Hmm... I'd say about $5-10 dollars more.
(For a new title at least. More towards 5, but closer to 10 if its a game I really, really want to play)

If the game is about 1/2 the price elsewhere, I'll normally track down that version.

(Unless it has limited activations. I try to avoid those. Still haven't bought Arkham Asylum since it has 5 activiations on Steam! XD)

EDIT: I buy GOGs for convenience, extras, and to try out some of the older stuff from yesteryear.

Honestly If I didn't already own Heroes V complete on GamersGate, then I would have bought it here in the deal with Assasin's Creed.
(Only on offer though. No way are those two worth $20 each!)

I payed around $45 for those games on steam and got over 400 hours out them. I rarely do that well.

*shrugs shoulders*


http://steamcommunity.com/id/snickersnacks/games/

Read some of the responses, but not all.

I'm not willing to pay more than a dollar extra (and even then eh) for a DRM-free copy over a DRMed copy.
As someone said earlier on this, it costs money to put the DRM into the game, not to take it out, so why should we pay extra for saving the company money?

Now considering GOG games specifically, I'd be more willing to pay a bit extra for their older titles because they make them compatible with newer OS so I don't have to mess with them, that I am willing to pay extra for, but not that they are DRM-free.
With GOG releasing newer games they are not going to have that added feature though, hopefully they will compete in price.

The OP seems more interested in what it is worth to you personally. Imagine a game is $20 on Steam and $20 DRM-free on Amazon. If Steam puts it on sale for $5, which do you buy? What if Steam has it is on sale for $10 or $15 or even $19? Would you still consider the non-discounted price for the DRM-free copy?

First I would like to say that Steam is a gigantic waste of money, granted a "gradual" waste of money, the only reason that many people still use it is because most new games are being released through it, GOG though is catching up with them with legends of grimrock and botanicula likely to be exclusives (mabye, Really though, when Steam eventually shuts down in say 8 years, since you need steam software to play games that you've purchased throught Steam, then you won't be able to play those games, so those thousands of dollars you've spent through the site would've been wasted. With GOG you don't need the software to play the games once they've been downloaded, they've take n up residence in case mi hardrive. So Gog in the near future will be selling newer games at lower prices with many new bonuses, and of course DRM is the communism of electronics distribution, kilobytes for thought.

Won't pay any extra for a game without drm, but will not purchase those that think I'm going to jump through loops for their precious production.

The Steam only games are ignored by me, even when I liked the original titles I owned all of before.

Piss on them, they aren't worth cracking, and occupy no special significance in my life.

That's a bit outside the topic box, but its not necessarily a "waste" if Steam were to go belly up and people lost access to their catalog. It just means they better hope they got sufficient enjoyment out of what they bought while they had it. DRM tends to demand one try their best to enjoy things today, because tomorrow is not guaranteed, but its quite possible. Something which is illustrated by Steam's success, and by movie streaming services that allow one to consume the world's entire catalog without committing to it all.

For people like me it would be a waste because I tend to tuck games in my back pocket for another day. Nothing is guaranteed though I feel DRM-free offers the best odds for the future. The question is if increasing those odds has a monetary value to you or not.

No, I won't pay extra money just for no DRM, but then again I also won't buy games that have DRM, Steam and the like or otherwise.

Nothing impedes you from buying games on steam and playing then in offline mode, meaning you can do the same, I personally have a small portion of my games list in backup for so I don't have to re-download every time I format for instance.

Your argument also works against GoG, if you have all 400 games on the catalog and did not download all of 'em, and the site suddenly shuts down, there goes your money.

Gabe Newell said that if Steam closes then they'd first release an offline version of it.

I agree with Ashedown, if any online service died, I would lose content. I think there's a more decent change I'll lose games I bought in indie bundles than on Steam.

You can back up GOG games onto an external drive. I dont think you can do that with Steam.

As regards not downloading them, well...thats like buying games in the shop and just leaving them on the counter and walking away, you cant blame gog for people being stupid.

Depends on the DRM.

If I need to input a CD key into the program after I install, that's the most bothersome to have to do in the long haul. Despite having paid for it and everything, I've lost my Diablo 2 cd-key before and one one occasion I got another copy of the game, and after that I just used keys from a friend. Annoying as hell, and I'd probably pay an extra $5 to avoid having to do that.

Steam is DRM, but you can play the game in offline mode, so maybe $1 to avoid steam if I wanted to avoid Steam, since it's not a huge issue.

If it's an always-online DRM for a game that could rationally be played as a single player offline game, like Sim City 5, then I won't ever buy the DRM version, so "more" doesn't even make sense.

Of course the lower price is of relevance, if the default price exceeds what I personally feel certain game to be worth of. For example, $20 for Assassin's Creed (DRM-free) does sound a bit high to me, but $9.99 doesn't, really. (unless I end up hating the game) Hence, I went with the GOG deal.

But you are right, I don't necessarily opt for the cheapest alternative. I am quite sure many others also get a game from Steam "just because", even though the same game could be obtained for a cheaper price from e.g. OnLive.

Anyway, I don't think I have visited that "deals" thread that often, as I am not trying to build a huge backlog collection of terminable Steam or OnLive games.

"I couldn't care less about DRM, except when I do care."

You sound like a hipster when you bash Ubisoft DRM that way.


Read that as "No more mere words, time for some action too." :)

I think that is an urban legend that was already busted in Mythbusters.

If Valve suddenly decided to "unlock" all of its Steam catalogue, they would first have to get a permission for that from all the copyright holders of all the hundreds (thousands?) of Steam games.

Furthermore, if it really was technically possible to just unlock all Steam games with one update, then certainly we would already have an universal Steam crack that would do exactly that. We don't, because most probably Steam DRM is not designed so poorly that it could be inactivated (unlocked) with one flip. Most probably you need to crack each Steam game separately to get rid of the Steam umbilical cord.

Last but not least, if Gabe really had publicly promised something like that, one would expect that promise to be included in the EULA/TOS of Steam. The EULA is currently saying the opposite, ie. Steam games are terminable on Valve's decision.

Except that Steam backups are totally useless if Steam is down, you won't be able to play them without cracking them first. (Which for Steam games usually means re-downloading the full game as it's not always easy to find a crack for the exact same version you have)

On the other side GoG backup will work without GoG or even without an Internet connection at all.
It was years ago at a time where the only games on Steam where Valve's games, and it was during a interview.

I agree with timppu, if it's not in the EULA then it's not worth more than a drunkard's promise.

Also the issue with DRM is not just the service closing down, but also the service being able to change its TOS any it want.

I tomorrow GoG decides that all it's game will uses an always online DRM, they can, but all the games I have downloaded from them will continue to work as before.

I tomorrow Steam decides that all its games will uses an always online DRM, they can too (read the EULA), but this time all your games, backup or not, will magically uses always online DRM the next time you connect to Steam.