have you tested this? from what I remember there was a bug that didn't make offline mode perpetual but they fixed it. Valve said its meant to be indefinite.

To me the criteria would be very simple: can you download the game after buying it, back it up, and then never need the client again. That's obviously true of 99.9% of stuff on GOG. It's true for rare stuff on Steam.

I have long since accepted that buying just about any game through Steam will require me to use Steam. People probably don't see it as DRM because they have also accepted it, but at a subconscious level. Meanwhile, GOG Galaxy went from being optional to offering incentinves for using it at all such as managing your playtime and acheivements. I am not sure of the GOG games that absolutely refuse to launch without GOG Galaxy, but if they exists, they are far in between that I have not encountered one.

That's a hypothetical stretch, but in this case I'd say GOG is the DRM. Web browsers do support DRM technology but they're here to support services that use it for whatever the reason is, e.g. Netflix. But like I said, it's a hypothetical that's not really worth mulling over.

And with this other hypothetical, "my whole phone" isn't DRM, but the SMS service doing this stuff is. Same for Steam. It's quite easy for me, dtgreene lays it out in her next post. Steam provides the DRM solution, has documentation for it, and encourages devs to use it. It's the central component which authenticates the games. It's DRM in the same sense that Denuvo is DRM. The only difference is that they sell games with a bunch of features but not Denuvo. It doesn't matter what their package is like though, because the DRM infrastructure is there and it works.

This is why GOG is nice. For all its mishaps, the store itself guarantees that everything it sells is DRM-free. Because that's the only fucking guarantee anyone will get about DRM-free: from the distributor level. I'd say the DRM-free games on Steam are mostly accidental but even then, just read AB2012's post.

Even if you're unsure what "is DRM" or "is not DRM," you can at least agree that GOG is DRM-free. All the games distributed on the store (and even if you're cynical, 99.8% of games or some other high percentage) don't have any of that stuff. That's what gravitates me to here (and neat niceties like installers and goodies). Log in to an account online to get the games, it doesn't matter how, could be from a fucking Python script for all I know, download the stuff, and that's it. Your active involvement with GOG is already over before you even started installing the game. No need to test with different setups and OS because it's already guaranteed to work at this stage. Might it be easier to define what is not DRM than what is?

Actually disagree with that perspective. There may come a point were we will need a client to download a game. You will always always require the internet to download a game. But where the ques6tion of DRM comes into it weather you need the client to install/unpack or get the game working and functioning.

It sounds like you need to read up on how CEG works as it's very much client not game driven. Not all Steam games are protected but your "Steam's DRM works like a game (not the client) that sends an SMS code" is a very poor analogy. How CEG works : The client installs a game, the client scans the motherboard for HWID and the client uploads it to Steam 3 DRMS server (exactly as Windows 10-11 Activation does) that generates a custom binary locked to the user's motherboard that the client downloads separately and adds to the game install. The client constantly monitors stuff like a change in hardware (whether the participate in Steam Survey is ticked or not) solely for the purposes of DRM management in order to know that it will need to transparently repeat the process and fetch a new .exe for each CEG game installed if the user buys a new PC / changes motherboard. In addition to examining the user's computer, the client will attempt to detect tampering with the executable file, and will conceal its workings from reverse engineering. This code isn't in the game because the game doesn't even have an .exe to run at that point, all the DRM code is very obviously in and managed by the client...

If many / most games on Steam have DRM and people's end perception is the platform itself is DRM'd with only some exceptions, then you need to blame Valve for that perception. As others said above, if they were truly "neutral" towards DRM, they've had 18 years to flag which games work without the client and which don't (as Humble, etc, manage), but they refuse for a reason - Valve themselves don't want you playing Steam games without the client, do everything they can to push the perception their client is needed up to and including stating that your legal rights in the Subscriber Agreement extend only to running your "subscription" through the client and openly encourage developers to use as much DRM as possible in their own developer documentation. Put together, yes, people will obviously see all that as a store that has a very pro-DRM stance because that's exactly what it is...

If you want people to view Steam as a 'DRM-Free store that sells some DRM'd games' as opposed to 'an overwhelmingly DRM'd platform that happens to sell some unprotected games', then wake me up when Valve 1. Add a "DRM-Free" tag to games, 2. Removes "The Steam DRM wrapper is an important part of Steam platform" and "The Steam wrapper can and should be used in combination with other DRM solutions" from their 'recommendations' on Steamworks DRM page for developers, and 3. Add a GOG equivalent of S17.3 to their "Subscriber" Agreement. Steam might then actually start to be perceived as a DRM-Free store when it actually starts acting like one on a platform level...