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steam vs gog, which game store to buy from? (szmer.info)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works
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Hey, so for some time now i had this problem... I have been buying games from both gog and steam... No drm option is good on gog but there are some festures missing from what steam has, for example being able to buy games from trading cards... What should i do? Focuse on buying games from gog and if there isnt a game then buy it on steam? Or maybe just buy games on steam?

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[–] 21 points 9 months ago (3 children)

You can't buy games from Steam.
You can only license them for private use, subject to a change in licensing terms or disappearance of the game from the platform at any time.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Buying a game on Steam gets you the same perpetual license for your copy of the game as it does on GoG (the same as any software). The difference is Steam's DRM (requiring the Steam Client to run the game). AFAIK Steam have said in the past that they have a plan to remove it if Steam shuts down.

    Here's a video that lays it out in detail as to what game ownership means amongst other things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAX0gnZ3Nw.

    The big question about all this stuff is how far companies (both game and non-game software) can push their "you don't own your software" agenda before facing a significant legal challenge and what the outcome of that legal challenge will be.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    The difference is you can download and keep the installers from gog and back it up yourself. Gog just acts as a store front and download service. You always keep it. It's the only true form of software ownership. If you had your steam account removed right now, some games you have installed would no longer launch.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    Some games you have bought on gog would also not launch if the publisher decides it. Not all gog games are DRM free.
    OTOH, some games have no DRM on steam (not even the steam DRM), and can be kept on your machine forever.
    Neither option is a silver bullet for DRM free games, even if way more are available on gog.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Well, I didn't know some games on gog had drm, but seemingly a vast majority of them on gog are. I hope they start labelling them. Either way, gog usually makes it a mission to point out you don't need a launcher to play gog games. A huge number of steam games will not launch without their steam integration or drm check working. Speaking practically you get a clear choice to keep your games when you buy them on gog. On steam not so much.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I agree to everything salve that once you license a game, even if it is taken out of the store, will still be available in your library.

    In my case: Outrun 2006: coast to coast and Castle of Illusion (remake).

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    But they can take it away, if they want to. They just haven't done so yet. Unless you own DRM free installation media, you don't own a game. Steam has been relatively low on the enshittification scale so far, but there is no guarantee that this will never change. Once Gabe is out and the beancounters take over, it'll go the way of all corpos.

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