I would like to put forward a quote from the Steam forum from the creator of the game SpaceChem which is available on Steam and also on Linux.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/sh...ostcount=9
Quote:Quote:Originally Posted by spazzmckiwi
Does this work in reverse? Reason I am asking is because I recently purchased SpaceChem on steam but would also like to play it on my linux machine, and the game does have a linux version, however steam doesn't work naively on linux...yet (I have my hopes)
Yup! Send an email to zach@zachtronicsindustries.com and we can straighten this out for you.
This is a nice example of someone giving the ability to move between versions.
Also as the point has been made games such as Quake 1-3, Doom 3, (ID tech engine) or Unreal Tournament (Unreal Engine) software has a Linux client available to download and to get this working on the Steam version you simply drop the Linux binary into the game's folder in steamapps/common/ - this is facilitated by the fact that these games use the same cd-key between versions and you pay for a cd-key license and game art assets and not for a binary file.
I am not sure if Scrapper and Tanshaydar represent and work at Fictional Games as a whole or are just random moderators, but your attitude seems fairly rude for Customer Service representatives:
Quote:Well I don't see it in any of the user agreements. You should've learned about it before buying from Steam.
Quote:How it's Frictional Games' fault if Steam doesn't support Linux?
Your response may indeed be that Fictional Games (and perfectly within your company's right - however I have not read the license agreements, so maybe a solicitor will be able to clarify this?) will not allow uses to swap between versions but your comments seem to imply that your company feels it has a right to user's money? But it is in-fact the other way around - there are a lot of laws that will protect people regardless of if you said "we own your soul" in a license agreement, especially once money has changed hands.
Also about the comment
Quote:If you buy the Xbox360 version of Portal 2, do you expect to be able to play Portal 2 on your PS3 as well?
Didn't think so.
Actually yes I do expect this to be the case - I believe that Portal 2 on PS3 gave you a free version on Steam also? I believe the reason that it does not happen between say an Xbox360 and PS3 is simply infrastructure reasons - buying the PS3 version connects to Steam and therefore requires a Steam account and so it is trivial to activate it for the PC/Mac version also. However not many people own both consoles and you would have to distribute both discs in a box there is no business case for this - however an example could be seen with dual DVD and Blu-Ray movies (you pay slightly more and get both and also maybe a "digital copy"). There have been reasons why you cannot say activate a retail version on Steam this is due to an incompatibility such as the retail version uses different keys to the Steam version - but again there have been some games such as Prey? that you could do this with. It is fairly frustrating to have to buy a game 3 times, once on Steam, once on Mobile and once on Console and not even have saves move between - I will expect this to change in the future with more examples like Portal 2 PS3/PC version.
For a company as small as Fictional Games allowing people to download a Linux version via some proof of ownership of the Steam version seems trivial and it seems to be you already have a money grabbing and giant corporate Enterprise attitude to games - already off to a bad start as an Indie developer. But anyway it would probably be advisable not to take Scrapper or Tanshaydar 's comments as representative of the company.