Desura

Desura was a digital distribution platform for the Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X platforms. The service distributed games and related media online, with a primary focus on small independent game developers rather than larger companies. Desura contained automated game updates, community features, and developer resources. The client allowed users to create and distribute game mods as well.

Many independent developers (for example Scott Cawthon) and small companies published their content on Desura including Frozenbyte, Frictional Games, Introversion Software, Basilisk Games, S2 Games, Linux Game Publishing, RuneSoft, Running with Scissors, Interplay Entertainment, and Double Fine Productions. Desura sold many games that were previously included in Humble Bundle initiatives, as well as numerous other commercial titles. Desura also provided several freeware and free software games.

Originally, the platform was developed by DesuraNET; it was later sold to Linden Lab, and then to Bad Juju Games, which filed for bankruptcy in June 2015.

History

Desura was initially developed in secret by DesuraNET for many years. The project was first publicly announced on December 16, 2009.[8] Near its launch, it publicized itself by offering free keys for games to augment the purchases of the same games made through Humble Indie Bundle #2.[9] The Desura Windows client was released to the public on December 18, 2010.[10] On July 10, 2013, Desura was bought by Linden Lab.[11]

Linux support

Development on a Linux client was announced during the Summer of 2011,[12] utilizing wxWidgets and GTK+ as the toolkit, and was introduced as a limited beta program in the Fall.[13] The client was publicly available for download and execution, but users could not log into the online service unless they were a selected beta tester.[14] On November 16, 2011, the Desura Linux client was publicly released with an initial offering of over 65 games.[15][16][17]

Although Desura was not the only game distribution platform available for Linux, pre-dated by several traditional online sellers such as Tux Games,[18] Fun 4 Tux,[19] and Wupra,[20] rival online store Gameolith,[21] as well as many Linux distributions distributing games through their package management systems, Desura was the first and most prominent purely digital Linux game distributor with a dedicated client delivery application. The Ubuntu Software Center began selling commercial software packages just prior to the Linux Desura client release, but was not specialized for games, offering a substantially smaller catalog.[22]

Source release

On November 9, 2011, it was announced that Desura would be made partially free software in order to facilitate its further development. The client itself would be released under the GNU General Public License, while the server-side portion of the distribution platform would remain proprietary. The media assets and trademarks would also remain property of DesuraNET.[23] The free software release and development was handled in a manner similar to Google's Chromium project.[24] The free project, named "Desurium", was publicly made available on January 21, 2012.[25]

Ownership changes

On July 10, 2013, Linden Lab announced that they had acquired Desura.[26] The service would continue uninterrupted for current customers and the team and technology become a part of Linden Lab. After acquiring Desura, Linden Lab changed their Terms of Service to include the wording that they have future rights to use and adapt content from their virtual citizens.

It was announced on November 5, 2014, that Linden Lab had sold the Desura service to Bad Juju Games.[27][28] It faced backlash by indie developers for not paying for sales or keeping developers in the loop onto the situation.[29][30] Bad Juju later filed for bankruptcy in June 2015.[31]

screenshot	Desura-Linux-Client.png
author	DBolical Pty Ltd.
developer	OnePlay
platform	Microsoft Windows OS X Linux
genre	Digital game distribution platform (formerly) Browser game site (currently)
website	http://www.desura.com/

Features

Competitors

History

Linux support

Source release

Ownership changes

External links

References