That is true. However, there are two things to this:
- You could be a laggard and not backup all your games right away
- I don't know how Steam drm works, but assuming it doesn't block whatever method you use for backup (making it obvious), a certain degree of trust is implied if you don't manually verify all updates (and who has the time?). If they insert drm into the latest copy and you make that your latest backup, you are in a pickle.

Thank god this could never happen on GOG.

Because imagine what could happen if it does. I could end up with a DRM-free but broken copy of Divinity: Original Sin in my backup and worse still, GOG could --- despite having the unbroken version available on its servers (accessible only via the entirely optional galaxy) and despite encouragement from Larian --- refuse for years to offer unbroken offline installers of the game.

But that's just crazy talk. This could never happen on GOG.

Depends on whether the update is mandatory or not I guess, and whether you know that update is actually going to change the DRM state of your game. So all about control through communication and awareness and choice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Galaxy, your Browser (Firefox, etc), a third party downloader (Free Download Manager 5, etc) or a third party API/SDK program (lgogdownloader, gogrepo, gogcli, etc) do not have to ratify themselves and then force you to wait until they are updated, before logging into your GOG account, then checking you own a game before downloading it.

On the other hand, the Steam Client does, and that to me is DRM, end of story. It doesn't matter if the game itself has DRM or is DRM-Free Lite. The Steam Client has its own DRM ... checks whether itself is legit.

While it may all seem pretty seamless with Steam, it is not beyond the realms of possibility, that the Steam Client may have trouble ratifying or updating itself sometime in the future, for whatever reason, and thus prevent you from downloading your game. It's about more than just having a working web connection, logging into Steam, and having credentials that say you own a game. The Steam Client may prevent you logging into Steam, because some requirement of its own isn't met, and for some reason it cannot update itself because of that. You may have just bought the game and manually downloaded the latest Steam Client version.

What I see in this very post is lot of very vague and subjective interpretations being asserted as facts. I'm here to set things right.

This is an extremely vague and subjective. Going by the strictest interpretation of this statement one could argue that almost every game has DRM on the account that they are closed source. Would you say Witcher 3 has DRM because it's sauce code is private? That's what you get for sighting Wikipedia.

A more practical description would be this: DEM is a means to prevent unlawful distribution of copyrighted material. In other words, something that makes it harder for you to copy your games. With that said, Steam does use DRM for almost all of it's games, however there are a few games that can be downloaded from steam and separated from the client. They can than be copied to another computer and played without any trouble, or any use of hacks. Thus; these games are DRM free.



You mean the world I currently live in? My main gaming rig is completely offline and I'm yet to find a single game that I can't play on it. So no need to imagine; it's already here.

DUDE! What are you even talking about? What is this "we, in the west," supposed to mean? You don't think China deals with DRM? You know that's where a lot of DRM hacks come from right?

I mean yeah there are people who are calming that the Steam client isn't DRM, which of course is wrong, but maybe some day Steam will go offline for a bit and remind people how little control they have.

Wait to you use Linux? What about all that "Imagine a world where you could just get any OS, any game, and anything you wanted without ever having to connect to the internet"

Linux might not have DRM strictly speaking, but it does not play nice offline. Have you ever tried to install or update packages on a Linux distro without internet? Sure it's doable but let me put it this way. It's easier to hack the DRM out of Steam and even Windows than it is to get Linux to behave itself offline. Linux is a networking OS. It loves the internet and as far as I'm concerned the best os in regards to web browsing. But for anything else just forget it. Linux is not designed with offline functionality in mind.

I don't care how DRM-free a game on Steam claims to be, it still needs to be downloaded and installed through the Steam client. Unless Steam gives you the option to download a stand-alone installer, that's still a form of DRM as your ability to download, install and run a game is still essentially controlled by Steam. I do have a steam account, but I only use it for downloading demos so that they don't clutter up my GOG account.

Also with respect to indie games, there's lots of them over on itch.io and while a lot of these games are not worth downloading, there's also some real gems there if you're willing to go digging. Unless an indie developer is super determined to have some type of DRM thus do a Steam exclusive, they'll probably release it on GOG or Itch.

Nobody is perfect, but at least with GOG, there is an implicit agreement based on their initial business model to offer their installers drm-free and short of a few blemishes here and there concerning extras and multiplayer, they have stuck with that agreement so far.

Should they decide that a drm-free model is no longer convenient to their operations, they would still have to perform a graceful transition and give their userbase some warning or else face a significant community backlash (the kind that would make the whole Devotion incident appear quite insignificant in comparision, as important as that was to you).

And contrarily to popular belief, they do seem to listen to their community, when the backlash (or potential for it) is significant enough.

While as previously stated, nothing is perfect, I find that to be a far superior guarantee to the guarantee Steam is offering (ie, none) that they won't sneak in drm in their 'drm-free' games.

Agreed, there's not a whole lot gog or anyone can do about mutliplayer servers. While LAN should still work in games that support it, I don't really have anything against companies making sure only legit customers can access their personal servers. Those things cost money after all. I don't think the DRM free business model is in danger but I would love to see GOG update this website and the means to download the installers.

You're right. It's hopeless. I give up.

It doesn't matter how many times I state that I have been downloading, installing and playing DRM-free steam games for several months now without ever installing the steam client, people will continue to repeat the mantra that the client is mandatory for downloading and installing steam games.

