id Not Porting/Supporting Rage on Linux

Linux users typically get the short end of the stick when it comes to gaming, sometimes even more so than Mac users (unless you count the fact that they have Wine, a Windows Compatibility Layer application).  Native Ports of games are few and far between, and one of the few developers that actually seemed to care about Linux gaming in the past has decided to not port their newest game, Rage, to Linux.

As a Linux user and advocate, I find this very disheartening.  I don’t really use Linux for gaming anyway (I dual boot Fedora 10 and Windows Vista for that), it’s still nice to hear about games coming to the open-source platform, as it’s a great audience and community, and I think id is making a big mistake by not making Rage native to Linux.

Most Linux users are pretty heavy into the whole “free” mindset.  If a game doesn’t come out for Linux, a lot of people won’t buy it for the native Linux installer, and will just pirate the Windows/Mac version and run it in Wine, or their copy of Windows XP.  With the rampant piracy “problem” that a lot of developers seem to complain about, not making a Linux port of a series that has typically always been released for the platform is a huge kick in the face.  It’s very likely that without the native support, a lot of Linux users that had planned on getting the game for their platform will likely pirate another version and play it with Wine or a similar emulation tool (I know I wouldn’t).

In the email, Carmack stated that if “Hundreds of Thousands of Linux users are playing Quake Live when we are done with Rage, that would certainly influence our decision…”  but honestly, I don’t see that happening.  The Linux gaming community isn’t nearly that large, and even if they did get a lot of people playing QL on Linux, do you really think they’d still do it?  The Emails said that the codebase is really big, and in order for it to be ported it would take a lot of effort.  EFFORT?!  For a very dedicated platform who’s community has supported your games from the beginning, you’re not willing to give them an effort?  That’s a shame.

The poster cites the Zenimax/Bethesda acquisition as the reason for this lack of Linux support, but I’m not sure.  Maybe Bethesda is afraid of Linux and its openness, despite the fact that their games have always been pretty open thanks to the editors (you can find many a porn mod for Oblivion and Fallout 3).  Who knows what’s really going on, but I’m sure when your engine/games have always been multiplatform, something shady has to be going on when they support Mac OSX, but not Linux.   I really don’t like this move by id, and neither should you.

Edited: Wine is not an Emulator, I’m a moron.