this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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I'm OOTL, why is GOG such a big deal? Isn't it just another storefront like steam?
It is, but most of their library is DRM free, so once you download it, those files are yours. Steam won't let you launch a game without logging into your account, gog doesn't even check.
Is this for real? I'm able to go to the folder on my hard drive and launch steam games without opening steam.
Steam has a drm system, not everything uses it though
GOG once did enforce the use of DRM-free executables, but (as far as I understand it) once they expanded their store to include modern AAA titles, some of the bigger game companies refused to follow that rule so they dropped the requirement.
This is wrong.
There's only one game on GOG that doesn't offer DRM-free installers, and that's their live service game Gwent.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drm_on_gog_list_of_singleplayer_games_with_drm/page1
And that contradicts my statement... how exactly?
Really? Huh, the about page still claims everything's DRM free. Got any examples, so I know which games to not buy?
Care to name the games you're referring to?
not all games on steam use the DRM
Are you able to launch all your Steam games without Steam?
It's almost certainly still going through steam. Steam has a .dll in all your game folders and it interacts with Steam. You don't have to launch it through the launcher for it to use Steam. If you ever pirate a game and look at the crack files, there will often be that same name .dll in it. This is to bypass that Steam interface. If the game came from GoG it won't even have a crack. It just works.
Huhh. Very unusual. You don't already have steam open?
Nope.
As opposed to Steam, GOG will let you create backups of your games that will survive GOG itself. GOG provides offline backup installers that don't need a launcher, internet or anything.
I always tell everyone to at least get a fully DRM-free copy of their favorite childhood gaming memory.