Very bad news to all non-steam ARMA2-players:

"People who have a non-Steam version of Arma 2, and/or the Arma 2 expansions and DLC, can now activate their product key(s) on Steam. Please note that all future updates for the game will be delivered through Steam only."
http://www.arma2.com/home/news/731-activate-non-steam-versions-of-arma-2-on-steam.html

This means:
All non-steam users of ARMA2 get NO UPDATES ANYMORE & can't play on servers wich req. Version 1.63+ of ARMA2!
This also applies to for all other games from BI, like Take on helicopter, ARMA3 etc.!

I purchased a non-drm version and now i should activate ARMA2 on STEAM?
NEVER EVER!!

Steam version differs only by utilizing Steamworks for matchmaking. That's it. Devs made this transition to steamworks due to gamespy shutdown. Arma 2 has LAN and Direct IP connection multiplayer and there are lots of ways to find suitable server for you. Devs also launched master.bistudio.com service to browse servers for theirs games, which were binded to gamespy. Maybe in future they'll patch Arma series to work with GOG Galaxy. At least i hope they'll do.
And yeah, read this! And stop talking about things, you don't know.

If most people are on whatever ever version the steam version is and everyone else is on various patches that you need to find and connect through IPS then onvoiusly it's gonig to be far far harder to play MP without using the Steam version.

This ;-)

The developers have set up a master server browser as an alternative to using the Steam version. This won't have the same servers listed, at least for Arma 2 (since Steam has a newer version of the game).

Thanks for the heads-up, Arkose!

Is my assumption correct: there is no way to update gog version to 1.63 ?

There is a way. You need to activate Arma 2 with your key from gog.com on steam. Than you can update your game to 1.63

Edit: And indeed, even if the difference between 1.62 and 1.63 is minimal, you can not play via LAN with players with 1.63. I just tried playing with some friends of mine - both bought the game on steam. Last year it worked quite well (no difference in the version - probably all on 1.62), now I can see the server when I connect with the IP, but it says that the Version is different (red marked and a big cross in front of the server in the list)

Does anyone know if the keychanger for Arma 2 is also working with the steam key? If so, you could give the 1.62 version from gog.com to others and they just enter their own key from steam.

Shouldn't be a problem. The server operator can disable a setting that forces all players to have the same version as the server. I don't know if there are any game breaking differences between 1.62 final and 1.63, but most of the time stuff like this has worked in the past.

As for changing CD keys, it can easily be done via regedit.

You can actually patch ArmA to 1.63 without Steam, so how is this "bad news"? You don't need Steam running to play ArmA 2 and its mods (ie DayZ Mod) when you have the Steam version (there's even an option on DayZ Commander to disable launching through Steam) and the earliest 1.63 patch is available on the BI website.

Seriously, for whatever reason you're hating on Steam (seems like misguided information) you can get around it legally. Steam isn't a DRM, and even if it is, there is an option to go offline and launch games without using Steam. Steam is a content delivery system and online videogame marketplace with which the only time you have to be online is when you're downloading a game from the Internet (duh).

http://www.arma2.com/downloads/update/beta/ARMA2_OA_Build_112555.zip

This updates your ArmA 2 OA to 1.63.

" Steam isn't a DRM, and even if it is, there is an option to go offline and launch games without using Steam. Steam is a content delivery system and online videogame marketplace with which the only time you have to be online is when you're downloading a game from the Internet (duh)."

Hm, I have to install STEAM to download & activate a game delivered with STEAM. To use the offline-modus i have to be online first! And after a while - 2 to 4 weeks - STEAM wants to go online and if you don't let STEAM, it refuses to start! For me this is enough DRM inside to avoid STEAM ...

Wait wait wait.... I bought ArmA II on GOG because it was cheaper (compared to steam) and i really want it on steam now cause i cant online with my friends on steam. So what you're saying is i can get a free game on steam with GOG key? If so its not working for me my GOG key doesnt work on steam. If this is the case am i doing it wrong? Where do i get my key? so many questions. Not so sure if i should add a question mark at the end of this sentence?

GOG gives you a retail key which Bohemia then allows you to activate on Steam. Likely.

Sorry to bump up an old thread..... but I gotta ask.....

If I did port my GOG copies of "ARMA 1" and "ARMA 2" over to Steam will GOG.com know? Will I still be able to download the convenient easy to use GOG installers for them?

Just what DRM's will Steam impose on them? Despite loathing Steam, I have bought ARMA3 on it - I had no choice, it can't be got from anywhere else - and also got the original ARMA:CWC free (Operation Flashpoint as it was originally known). Surprise is they seem to pretty light on the usual Steam DRM restrictions..... as far as I can tell! Maybe Bohemia Interactive won't tolerate any of Steam's usual bollocks!

Just wondering, as someone has sent me a PM asking me about it recently.

I don't know.

Once I tried the 1.63 patch with my GoG ArmA 2 install, out of curiosity. After that the game would not run because v1.63 could not start without a steam client installed.... Put back the 1.62 beta files and left it like that.