Blizzard rumoured to be working on Linux port of "at least one" of their titles

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With Valve positioning themselves at the forefront of bringing big-name PC titles to Linux, and indies quietly supporting it for ages now, Penguin-enabled gaming must be looking increasingly attractive to developers. Phoronix are reporting that Blizzard are working on an Ubuntu port of one of their games, set to release sometime this year.

The site claims an anonymous source at the company confirmed that "at least one of their very popular titles will see a release for Ubuntu Linux this calendar year." The story goes on to say that this release will act as a testbed to decide whether future Linux support is worth pursuing.

This isn't the first hint that Blizzard has been internally investigating the OS. Last year, when asked about the possibility of a Linux-port of Diablo III in an interview with AusGamers , Blizzard's Jay Wilson said: "I know we actually have a lot of stuff that we... like a lot of our server stuff actually uses Linux, so I don't think that it would be outrageous, but I think that we'd have to see that there'd be a demand for it. And then we'd have to see that that demand would be worth the time we take away from the other things that we could do."

Phoronix claim that public announcement of a Blizzard Linux project will be made "this summer." We've asked Blizzard, and they've declined to comment at this point.

Thanks, Slashdot .

Phil Savage
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.