James RameyDon’t get me wrong. We think the game is going to be EPIC. Our staff was glued to their keyboards during the Beta testing (literally glued, they refused to leave or eat or bathe). But as a result of their dedication, our team showed exceptional progress in supporting the Diablo III on the Linux platform using CrossOver. If it were not for a Linux driver bug impacting specific ATI video cards and Blizzard shutting down their Beta testing servers, we might have had a CrossOver compatible version to co-inside with the launch. Call it bad luck or poor timing or call it ‘the influence’ of the Dark World, but we were SO close to delivering this game to Linux users (and maybe we still are) on Day 1 (so they too could bask in the glory of inclusiveness that their PC and Mac brothers take for granted).
So if you are a Linux user and a game player and hope (and pray) that Diablo III is making its way to your ‘technology world’, know that CodeWeavers is banging away on this support and hopes to provide an CrossOver update shortly after May 15th. If possible, I’d ask that you rattle your saber a bit and reach out and post in the Blizzard and ATI forums; Diablo III forums; and other relative blogs asking for some Diablo III love for the Linux community (and if not the Linux community at large, then maybe through the use of companies, like CodeWeavers, already entrenched in supporting the Linux community) to help make their game run under on the Linux platform. The more noise we make the more serious Blizzard and other companies (I’m looking at you Bethesda Software with your Elder Scrolls On-line preparing to launch) consider this market as potentially viable. And it should be noted that Blizzard did make efforts to include CodeWeavers early in the Beta testing, so they do care!
If I don’t hear from you in a while, I’ll assume that you’re gaming away and can’t take a break to send a shout out or eat or bathe (well for God’s sakes take a shower ever now and then). Happy hunting, my friends. And hopefully, we all make it back with our souls intact.
About James B. Ramey
James B. Ramey is the CEO of CodeWeavers. His life long love of video gaming started at the tender age of six with an Atari 2600 and evolved over time to include Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Apple Mac IIc, Windows PC, and MacBook Pro. When not fiddling with technology, James enjoys cooking, travel, debating politics in the office, and spending time with his wife, daughter, and their two rescue dogs. For the past 20 years, James has worked with clients around the world in best implementing technology to maximize a return on their investment. He is a graduate of Moorhead State University and earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix. You can find James on Twitter at @jbramey.