Now let’s go one step further and quit purchasing games with DRM from a particularly large PC gaming service
So what do you suggest? Gog is not a contender for me unless they add equivalent regional pricing (in my region), payment options, Linux support (proton), mod workshop, easy multiplayer connectivity, community pages like guides, friend list with messaging and voice chat, etc. Would love to get things on gog but the only thing it has going is DRM free and a ton more negatives. If steam were to rug pull or whatever then I would just go back to the seas.
That’s unfortunate to hear. I doubt anything will compete with Steam with all the things you want. People need to choose to put value where it really matters and have some inconveniences. Pirating certainly won’t get you what you want. Supporting DRM free services (and the games devs) will do more good. You could download your GoG games through the Heroic launcher and it’ll use wine proton (or whatever it’s called). Also Nexus mods has a new mod manager that’ll work on Linux but it’s only in alpha stage currently.
I can’t fathom how anyone has an issue with Steam, they’re one of the only straight shooters in the game.
Until the day after Gabe kicks the bucket.
Read their EULA, you license your “purchase”. You don’t own your games. Steam also injects their own DRM onto the vast majority of games.
Do any stores say you own the games? I feel like this isn’t a Steam specific thing
GOG has no DRM. Once purchased you can download the files and own it. You could even write your games to CDs if you wanted and play like the old days.
Edit. I was setting up a new laptop for my Dad. I remembered we used to play an old fighter jet game when I was young. I looked it up and found out it was Falcon 3. I then found GoG sells it. So I purchased it on my account and loaded it onto his computer with no reference to GoG, no clients, etc. It was a surprise for him when he got his new computer.
I own a lot of games on GoG, but I fail to see the practical difference. If GoG were to go under, there’s not going to be any free service hosting all your data and the games for download. It all disappears, just like if Steam were to go under.
If steam goes under, a significant portion of your steam games won’t launch anymore, period. If GOG goes under, you can still use 100% of their installers, provided you still have them backed up. No, they are not going to be able to do that step for you. Did the store you bought physical games from put your discs in storage for you, so they wouldn’t clog up your basement? Did they give you a new copy if you lost or threw out your disc and then changed your mind?
The difference is that if you have your files you still can play the games if GoG goes under, while steam games will be unplayable because they need to communicate to steam (or have steam offline on your PC). I heard that steam drm is easy to remove but I don’t have much knowledge in that regard
You can do the same thing with almost all the offline games on steam.
The vast majority of digital purchases are licenses, this isn’t something new or unique to Steam. Digital purchases where you actually own the product are more the exception than the rule.
Even when you were buying games on physical media, you didn’t own the software itself. You just owned a disc with the software on it.
Then let’s support the good companies to make it the rule and not exception. The market won’t change until the consumer tells them what’s important
I’m all for competition and against forced DRM. But the PC gaming service ʀᴇᴅᴀᴄᴛᴇᴅ that you’re referring to offers genuinely good services on top of just accessing games - social platform, (voice) chat, remote play (together), streaming video to friends, communities, easy access to mods, linux support, makes multiplayer easy, etc…
So are most services and then at some point do some type of rug pull with BS EULA changes, etc. that change the functionality of what you’re using. This is prevailant in everything now a days. I’d say with Steam the writing is on the walls. They have so much power in the PC gaming market (like with the examples you gave) it’s only a matter of time.
I do see how useful and user friendly those services you mentioned are
Yeah, fuck Epic!
I was thinking Steam but Epic, EA, Ubisoft; they’re all riddled with crap
They were right for many other reasons. This is just one.
But… the defenders of multi billion dollar corporations told me that I was a crybaby for not wanting to create an account at a company who has had several outages and security incidents over the years. I can’t believe they were wrong.
God, I remember the Helldivers 2 fiasco. I can’t believe people really thought having to make yet another login was tolerable or a good thing.
Yeah, some of the Steam reviews on God of War Ragnarok were almost exactly like this.
“Oh, no! You have to use a third-party login to play your game! Get over it, it’s a great game, who cares about you having to go out of your way to arbitrarily create an account for a platform you’ve never used before!” - essentially.
Fucking shit eaters.
Didn’t they lift the PSN account requirement on PC just a few days ago? Imagine if they could not play the game during the outage, if Sony didn’t lift the requirements. I kinda would have loved to see this, because it could mean a huge shift in gaming based on real world proof.
Didn’t they lift the PSN account requirement on PC just a few days ago?
Just on four particular games
Well, we already have the proof, because it was broken on PS5.
If Sony had held firm on a PSN sign-in for Helldivers 2, it would have been just as borked on PC as it was on console. Ditto for if Sony had retained its log-in requirement for singleplayer games: You could effectively play God of War Ragnarok offline after creating or logging into a PSN account (unless you opted for a handy mod), but just like installing a PS5 disc drive, a PSN outage would have prevented first-time setup of something that simply does not require an internet connection.
but just like installing a PS5 disc drive, a PSN outage would have prevented first-time setup of something that simply does not require an internet connection.
I want to address this section by the author. Should any old disc drive work offline? Yes. Do PlayStation’s? No.
In the interest of saving money, Sony doesn’t pre-pay for the Blu-Ray Disc Association License, so they use the internet to know when to pay the license fee on behalf of the user. So from a legal standpoint by an entity which does not want to get sued, their course of action to save money requires this.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it uses an internet connection to verify the disk to try and prevent used sales or pirating
I read an article testing the same disc drive in multiple PlayStations and they continued to work. My guess is that Sony pays for console X to be able to use a disc drive when one is inserted, and then pays for console Y when one is inserted. They probably can check the ID of the disc drive, but they also probably don’t care that much.
Yeah that’s in the article
Doing business with Sony in any way is not a good idea.
It’s been downhill since the Walkman.
