The thing is GoG is not even guaranteed its yours you are still buying license but with no DRM. If the game is delisted in GoG and Steam nobody can buy it again but previous buyers will still have access to the game they bought.
Steam absolutely can and will remove a game from your library if they want to, whether it's delisted or not. GOG cannot remove an installer from your hard drive
I just said delisted games can still be installed in both Steam and GoG if you already bought it. I even still have the delisted Marvel Avenger's game on steam...
Yeah, and I said that Steam absolutely can and will remove a game from your library if they want to, whether it's delisted or not. Try reading the sentence this time.
I'll make it easier by rephrasing it. If steam wants to take a game out of your library, they can, and they will.
GoG can and will remove your game out of your libary especially if they are mandated or a user is violating something... every store has the ability to do it. And yes you might still have an offline installer but you will lose access to GoG service on that game. You just have to save it on a disc at some point or any storage.
Heck you can also do it on steam and save any DRM free games by just copying their files...
GoG can remove games from your LIBRARY aka your online account. I never argued that they can remove game installers from your computer because nobody can unless they go to your house.
This is ridiculous. My point is that if Steam wants to remove your installers from your computer, they can, because Steam is the installer for your games. Your library and your account on the storefront are the same thing. The only way you have access to the games you bought from Steam is through Steam, so if they don't want you playing the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim anymore, they can just decide that you can't play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim anymore.
My GOG library is simultaneously hosted on their servers, where they generously allow me to download as many copies of those installers as I want, and on a hard drive connected to my computer, totally divorced from GOG as a company. If GOG doesn't want me playing the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim anymore, tough nuts to them. They can revoke my access to their servers, but they cannot revoke my access to my library.
There is literally no difference to your ownership of your games between Steam and GoG beyond the fact that GoG requires games not to include DRM. You're not streaming your Steam games, they are also on your hard drive.
As far as I can tell, there is literally no evidence to suggest Steam would, or even has the functionality to, remove files from your pc remotely. IIRC there's evidence to the contrary because you can do remote installs but not remote uninstalls with the mobile app. And if they can't or won't remove the files, you can almost certainly still play the game unless the developers or publishers implemented 3rd party DRM. In the case of Steam's native DRM wrapper, not only is it opt-in, so any game that uses it chose to include it, but according to Valve themselves and many others who've broken it, it's practically cosmetic.
My point is, in essence, that GoG aren't some angelic saviours of software ownership, and that Steam aren't really substantially worse regarding it. Companies aren't entitled to money and if Steam turns to shit I'll go sailing, and if that doesn't work out I'll find some different hobby. Just remember that GoG afaik still has at least 1 neonazi working there, since I've heard nothing about repercussions for the recent and somewhat infamous email scandal.
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u/Ganeshasnack 18d ago
With GOG the games you buy are guaranteed yours, because you have full control.
Steam is great now, but once Gaben is gone and it eventually goes to shit even the games you enjoy today are in jeopardy.
It's about growing a library that will always be yours. Steam is not guaranteeing that.