Alternatives to Steam?

[Solomon]

It seems a lot of people are searching for alternatives today for reasons that I don't comprehend. I love Steam!

Just for the sake of discussion though, what other platforms might one use to maintain a game library, with a particular emphasis on DRM free games? I know of GOG, Matrix, Gamersgate. Any others people would recommend?

[illgib]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackrock:

People really need to stop jumping on the Epic scaremongering bandwagon without facts. I've seen countless posts, literally hundreds, regarding Epic and "data" over the past few years - which by the way is the most detail I've ever seen anybody go into regarding Epic - simply "data" (it's a frequently used buzzword with no real meaning) - usually because they don't have a clue what they're talking about but read something on reddit. Nobody ever states what data, where the data comes from or where any issues may or may not lie in regards to Epic itself, just that "OMG Epic may or may not steal data" (they don't by the way). Your "data" isn't worth nearly as much to Epic or Tencent (which brought in over 40 billion dollars last year) as their revenue from other sources, your data isn't even a blip on their proverbial radar.

Tencent will never be a majority shareholder in Epic, never. Tim Sweeney is and always will be in control.

Tencent also owns or has shares in Riot Games (League of Legends) Bluehole (PUBG), Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile), Supercell (Clash of Clans), Frontier Developments (Elite Dangerous), Kakao (Black Desert Online, PUBG S.Korea), Fatshark (Warhammer Vermintide), Paradox Interactive, Miniclip, Funcom (Conan Exiles), Sharkmob, Ring of Elysium, Discord and more. Microsoft has also partnered with Tencent - maybe you should just stop playing games entirely if you want to avoid Tencent. Or you could use your brain and work out that a company the size of Tencent doesn't need to "steal data" when millions of people willingly offer it via various means.

I've never seen a single person complain about Tencent or "data" in regards to the above mentioned companies, only ever Epic, which just shows how little people actually know about the things they complain about online, instead opting to complain and protest about things just because other people are.

In a somewhat funny / idiotic twist, most of the people who complain about Epic use Google for almost everything.

Can i give you an amen? <3
Man, it's really becoming ridicolus, like the Denovo rage, where everyone's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for something that was never proved.

[Kikinaak]

Denuvo HAS been proven by examining its code and how it works. Impact varies but even when impact is minor principle still applies. People are going to "♥♥♥♥♥" or complain based on their own values which each individual is entitled to, even when those values are objectively false they still hold subjective value. Basically, opinion is a thing and customers base their purchases on it. You are out of line attempting to invalidate how why and where people choose to spend their money.

[Devoras]

Well to be fair it's obvious a game with denuvo is objectively worse than one without, all other things being equal. It offers nothing of value, only potentially takes value away, and the irony is it only affects those who purchase the game legally anyway.

That said it is open to debate on just how much worse it is and in what ways. Maybe it has very little actual effect, maybe it has a significant one. The base principle of a game with denuvo being worse than one without denuvo still stands either way. Personally I don't worry about denuvo myself, but that doesn't mean it won't bother someone else more.

With epic I'm more against them on the principle and third party exclusive games. Anyone trying to force something on me immediately has the opposite effect, microsoft's pushiness with windows 10 has put them in my bad books too. I was blacklisting the windows 10 store long before epic came and convinced me to blacklist them too.

[Sirius]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackrock:

In a somewhat funny / idiotic twist, most of the people who complain about Epic use Google for almost everything.

Sad truth.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Devoras:

With epic I'm more against them on the principle and third party exclusive games. Anyone trying to force something on me immediately has the opposite effect, microsoft's pushiness with windows 10 has put them in my bad books too. I was blacklisting the windows 10 store long before epic came and convinced me to blacklist them too.

Steam has no exclusives?
You serious?

Edit: In case I misunderstood your comment, Steam is bad by your logic either way.
Because it blatantly sells games that then need another third party launcher besides Steam, and it also has a couple of games that can only be played on Steam.

[Devoras]

Początkowo opublikowane przez |x|SiriuS|x|:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Devoras:

With epic I'm more against them on the principle and third party exclusive games. Anyone trying to force something on me immediately has the opposite effect, microsoft's pushiness with windows 10 has put them in my bad books too. I was blacklisting the windows 10 store long before epic came and convinced me to blacklist them too.

Steam has no exclusives?
You serious?

There's a world of difference between a company choosing to only release on steam, and steam demanding that a company not release a game anywhere else. As far as I'm aware, steam doesn't do that.

