Will the Star Citizen Project Fund Linux and Mac Ports For CryENGINE 3?

[wraggster]

Chris Roberts, game designer of Wing Commander (http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/wing-commander-series) fame, has had great success with his new crowd-funded Star Citizen (http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/) project — so much that the $2m base goal has been smashed with weeks to go on the Kickstarter portion of the campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen). Now Chris is floating a list of stretch goals for fans to vote on (http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/poll-additional-stretch-goals/), with Linux and Mac support both listed as stretch goal candidates. Since Star Citizen is based on the popular CryENGINE 3 game engine (http://www.crydev.net/newspage.php?news=100043), these stretch goals are equivalent to funding Linux and Mac ports of CryENGINE. Chris couldn't make any absolute promises yet, since he doesn't own the engine, butCryENGINE 3 already supports Android (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164424/Crytek_dips_toes_into_mobile_with_CryEngine_3power ed_game.php), so at least there is existing OpenGL ES support to be leveraged towards adding Linux and Mac OpenGL support. If there is enough outpouring of cross-platform support from fans in this poll, Star Citizen could turn out to be the high-profile game that brings a AAA game engine to the growing Mac and Linux gaming communities — analogous to the role played by Wasteland 2 in bringing official Linux support to the Unity 4 engine (https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/statuses/202036889350451202?_escaped_fragment_=/BrianFargo/status/202036889350451202#!/BrianFargo/status/202036889350451202) popular among so many Indie developers.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/11/04/1820209/will-the-star-citizen-project-fund-linux-and-mac-ports-for-cryengine-3