more. Many of the above games are among the most widely played games on Steam, and more and more AAA titles are delivering Linux ports each year.
Still not convinced? There are plenty of other online retailers selling Linux games, and a number of sites focused on the platform like gamingonlinux.com.
If the game you have you heart set on doesn’t have a native Linux release don’t fret, that’s where Wine and DXVK can come in. I’ll be discussing these items in the next post, but what do you think? Let me know in the comments!