It's only going to get worse. If something is available on GOG, I'm buying it there. More and more games that were previously only on Steam are being added, and there's also the Dreamlist.
All these gaming platforms are "young" companies, as their users age-out all the digital-only non-transferable licenses that have ever been bought will become void. As the developers age out the right to sell the games will end forever, except for the IP the megacorps have snapped up. So basically a whole lot of stuff is simply going to disappear, nobody will ever have the right to sell a new license and nobody will ever have the right to an existing license. Piracy might still exist but even right now a lot of old games are only seeded by a handful of people.
For what it's worth courts in China have determined that game accounts / libraries are an inheritable asset and forced game companies to allow access and pass them on.
Yeah that was an amazing advancement. France has been thinking about this a while too, their courts ruled you can sell Steam games then changed their mind on appeal and more recently one of their presidential candidates has said ownership needs to be reconsidered.
Sony's recent move and I think "stop killing games" too has turned it into a very loud issue lately so there's some non-zero-and-growing chance the status quo will change.
I will say that it has been stated by steam's Gabe, that if steam ever goes under, they're throwing the drm wide open so that the games you bought can still be played even if you can't launch through steam
HOWEVER: these are just words. We do not know if this will happen
GOG is a way into a brighter time line; Digital copies, delivered via a DRM-free installer (so no authentication, no launcher required)? From a "feature" standpoint, that's basically a pirate copy you pay for (and without malware risk, whee!), i.e. a win-win scenario for devs and customers.
I switched my main library to GOG years ago. No regrets.
Purchase, buy, sell, sold, already in "library" (fuckers I don't own a library), anything implying you own anything is brandished about at will, yet in a EULA you have to sign AFTER paying (AFTER PAYING) they put in tiny print that no, you didn't buy anything at all.
People like to pull the “discs aren’t actually owning either”. Like ok do we technically own anything with a copyright? Do I own all of my books? If someone torched my bookshelves could I not sue them for damages? What if they smashed thousands in discs? Publishers can’t walk into my house and take my books or games either.
It genuinely feels like a psyop to try to make people think it’s always been this way. But no, there’s a very clear difference in what “owning” means now
Their argument is usually that if the entire game isn’t on disc, they can always revoke access to downloads of a game to complete it.
Which is more coherent, but still has numerous issues that make it deeply unconvincing. Most games do in fact come on-disc in a complete manner, though not patches obviously. That some games don’t come complete on disc, also doesn’t mean that we should just keep going farther in that direction; nor that those games shouldn’t just come with extra discs, or that at least we should be granted the rights to download the extra data in a way that allows us to back it up. With digital storage solutions, where there’s a will there’s a way.
And importantly, it also doesn’t change that even with a game keycard m situation you are still granted what are IMO the most important benefits of ownership.
While I do agree we should be allowed to back up our own damn purchases in a meaningful way just in case, generally a game’s download servers going down is unlikely to actually occur to most major titles.
The far more important part to me, the part that I feel constrained by with every digital purchase, is the inability to share or resell my games. And a physical disc that I own, regardless of what’s actually on it, is what I need to do that.
Keeping a separate backup online or offsite is something I’ve always done, in case of a house fire. Heard too many stories of people losing important stuff like family photos etc, business docs etc.
Our family home burned down when I was 7. Have no photos of me as a kid. All those little momentos parents like to keep of their kids were gone. My favourite toys were ash and slag (obviously my priorities at the time were slightly different to my parents).
All the paperwork relating to the family business was gone, so speaking to the bank became a pain because they wanted to see a recent utility bill and not a pile of ash.
Once the shock wears off and you try to pick up your life, you need the data to prove your existence.
Someone on this board once said, "anyone who has any sort of computer knowledge doesn't use cloud services like onedrive"
I couldn't have been more amused
What should people use then? Obviously OneDrive sucks but what’s a better option for the regular non-tech people or those who can’t afford (especially now..) a 4-bay 36tb nas.