[MonkehMaster]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackrock:

snipped...

the internet is the source of data on all things in this world, google and youtube, social media being main areas, then other sites follow suit, if you cant bother yourself with finding the info given then thats your fault, info is info no mater where you get it, saying "use google for everything" is like saying "people use the internet for everything", in essence your not making a fool of yourself...

but all the stuff said about epic is clear as day and lots of it coming from actual customers (be it parents or their children).

you can call it "scaremongering" or in real words scare tactics, but facts are facts.

tim sweeney is a douche and if you believe anything he says then you have issues and/or are an epic shill.

tencent is one of the biggest companies in the world and have shares and stock in almost everything, some more than others, if they wanted to they could easily buy out epic and tim sweeney would fold under the lump of cash.

also if you havent seen anyone complain about tencent and data mining on anything but epic, then you must not pay very much attention to the world around yourself, that subject is all over the net about everything they have stake in, maybe google information about it and get educated.

epic is trash and thats a fact, deal with it.

[76561198399583482]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kikinaak:

Denuvo HAS been proven by examining its code and how it works. Impact varies but even when impact is minor principle still applies. People are going to "♥♥♥♥♥" or complain based on their own values which each individual is entitled to, even when those values are objectively false they still hold subjective value. Basically, opinion is a thing and customers base their purchases on it. You are out of line attempting to invalidate how why and where people choose to spend their money.

"Denuvo HAS been proven by examining its code and how it works" What does this statement even mean? HAS been proven to what? where is this "proof" obtained via examining Denuvo's source? Looks like just another vague anti-Denuvo post with little substance.

Not sure which posts you're reading here, but the only people in this thread attempting to "invalidate how, why and where people choose to spend there money" are the people commenting that Epic is bad and should be avoided.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Devoras:

There's a world of difference between a company choosing to only release on steam, and steam demanding that a company not release a game anywhere else. As far as I'm aware, steam doesn't do that.

When a company (Steam) has a monopoly on the entire PC gaming industry, there's very little alternative for any potential competition to pull in customers. "Exclusives" are a thing in many industries, particularly the entertainment industry and most adults are aware of this, it's generally not an issue. Netflix has its exclusives, Amazon does, theatre / movie companies do, every single store has its own exclusives (nobody complains about these, incidentally). You name it "exclusives" are everywhere. Only in the gaming industry (probably the only industry with a larger target audience of teenagers than any other) do people treat exclusives as anti-consumer and / or bad - presumably because this audience doesn't have a clue about how the real world works.

[MonkehMaster]

exclusives are always an issue no matter where or what it is, anyone saying different is avoiding the truth.

also, denuvo is horrible, its intrusive and causes performance issues when its lumped in with games and people have gathered the info to see it is doing more snoopin then its claimed to only be doing, complaining about people complaining about it is stupid.

fyi, denuvo is DRM, no body wants DRM.

honestly some of the arguments people come up with... LOL

[LeftPaw]

The last effin straw. If I don't leave steam for whatever else there is out there, I won't be buying from steam for the foreseeable future.

For F sake they didn't even give us the option to stay with the UI that works.

[Devoras]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bob:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Devoras:

There's a world of difference between a company choosing to only release on steam, and steam demanding that a company not release a game anywhere else. As far as I'm aware, steam doesn't do that.

When a company (Steam) has a monopoly on the entire PC gaming industry, there's very little alternative for any potential competition to pull in customers. "Exclusives" are a thing in many industries, particularly the entertainment industry and most adults are aware of this, it's generally not an issue. Netflix has its exclusives, Amazon does, theatre / movie companies do, every single store has its own exclusives (nobody complains about these, incidentally). You name it "exclusives" are everywhere. Only in the gaming industry (probably the only industry with a larger target audience of teenagers than any other) do people treat exclusives as anti-consumer and / or bad - presumably because this audience doesn't have a clue about how the real world works.

No, it's really quite simple. Just provide a better service and you will start to draw people to you. I didn't say it would be easy, but the solution is simple. For instance, steam has made an error with the new ui, that has the potential to send customers elsewhere. Another company with just a simple listing of games then has an opportunity to start taking market share away. That's the sort of competition that is healthy. Trying to restrict your customers from making choices is what's harmful.

Honestly if epic had instead started by offering all games drm free, as well as their free game offers, and kept exclusivity out of the equation I might have been tempted to use them as an alternative, especially if they could also manage to make a simple launcher that was easy to use. Well, they would still need to fix a lot of other problems like the security issues and no shopping cart, but you get the idea.

