GOG style offline installer, but on Steam

[MeditatingHamster]

Took me a while to migrate over to steam, always loved having my physical copies, but it never sat quite right never having those physical copies.

Not sure why Steam can't allow devs to opt in, or give an option for a GOG style offline installer for certain games and a sort filter option to find games that offer such an option.

Single player and Multiplayer that offers LAN play would be perfect for this. Hell, I'd be willing to pay a bit more for a game that offered this.

Anyone any thoughts as to why Steam haven't tried going down this road?

[Pscht]

If you want GOG features, buy on GOG.

[Brian9824]

For one most dev's don't want it, its why 98% of games are not on GoG. Secondly it basically makes piracy rampant for any games.

It's also already possible to do this for any game that doesn't use Steam DRM which dev's decide. You can backup the files and copy them over to any PC and play without steam if the dev's choose not to use Steam DRM

[Stormer]

devs technically can just have their games exe not require steam to run already though there probably should be a store page thing listing if they did or not

[eram]

steam has always been a broadband service.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by Pscht:

If you want GOG features, buy on GOG.

Thanks for that, but strangely enough I'd already worked that out for myself.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by Brian9824:

For one most dev's don't want it, its why 98% of games are not on GoG. Secondly it basically makes piracy rampant for any games.

It's also already possible to do this for any game that doesn't use Steam DRM which dev's decide. You can backup the files and copy them over to any PC and play without steam if the dev's choose not to use Steam DRM

Thanks Brian, that's good to know :-) It would explain why so many games aren't on GOG.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by MeditatingHamster:

Originally posted by Brian9824:

For one most dev's don't want it, its why 98% of games are not on GoG. Secondly it basically makes piracy rampant for any games.

It's also already possible to do this for any game that doesn't use Steam DRM which dev's decide. You can backup the files and copy them over to any PC and play without steam if the dev's choose not to use Steam DRM

Thanks Brian, that's good to know :-) It would explain why so many games aren't on GOG.

Yeah I mean think about it, anyone can upload the GoG installer for download and then anyone can download it and get the games for free.

I mean its why so many companies like Bethesda only release games YEARS later on GOG after they've exhausted their sales. Not to mention you can buy a game then refund it and they have no way to make sure you don't have the installer saved, so anyone can steal games with nothing dev's can do to prevent it except not make their games available on GoG.

[eram]

the offline installer for some games on gog are not manageable.

ever seen the offline installer for cyberpunk on gog? i have it. its like 100 rar files and you have to download them all separately.

[Pscht]

Originally posted by MeditatingHamster:

Originally posted by Pscht:

If you want GOG features, buy on GOG.

Thanks for that, but strangely enough I'd already worked that out for myself.

So, your thread is completely superfluous.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by Brian9824:

Originally posted by MeditatingHamster:

Thanks Brian, that's good to know :-) It would explain why so many games aren't on GOG.

Yeah I mean think about it, anyone can upload the GoG installer for download and then anyone can download it and get the games for free.

I mean its why so many companies like Bethesda only release games YEARS later on GOG after they've exhausted their sales. Not to mention you can buy a game then refund it and they have no way to make sure you don't have the installer saved, so anyone can steal games with nothing dev's can do to prevent it except not make their games available on GoG.

That's definitely an issue then. It's not like having an unlock key would make a difference as that would just get leaked as well. Probably not worth Steams time/cost to implement and manage something like that.

[eram]

go check out how gog actually manages its offline installers for games they care about, they made it so bad people dont want to use it. you wouldnt be asking for it if you used it once.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by eram:

go check out how gog actually manages its offline installers for games they care about, they made it so bad people don't want to use it. you wouldn't be asking for it if you used it once.

Tomb Raider: Legend, installed from offline fine, (got it as a prime gaming freebie). That was only three files though and not the hundred you mentioned so maybe that one was more straight forward.

The principle is appealing to me (if it can be consistently implemented well), though based on what Brian9824 mentioned I'm guessing there just wouldn't be enough demand for it or willingness (understandably) for many devs to want it.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by Stormer:

devs technically can just have their games exe not require steam to run already though there probably should be a store page thing listing if they did or not

That would be good to see :-)

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by MeditatingHamster:

Anyone any thoughts as to why Steam haven't tried going down this road?

Because 90%+ of the developers prefer DRM over DRM-free as GOG itself proves. Less than 10% of the games and less than 10% of the developers are on GOG while almost 100% of both are on Steam. If Valve today demanded that developers offer off-line installers on Steam, 90%+ would leave the platform and would never look back.

Developers can already offer their games on Steam DRM-free if they so choose. 90%+ choose to have DRM instead.

[MeditatingHamster]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

Originally posted by MeditatingHamster:

Anyone any thoughts as to why Steam haven't tried going down this road?

Because 90%+ of the developers prefer DRM over DRM-free as GOG itself proves. Less than 10% of the games and less than 10% of the developers are on GOG while almost 100% of both are on Steam. If Valve today demanded that developers offer off-line installers on Steam, 90%+ would leave the platform and would never look back.

"Not sure why Steam can't allow devs to opt in, or give an option for a GOG style offline installer for certain games and a sort filter option to find games that offer such an option."

Definitely talking about opt ins and options, not valve demanding they all have to do it. As you say, they'd all leave the platform and never look back.