Counterpoint, the cost of "owning" offline games is not zero and their lifetime is not infinite.
I have a stack of old games on CD (or older) and getting them to run on anything is a massive pain in the neck. (In fact, for nearly all that I care about I also have bought a Steam license in addition).
Ultimately, everything comes down to user experience. We can pat ourselves on the back for buying something forever, but experiences and the media they are stored on are both transitory.
But I’d argue there is a material difference between “if you try hard you can run an original copy of Doom” and “if business X decided so you can never access those things again”.
And if it doesn't wanna work on Proton, GEProton might work. I've had a few games like that. (I usually default to the latter and use the former as a fallback.)
Anything? Inc. the recommended spec platform?
It's certainly not a primary purchase decision factor but I've not bought games because they did not come with steam achievements.
I view achievements as one of the most annoying developments in games (and unfortunately some productivity software these days, in the shape of "badges").
They're yet another gamified growth/engagement pattern to contend with in life.
https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=gog#:~:text=The%20GalaxyC...
And you are not paying the large Valve tax (30%), so the publisher gets significantly more money from your purchase.
For the duration of your life, to be fair.
If you buy and download something from GOG, it is yours. You can still play it in the next millenium as long as you have suitable hardware or an emulator.
Usually indie games tend to be DRM-free though, so if an indie game isn't available on GOG or Zoom Platform (another DRM-free store), i end up buying on Steam.
That is not true as a global rule. Game developers can release fully independent versions of their games even on steam.
Delisted games tend to stay in your library for redownload.
I never understood the cynicism for digital media, it’s been multiple decades now and the model clearly works.
Obviously I prefer zero DRM but it’s also not a hard line requirement for me personally.
It is laughable to think that digital media "clearly works". Companies shut down and stores shutter all the time. In most cases there is no recourse for customers, because – surprise – you didn't actually own the rights to what you bought, just a revocable license. You have to be pretty young and/or naive to think that this can't eventually happen to Steam as well.
And even if you fully trust Steam to stick around and keep its word, digital licensing means you can still get screwed. For example - if the publisher's license to in-game music expires, the game will automatically be updated to remove all the tracks (e.g. GTA Vice City and San Andreas). For larger issues and conflicts the game might be removed entirely (e.g. Spec Ops: The Line). Or the publisher might decide to just switch off the DRM servers, even for single player games (e.g. The Crew). Outside of gaming there are countless examples of publishers "upgrading" music tracks you own to different versions or censoring/altering content of books you own.
The only recourse to all this is to buy and store DRM-free versions of your media.
> change countries
> oh, you own this album for Bulgaria, but not for the US, so you can no longer play it
I took my digital media with me along with my computer, and all was not fine.
1. Even though Gabe is formally CEO he from his own words was barelly controllibg company for years. He spend more time on his other projects.
2. Flat structure and and a small team. I know few people who has worked at Valve and while there are some downsides company of ~400 employees with a lot of internal power play is just more resilient than normal corporation. Many of people on the team are just rich enough already and they dont need to go and cash out.
3. From what is publicly known Valve is family owned basically since Gabe own major part of company. And while a lot of people would hate example of e.g Ubisoft its good example how family controlled business often sink before selling out.
4. It would be just hard to sell Valve and remove control from the team without destroying both company and gaming community goodwill.
Yet I fully agree that Valve just like other company can be sold off just for userbase and run to the ground.
Valve just have better chance to stay customer friendly than your overall VC/PE/BlackRock owned corporation with 10,000 employees and 50 for-hire top managers / board directors.
The time he spends on Valve day to day is irrelevant to the question of what would happen if those actually running the company decided to do something stupid like taking games away from people vs. what would happen in the same scenario without Gabe around.
> Many of people on the team are just rich enough already and they dont need to go and cash out.
Rich people are largely the kind that can never have enough money.
> From what is publicly known Valve is family owned basically since Gabe own major part of company.
And there is no reason to believe his heirs will want to keep the company rather than cash out for the right offer just because Gabe wouldn't have.
> It would be just hard to sell Valve and remove control from the team without destroying both company and gaming community goodwill.
That has never been an a showstopper for vulture capitalists.
Who will own and run Steam 30 years from now? Gabe Newell will be long-gone, his nepobaby next-CEO will be closing in on retirement if they don't check-out early to enjoy their vast wealth like Gabe has done.