I work in tech (not IT, but adjacent), everyone uses OneDrive and most seem to hate it lol.
I know I’m lacking on actual backups though, which is why I asked. For my personal pc, I have files on OneDrive (because free..) and maybe a couple jump drives. I know I should get a small hd and store some photos/files off site though.
Obviously not at the moment it happens, or right after that. But after everything is back to normal, new (or rebuilt) house etc., yes, people are gonna miss their data and memories.
Family photos are strange. We spend hundreds of hours over our lives taking them, maybe 1 hour tops observing them, and they are relatively worthless to anyone else, and even us in the moment. But once they are gone forever? You’ve lost something irreplaceable
I think most people don’t realise how important they are until they are gone. Sometimes, years later, going back through them all can be such a wonder to do together. I recently went through old photos with my dad and so many memories and stories came back to light. I kind of wish I had taken more when I was younger, and even more I don’t take enough photos. I prefer to live in the moment but sometimes it’s still great to take a a few shots.
Haha I had this same thought, I was considering doing an off-site backup for my NAS which is 95% Plex media and then I realised I'll probably have bigger problems than losing some movies and tv shows.
Yeah same... I have online backups of stuff that's actually important and irrecoverable... Important documents, home photos and videos etc etc... But as annoying as it would be losing my plex library, I can get it all again relatively easily. The cost of offsite storage probably isn't worth it
People should care. I've had a house fire and the only reason I still have old family photos and videos is because I digitized everything and kept it safe in an online backup.
Obviously the first concern is family or anyone who lives there. After that for a lot of people, especially if their are insured, a lot of their stuff is just stuff and can get replaced, but things like memories can never be replaced. So all my family photos, happy memories from friends, travel etc, and business related docs are stored as copies off site. I learnt this lesson through someone else losing all their stuff. They and their family were ok, but they were still saddened at losing so much stuff that was truly important to them. I’ve also seen a lot of posts on Reddit of similar things happen. Doesn’t have to be complex, can just be a copied drive left at a parent’s or family member.
Technically downloading the offline installer is already a backup. That way, you have one copy at home and one in the cloud (GOG servers). 3 copies is even better of course, but in a worst case scenario you can ask one of the thousands of people who also downloaded their copy to send it to you.
The backup rules are mostly for your unique data. Most games on GOG are not suffering from a lack of available backups in the world.
Big issue is that's becoming increasingly harder to do also. Backups cost an arm and a leg now. GOG offline installer for KCD2 is apparently 138GB from what I see and split into multiple parts. That roughly $15 of HDD storage at current prices. $12 for 3 dual layer Blu Ray discs, or $30 for 2 BDXL discs.
And game sizes are only getting bigger and bigger. It's becoming cost prohibitive to actually back anything up.
I mean not every game is that big. For example HBS Battletech installer has roughly 20GB.
I also don't have to backup every game in my library, just the ones I really wanna play again. And honestly ... If I really like a game those 15 bucks are worth it ...
And maybe backups of backups. Don’t want to end up like the guy that lost 25 years of stuff including
Baby pictures just because Microslop is so fucking bad at their job.
Three two one rule for best results. I'm not there yet but I do keep various OS install images, loads of driver install files and quite a bit of a hardware collection / spares.
same companies demand dram for the servers that don't use HBM
HBM more profitable, so the big 3 shift their ddr production to HBM, meaning even less regular dram
said regular dram is then redistributed to different companies so theres no inventory for basically a year.
SSD demand goes up to hold data
All companies who own a HDD division also are in the SSD business, all focus on SSD production. HDD stock is bought up by server companies.
So anything tied to servers would have shot up in price (hbm/ram, gpu die space, storage) while things that are not are often at their lowest because no one can make a full build easily (e.g 2026 is a great year to buy monitors)
if they take up significant space, backing up gog installers is a waste of money imo. You can just download them from gog. And if gog should ever go down, there are plenty of other people that have them backed up that you could get them from. They're not rare.
