6 ms·

Because Valve wouldn't want you to emulate Steam games as well (which people do, for online stuff). Valve and Nintendo are on the same side of this.

lights0123 4y ago
Pirating games. Valve doesn't care if you play games you buy not on their hardware (being their original business), while Nintendo doesn't want you playing Switch games on a computer even if you bought the game.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Can you play the same game on two devices from the same steam account without hiding offline?
  - ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
    At the same time? Not that I know of. But then doing so would be a violation of the game licence.
  - dleslie 4y ago
    Steam's presence API only supports one playing device at a time. It wouldn't be able to understand multiple active playing games on one account.
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      So it claims, but many games let you click X on that dialog and play other games. I have an old laptop which is basically a dedicated Civ 6 machine. I can still play any other steam game on my desktop while the laptop has Civ open.
      - dleslie 4y ago
        Many games on Steam can run without access to Steam. When you close that dialog you're denying the game access to the Steam API.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Steam doesn't enforce DRM. You can usually go to the game files and just click the launcher from the file manager and the game will run without steam getting involved. Sure its not the most officially supported, but they hardly prevent you from doing it.
    - bscphil 4y ago
      I think this is incorrect. I believe most Steam releases do require the Steam runtime to be present. Trying to open the game directly will "work", but that's because it's invoking the Steam runtime - just without showing the launcher. Examples: * Dead Cells has Steam DRM: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells * Hollow Knight does not (will run without Steam if you copy just the game files): https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Hollow_Knight https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Hollow_Knight
      - somat 4y ago
        can confirm, I was trying to set up my(is it really mine?) copy of obra dinn for my mother to play. and was unable to get it to run given the time I was willing to invest in it. I was vaguely surprised because I figured that obra dinn being a small single player indie title would not have any drm. and I don't think it does. I think just linking it to the steam dll(for steam integration) makes the check occur. I suspect the solution is a bogus steam dll. but did not find one in the couple of minutes I was looking. Note that you can copy a game to a friends computer then authorize them to play it, so good for valve, but I did not want to set my mother up with a steam account. so did not use this feature.
        easrng 4y ago
        I think https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator is what you're looking for?
        Gigachad 4y ago
        Valve provides a way to use Steam as DRM but it's entirely optimonal. There are many games on steam where you can just run them directly or copy them on to another computer and they run fine. So its just up to the game publisher to decide what DRM they want.
Dylan16807 4y ago
I'm confused. Please define "emulate Steam games".
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  Given how Proton works, one could even make the argument that the SteamDeck's primary function is to emulate steam games.
  - zamalek 4y ago
    Wine Is Not an Emulator (that's what it stands for).
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      Yes we all know the joke, but it very much is an emulator. Otherwise Yuzu is not an emulator either since it mostly just translates the Switch graphics API calls to equivalent DirectX ones
- jtvjan 4y ago
  There are replacements for steamapi.dll that let you play games without needing to have Steam open (e.g. "Goldberg"). These are sometimes called 'Steam Emulators'.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    They're emulating the steam service itself though, not the games. That's very different.
heavyset_go 4y ago
This is a weird claim given all of the free work Steam has upstreamed to WINE, and released with Proton, that allow you to play your Steam games on any Linux system you want.
deleted 4y ago
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lights0123 4y ago

Pirating games. Valve doesn't care if you play games you buy not on their hardware (being their original business), while Nintendo doesn't want you playing Switch games on a computer even if you bought the game.

oneoff786 4y ago
Can you play the same game on two devices from the same steam account without hiding offline?
- ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
  At the same time? Not that I know of. But then doing so would be a violation of the game licence.
- dleslie 4y ago
  Steam's presence API only supports one playing device at a time. It wouldn't be able to understand multiple active playing games on one account.
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    So it claims, but many games let you click X on that dialog and play other games. I have an old laptop which is basically a dedicated Civ 6 machine. I can still play any other steam game on my desktop while the laptop has Civ open.
    - dleslie 4y ago
      Many games on Steam can run without access to Steam. When you close that dialog you're denying the game access to the Steam API.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Steam doesn't enforce DRM. You can usually go to the game files and just click the launcher from the file manager and the game will run without steam getting involved. Sure its not the most officially supported, but they hardly prevent you from doing it.
  - bscphil 4y ago
    I think this is incorrect. I believe most Steam releases do require the Steam runtime to be present. Trying to open the game directly will "work", but that's because it's invoking the Steam runtime - just without showing the launcher. Examples: * Dead Cells has Steam DRM: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells * Hollow Knight does not (will run without Steam if you copy just the game files): https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Hollow_Knight https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Hollow_Knight
    - somat 4y ago
      can confirm, I was trying to set up my(is it really mine?) copy of obra dinn for my mother to play. and was unable to get it to run given the time I was willing to invest in it. I was vaguely surprised because I figured that obra dinn being a small single player indie title would not have any drm. and I don't think it does. I think just linking it to the steam dll(for steam integration) makes the check occur. I suspect the solution is a bogus steam dll. but did not find one in the couple of minutes I was looking. Note that you can copy a game to a friends computer then authorize them to play it, so good for valve, but I did not want to set my mother up with a steam account. so did not use this feature.
      - easrng 4y ago
        I think https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator is what you're looking for?
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        Valve provides a way to use Steam as DRM but it's entirely optimonal. There are many games on steam where you can just run them directly or copy them on to another computer and they run fine. So its just up to the game publisher to decide what DRM they want.

Dylan16807 4y ago

I'm confused. Please define "emulate Steam games".

squeaky-clean 4y ago
Given how Proton works, one could even make the argument that the SteamDeck's primary function is to emulate steam games.
- zamalek 4y ago
  Wine Is Not an Emulator (that's what it stands for).
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    Yes we all know the joke, but it very much is an emulator. Otherwise Yuzu is not an emulator either since it mostly just translates the Switch graphics API calls to equivalent DirectX ones
jtvjan 4y ago
There are replacements for steamapi.dll that let you play games without needing to have Steam open (e.g. "Goldberg"). These are sometimes called 'Steam Emulators'.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  They're emulating the steam service itself though, not the games. That's very different.

heavyset_go 4y ago

This is a weird claim given all of the free work Steam has upstreamed to WINE, and released with Proton, that allow you to play your Steam games on any Linux system you want.

deleted 4y ago

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