I think that applies to most single-player games on Steam, you can play them in Steam's offline mode after you have downloaded and installed them. That doesn't automatically make them DRM-free though because you can't necessarily copy the game to another PC and play there as well, without accessing the Steam service.

Installing and playing the game is where the DRM matters. When buying or downloading the game, there it isn't important to discuss whether it has "DRM", as GOG also has forced authentication for downloading games (you can't download games from GOG which you haven't purchased).

In Steam's case, I guess it confuses many people that there is no clear distinction between "downloading" and "installing" the game, as from the user's point of view they seem to happen at the same time. Same with GOG Galaxy I guess. IIRC part of the "installation" for Steam games actually happens when you run the game the first time, ie. some registery entries might be entered and dependencies checked then, not before.

Anyway, if after that the Steam game is a fully independent package (folder) that you can freely copy to other computers and play there without Steam authentication/connection (or an internet connection at all), then I don't see why it couldn't be considered as a DRM-free game.


There's one important thing to consider though: Steam (Valve) doesn't advertise, nor support, any of the games as DRM-free, as GOG does. So it is up to the users to figure out which Steam games are DRM-free, and if there are issues there, you can't expect support from Valve or even the game publisher (unless the publisher has promised it to be playable without the Steam client).

That also means that if some DRM-free game on Steam gets DRM later on some update, oh well, there you are. They never promised it to be DRM-free. Maybe this doesn't happen often, but I recall that e.g. Skyrim was at very first DRM-free (by accident), and it got the DRM/CEG added on an update. Also Fallout 3, I recall earlier it was considered as a DRM-free game on Steam, but later (maybe a later edition of the game?) it wasn't anymore, apparently it got some kind of DRM in it. I also recall some games where the base game might be playable without Steam, but DLCs not (ie. the whole game is not DRM-free).

Not sure if there are other similar examples.

Just try running a game offline in steam after it has found an update.
You will see true face of steam.

and you need to to gOg to download your gOg games, and there are no patches etc. offered outside the normal gOg mechanism so you're tied to it for them as well...

Depends on what DRM-free means for you. 'DRM-free' games on Steam will only mean something to you if you don't mind, at minimum...

1) asking around to see if said game can launch without Steam
2) you are willing to download it from Steam.

You will have to ask people who the games around, because the game is never made clear whether it requires Steam or not (it will be made clear whether it wants GfWL, Uplay, etc, but never Steam!). You may also want to be careful. Today a game can run Steam-free, but tomorrow maybe it wouldn't after an update. If you know another game can run Steam-less, you can always post it to the list of DRM-free games on Steam and help those who are willing to buy existing games DRM-free. What I mean to say is, get any sort of confirmation that the game is DRM-free beforehand, as Steam will NOT help you identify such games.

You will have to download it from the Steam client or SteamCMD, no other way around it. You can't just login to a browser and download like we do here.

GOG is a website, Steam is an installed client - there is a difference. Exactly the same reason I don't use Galaxy or any number of other client-wares out there.

does not change the fact that you are 'tied in' with gOg to get your games and their patches. How you do it is then just a matter of taste and preference *shrug*

At least they don't force you to use X browser to download the game, so I'd not make this comparison.
You're free to use whatever you prefer, nothing stops you.
Steam forces you to use their client.

No one disputes that. The point is, forcing you to use a certain browser for authentication is not DRM.

Sure it is nice that GOG offers several ways to obtain your games (and even allows third-party clients like gogrepo.py to work), but...

Let's put it this way: if GOG had originally made it so that the only way to download your GOG game installers was to use the GOG Downloader that many still apparently use, would you have considered GOG games DRM-free? For argument's sake let's say they had made that GOG Downloader client also for Linux and Mac so that their users can also download their GOG games on their own OSes.

I would have still considered GOG games DRM-free. But as said, it is certainly nice GOG offers several ways to download games, and I hope it more or less stays that way too. If I had to use GOG Galaxy to download my DRM-free GOG games... I guess I would learn to live with that, even though it wouldn't be optimal to me.

Mainly, what makes Steam's DRM-free games different is that it is an unsupported method of using their games, and it isn't quite as convenient as with GOG currently. And probably never will be, as it is unsupported.

The main issue with the client approach is that it doesn't allow you to download executables available for a system that isn't the one you're using (something that Galaxy has wondrously averted). If you're on a Windows desktop and using Steam, good luck getting Linux executables for the game you want. If you're on a Linux desktop, all the games that are unavailable on Linux won't have the install button in the first place, let alone let you download it.

I haven't tried SteamCMD though, which I suppose lets you download the Linux executables if you're determined. My main gripe with SteamCMD is how Steam Guard gets in its way, forcing me to use it every time I log in without a way to make it remember my login. Maybe JMich could help in simplifying that matter.

DRM free games on Steam - what does it mean?

Arguments

Hardly optimal by any means, but it is at least possible to run the windows version of Steam on wine and download (and play, if they work) the games using that.

so now a plain, vanilla, ordinary web browser is a drmed client.
lol

Ironically, Steam on Wine is better than Steam on Linux on MANY FRONTS. They shouldn't have entered the Linux platform if the only experience they can deliver is really that terrible.

Hell, I could move around the Steam for Windows folder everywhere, not so with Steam on Linux. So much for having the native port of a stupid client.

*edited wording of the second sentence