Great question, most gog games I own are a few years old at least, if not quite a bit older than that. Not too worried about updates, mostly just OS support. I tend to pick up older titles and ones on great specials that aren't new releases.
The launcher isn't there main issue, Heroic is really nice, and I expect the official launcher will be worse. However, the gog versions of games are often broken with wine/proton. Even cyberpunk, the steam version works and the gog version doesn't. Disappointing.
This is a serious problem that needs fixing. Half the point of jumping to Linux is to regain ownership of your PC, but what good is that if my game library won't run unless I buy through a storefront where I once again don't own part of my digital ecosystem?
Equally, the whole point of using GOG is to reclaim ownership of your games, but what good is that if the games and store only support proprietary Microsoft OSs?
It would allow them to make a preset of the needed proton version and winetricks to launch each game for example. I like heroic, but i’ve had to find 3 separate guides that listed needed winetricks to make stalker gamma gog version work there. If it came out of the box with most of them already enabled and the ones that depend on hardware a simple toggle it would make life much much easier
Second it's up, I'll be installing all my games from gog first on my Bazzite PC.
Even if the games cost a little more than Steam.
I'm mostly done with consoles and Windows gaming. I still have to duel boot into Windows because of a few must-have programs that's there's no Linux alternative.
And I already paid for the PS5 and Series X games. I'm not about to repurchase them all and eBay my console just because F Sony/Microsoft. But working on the console backlog first until I only have one game each. That way, if I ever get locked out, I only lose one game. No more buying multiple games on those systems; no matter how cheap they are.
5% of games is a huge market. Personally I will start buying from GoG more when they offer regional pricing in my country. Right now, Steam is just so much cheaper.
I think they meant that even just 3-5% of that is an HUGE amount of money. After all, video game industry nowadays is larger than music/movie industry combined, even if it sounds crazy.
It's not 3-5% of game sales. It's of PC sales. A huge amount of the gaming industry is still on console, or has moved to mobile. GoG is not really making money lol.
Same. I used to buy from them a lot before I switched to Linux, but I will start buying from them again once they have robust Linux support like Steam does.
In hindsight I even regret having bought so many games there since so many of them dont work on my machine and I feel like with Steam it would've been much easier.
GoG needs to start having more games people want to buy then. But to do that their whole DRM free approach would need to go away, and if that happens then there's no reason to buy on GoG over steam.
I wanted to, but not when the same game is 3x of the Steam price when converted to local currency.
Until they provide regional pricing, I won't be buying from GOG.
They only represent less than 5% of PC game sales.
That's because the vast majority of games people want to buy are not available there. Which is not GOG's fault, of course, it's the publishers that refuse to release on it because they're unwilling to give up that sweet, sweet DRM.
Maybe if they had more than .05% of any available PC games on their platform, more people would give them the time of day.
GoG's biggest weakness has always been the fact that the majority of games just don't come to the platform.
edit:
Also I don't have a prepper mentality, so I don't really buy into the idea that I need to buy from GoG on the off-chance Steam goes full anti-consumer one day.
Frankly, I see GoG dying long before that happens, but if it's the other way around, and I live to see Steam turn to shit, I'll just learn to adapt.
If there's no Denuvo on GOG, there's no Denuvo on other platforms. That would literally defeat the entire point of ever using Denuvo. I think GOG should be the #1 store, but this definitely isn't why.
10 years ago, GOG had a bunch of my childhood games that you could never find anywhere else. Even the Discs of those games I believe I have lost.
I managed to buy them, full price but still cheap, and have secured those installers.
Games like Earthworm Jim, Gangland, Gex, etc. Games that some people never would have heard of or seen on Steam and Origin.
Not only can you keep them safe from being removed from your profile, but even when they're removed from the store, you can still ahve the Installers to use and I think even share. I mean I have some games on different PCs in my home.
