Interview With Michael Simms of Linux Game Publishing and Tux Games
August 27th, 2002 by CrusaderAs some of you may already know, Linux Game Publishing, which ports entertainment software titles, and Tux Games, which sells Linux games online, are both headed by Michael Simms. I had the opportunity this week to interview Mr. Simms about both ventures; questions include queries about the market in general and specific upcoming LGP titles.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Stop porting crappy FPSs and port somethjing else, then I’ll pay for it.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I didn’t realize that Michael Simms was Mr LGP. He’s been keeping that pretty secret. :)
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I just realized the the Michael Simms of Tux Games is the same Michael Simms of LGP :)
I’ve had nothing but good experiences with you guys. Keep up the good work.
** Begin Flame War Below **
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in “The Great Wine Flame War of 2002″ is the need to have a compatability layer if we ever want to get things like C# running on Linux. Against my warning, the company I am working for adopted C# with the thought that it was portable. They are quickly being disabused of that notion. Wine really is the only way forward for Mono.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
They fucking rock.
Gary (-;
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
When is new exciting software upturning cool k-band satellites?
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Michael, will you be selling Doom3 as well as NWN? It’s looking like Doom3 might actually beat out NWN’s release. Also, any hope of UT2K3 being ported? Reading from the developer interviews, it doesn’t look like they made it for anything but DirectX, but one can hope. Thanks.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I’ve had nothing but good experience with the games I’ve purchased from TuxGames. JA2, Myth2, Heroes3, Civ:CTP (don’t really like that game, for some reason), RT2(oops, picked that up at EB), and if everything goes well NWN… But hopefully I’ll be replacing my MB before NWN ( upgrade to Athlon 1.4+ and 512meg ram ) so that everything goes smoothly.
Great job, and thanks to all the developers, even the ones who no longer make games. Thanks for what you have done.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
…that Creatures:Internet Edition was something of a disappointment. I bought it, and love it. I tend to wonder, however, how successful the game was in the Windows market, too. It doesn’t exactly fit the mold of the hot sellers (FPSes, “Sim” things and fantasy RPGs) these days. I’m looking forward to Majesty quite a lot. Hope it sees the light of day by the holiday season. :-)
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I would like to know what the Tux Games sales figures have been like? I realize this may be proprietary information (although it isn’t like there is any real competitor for what tuxgames does this is more sensitive in the battle for ports and native applications since low numbers may discourage people) Some games were stated as top sellers, did tuxgames sell 1000? 10000? 100000? What is the health of the Linux game industry?
Second, I suggest that TuxGames create a second site called TuxWares to advertise and sell professional programs for Linux
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Though I don’t agree wholly with his opinions. WineX is a stopgap that in the short run provides Linux users with a possibility of playing [i]some[/i] Windows games. It still takes more command line switches and editing config files than any Windows user would put up with to get something working correctly most of the time. In the long run it doesn’t hurt Linux gaming at all. If the WineX developers could put together a fully graphical installer for the games (like what Codeweavers did with Crossover Office), that would be bad in the long run. Either way I don’t see where making a compatibility layer for games (or any other programs for that matter) is a bad thing. Most console systems have always been based around that kind of setup, and getting to play the game on your system of choice is better than twiddling your thumbs or writing flamemail to developers trying to prod them into doing a port that they have no intention of doing.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Both tuxgames and lgp need some seriously redesigned web sites. TuxGames is just bland; the LGP site almost offensive its so poorly designed…
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I think the most importing that should be considered
when porting an old title is that linux user
should be informed about this port “before” the windows
version is out.
Here’s why:
1. When a gamer likes a typical game he will buy it,
the OS where the game is running (windows or linux)
is second. The Game itself is more important.
2. When a game comes out, a gamer will buy it.
This means when there is only a windows version
and the gamer doesn’t know that a linux version will
be ported some day he will buy the windows version
because he wants to play the game.
3. And exactly here is the problem, or the thing that should be considered when porting a windows title to linux.
When the news about a linux port gets public “after” the release of the windows version most gamers will
allready have the game.
4. So they won’t buy the game two times!
When they have the windows version they will stick with it.
Very few people or really hard linux fans will buy the game a second time (first the windows version then the linux version).
5. So the conclusion is, it makes no sense to port an old game that allready exists on the windows version.
6. BUT !!! And here comes the thing i want to mentioned.
When a linux user hears about a linux port bevor the Windows version is out he will say:
“Ok, the game will be ported to linux, it will take longer than the windows version, and the game will probably an old game at that time but i know that now, that a linux version will come out.
So i will not buy the windows version and wait until the linxu version is released.”
So now a porting of an old title makes sense.
And that’s the point, when the linux user knows this (the news about the linux port) before
the windows version is released he will have the chance to wait and buy the linux version.
When the gamer doesn’t know that.
Then he will assume (on the date when the windows version is released) that there will be never a linux version so he will buy the windows version because he wants to play the game.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Um, this is the 4th consecutive day with the same news. How interesting does the webmaster want this site to be?
I submitted some news recently and I never saw it listed. As far as I was concerned it was pretty groundbreaking: HMV in the UK is selling a boxed retail version of Introversion’s Uplink with both win32 and Linux versions (stated on the box) for £19.99 ($30.00 USD). This is the first Linux game I’ve ever seen in a major high street store.