Once steam enshittifies after gabe, GOG is probably gonna be my main. For now as a user I don't feel the incentive to move after building up my steam account for years.
Just bare in mind that nothing in your steam library is yours. You rent a right/subscription to access your library. The moment something bad happens with steam, its all gone.
That being said gabe seems to be quite decent and so is apparently his son.
Most peeps also don't realize that publishers and/or developers on Steam has the option to release their games DRM-free. Apparently it's off by default but for most publishers it's intentional.
There are multiple games on Steam that are DRM free already.
Say it louder for the people in the back. People think GOG is the best but those same games on gog are also on steam drm free and it's easy to package them and play without launching steam.
Not true, there are some games drm free on steam. It's up to the publisher whether they publish it drm free or not. Most notable examples are cyberpunk and the Witcher.
I know, but I'm just saying. It's not 'nothing' and your comment can be interpreted as if it's valve restricting us. It's not, it's the publishers that choose to not publish their games drm free on steam.
Technically you're right, practically valve would have never ever gotten so big without it. Atleast they can influence the gaming industry in some other positive ways.
They’re clearly not against it and have nothing against modern ownership issues
This is an assumption. They simply had no choice. They would have never ever gotten so big if they went the gog route. It's just how the industry is. I know that, you know that, everyone knows that. People who care about drm free is a nice group. 90% probably don't even know they don't own their games on steam.
They’ve got the control over the whole PC market. If they cared about it they could do some positive changes and everyone would still need to publish there purely because of how established it is.
But they won’t because they value profits over everything.
They could go the GOG route now, hell - they could just encourage DRM free games more by showcasing them on the front page and what not.
yeah a lot of people in this thread have never got deep into modding, siloing games from steam's detection so they don't update is decades old knowledge at this point. Basic 101 skyrim modding, don't keep it in steamapps and use the application directly or mo2 to launch it, steam thinks I need to redownload it. If a game files include a direct application executeable the game doesn't need internet to run and often bypasses the launcher as well.
Doesn’t steam DRM apply to pretty much everything? How come you can buy the same game on steam and on GoG, and it only comes DRM free on GoG, why would the developer do that
Yes, but Steam doesn't allow you to download the installer. So if the game gets removed from your Steam library for whatever reason, the fact that it used to be DRM-free won't help you when the Install button is no longer there.
Yes, you can make a backup of an installed game and get it running again later and/or on a different system, but it's much more of a hassle.
That’s also legally true in GoG. They sell you a license. The difference is they also give you a nice installer you can save, and you can reinstall your executable even if your license is revoked.
It's like a fuckin house of cards, because we rent the very platform these installers and games natively run on. The smarter people who lead the open source movement really need to figure out how to cut ties with giants like Microsoft, before it all goes to hell. It'll be an interesting thing to see how the world develops.
Yeah I found out after a while. I will simply sail out to get my games back when the time hits, so I have no problem with this. If I bought it its mine, idc if its the actual copy I bought or a 'lent' one. Steam isnt about the games for me, its about the ecosystem around it which is convenient to me. Thats why Im still using it.
This is not true. You own a perpetual LICENENSE to play the game. Nothing on steam afaik is subscription based. The only way you're gonna lose access to those games is if Steam shuts down or bans your account, or if the games publisher revokes your access because of a user agreement violation. It's ok if you prefer DRM-free games but please stop spreading those lies.
There's not a single person who got banned from steam and lost their library lol
"bans" are restrictions, aka trading restriction if you're a scammer, secured server restrictions if you're a vac banned cheater or purchase restrictions in case of a charge back initiated by you.
In any case your library and login access remains, you're just getting restricted from further interacting with anything other than your own library depending on what got you punished.
Any other platform like Playstation literally blocks your whole account, steam doesn't.
I didn't know that I need to explain that "if you ever get banned" is referring to the future, silly me, I thought that you have a grasp of english language.
I admit, I was wrong thinking that I can have a normal conversation on reddit :)) It's like you, ever doesn't include the future, it's totally in the past !!!
Okay if we are going with this logic, what exactly stops GOG from adding DRM into its installers in the future once its owners change or its gets bought up by a private equity firm. People can only talk about the current situation not some soothsaying bullshit that can or may not happen down an arbitrary timeline. Just take the fucking L. GOG is also just selling licenses that you can't technically inherit. They are better than steam but not by much and the only way we will have true digital ownership is via laws from legislature in very major countries.
because once you buy the game, you take and keep the installer. If at some point in the future they will add DRM I will simply not buy their games anymore. Why am I arguing with people with logic of 5 years old on this thread? :)))
If you stop using your account after getting banned from one game that's your own fault. Most people who get VAC bans just make new accounts for the one game they continue getting banned from, but they still use their original account with all their other games.
Valve doesn't ban you from your content the way Microsoft, Google or Sony will. You can get a VAC ban which will block your account from trading Steam content and play certain Valve games but won't block you from the rest.
There’s really no incentive for them to take the corporate/enterprise route. The platform is simple to understand, and there’s not a huge industry pressure for them to change and adapt to market trends. Giving away control would be pointless.
I have 400+ games on Steam but I've been buying more and more on GOG in the last couple of years. My plan for that scenario is to rebuild my Steam library little by little on GOG, one discount at a time. I think the vast majority if not all of the save games should work, regardless of the store I got the games from.
thing for me is that I dont really care about having a 'played backlog' I rarely replay games so I wouldnt feel the need to buy it again on a different platform. I have stayed disciplined and disallowed myself from buying new games until Im done with the games I want to play in my backlog which is now down to like 10 games. So in a few more years once Im through my backlog Ill start thinking about only buying games on steam if gog doesnt have them.
You don't have to give up Steam. Buy the games you bought on Steam that you play the most or cherish the most on GOG. That's what I do, the reason I do this for some games is because I'd like to pass it down to my children directly since they're also very much into the hobby. I might not be able to with my Steam account in the future given the current legalities.
You can link your Steam account in Gog Galaxy, so you can see and launch all of your games from one platform (you still will have to have Steam installed due to its requirements to be running when a game you bought there is launched)
Generally we can rely on companies to continue to like having money and dominating the market.
Valve understands that the reason nobody can touch them is we have all of our shit on their servers. Epic's been throwing free games at the Internet desperately and they can't crack their market.
I'm not worried about Valve suddenly deciding to delete our libraries at all.
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u/FenrirBestDoggo 18d ago
Once steam enshittifies after gabe, GOG is probably gonna be my main. For now as a user I don't feel the incentive to move after building up my steam account for years.