CCP Games has announced that it will be dropping the Linux client for EVE Online, citing low usage numbers and a general lack of interest.
It’s nice to have some EVE news that’s not about people doing horrible things to each other for a change but Linux fans may not be too happy about this one: Effective March 10, the Linux client for EVE Online will no longer be supported. “The low amount of users of the Linux client did not justify the degree of additional complexity having three operating systems imposes on our development and release schedules,” CCP’s Arend Stührmann said in the announcement. “While we did embark on this project with the aim of being one of the few MMOGs on the market offering a game client for all of the major operating system architectures, we feel that the time and resources that were being spent on the Linux client would be better utilized in areas where more players would benefit from them.”
EVE Online implemented native client support for Mac and Linux-based PCs through the Revelations 2.3 update launched in late 2007. But Stührmann noted that while the number of Mac users has grown slowly but steadily since then, “We have not seen a similar growth in the numbers using our Linux client.”
“I would like to thank you for your past support of our efforts to bring EVE to the Linux OS,” he said. “The feedback and commitment we obtained from players like you helped both CCP and Transgaming with our attempts to improve on the quality and stability of the client. Many of us in CCP use Linux and are convinced of its merits as an operating system.”
Surprisingly, user response on LinuxGames has not been the explosion of outrage you might expect, but rather an acknowledgment that the native Linux client for EVE Online was of rather poor quality to begin with. Follow-up comments have stated that even with a native client, the game was better experienced through Wine, software that allows the execution of Windows programs in Linux.
That option remains available to Linux players, and Stührmann provided links to Wine and other related programs as well as detailed instructions on making it all work. He also said that Linux users who do feel the sting of indignation and want to leave the game as a result can close their accounts and get refunds for their unused game time by contacting the CCP billing department.
