There's been a lot of rumblings recently about AAA games being released for Linux. I think the reasons for this can be traced back to the success of the Humble Indie Bundles and paid proprietary games being made available in the Ubuntu software center.
I admit, there's a little boy inside me that thinks it would be awesome for big-budget new titles to be playable on Linux (this little boy has a lot more free time than me). But when the brief flash of excitement is gone after reading these headlines, I'm reminded what's wrong: these games will all remain proprietary software.
The inevitable will happen: these games will become available on Linux: it's just good business. But they will be obnoxiously big binary blobs. A lot of people seem to be excited about this, and I wonder if people have forgotten that Linux support does not mean open-source. We've been eased into the idea with the fanfare around other proprietary games being released (they're proprietary, but at least they're DRM free and don't ignore Linux!). Are we blinkered by the fact that Linux is 'ready for the big-time'? Do we just love these games so much that it doesn't matter they're completely closed-source?
Or are games different? The medium is certainly different. Modern games are closer to blockbusters than pieces of software. We go to them for spectacle and story and fun. Most of us own a games console and happily buy silly plastic discs to put in it, while the idea of paying for software on a disc for our desktop has become laughable. There seems to be a feeling in the community that while proprietary software is distasteful, proprietary games are less so. I'm going to try to tune in more to this in future.