Despite Valve's longstanding push to increase the profile of Linux gaming (and the Linux-based SteamOS that is still hanging out in beta), the growing list of Linux games on Steam remains dominated by smaller, independent titles and a few ports of big-name classics. So it's worth paying attention to the fact that 2K Games has announced that Borderlands: The Pre-sequel will have full Linux/SteamOS support on the same day it launches on Windows machines and consoles, October 14. The announcement comes alongside news that 2K has also released a port of Borderlands 2 for SteamOS, and it's offering the older game at a 75 percent discount to celebrate.

Getting major publishers to launch such heavily promoted, AAA games on Linux concurrently with Windows is going to be key to convincing PC gamers to make the switch to one of many Linux-based Steam Machines if and when they finally launch next year. So far, though, big-name publishers have yet to make Linux versions of their biggest titles a priority, despite Steam's work on tools to make such Linux ports less difficult. Aside from Borderlands, the biggest upcoming release Linux gamers can really point to is Firaxis' Civilization: Beyond Earth, which will be coming to Linux "at a later date" than the Windows release.

This isn't exactly how the Linux community saw things going when Steam for Linux was officially launched back in February of 2013 . As Ubuntu developer Canonical's director of consumer applications David Pitkin said at the time, "we expect a growing number of game developers to include Ubuntu among their target platforms. We're looking forward to seeing AAA games developed with Ubuntu in mind as part of a multi-platform day and date release on Steam."

Valve has already said that its own highly anticipated titles will not be exclusive to SteamOS any time soon, meaning the selection of games on SteamOS is likely to remain a subset of the selection of games on Windows for the foreseeable future. If more companies follow 2K's lead with Borderlands, though, at least that subset might start to look a bit more comparable to that of Microsoft's locked-in PC gaming behemoth.