Thanks very much for your help on this. One of the problems with people creating lists as GOG posts within the forum here, eg, "Games that run on iGPU's", "Games that are W10 compatible", etc, as well as RWarehall's previous sales tracker, is that they tend to fizzle out when there's only one contributor and are at risk of disappearing when there's only one editor who leaves the site. I've now had a couple of people with interest in maintaining the list, so hopefully that should solve that problem long term. (Just in case I go down with a certain virus currently doing the rounds or something...) ;-)

It is possible some games may need the client in the future. One exemple is SteamWorld Heist on Steam.

Hi, great Thread and List, I've been waiting for this to happen ever since the first discussion about Subnautica DRM status.
Actually, What is its current status? Spectre says current version has an easy to circumvent DRM but older version didn't and worked much worse? If this is verified, such information should be present at some way in the list.
Or is such "DRM" considered DRM Free in essence, similar to how Galaxy and Steam install a client launching shortcut?


I was wondering about games that don't require the client per say, but do use system settings,
For instance adding strings to Registery? Or using AppData/Roaming or even Local - Do you know of a game set to using Local?
It is possible some "tied to client" games are actually tied via Registery, and can be released with an easy registery tweak,
While others aren't tied but won't work on another computer just because files are stored in AppData?

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps someone else can re-test & verify Subnautica as I think that was one of the freebies that I missed. I'll happily add a note explaining any issues if that's the case.

For the purpose of "Steam / Epic games that can be run without the client" lists, I consider DRM-Free "being able to play a game 100% offline without requiring a client or Internet connection, and being portable between computers (not locked to hardware)". If the difference between an Epic game starting without the client or not is simply adding your own shortcut link to the game's .exe (possibly with a command line switch like -EpicPortal), then I'd consider that DRM-Free. For me, it's whether or not a client / online check is forced / compulsory that's the DRM-test rather than the need to manually create a shortcut link to bypass a client, as that would be little different to installing a game via Galaxy then later on deciding to add your own desktop / Start Menu links to start it directly (or perhaps adding Start Menu links to DRM-Free games acquired from itch.io / Humble as a portable zip file), which is all exactly the same process / amount of effort.

Some games store settings in the Registry though I'm unaware of any Epic game which stores anything DRM related that way. Epic Store games that refuse to start (eg, The Talos Principle) seem to be compiled to call the client within the game in the same way Steam games .exe's will be hard-coded to call a steam_api.dll file. The normal way of bypassing those that don't start by default seems to be command line parameters like -EpicPortal rather than registry entries.

As for AppData, many games do store config / save games here, but usually if the files are missing (like on first run) they just get recreated. Eg, Unreal Engine games have template config files like "DefaultEngine.ini, DefaultInput.ini" within a game's \Config folder that the game uses to create those AppData\ .ini's for the first time on a new install. At worst, you may lose custom key-bindings / settings that you have to redo, but even that is something that can be solved by backing up / restoring those AppData\ game config folders. Or software like GameSave Manager.

Subnautica is something I am very aware of. When it first released on Epic it (for a very brief period of time) could be run without executable arguments and without the client.
The first update on Epic changed this, and users found they had to use the -EpicPortal argument to circumvent loading the client. It's been the same ever since, and even since the last updates which moved the game to a new Unity engine version (which fixed some issues and created all new ones).

To run a executable with a command-line argument is hardly difficult stuff. There are no registry "tie-ins" and the game will run on a completely different system than the one it was installed on. Only one possible issue remains: Time Capsules. I am not sure whether bypassing the client disables their appearance. They certainly don't spawn in the game if you're offline while you play it.

Hell, even the modding community devs claim "Epic installations can't be modded without the client", but it's a load of buffalo chips. My installation is modded quite a bit and it works well.

I run my own personal list elsewhere and I tend not to use "DRM-free" anymore, but rather that it "will run client-free".

On registry settings alone, I only play my games on another offline machine, and all the games which came as freebies that work without the client didn't need any fiddling with the registry. Like AB said, these games aren't referencing some authorisation token stored in the registry, they do a callback via the EGS API (EOSSDK-Win64-Shipping.dll or similar) to contact the installed client for authorisation / login purposes. Some games you can tell the game NOT to contact the client, others don't use the feature at all despite being shipped with the dll.

Foregone appears to be DRM-free for now. Tried it on two Win10 systems without the client able to turn on. Bear in mind this is an early access title so that could change later on down the line.

Thanks. Added to the list with a note.

Done.

Wheels of Aurelia from the current free offer can be added to the list and is running without laucher onm Win7.

Thank you AB2012 for making this thread and list :)

Updated. Thanks Marco!

FTFY ;)

And you're welcome :)

My apologies Marko!

For the benefit of co-authors Crimson-X & vidsgame, according to a PM received by Braggadar, This War of Mine does actually work under the following conditions:-

"You can get the latest version of This War of Mine to work using This War of Mine.exe -AUTH_LOGIN=unused -AUTH_PASSWORD=null but it pushes the boundaries of functionality within the game. While you can launch and play scenarios with content already pre-installed, clicking on any feature you don't already own, like DLC characters and the like, it will attempt to launch the client for you to purchase that content, and in doing so will minimise the game. Failure to load the client doesn't crash the game though. In theory if a person owns all the DLCs the game wouldn't try to launch the client at all with these arguments. But I warn: this was tested on a client-free setup ONLY and it was offline. I can't be held responsible if the game tries to launch an installed client and the arguments cause a login issue with EGS. Technically the auth password could be pretty much anything. You could even use your own genuine auth token the client uses to launch the game."

For the purposes of spreadsheet formatting, I've added that as "DRM-Free" but marked with an orange asterisk rather than a green tick) as if the game really doesn't crash if it can't launch the client, then for someone without the client installed, a minor irritation of having it minimize when clicking on unowned in-game content (eg, The Little Ones scenarios), may be acceptable even though it's not 100% perfect.

I tried to test Just Cause 4 yesterday but with or without the client I am unable to launch it and only get a strange error message about some missing DLL (no, not the ususal vcredist/dotnet ect.). Would be great if somebody else could test the freebie so that I knao if the game is even launchable.

According to both PCGamingWiki and someone in the Free Temporary Keys Giveaway thread, all versions (including Epic) use Denuvo, so insta-fail right there:-
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Just_Cause_4
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/free_temporary_keys_giveaway_central_topic/post7151