https://www.nexusmods.com/news/15433 As we move into 2026, Vortex is shifting back to the centre of our development roadmap. While we have spent the last couple of years exploring new territory with the Nexus Mods App, we have decided to consolidate our efforts and bring all that innovation directly into Vortex. Over 1.4 million modders use Vortex every month to mod their games, and we’re committed to improving their modding experience.
Our plans for the year include a steady, iterative modernisation of the Vortex user experience. We’ll be investing in the developer experience, which will allow us to focus on quality-of-life improvements, specifically streamlining navigation, simplifying game management, and introducing more intuitive controls for load orders. You can expect the interface to become cleaner and more responsive as we integrate the design lessons learned from our recent projects. Our goal is to make modding more accessible and reliable without disrupting the workflows that long-time Vortex users have come to rely on.
We’re also committing to supporting Vortex on SteamOS. We’ll be targeting vanilla Steam hardware like the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. We won’t be officially supporting any other configurations, but as Vortex is an open source project community developers will be free to extend support for their preferred Linux distros as they please.
Here’s an early proof of concept (subject to change) of the updated Vortex navigation:



Here’s the thing: the new app did work on Linux. It only supported a few games, but it worked. I can’t understand why they’re abandoning it. Are the new owners just wanting to continue Vortex because it’s more recognizable?
Also, Vortex does work already, just not very well. It’s a pain in the ass on Linux, but it can be ran through WINE, on the same prefix as the game you’re modding, and can do the job. It gives warnings and it doesn’t handle clicking the download button from the website (you have to paste the URL into the app’s download menu), but it functions. Is this the bare minimum they are going to keep and just throw their hands up and say “it works”?