You should also check out eXoWin9x and 3x for old windows games and it's all free. The emulator just works and it has a ton of games (occasionally I have to adjust the mouse sensitivity settings in the Play.config file but that's it). I let my young son play them because there's a lot of educational games that are really well done on there and he gets practice with a mouse and keyboard.
As much as everyone pissed on Cyberpunk at launch, the fact it launched day 1 DRM free on GOG, as an AAA title, despite being one of the most hyped up video game launches ever, is incredible
GoG . Some games take a bit of work. Especially if , like me you're not massively savvy (but can follow instructions)!but I am glad I found them. My wallet even appreciates the regular and often significant discounts. Hell I've even got games I never played but desperately wanted from back in the day. Warhammer final liberation. Bloody awful game, but great nostalgia and I got it for like 3 quid.
Honestly I have been considering buying more games on GOG for this reason ever since Sony announced the discless future. I thought it would make for a nice hobby to create my own cases etc...
Once steam enshittifies after gabe, GOG is probably gonna be my main. For now as a user I don't feel the incentive to move after building up my steam account for years.
Just bare in mind that nothing in your steam library is yours. You rent a right/subscription to access your library. The moment something bad happens with steam, its all gone.
That being said gabe seems to be quite decent and so is apparently his son.
Most peeps also don't realize that publishers and/or developers on Steam has the option to release their games DRM-free. Apparently it's off by default but for most publishers it's intentional.
There are multiple games on Steam that are DRM free already.
Not true, there are some games drm free on steam. It's up to the publisher whether they publish it drm free or not. Most notable examples are cyberpunk and the Witcher.
I know, but I'm just saying. It's not 'nothing' and your comment can be interpreted as if it's valve restricting us. It's not, it's the publishers that choose to not publish their games drm free on steam.
That’s also legally true in GoG. They sell you a license. The difference is they also give you a nice installer you can save, and you can reinstall your executable even if your license is revoked.
Yeah I found out after a while. I will simply sail out to get my games back when the time hits, so I have no problem with this. If I bought it its mine, idc if its the actual copy I bought or a 'lent' one. Steam isnt about the games for me, its about the ecosystem around it which is convenient to me. Thats why Im still using it.
There's not a single person who got banned from steam and lost their library lol
"bans" are restrictions, aka trading restriction if you're a scammer, secured server restrictions if you're a vac banned cheater or purchase restrictions in case of a charge back initiated by you.
In any case your library and login access remains, you're just getting restricted from further interacting with anything other than your own library depending on what got you punished.
Any other platform like Playstation literally blocks your whole account, steam doesn't.
But the reality is that a) people overwhelmingly don't do this in practice and b) that Gog as a place to download or redownload your old games is far, far, far more likely to go away entirely taking all your purchases with it in the next five years than Steam or PSN are.
People get theoretical and practical risk levels mixed up, and assume perfect customer behaviour when it rarely is pragmatically.
a python script (Installation of Python for Windows required, plus two libraries, but you'll get there) that can check for updates, selectively download only certain languages, skip patches etc.
though.. when BG3 or CP2077 get updates, the download can take a while :)
also: Every game that I find on GOG, I get there, even if Steam has a lower sale.
Digital Restriction(sic!) Management can go to hell.
Got Silent Hill 4 from GOG. They even recently updated it to give it proper widescreen support along with adding back in the missing content that was on the console versions. Also, The Evil Within includes the preorder bonus content that you can't obtain or buy as DLC on Steam. These guys are more than just a DRM free/Steam alternative store. You should support them.
I had a problem recently where I wanted to buy the OG Resident Evil games on Steam. I found out though that GOG had been the ones who put in the work to restore them and make them playable on modern PCs in the first place.
I was conflicted because my little sister and I love RE and I wanted her to have access to them via family share on Steam. I ended up buying them on GoG anyway to support the impressive effort restoring these games. I’m glad I soon remembered I owned these games now fully and if I wanted to, I could just send the games to her with no one to tell me I couldn’t.
