I think so. Installing Linux was a hurdle for a lot of people but having it by default on the Steam Deck was a bit of a game changer. Installing Windows on it versus figuring out how to use something Lutris probably takes a similar amount of effort for average casual user.
I feel like it also helps that Windows isn’t very controller friendly, in my experience, and an increasing amount of people are looking for that for couch gaming and viewing media.
I think PlayStation’s OS is a FreeBSD derivative, Switch is proprietary but uses parts of FreeBSD and Android, and Steam Deck runs straight Linux so maybe it’s more “The decade of the *nix console” rather than “the year of the Linux desktop”?
This could actually happen soon. Outside of office use most casual users in younger generations are using laptops. Desktops are getting to be more niche and associated with computer builders and power users. As Windows gets shittier, Linux gets easier to use and customize, and desktop use shrinks to just enthusiasts, we could very well see Linux on the majority of desktops.
Don’t know how to do it from Steam, but you can just launch their main game exes. On Linux you could add the exe to Steam or just use Wine or your Wine frontend of choice.
There is a launch argument you can add in steam, ‘–skip-launcher’ for bg3. You won’t be able to change between the dx or vulkan clients though without the launcher, if that matters to you (probably not, but figured I’d mention it). I’d guess there is a similar option for Cyberpunk 2077, but haven’t done it personally.
It is used in the Launch Options of a Steam game. %command% just gets replaced by whatever Steam would use to launch the game. It’s useful to set up anything before the game actually launches, such as setting environment variables or run scripts.
The WINE_SIMULATE_WRITECOPY=1 %command% is the Steam launch option you set, with %command% meaning roughly “what Steam would do without any launch options set”.
The whole process was a bit finicky and I did it a few month ago, but from what I remember it went something like this:
Download battle.net installer
Add it as non-Steam game to run it
Locate the newly created prefix in Steam directory
Add the Battle.net.exe in it as a non-Steam game, then remove the installer (not the other way around or the prefix will be deleted)
I don’t know why people go through all this trouble just to give money to publishers that don’t give a shit about you. There’s nothing on Blizzard worth buying anymore. Don’t bother. Blizzard is, for all intents and purposes, dead.
I struggle with it, but still manage to find fun in what blizzard made. I understand that blizz is not what blizz was. I gave up hearthstone. But still enjoy d2 and d3 and I’m hoping the changes they made to d4 will be good. I played wow 20 years ago, coming back now feels like a new game and it does manage to spark nostalgia in me. I hear what you are saying, but I’m not quite done with blizz yet… Looking at you POE2.
I’m involved in the development of an addon for the Classic WoW versions (Questie), and the thing I do there is such a convoluted process that not doing it feels like letting my fellow devs and the users down. But you can do development on the PTRs and beta servers, so I haven’t given money to Blizzard in a long time. Now you could argue that this is even worse in regards to supporting Blizzard than just paying for a game, but I rationalise it to myself with the fact that the newer clients will inevitably be used for private servers just like the old ones were (some already are actually).
Installing battle.net in steam is really easy. Just add non-steam game in steam and choose the battle.net installer, then right click on it in steam and click properties, then compatibility, and choose Force the user of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and choose Proton Experimental. Then just run it and install it like normal. Once it’s finished you just repeat the process for the actual installed battle.net program or whatever blizzard game you want. With this, you don’t have to mess with running custom commands. The blizzard launcher will be located somewhere like “/home/me/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2806461641/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/StarCraft II/StarCraft II.exe” where the big number after compatdata is something else. You can run the command find ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata -iname '*battle*.exe to help find it. Also you can tell Steam to always use proton experimental if you want, it’s been good to me. Good luck!
IT’s so crazy to run into a comment that speaks about this. I recently got the urge to play Mass Effect, and wanted to replay through the series. I have had the game bought when it went on sale. I download all 100+gb of the game, and launch it to see some performance. EA app required. I might just request a refund, and then pirate the game, to be real with you all.
The launchers are pretty lightweight and don’t consume much. It is just annoying to buy the game on one store, it launches another store, only to launch a game launcher, then you can pick r̶̶e̶̶d̶̶,̶̶ ̶̶g̶̶r̶̶e̶̶e̶̶n̶̶̶,̶̶ ̶̶o̶̶r̶̶ ̶̶b̶̶l̶̶u̶̶e̶ I mean ME 1 2 or 3
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