I'm actually happy AND (at the same time) disappointed that Larian was the company chosen for BG3. Sure, they are talented, skilled and know how to make awesome games but that also automatically means the same annoying silence we've experienced with DOS2. This is always so difficult. Why? Let me tell you a story. I learned about Larian and DOS just thanks to the native DOS:EE Linux port which I think is very good, I fell in love with the game, was looking forward to DOS2 and asked Larian a few times on Twitter whether or not are they going to release it for Linux, hoping that they will become THE RPG developers letting users of other platforms enjoy their beautiful games. Got no reply, completely ignored. But people told me it runs so well in Proton. So I bought it... had my experience completely ruined by Proton bugs (for example drops to 15 FPS after every single save), started hating the game, uninstalled it, took over a year until it became playable for me. Fell in love with it again, I think I managed to advertise it to tens if not hundreds of people on my Discord server, many bought it and loved it as well, many thanked me that I showed them the game because they didn't know about it. I started playing coop with 3 other people (Windows users) who would probably never know about it if I didn't tell them (and they all now have around 150 hours played). Of course Linux only has a few % marketshare on the desktop, but all this happened just because I, as a single Linux user, one day, a few years ago, read about DOS:EE on a site focused on Linux gaming.
And here I am today, not willing to do the same mistake I did with DOS2 (ruining the experience with Proton) and telling my Windows friends I play DOS2 with that I won't be playing BG3 with them because the company that's behind the game doesn't want me to... which of course means they won't buy it either because they would be missing 1 player. And guess what they did, bought DOS:EE instead because it has a Linux version and with the 4 player coop mode we will be able to play together just fine. What I'm trying to say is that supporting more platforms (in this case Linux) usually leads to more copies sold on the dominant platform (Windows in this case), might be something to consider because I'm for sure not the only one playing with Windows users. It's an example, in this case a Linux port would lead to 4 copies sold where 3 of them would be for Windows. Of course that's no loss for such a big company but as I said, it's an example of how it usually works and we are not the only people using more operating systems.
To summarize it: Larian is like the girl you love but can't be with and I really hate that a company I love (or used to love?) forces me to dislike it. What's even more important, they are not forcing me to dislike them byt not releasing a Linux port but by refusing to say anything official. If they at least said "No, we won't make money on it, sorry", I would respect them. But the silence makes me mad and disappointed especially because CDPR keeps doing exactly the same to us since 2016.
Regarding the port itself, considering that the game is already using Vulkan and runs on Stadia... it's even harder to understand the silence. This year is weird, we are getting Wasteland 3 for Linux from a studio owned by Microsoft but no BG3 from a company that has a Vulkan-capable engine and a working Stadia build of said game. Thanks for reading this rant, have a nice day, I just had to get it off my chest before I give up.
On the other hand, Larian has often responded, by email, to simple questions I sent them and bugs I reported.
It is therefore hit or miss, caused I believe by an overload of emails at some periods on some days.
nb : I will not compare those communication issues with people we may love, who can sometimes become permanently silent, passive-aggressive, and you will never know why. Unlike those silent people, you can write again to Larian.
