Create physical copies of games

[Beard]

There should be a system allowing us to create physical copies of steam games from our library that can be launched offline without steam. Steams not going to be around forever what happens when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and they go bankrupt and shut down? We should be able to protect our libraries in some way

[Zarineth]

The whole point of Steam as DRM is preventing you from copying games (and playing without account, that owns it). That being said, there are DRM-free games on Steam, that you can launch on their own.

[Crazy Tiger]

Should the very unlikely event happen that Valve goes bankrupt, some company will purchase Steam to keep it going. And if not, we simply lose all our games.

We bought licenses, nothing more. Licenses to access games through the platform to which the license is tied.

Your suggestion is idealistic in nature. That rarely runs in the same direction as the priorities of companies.

[Start_Running]

So what you're saying is that you want valve to create an easy way for you to pirate games?

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by trip:

There should be a system allowing us to create physical copies of steam games from our library that can be launched offline without steam. Steams not going to be around forever what happens when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and they go bankrupt and shut down? We should be able to protect our libraries in some way

Won't be done, the entire point of Steam is it gives developers DRM. You can use GoG which does that, but there is a reason 99% of Steam games are not on GoG. Developers don't like the rampant piracy that occurs as a result of that so many of the games won't be released on GoG, or are only released FAR later when sales are basically dead.

For instance GOG just RECENTLY got Fallout 4 to give you an idea of how long games are delayed for release their.

[Yujah]

Although it most definitely won't happen, the immediately above does point towards an absolutely wonderful compromise, which is that games bought on Steam would have their (Steam-) DRM disabled after some per-game set time.

Yes, again, won't happen. But wow, would that be lovely...

[Pscht]

Originally posted by Yujah:

which is that games bought on Steam would have their (Steam-) DRM disabled after some per-game set time.

So what, idling is a thing.

[Yujah]

Eh? Not per-game set play-time. Just "time". I.e., as per Brian just above, if a game gets a GOG-release a year (or 2, 3, I don't care...) later with the implication that the developer is from that point on "more" okay with being ripped of through piracy than before that point, they could then also disable Steam-DRM for that same reason at that point.

Yes, please don't tell me that's not going to be a thing; I already know. Most people wouldn't even know what DRM is, as such, any marketing-wise advantage would be minimal and not outweigh downside for developer or Steam.

But as said, it would still be lovely....

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by trip:

There should be a system allowing us to create physical copies of steam games from our library that can be launched offline without steam. Steams not going to be around forever what happens when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and they go bankrupt and shut down? We should be able to protect our libraries in some way

Once upon a time there was this gaming site called Desura.
They eventually went out of business. But before they gave an ample timeframe for people to download and backup their gaming libraries.

If Steam ever closed doors things would go down the same path. You'd have time to download and backup your games.

Requesting it to be done at will without the protection of Steam's DRM isn't going to happen, because it'd void the very reason of Steam's DRM

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Won't happen for number of reasons.

- DRM stands for Digital rights management, the point of DRM is to try deter people from piracy, and those trying to make profit from it. FYI DRM been around for over 40 years, with different variants of drms, but the main focus is online DRM that forces you to connect to the internet to verify with account that online AKA going back to the problem you're still gonna face if there no server to ping hence online DRM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

- There are games DRM free on Steam just google for wiki pages on them, some devs may make their games DRM free, while most don't either tie it to launcher / client, or apply their own DRM such as 3rd party.

- The odds of Steam going aways is same odds that Amazon, Microsoft, or Google shutting down as a whole, so yeah the whole doom thing isn't realistic as you may think, not sure what made you assume doom day happening anytime soon, as by far Steam still pretty much the best platform compare to other stores on PC.

