4 ms·

As someone who plays a lot of games, I can't wait for the day when Steam gets replaced by something better. And given Steam's current state, "something better"

by emsy 9y ago

As someone who plays a lot of games, I can't wait for the day when Steam gets replaced by something better. And given Steam's current state, "something better" is a really low bar to go by. At this point I would prefer individual installers for each game, without any "platform" whatsoever.

jhasse 9y ago
That's what you have on gog.com :)
- morganvachon 9y ago
  I agree, unfortunately the number of titles is an order of magnitude less on GOG. Still, I have over 50 games from GOG and just over 100 from Steam. Anecdotal I know, but I find the GOG lineup more curated and less filler than Steam.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    > Anecdotal I know, but I find the GOG lineup more curated and less filler than Steam. There's a reason for that: It's harder to get your game on GOG, they are still deciding on a case-by-case basis. While on Steam every game which pays a fee (~$100) gets accepted IIRC.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jakebasile 9y ago
  I'd love for GOG to be better competition for Steam, and they've made wonderful strides - I actually prefer their Galaxy client over Steam, though I also think UPlay is nicer than Steam since Steam has so much going on that I don't need. But like sibling commenter points out it's a numbers game and GOG's stock just doesn't compare yet. You can't get many AAA releases on GOG even after some time has passed since release - publishers are simply allergic to their strong no-DRM policy and see no reason to be there when people will happily buy it on Steam. Where GOG is deftly competing is the AA market - games from smaller developers/publishers such as CD Projekt Red (CDPR is owned by the same company as GOG but they are a titan in the AA/AAA field), THQ Nordic, Paradox Interactive, and so on. Many of the games from these companies are released day and date on GOG.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    You're right, that's something which will hopefully improve over time. I would count The Witcher 3 as AAA though.
digi_owl 9y ago
I suspect the only way for that to happen is for someone to come up with a way to mass-transfer game libraries from Steam to some other service. In other words, Steam has the PC gaming world by the balls.
- jasonkostempski 9y ago
  I was fortunate enough to have Steam screw me over the first week I signed up for their service. On top of that, it took 2 weeks to resolve the issue which really let it sink in that I should never use them. Since then, I've only bought through GOG, Humble or directly from the creators.
- rocky1138 9y ago
  GOG supports this in a limited way. If you link your Steam account in your GOG account, it'll pull in games to your GOG account which are listed on GOG. https://www.gog.com/connect https://www.gog.com/connect
  - paulmd 9y ago
    Not all titles are eligible for this, I believe the publisher needs to opt-in (i.e. willingly give up additional sales).
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Standalone installers are the only acceptable solution, any middleman, no matter how many promises they make, will eventually do something you don't like and break your games. Any game, any software, made exclusively for systems that require some sort of activation before allowing access to the software you want to run, even if the software itself is DRM-free, means that software has a gatekeeper you'll eventually have an issue with.

by emsy 9y ago

jhasse 9y ago

That's what you have on gog.com :)

morganvachon 9y ago
I agree, unfortunately the number of titles is an order of magnitude less on GOG. Still, I have over 50 games from GOG and just over 100 from Steam. Anecdotal I know, but I find the GOG lineup more curated and less filler than Steam.
- jhasse 9y ago
  > Anecdotal I know, but I find the GOG lineup more curated and less filler than Steam. There's a reason for that: It's harder to get your game on GOG, they are still deciding on a case-by-case basis. While on Steam every game which pays a fee (~$100) gets accepted IIRC.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jakebasile 9y ago
I'd love for GOG to be better competition for Steam, and they've made wonderful strides - I actually prefer their Galaxy client over Steam, though I also think UPlay is nicer than Steam since Steam has so much going on that I don't need. But like sibling commenter points out it's a numbers game and GOG's stock just doesn't compare yet. You can't get many AAA releases on GOG even after some time has passed since release - publishers are simply allergic to their strong no-DRM policy and see no reason to be there when people will happily buy it on Steam. Where GOG is deftly competing is the AA market - games from smaller developers/publishers such as CD Projekt Red (CDPR is owned by the same company as GOG but they are a titan in the AA/AAA field), THQ Nordic, Paradox Interactive, and so on. Many of the games from these companies are released day and date on GOG.
- jhasse 9y ago
  You're right, that's something which will hopefully improve over time. I would count The Witcher 3 as AAA though.

digi_owl 9y ago

I suspect the only way for that to happen is for someone to come up with a way to mass-transfer game libraries from Steam to some other service. In other words, Steam has the PC gaming world by the balls.

jasonkostempski 9y ago
I was fortunate enough to have Steam screw me over the first week I signed up for their service. On top of that, it took 2 weeks to resolve the issue which really let it sink in that I should never use them. Since then, I've only bought through GOG, Humble or directly from the creators.
rocky1138 9y ago
GOG supports this in a limited way. If you link your Steam account in your GOG account, it'll pull in games to your GOG account which are listed on GOG. https://www.gog.com/connect https://www.gog.com/connect
- paulmd 9y ago
  Not all titles are eligible for this, I believe the publisher needs to opt-in (i.e. willingly give up additional sales).

jasonkostempski 9y ago

Standalone installers are the only acceptable solution, any middleman, no matter how many promises they make, will eventually do something you don't like and break your games. Any game, any software, made exclusively for systems that require some sort of activation before allowing access to the software you want to run, even if the software itself is DRM-free, means that software has a gatekeeper you'll eventually have an issue with.