Games

Game support in Linux is actually excellent for the most part nowadays and with the exception of some old games that would likely have been buggy on Windows also or some competitive games, most anything works on Linux. So what's actually available?

Clients

Steam

It goes without saying but if you're playing games on any computer then the first place you're probably playing them is Steam. Like we addressed in The Checklist, Steam uses it's own specialized WINE variant known as Proton. This allows almost every game on Steam to run easily on Linux. And while most games have no or minimal bugs/performance issues, it's worth using both Valve's built-in game compatibility tracker as well as third-party ones to make sure that what you want to play will run well. But even so most players will be able to play just about anything with minimal work if any at all. AND, if you do want to play a game but it's not on Steam, adding it through the "add a non-Steam game" option will actually allow it to run through Proton, meaning that almost any Windows program can be run through just adding it to Steam.

Epic Games

Epic Games launcher and it's anti-cheat can be run through any of the following WINE/Proton tools:

• Lutris
• Heroic Games Launcher
• Bottles
• Etc.

Most of them are easy to use and they support Epic's anti-cheat so games like Fortnite will run with essentially 0 issues. That being said, Epic is actually working on it's own client for Linux users! But it hasn't been announced when it'll be ready for release.

Blizzard

' Blizzard games that are on Steam like Overwatch can just run through Steam but for Blizzard's own client you can also just use one of the tools mentioned in the Epic compatibility section.

Activision (COD)

Modern Call-of-Duty games have an anti-cheat built-in that's created by Microsoft which means that their support is contingent on willing to partner with Linux developers. As such, it is highly unlikely that these games will be releasing on Linux soon or at all, (though it should be noted that the Linux landscape changes rapidly and it's possible that as I'm writing this there already exist tools to play COD on Linux.)

Xbox Game Pass

Though not perfect a user recently actually made a tool to allow Game Pass to work on Linux called "Xodus". It's still being actively developed and isn't really ready for casual use but it is proof that we are likely to see support for Microsoft's service on Linux in a shorter time frame than possibly expected.

Riot Games

Riot games are currently not playable on Linux but as of this year Riot has been hiring staff to work on making and maintaining a Linux client as well as working anti-cheat. It isn't clear when Riot will be finished working on the client but this does definitively prove that both League of Legends and Valorant will eventually be available on Linux natively.

Misc.

GOG recently announced work on their own client so keep up-to-date with their press releases if this is something you care deeply about

Performance

One of the biggest questions users have as it pertains to Linux gaming is how many frames they'll lose when moving over. Linux used lag behind too much to be viable for gaming but this issue has pretty much been eliminated.

For games that use DirectX, Linux uses DXVK as a translation layer-a piece of software that makes something work on an operating system it's not made for-with DirectX 9 and 11 being nearly equal with Windows for a while now. Games released in the last 10 years or so also will usually offer Vulkan, DirectX's competitor that's aimed at essentially doing the same things. Vulkan is always the best choice on Linux so if it's available use it. Games running on Linux with Vulkan typically either:

• Only lose slight performance (2-5% FPS when compared with the 15% that Linux used to struggle with)
• Match Windows evenly
• OR as of recently actually OUTPERFORM WINDOWS

Lastly, DirectX 12 games have historically performed less well than Vulkan on Linux but DXVK is receiving updates that have now officially closed the gap to match Windows.

Emulation

Emulation is actually better on Linux because lots of the tools for emulation or clients for emulation come bundled on Flatpak which then requires the user to simply find boot images and game roms.