games only for linux and *nix like OS
 

i want to know what it would be like if a company or an individual make games keeping only linux and *nix like OS in mind?

They'd go bankrupt as folks don't want to pay for Linux programs.

the only thing i can think of is mobile games.

probably not what the op was considering but android technically runs on a linux kernel (and ios on bsdi kernel).

For sure, that must be the reason that Linux users are always the ones paying the most for the games in the Humble Bundles and why many developers/publishers, even the large ones, now also offer Linux versions of their games.

I know about android and ios, but what about Desktop games

There may be folks willing to pay but since the Linux market share is what, 2-3%, that's a very small market in which to earn a living...

In my experience as a Network and Systems administrator... the majority of companies utilize GNU/Linux. Sure the Domain Controller, Email and User Desktop related stuff is Windows Server, but the Web servers, databases, code repos, alarms, card systems, handheld devices and industrial apps are GNU/Linux.

I'd say the 2-3% marker might be better applied to the Desktop market. Because servers and services certainly has a bigger share from what Ive experienced.

Reading more closely, I realize that this is related to gaming. In that case, it is obviously better to make games for a console or Windows machine, because the market share related to gaming is far higher with them. A LOT of games for linux are open source projects with volunteers and university students putting in the time, where the money doesn't matter so much.

But where money is key, you will find products for Windows and the Consoles and not much else. Phones seem to be picking up steam as well -- which is technically GNU/Linux at its core. So perhaps the numbers have shifted...

also unrelated, but i think playstation os runs on the linux kernel.i'm cautiously optimistic that steam machines will bump that percentage up making it worthwhile for many more companies (aside from valve/id/epic) to make games for gnu so that i dont have to waste money on a windows license.

I'm not a gamer but I spent a large portion of my life managing corporate finances and you don't invest resources unless there is a definite return on investment available. As this dealt with gaming, my comments were strictly related to "home" computers...

Ok many of the replies are saying that it would be a total disaster but a question comes why *nix system or like systems dont have a market for games talking particulary about linux it has apimoroved alot and also what about mac unix based system it does not have big market as compared to windows?

If you take the 3% as marketshare and apply it to the number of Steam users you still get 1.5 million users you can sell your games. And of course the hope is (not only from us, but even Dell/Alienware predicts that) that these numbers will rise significantly when the Steamboxes arrive.

The Mac marketshare is not much bigger when it comes to games as the Linux one. It is kind of a hen and egg problem, since only few developers also publish their games on Linux the games marketshare is small, but since the marketshare is small games aren't published for Linux.
It usually takes marketing and support from one or more big players in the business to change such situations, luckily Valve has done that with Steam and many of the others follow, at least the key companies, those that provide the gaming technology, have done that and made their engines Linux compatible.

So, if you are a game developer and want to publish your games on Linux then do so, but don't put all your eggs in one basket, release for OS X and Windows also. This is not that difficult if you plan to be multiplatform from the beginning and choose your tools accordingly.

A company with a product to sell needs to have enough potential customers to be able to earn a profit. Since Linux is only used on 2% of home computers - that customer base is small and if only 10% of the 2% want to pay for a game it's smaller still. This is the reason hardware developers don't invest much effort optimizing their drivers for Linux - the potential customer base is just to small to "justify" the development costs.

Linux is great but it is a "hobbyist" platform versus a commercial platform. Also, Linux tends to focus a lot on keeping very old hardware alive and operational but this old hardware is ill suited for gaming. Look at questions in the newbie section, many deal with getting a distro to run on a 10+ year old computer - these ain't gaming platforms for sure. All of my hardware is fairly current and powerful but I run Linux as I enjoy the relative speed and control over updates.

When folks develop software for a version of Windows, they are guaranteed a level of hardware that will be available as each version of Windows had very specific minimum hardware requirements. With Linux you may be running on a quad core (or better) with 32GB RAM or a Pentium with 256K RAM...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...6/#post5002321

And Intel was part of the Steam Dev Days keynote.

Meant to say optimizing their drivers for Linux. Sure they offer some support but nowhere near what Windows gets - again because of the market share. A company is in business to make money and if 95% of the customers run a Windows platform this is where they are going to devote the majority of their resources - can't blame them either...

The problem with this isn't that you're focusing on 3% of the market; it's that you're cutting out 97% of the market.

Yeah, there were game companies that tried this in the past. I don't think there are any now.