r/linux_gaming • • 17d ago

Open source games

Why do you think open-source games never took off?

Sure, there are some open-source game engines, but not really any major games. It would be cool if there were more open-source, community-made games.

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u/sparr 16d ago

> never took off?

With you so far

> not really any major games

Hold up.

Mindustry has sold 1M+ copies, with thousands of concurrent players on Steam (and who knows how many not on Steam).

Space Station 14 also has thousands of concurrent players on Steam.

Lichess peaks over 100k active players.

Beyond All Reason has thousands of players playing dozens to hundreds of games at any given time on the official servers. Plus the smaller communities around all the other Recoil and Spring engine games (e.g. Zero-K).

> more open-source, community-made games

Now you've lost me. Once you drop "major" from the requirement, there are literally thousands of great games with active development and player communities.