First party exclusives are fine, netflix is paying to make its own shows so it absolutely has the right to restrict them to their own platform. Imagine if some movie blockbuster came out, let's say the last avengers movie and it was restricted only to netflix and nowhere else, including movie theatres. That's the level of exclusivity we're talking about. For instance I have no complaints about epic keeping fortnite on its own platform, that's a non-issue as it's their game.

[MonkehMaster]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackrock:

snipped ranting nonsense...

id love to be 16 again, sadly your assumption isnt an insult like you wanted it to be, also who tf uses reddit...

that being said you obviously dont have a clue what your talking about, move along.

[76561198399583482]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Devoras:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bob:

When a company (Steam) has a monopoly on the entire PC gaming industry, there's very little alternative for any potential competition to pull in customers. "Exclusives" are a thing in many industries, particularly the entertainment industry and most adults are aware of this, it's generally not an issue. Netflix has its exclusives, Amazon does, theatre / movie companies do, every single store has its own exclusives (nobody complains about these, incidentally). You name it "exclusives" are everywhere. Only in the gaming industry (probably the only industry with a larger target audience of teenagers than any other) do people treat exclusives as anti-consumer and / or bad - presumably because this audience doesn't have a clue about how the real world works.

No, it's really quite simple. Just provide a better service and you will start to draw people to you. I didn't say it would be easy, but the solution is simple. For instance, steam has made an error with the new ui, that has the potential to send customers elsewhere. Another company with just a simple listing of games then has an opportunity to start taking market share away. That's the sort of competition that is healthy. Trying to restrict your customers from making choices is what's harmful.

Honestly if epic had instead started by offering all games drm free, as well as their free game offers, and kept exclusivity out of the equation I might have been tempted to use them as an alternative, especially if they could also manage to make a simple launcher that was easy to use. Well, they would still need to fix a lot of other problems like the security issues and no shopping cart, but you get the idea.

First party exclusives are fine, netflix is paying to make its own shows so it absolutely has the right to restrict them to their own platform. Imagine if some movie blockbuster came out, let's say the last avengers movie and it was restricted only to netflix and nowhere else, including movie theatres. That's the level of exclusivity we're talking about. For instance I have no complaints about epic keeping fortnite on its own platform, that's a non-issue as it's their game.

That's simply not true. Once a company has a monopoly and people are accustomed to using it, it's incredibly difficult to encourage potential customers to break said habit, even if what you're offering is better, cheaper etc. People generally do not like change - this very discussion topic is evidence of that fact. As I said, exclusives exist in every area of the entertainment industry, it's in part, what fuels competition, which has the 'best' products to offer to its customers.

If Epic had instead started by offering all games DRM free then it would have simply been considered a GOG clone with nothing unique to offer its customers at all.

Many of the exclusives on Netflix aren't actually made by Netflix at all, they just purchase the rights to distribute. In fact most of the titles on Netflix which state "Netflix original" have been bought by Netflix in exactly the same way as Epic is purchasing exclusivity rights to certain games, I suspect you aren't aware of this fact.

[Satoru]

Początkowo opublikowane przez TheOrangeBox:

Początkowo opublikowane przez (• ε •):

GOG Galaxy 2.0

https://www.gogalaxy.com/en/

It’s hilarious people are “recommending” GOG despite the fact that galaxy 2.0 looks literally 100% identical to the new Steam UI

[Chariots of the Gods]

hmm I think i will give another one a try, time to dumb steam. they have taken to long to remedy this.

[Devoras]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bob:

That's simply not true. Once a company has a monopoly and people are accustomed to using it, it's incredibly difficult to encourage potential customers to break said habit, even if what you're offering is better, cheaper etc. People generally do not like change - this very discussion topic is evidence of that fact. As I said, exclusives exist in every area of the entertainment industry, it's in part, what fuels competition, which has the 'best' products to offer to its customers.

I said it wouldn't be easy, but it's how you compete. If steam doesn't fix the ui I will be looking for alternatives. Exclusivity doesn't improve products. Epic has no incentive to fix their store to compete if they don't have to because people are forced to use their service whether they want to or not, for those games. They don't even have a shopping cart yet.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bob:

Many of the exclusives on Netflix aren't actually made by Netflix at all, they just purchase the rights to distribute. In fact most of the titles on Netflix which state "Netflix original" have been bought by Netflix in exactly the same way as Epic is purchasing exclusivity rights to certain games, I suspect you aren't aware of this fact.

I didn't, I thought they were specifically funding creators to make those originals for them, which would make them essentially first party exclusives and not third. I will need to dig into that more.