Linux might not have as much games as Windows (or game consoles) but people enjoying this wonderful open source operating system can have fun with games too, as there are a lot of free games for Linux available, even some huge commercial ones. Even Linux games are a niche market, Linux gaming has got a pretty colorful history so far. So what’s the state of Linux gaming?

Games have become the topic. Is a GNU/Linux -- or really any Unix or Unix-like -- port worth the cost? Not only is there a market for GNU/Linux ports, but apparently a whole quarter of the market.

There is no denying the huge selection of open source games available for Linux. Playing through all of these games would entertain many gamers for years. Nevertheless, there is still a massive market for commercial games. If Linux is ever going to usurp the desktop market, it needs a regular source of native high quality games that rival commercial games available on Windows.

Alright - enough speculation and assumptions, lets look at some cold hard numbers. Two recent games that had successful Linux ports would be 2DBoys World of Goo and Frictional Games enumbra Series. 2DBoy reported that since they released their Linux port of the game 10% of their total game sales have been for the Linux platform.

Linux has some very nice games. Even though they do not have a lot of funding and Linux is a small desktop market these games can compete with Windows or Mac OS games.

Microsoft thinks its high time some quality open source games are released noting a significant hole in the Linux Gaming market. "We see it as a great opportunity to introduce Linux users to Microsoft products."

I have always claimed that the widely used Operating System market share statistics from Net applications were not really accurate when it comes to MacOS and Linux market share. In my opinion there were two factors that prevented an accurate Worldwide market share to be produced: Linux browsers potentially ignoring the counter and improper geographical distribution.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of open source games that are already native on GNU/Linux. Unfortunately the commercial gaming market lags behind open source game development when it comes to GNU/Linux. Some people using GNU/Linux want the commercial games too. This article is an attempt to assist a move in the direction of GNU/Linux in the commercial gaming market.

Linux Myth: Linux Users are cheap and Linux Users are not a profitable market for gaming developers. Ahem...I think we, at least on some scale, have disproved that.