The Loki Demise

Here is the sad, fictitious tale of Loki Entertainment Software (abridged):

"There once was a sad penguin named Linux, and he had hardly any games to play. One day a nice man named Loki came along to help Linux. Sadly, Linux was a greedy penguin and didn't pay Loki so Loki starved and died a terrible, horrible death. The End."

Say what??
Alright, enough silly-speak. It was only for making you think about fables and folly of simplistic condensed stories. While the intentions of Loki started well, I do not believe the result benefited the Linux community in the end. Many will remember Loki as the only major attempt to produce Linux-specific entertainment titles which failed completely. While there is rumor of political and personal drama associated with Loki, I will not comment on any of it, since I have no direct sources on the subject. I only would like to make a counter-point to the general belief that Loki proves commercial entertainment titles cannot succeed within the market of Linux systems.

Founded in late 1998 by Scott Draeker, Loki produced and published roughly 17 titles until their bankruptcy three years later. But what were these games? Loki produced ports of existing Windows titles. Their premier production was Civilization: Call to Power, a title that was first spotted on shelves four months after the original. Other titles were not ported any faster, with generally six months between the Windows release and the Loki version. Bear in mind, porting is typically done to bring done to bring software onto a new architecture. Loki was bringing games for the Intel processor... back to the Intel processor. More curious than that, they were charging even more for the Loki version than was commonly available for the Windows version.

The Linux community did try very hard to support their efforts, regardless. There were many message posts on web forums claiming to have purchased a version of a software title from Loki, even though they had already purchased the same title for Windows a year earlier. Was this their market... people who would buy the game twice... and for more money the second time?

People have been muted about the demise of Loki. It is even with trembling hands that I write this and know how sensitive the Linux community is to the subject. I have the feeling Linux advocates feel shamed and guilty for letting down a company that was trying to give to them what they repeatedly requested: A solid gaming environment. But with the game development community, Loki's demise gave them a sense of grim satisfaction. There were those that thought Linux was a hyped-up goldrush and equated Linux with the out-of-control stock-market of the late 1990's. When Loki failed, they nodded to themselves - confident in their original assessment that one could not make money selling entertainment titles on Linux. However, this misguided assessment and lack of rebuttals has hurt the Linux entertainment industry. If I have to dig up the bones of Loki to prove it, then so be it.

Developers, do not give up on the Linux market because of the failure Loki. Think about the market forces objectively, and you can see the opportunities. If you price differently the same software functions on the same PC architecture, then the market will demand the cheaper one. Priced equally, the market will demand the more popular operating platform (Windows). So where is the market for Linux games? ... Answer: Making comparable games to Windows, but priced more cheaply.

There is your free market research, Indie Developers. So endeth the lesson of Loki.

For more information on the demise of Loki, including their many successes not mentioned here, research this site which was posted during the time of their bankruptcy in August 2001.