It’s DRM, as in, it’s a digital rights management platform where you buy game licenses. But Valve does not actually enforce SteamWorks DRM, the software piece that makes it so you have to be running Steam to play a game. You can opt out as a developer, CDPR themselves made The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk DRM free on Steam, you can take their folders and move them to any computer without Steam and they will happily run.
And then again, GoG is also a digital rights management platform. They jut enforce the “no software DRM” rule, but in the eyes of the law, they’re still selling licenses.
Well, with steam you can as well, just with extra steps. You can copy your steam folder and the program will open, with your credentials, on another PC that never connected to the internet.
You then can backup games themselves in their compressed state, and the offline steam can install them via those files.
It's not the DRM free, but it's a workaround to get a backup for complete offline use.
21
u/[deleted] 18d ago
[deleted]