What does Steam look like 60 years from now? Adults using it today are mostly dead and all of their licenses revoked forever, the games removed from circulation gone forever because nobody can ever have a license to use them again. They might be onto their 4th, 5th or 6th CEO by then, half a century removed from Gabe and any expectations we have around the ways he did things.
There's a lot of room for improvement securing some sort of legacy for Steam.
In fact I used "most" but I can't name one that couldn't be played.
Given the lengths the Windows development team has gone to, to preserve backward compatibility, to the point that there was individual-game-specific workarounds codified in Windows, makes this claim the same as the GP’s, that Steam will change 30-60 years from now.
The cynic in me thinks you’re both right, mind.
Found some other options (fan remake) for now, but probably I need to shell out the $3 for a modern port or run a whole emulated windows95. Probably wine with options would also work? SSI games, Allied General and Pacific General.
Besides you only need Steam if the publisher chooses to use Steam DRM. There's clearly an incentive for it, don't think its purely Steam's fault.
If that's the model the publisher offers, that's the model you have. Its your choice to participate in it or not.
Does it matter? You are treating this like these games are some valuable collector's items, when they really are just toys you play once and then never touch again for the most part.
But let's assume you had physical copies of all of these games you own on Steam. Once you are gone, there is a > 90% chance that whoever inherits it, will throw it away, just like Millenials now are throwing away all this junk they are inheriting that Boomers used to collect.
The point is, Steam is good enough for all practical purposes, which is to acquire and play games in the now.
One thing you are missing with your logic is that "throw it out" is probably more like "give to charity", the unwanted goods are not necessarily being destroyed and may be redistributed to people who do value them. If my kids didn't want my Steam account I'm sure there's others who would, and preservation groups and museums that would probably take it.
The fact that somewhere deep down in their EULA there might be words that make it clear that you're not really "buying" anything, just renting/leasing/whatever, wouldn't stand in court since the important part is the big shiny "Buy now" button, and "buying" has a specific meaning here.
So yeah, the only way they could "take the games away from you" is if Steam went bancrupt
Yeah, that's not impossible, and I'd rather keep what I buy even if the seller does go bankrupt.
Data-hoarding archivists don’t like to hear this, but this is how it’s worked for all of human history. It’s not practical to consume and remember all the media every person has ever published.
This is getting totally beside the issue of DRM.
What will happen is that the greatest games will be remembered if they’re lucky and the rest will be discarded by time, even if they are DRM-free and unencumbered by reaching public domain status.
Can you name your favorite silent movie? How about your second favorite? How about your 10th favorite?
What’s your favorite song from 1492?
It's not about you being able to "consume it all", it's about future generations being able to look back and see how gaming and humanity evolved and explore this history. Many people will research the greatest hits, the greatest developers, the greatest accomplishments, just like any other historically-interesting thing.
My favorite song from roughly 1492 is a small ditty I came across some years ago called Branle Englese, amongst many centuries-old pieces of classical music I enjoy playing. I don't know if it's specifically 1492, as the details have been lost to time unfortunately.
Do you recognize the value of other history? Should we 'delete' it all or just games, rather than challenge a fairly recent status quo that emerged and undermines their preservation?
You can sync up your Steam wishlist (it’s a little weird to setup but once you figured it out it works).
I almost never buy games directly from steam anymore, there’s almost always someone else with a discount on steam keys.
And sometimes GOG has the best deal!
What is a company/individual if not a reseller if they're selling Steam keys? You cannot sell Steam keys without being Steam or the developer itself, and not be called a "reseller". Or what sites are you referring to here, stuff like Humble Bundle where you get Steam keys with the bundles?
Real stores sell steam keys because they are selling directly from the developers. Steam is actually nice (or preempting monopoly talk, depending on your view) in that it allows that (I think there are limits, but IIRC rather generous)
And how did these "real stores" get those Steam keys unless they bought them, maybe even directly from the developers? Or are you saying game developers hand out these keys for free to the store, then the store sends the developer money for each key they sell? I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense.
What is an example of one such site selling Steam keys who you wouldn't consider a reseller?
Key reseller: https://www.loaded.com
You really don't need to be so combatative.
As far as I know all the games you can buy on GOG will be completely DRM free.
Requiring a network-connected proprietary client to install the software is itself a form of DRM.
> For software with other forms of DRM built-in anyway, who cares if the installer has it?
Again, GOG does not distribute games that include DRM, whether in the installer or in the game itself.