Isn’t the DRM provided by Steam optional? Like, the developer/publisher is the one ultimately in control of whether or not its used. And plenty of games on Steam do not use it.
The percentage that do not use DRM on Steam is insignificant, around 4%. That leaves 96% that do use DRM.
Oh yeah i forgot about that, but even that if your game relies on steamworks multiplayer you cannot go online(though can be solved)
And in my opinion the DRM on steam is not the worst I have seen (only keep the Steam client open as opposed to having Internet always for example)
Sometimes though the DRM can be circumvented by swapping the engine,using spacewars game(which requires the Steam client),etc
I really hope it’s the article writer calling Steam the “devil” of DRM, because if the new owner is going to frame Steam in such a way, it makes me think they don’t even understand what they’re competing with…
The title could have ordered the clauses differently to avoid confusion
The new owner of GOG discusses the devil of DRM, taking on Steam, and following in Nightdive’s footsteps
“Steam is winning with its ease of use,” he says. “In that regard, I think much can be done in GOG without losing its core values and the way it operates in general.”
Yeah, not really. Ease of use is part of it but I would argue GoG is equally easy. Steam also has a breadth of features for users.
More importantly, as it pertains to GoG, Steam allows DRM.
This is a fundamental problem for GoG. Publishers want DRM. Consumers largely don’t care. For that reason, Steam has a much larger library, especially for big AAA titles. Every game that’s on GoG is also on Steam. They’ll always be the little guy catering to a niche market of consumers who demand DRM-free games. Get rid of that and we can start talking about ease of use and features.
Obviously, that’s not what I want, but if they want to compete with Steam, it’s what they’ll have to do.
I agree with you on it needs more than just ease of use, other comments talk about these other features more.
I disagree on the DRM portion, just as much as I don’t think kernel level anti-cheat has any place on Linux. If publishers want that, they can limit themselves to other systems/stores. The main reason I use GOG is I know every game is DRM free, I just wish it had some of the other good stuff Steam has.
We weren’t talking about Linux and we weren’t talking about your personal preferences. We were talking about the success of GoG, and competing with Steam.
If publishers want that, they can limit themselves to other systems/stores.
They will. And they do. That’s the point.
I hope they succeed, though I think people are probably a bit like me: I like Steam features (achievements, community art, guides, etc) more than I dislike DRM (except very invasive DRM). Granted I grew up knowing how to crack most of my games, so I’m not as threatened by the standard DRM.
GOG isn’t as robust in features, although they could probably win me over if they could integrate features with less restrictions (e.g. trying to get a non steam guide in the steam overlay is difficult) or get an archivists approach to gaming with a Launchbox like system that fills in media for all games, has custom themes and integrates legally gray services like RetroAchevements. If GOG was Launchbox with a store, I’d be so fucking down… But they’d probably get sued. Lol