- Let say one of the biggest PC game stores do fall, well there high chance another company will likely buy them out due to sheer number of the active user base which as large reason Microsoft, and other parties are very interested in buying Valve = Steam, then there the fact get to take control of some of the larges IP titles such as counter strike, half life, and etc, then have all other features, and tech of Valve & Steam as a whole, so as look at it as a whole, for this to be a problem either there lack of users, or lack of sales as a whole, which isn't even near being the case since whole user base being over 26M daily, so yeah that no small number by any means.
https://store.steampowered.com/charts/

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by trip:

There should be a system allowing us to create physical copies of steam games from our library that can be launched offline without steam. Steams not going to be around forever what happens when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and they go bankrupt and shut down? We should be able to protect our libraries in some way

Once upon a time there was this gaming site called Desura.
They eventually went out of business. But before they gave an ample timeframe for people to download and backup their gaming libraries.

If Steam ever closed doors things would go down the same path. You'd have time to download and backup your games.

Requesting it to be done at will without the protection of Steam's DRM isn't going to happen, because it'd void the very reason of Steam's DRM

Yeah AFAIK whole downfall of Desura is that they didn't have money to pay the devs not sure if they mess up on their budget, or what, but what happen is that store was a hot mess as it was rushed, not just that but the store got sold multiple times because it was just a hot potato due to that hot mess it cause, which people never forget that day when it went under.

The store didn't had high traffic sales that one major problem, it didn't have major games that msot people wanted as it's mostly a indie dev store really, another problem is it didn't have away to have self-sustaining, example Epic can support itself due to unreal, and it fortnite, Steam can support itself due to it already successful store, Counterstrike go/2, dota 2, and it marketplace, Gog all it has is it store really, but it is already successful store to those that looking for DRM free, or retro games.

[B✪✪tsy]

You can download a game on a USB stick or external hard drive and use the Steam client offline.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by trip:

There should be a system allowing us to create physical copies of steam games from our library that can be launched offline without steam. Steams not going to be around forever what happens when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and they go bankrupt and shut down? We should be able to protect our libraries in some way

What you should be asking for is more DRM free games, which allow you to play even without Steam.

But thats not what Steam is mainly about and Valve won't do that. Thats 100% upto the developer of each game and you can already find lots of DRM free games on Steam that do not require Steam to even run.

To find out which games, you can use google or some other search engine and look up DRM free games on Steam and you will find long lists.

Or go start buying the games from GOG, as their whole thing is games there are DRM free but you will notice that there are far more games on Steam just because of the fact that GOG games are easy to pirate and most game devs don't like that.


Also Valve has already said they have a plan in place for if they ever go out of business so that people will be able to keep and use all the games they have in their library.

My guess is that its a few commands that makes it so the Steam client doesn't make a call back to the Steam servers (which would be gone) and just says yes you can play your game.

But Valve is not going to go out of business any time soon. Unlike Epic, Valve actually makes money, LOTS of money. Every single year their profits keep going up, because they keep selling more and more games.

What you should worry more about is the DRM other than Steam client that games use to stop piracy and stuff. That is something Valve can not control, and there are many games on Steam where the developers are gone but their games still have DRM like Denuvo on them.

It would be nice if Valve required the removal of Denuvo and other DRM after X number months or years, but we know that they will never require that. Maybe they could at least give a little poke at them now and then to remove the DRM before their final update happens.

[76561197960287930]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

If Steam ever closed doors things would go down the same path. You'd have time to download and backup your games.

at that time i remember that site being overloaded and slow = time
also while you may have the time, some people may not have the money, for the Terabytes, to back up 1000's of games in a library at a moments notice.

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

7. DISCLAIMERS; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY; NO GUARANTEES; LIMITED WARRANTY & AGREEMENT
C. NO GUARANTEES
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER VALVE NOR ITS AFFILIATES GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE CONTENT AND SERVICES, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION(S) OR ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

just so you know, they are NOT obligated to DO anything.

I saw where PlayStation recently lost partnership for digital movies, and literally wiped user accounts of digital media thanks to Warner Bros. I still buy movies, shows I want for the long haul on disk if I can.

[William Shakesman]

Why if Steam did that, they would be like GOG