Troy Hepfner the president of My Game Company has posted sad news on the Linux Hardcore forums regarding GNU/Linux versions of Grubby Games :

“Earlier this week, Big Fish Games, which bought out indie developer Grubby Games last year, canceled affiliate sales for the Linux versions of all games produced by Grubby Games. Their games include The Amazing Brain Train, FizzBall, My Tribe, Professor Fizzwizzle, and Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery. I’ve had to remove the Linux versions of these games from my site.

I wrote to Big Fish Games to ask them about this move, and they were not willing to reconsider. They want all sales of the games to come through the Big Fish Games site, and right now they have no plans to add a Linux section to their site.

At the moment, the Linux versions are still available on the Grubby Games site, but I don’t know for how long. If what BFG told me is true, then I suspect the Linux versions might be discontinued soon (because they have no provision for Linux on their site).

If you were ever interested in any of these games, you might consider buying them now before Big Fish Games discontinues them entirely. The games are only $6.99 each. Some sales of the Linux versions might send a message to Big Fish Games (one of the largest online casual game portals) about how you feel about having Linux support for games. The Grubby Games site is http://grubbygames.com

I realize the audience here is probably made up of more hardcore gamers than casual gamers, but still this is a good way to get the attention of a major game publisher. If one takes notice, others might too.

Note: just to be clear, I won’t be getting any commission or credit for any sales of these games. I just don’t want to see the Linux versions discontinued. There are so few commercial games for Linux as it is, and these were some pretty good games.”

Lets hope that they will reconsider this step and make a GNU/Linux section for the already developed games and continue developing new games for GNU/Linux.

Links
My Game Company
Troy Hepfner Post On LxH
Linux Hardcore
Big Fish Games
Grubby Games

  1. 0m1nv5 says:

    This just sucks! The companies need to know that Linux users will pay for games if they are good enough.

  2. Eddward says:

    My Tribe was a cute game. I discovered it long after its release and my whole family played it. I got it for my wife when she was have trouble with some face book games. I didn’t even intend to play it. I’m sad to hear they are dropping Linux support. I was waiting for My Tribe’s sequel to try to get my wife to push it to her facebook friends. It was like some of their favorite facebook games minus the annoyances of facebook games.

    Forget that they probably won’t support Linux in future development though. It seems odd that a company would take several completed games and just remove them from the market. Sounds like an odd business move, especially for a small game company. They apparently do not agree with Wolfire about leaving money on the table by not supporting Linux. Perhaps BigFish is truly starting to feel big?

    On a side note, I’d love to give a plug for MyGameCompany. (Troy’s company.) They’ve made some cute games that my kids and I like and they always support Linux. Their shop is good about carrying Linux versions of titles and they’ve been very helpful for me when I’ve had trouble or when I was in the processes of shooting myself in the foot. They’re are strictly family oriented and won’t have every title I plan to buy this year (like Overgrowth and its brutal “Ninja Rabbit Combat”) but their selection is pretty good even for me and I can let my kids pick anything off the site without having to worry.

    Edd

  3. Linux Gamer says:

    I think that if Linux users were ACTUALLY buying games, that there would be suppliers.

  4. Troy Hepfner says:

    Thanks for the plug, Eddward!

    Just to clarify – Big Fish Games has been a pretty big company for a number of years now. I think the problem came when they bought out the small indie developer Grubby Games and inherited Linux versions that they didn’t know what to do with.

    But I think you’re right – I’m pretty sure any new games developed by the Grubby Games team (who now work for Big Fish) won’t come with Linux support anymore. And that’s a shame.

  5. Spanky says:

    This is stupid. Either no one wants to buy these games anyway, or the company is stupid; to neglect investing, in making Linux games, they could *ALSO* profit from.

    I could just be poor management. No offense intended; but perhaps they just don’t want to also manage, another division.

  6. a-non-e-mouse says:

    I actually have not heard of these games for Linux. Are the free demos included as optional packages with any of the distros (like Ubuntu or Arch (nudge, nudge))?

  7. Maxim Bardin says:

    No, the demos are not included as with most proprietary games.
    The only distro I know to include proprietary demos is “linuX-gamers.net“.

  8. a-non-e-mouse says:

    OK, well, that’ll make life kind of hard for Linux software sellers. Since there isn’t an app store, the distro websites would seem to be natural centers for at least advertising proprietary software which can be installed on particular distros.

  9. mr.G says:

    I was waiting for MyTribe2. I guess I can scratch that off my list 😛
    Which pretty much means my list is almost empty…

    a-non-e-mouse, you might have be mistaken in how you worded your initial question. As it asks if there is any distro that include free demos… that is best understood as from installation, but not afterwards.
    You can get demos for most linux games for any distro and Ubuntu will have a software store which will be tested with freeware and demos to begin with.

  10. Pit says:

    Very sad news, indeed.

    I bought both of the Fizzwizzle games and really like them, with all their love for small details. Well, BFG, that move of yours means I’m not going to buy anything from you. I don’t play windows games.