To be fair that's not much different from how it works over here. In order to download a game from gog you need to have an account, a browser, and an internet connection to download. What this is really about is quality. You can get DRM free games from Steam yes, but the means to get the working is kind of trash. You have to copy and paste the files. There's no formal installer like there is with GOG. It's all very ghetto. Even cracked games have better more polished offline installers than Steam. This is still a good reason to avoid it in my opinion.

Okay, now I'm interested. I wasn't aware that it was possible to download Steam games without the client. How is this done?

EDIT: found it https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drm_free_on_steam_vs_gog_poll/post68

Please explain to us, how SteamCMD is not just a command-line version of the Steam Client? So the Steam Client by another name.

In fact, that is what it calls itself, and just to be sure how similar it is, I have just downloaded and run it.

And while I have only run it twice, it looks to me like it behaves exactly like the Steam Client, GUI elements aside, doing an update and verification check.

So it is a bit disingenuous to claim you never run the Steam Client, when actually that is what it is, albeit in command-line form.

Just to double confirm how I think it behaves, I will run it again in a few days time.

So at this point, I am wondering how you think getting a game with it is any different to using the Steam Client in GUI mode ... other than missing out on the easier to use graphical elements?

On top of that, how do I know a game at Steam is DRM-Free Lite? That isn't mentioned anywhere on the game page that I have ever seen, so I would need to consult a listing. So nothing is straight forward and its use is convoluted, nothing like just going to my GOG library and downloading a game ... or even using Galaxy for that matter. And unless I made a GUI for SteamCMD, I'd probably rather use the GUI version of the Steam Client.

Then there is the issue of knowing whether a game is DRM-Free Lite in the first place, before purchasing. Yes I could use that same listing. But what if it is wrong, what if the game's DRM-Free Lite status is no longer? Those listings aren't provided by Steam, and Steam doesn't promote or openly support DRM-Free, so you have no recourse if an error occurs ... other than seeking a refund ... provided you did that within the required time frame.

And does SteamCMD tell you it is about to update the DRM-Free Lite status to DRM, if an update does that?

Those Steam DRM-Free listings require gamers to keep them up-to-date.

P.S. I'm not anti-Steam because I am pro-GOG. If the true state of the options that you and others mention were genuinely good, I would use them. I however find them to be on par with Smoke & Mirrors.

P.S.S. I am quite happy to buy good true DRM-Free games where I can, the only proviso being price. I've done that at ZOOM Platform, Humble Store and Itch.io ... and mostly at GOG of course.

I have over 600 games at Steam, 99% of which were free, and in all these years I have never bothered so far, to grab a DRM-Free Lite one and back it up. Not even done it for some of the paid ones yet, some of which are supposedly DRM-Free. It has always felt like too much trouble and risky. I own many many drives full of games, and so the incentive is just not there I guess, especially without zipping and testing, which on its own would be a pain. Zipping would have to occur at the very least, to conserve archive storage space. Testing could be put aside if I was willing enough to trust or if I'd done enough games eventually to take trust for granted. Trusting chiefly being about no required dependencies etc. Then there would be the painful need to extract just for an update, which could change the DRM-Free status, which would need to be checked, and another zipping backup made if okay. No such thing as a patch file with DRM-Free Lite.

P.S.S.S. One day I might consider making a GUI for SteamCMD, that auto zips after download & install have occurred ... just to grab a few of the must-have DRM-Free Lite games. DRM-Free Lite of course, is better than no DRM-Free at all.

I decided to whip up a little viewer for games owned at Steam.

For those that might be interested, you can get it from the following link.

INFO & EXE - https://github.com/Twombs/Steam-Games-List

You'll need to get your User ID from your Steam profile.

My little program might prove useful, and I may yet flesh it out into a proper GUI and add support for SteamCMD.

Windows usage only I'm afraid.

In exactly the same way that gogrepo (which I know you know) is not a command-line version of galaxy.

You don't. Exactly like you don't on GOG (e.g. Absolver, CP2077). I never said steam was better.

Happened to me already. Chucked the $1.5 loss to experience. Deleted the game from my steam library and went on to play other games. No big deal.

And does GOG tell you the update is about to break your game? See Divinity: Original Sin story above.

A lot of the games on Itch don't have formal installers where you just copy and paste. On IndieGala, the Gala Freebies are without DRM and don't have formal installers either. However in these situations, the games are also self-contained such that you just put all the files in whatever folder you want them in. It's not much different than how I install my old DOS games from discs in that I copy the files to whatever then set up a .BAT file to give the illusion of running through Windows.

While I'm sure that there's an argument somewhere that games without DRM themselves should be purchased on Steam over other versions (such as GOG) to support DRM-free on Steam, this really is just supporting DRM. It doesn't change the fact that games bought on Steam are meant to be installed and run through the Steam client. The Steam client isn't meant to be 100% optional as is the case with GOG Galaxy, the itch app, the GalaClient (for its freebies). Someone who actually read Steam's EULA can confirm if it is is specifically stated in writing somewhere that they expect you to not attempt to run games outside the Steam client.

This is really semantics. DRM free games exist on Steam, but there is absolutely no reason to buy them. Steam's lack of DRM is not it's only problem. There is no quality control, the client is a pain to use and a lot of older games just don't work as well. Steam is the most popular client because gamers are lazy, and it's rubbish because Valve is lazy.

While there are other DRM free venues such as Itch and IndieGala, I am reluctant to use them because the aforementioned formal installers. GOG is not the only place to buy DRM free games but it is the best. They have the biggest range and the best offline installers.