14 DAY TRIAL // Steam for Linux is getting closer to an official launch and a lot of users are very excited that this platform will finally get the attention it deserves. It also means that we will have to pay full price for games released on a free platform.
No matter what distribution of Linux you are using, it's probably a free one, with very few exceptions. We have gotten used to open source software, free applications, and to know that there are people out there working to keep Linux free.
A few years ago there were very few games made specifically for Linux and most of them were free. No one would take the risk of porting or developing a game and then sell it on the Linux platform. There were different times and people had other priorities.
Linux became a much more popular operating system in the last 3-4 years, mostly because of Ubuntu. With the introduction of the Humble Bundle initiative, the developers started to notice that Linux users will pay the most, comparing with Mac and Windows, to get some serious games.
Valve announcing Steam for Linux, more specifically for Ubuntu 12.04, was great news, but with great news also comes great responsibility. Now that Linux has become an important enough player in the market and developers are starting to look at it as a commercial platform, things are about to change.
There will be fewer free games and the applications will probably follow the same trend soon. The most important aspect of this paradigm shift is that game developers will ask the same price for a game, no matter the platform.
This is my question: will Linux users who have been used to get things free of charge in the past pay $60 for a game? Are we ready to pay this much money for Call of Duty 6: Revenge of the Marines?