DRM-free games

[Shame]

I think it's safe to say people are going to move over to buy games from GOG if they are available there more and more. They have high discounts just like Steam, if not even higher and more frequent, not to mention a higher product quality and customer-satisfaction ethic.

If Valve wants to compete and keep on top as a PC game distributor, they should allow you to actually own your games and get them DRM-free. Then where you buy your game from would be a case of which one has it first or which one can sell it to you for cheaper at a given time (depends entirely on what the customer is looking for and when).

Otherwise GOG always wins in the long-term. May be that's a good thing, but yeah, I probably won't be buying any more games through Steam if DRM is just going to stay here. But don't think about going the "exclusive" route, cause that's just gonna make things worse for you, Valve. I would love to get Mario Maker 2, but I am not getting a Switch just to play that, so unless your games become DRM-free in the future, I'm just getting games from GOG when they are available.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Spawn of Totoro:

Developers choose to have DRM or not and have a choice on Steam. GOG, they are told they are not allowed to have DRM.

It is as much a right of the developer to choose as it is the end user.

There are limits to DRM free as well. For example, you can not use the GOG Diablo with out Battle.net is you do not download an use it though GOG Galaxy. Same may even consider that a for of DRM.

GOG is also having trouble making money. They layed off people and even removed their Fair Price Package program.

https://www.techspot.com/news/78937-drm-free-pc-gaming-storefront-good-old-games.html

They are blunt with their reasoning and don't go out of their way to screw you over. Even if games are more expensive, I respect their decision. Who knows, if their business model works out and they start making a lot more money, they may bring that feature back. I would rather buy a game for $15 without DRM than the same game at $10 with DRM.

It's more of a opinion really, some Devs/Publishers rather have choice, and who can say they're don't have that right really? Sure not us that for sure. Anyways some poeple has personal preferences, some may rather stick to platform they enjoy, or get the best price if possible.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Początkowo opublikowane przez DA|Astelan:

Using the word "competition" when comparing GOG and Steam is a huge stretch

Epic is a far bigger threat, though their business model is not sustainable

Isn't Epic really only big so far because their company was already well-known? Comparing something just through their profits alone doesn't mean you can't compare them with other factors, like the very fact that GOG sells DRM-free games and Steam rarely has any of those. In any case, the more people buy games from GOG, the bigger they will grow.

Epic has been well known for decades for their unreal games, and gears which they sold off to microsoft, as well their game engine licensing, which later down the road, hit the jackpot such as Fortnite for their microstansactions. They had paragon but kill it off due not meeting their expectations, and really they ignore their community that beg them to not mess it up, but they ignore them which end up killing the game in the end really.

Now problem is most of the popular big title games are listed on Steam, and etc, other than GoG, which is a problem why GoG isn't doing hot as people assume they would, so they're doing with whatever they can make a deal with to get on their platform, but really that policy of their is what really hitting them as time goes on, but of course this will remain the same niche market it has been when came out, and even to today as well. Right now GoG best option is ensure their games are also muitlplat as well to get sales, because not everyone willing to jump to their platform, so wise idea is to reach out to them by selling not just on GoG only, which why we're able to buy witcher games, and Cyberpunk on Steam, and etc.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Crazy Tiger:

I've been using GoG for years and no, their catalog isn't substantial. Personally I merely use it for retro games as those versions often are better, which is logical considering the background of GoG. But other than that, no, not a big catalog.

They limit themselves with their DRM-free stance. They won't do better over time unless they make radical changes. The fact that they aren't doing well financially also shows that being DRM-free isn't enough of a unique selling point. Now with the Epic store buying themselves a place in the market, it'll only become harder for GoG to keep its place.

Why would Epic be doing well? Stupid exclusive crap? Well that's an instant no-thank-you from me. PC was standing out as something that had no exclusives, unlike any console in existence, but now Epic is bridging that gap?

@DA|Astelan you mentioned that Epic's model isn't sustainable, what did you mean by that?

We wish, no it's doing well mainly due to their Fortnite microtrasaction sales, which is their key of their fundsing so far, and why they're throwing money around easily, should check out the earnings on it sometime, as it's pretty silly really how much they mainly make by Fortnite, but not much, or if at all for exclusives, but they rather keep everything hush hush how things really going for sales on their store, but they be happy to brag about their fortnite earnings, and how much they have to crunch on Fortnite for updates each week.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Początkowo opublikowane przez AWFordJr:

I could care less about DRM personally. I wish that all my games were on steam so that I could keep up with them better. Be nice is Fallout 76 would transfer to Steam so I could actually talk to friends without being forced to voice with everyone & no contact outside the game.

GOG Galaxy may have you covered in the future, but only time will tell. There is no way Fallout 76 is coming to Steam after all the ♥♥♥♥ Bethesda went through with it.

Their client can go either way, either meh nothing to talk about, or yay they did something really wonderful, instead of being a copy of Xfire. And yea I don't think Fallout 76 will come, due to their hot mess that keeps popping up with that game, it's already bad enough, it's better to just stick to other Fallout games than touch 76 with a 10 foot pole flaming problem.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

This is where the Niche comes in, which is nice, you can back up your games on storage to use any other time later on, but here the biggest problem which won't go away no matter what, which is the licensing, now despite policy saying you own what you buy, that may not hold well, when you have a copy that you don't have a license / proof of purchase for which people can assume you pirated it, but can't prove it either, because it's DRM free, now when GoG goes down, everything gone from it, but you remain to keep your stuff if you kept it back up on a storage, but problem is you lost all your proof of purchase if you never recorded any of it, and that be the down fall of it, people can think either way how you got a copy.

I don't have much to say on your other points, except for this. You do realise that purchases are recorded on your banking statement, or Paypal, or whatever you may use to purchase a game, right? But if it isn't enough, I guess it is good to keep a paper/digital copy as a "proof-of-purchase" just in case. If I could, I would take all the games I have paid for, dedicate a disc for each, and have proof-of-purchase for each game saved somewhere. This way we can have a non-DRM way of purchasing game copies digitally while keeping hard copies like it has been so far for consoles.

Re-read that, it's a two parter, which I should've done, but anyways, so if you had a copy of a game, and you never bought it, it's not like they can prove you didn't buy it, because it's DRM free, so only way to prove you did, or didn't really is if they get someone to do an investigation on you for possible pirating, which is very unlikely to really happen, unless you were the distributor, and caught giving copies out, basically seeding torrents to people, but even then there be more problems behind that as well, but anyways it's very unlikely anyone will go out of their way to prove anything, and it's not possible to prove anything either.

Now for the record of proof, that's only if you kept proof, if you didn't that be a problem behind what I was saying, now of course banks, and etc may keep recorders, but recently, paypal only letting you go back to a certain date, and banks depending on your bank, which in my case, only willing to keep records for upwards 24 months, so anything older, will be lost if I never recorded it, such as getting PDF, or paper copy of it really.

[Tito Shivan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Shame:

Real annoying that, because games being DRM-free would encourage more sales

As I said, DRM isn't something the vast ammount of gamers take into account when buying games. Just look at how many DRM locked games are best sellers.

A game not being sold at the store is a way bigger factor to drive sales to a (or away from) Store. Which is why GoG will always be a niche storefront as much as they keep their DRM stance.