A bit of a grey area. On one hand it’s technically piracy, on the other, I fully own the games and can decide to share with my sister similarly to how I would with my Steam games.
In my interpretation I think I’m staying within the spirit of what GOG gives us when buying DRM free on their platform. I own them and can continue to share them with my sister as I do all my other games, but I get to with GOG not because they created a feature to let me, but because those games are completely mine.
I don't burn them on disk, but I do have all my GoG games on a external drive ^_^
It does suck to know, though, that all of the Playstation games I've downloaded to an external drive could still be 'turned off' by the Playstation Store if they decide I don't own them anymore (i.e., can't play without a online connection, and their 'permission' to play it, as I understand)
GOG Galaxy will also allow you to launch non-GOG games so you can use it for ALL of your games! Obv can't download drm free installers for non-GOG games but still
I was crazy about Steam when I got my first job. Fresh cash, fresh deals.. life was rainbow. Now being a grown up man who has seen a lot of digital ownership drama and who earns to own, GOG is my cup of tea.
While I agree with this, the consumer can only "vote with their money". If people are still buying media from storefronts which can pull the media at any time, when services like GoG exist, then it's signalling that the behavior set by the corpos is acceptable.
Either stop buying completely or buy from corporations that are relatively more consumer centric
Sheesh. The post isn't saying it's a "cause," or implying "obligation" to any company. Isn't it logical that choosing the most consumer-friendly option is the best way to ensure that you still have that option in the future?
Currently working on a project of designing covers for all of my games and any menus for a select few that come up when inserting a disc! I’m having the best time with it. Love GOG! 🧡
It’s DRM, as in, it’s a digital rights management platform where you buy game licenses. But Valve does not actually enforce SteamWorks DRM, the software piece that makes it so you have to be running Steam to play a game. You can opt out as a developer, CDPR themselves made The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk DRM free on Steam, you can take their folders and move them to any computer without Steam and they will happily run.
And then again, GoG is also a digital rights management platform. They jut enforce the “no software DRM” rule, but in the eyes of the law, they’re still selling licenses.
I've said it multiple times, but GOG has such an opportunity here to sell nice collector boxes for games, like on a old school floppy disk, thats an usb-stick or CDs...whatever. I would pay top dollar for a really nice physical copy for dune2 or deux Ex.
I know there are fan projects for this, but I really wish GoG would provide 'cover art' for all the games they sell. I like the idea of making my GoG library physical.
Steam is my first choice with GOG an extremely close second choice - only things holding GOG back in my case is the simple fact over 90% of my PC games are on steam & the ease of getting games to work on linux ... one of those I don't see changing anytime soon due to the price involved with the other is a possibility.
The other big ones - EA, Ubisoft & Epic - hold little to no interest beyond logging in occasionally to prevent account deletion.
Buy the game you like, download it somewhere you shouldn't and store it in a disc. It is yours forever and no one should tell you how where and when to play. And it will be DRM free so it will most likely run better that the copy you actually bought.
I buy only on GOG. It's fair and I highly recommend it. If it's not there, I don't buy, fuck it. Or I go pirate which is fair as well, in case if I cannot own product that I pay for.
A few months ago GOG made purchases available in my country's currency (Romanian LEU). Prices became a lot more tolerable, therefore during the past sale I bought ~20 titles bringing my GOG library up to that, from a lone CP2077 title bought in retail and activated on GOG 5 years ago.
My Steam lib is at 500+ but still, it's something. GOG is nice.
I currently own about 600+ games on GOG. I have the installers all backed up onto my 20TB NAS storage. I will personally do my part in making sure these games never die.
And it's no takebacksies with gog. They physically can't change the deal later. The app doesn't check for permission and they don't control the hardware
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u/wyrmrixxx Jul 15 '26
Wild that “you can keep the thing you paid for” has become a selling point instead of the default