Game devs praise Steam as a 'democratic platform' that 'continues to be transformative' for PC gaming today

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 372 points –
Game devs praise Steam as a 'democratic platform' that 'continues to be transformative' for PC gaming today
pcgamer.com
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You'd be surprised how many steam games have no DRM other than steam itself. And how easy it is to put in a replacement (open-source) dll that acts as a steam emulator and runs the games without steam. I'd say... pretty much every non-AAA game on steam can have DRM removed this way. It's such barebones DRM that I can't really find reason to be angry at it.

Cool, but it's still DRM, contrary to GoG where you just download the installer and pass a pendrive around.

There are games with no DRM at all on Steam as well, it's up to the developer.

See also: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam

But you do still need to install Steam to get the files at all. GOG lets you download installers from the website, and the desktop client is completely optional.

You can also use steamcmd or DepotDownloader. It's not DRM just because no website download is available, once they are downloaded they are yours to keep.

True, but my point is that having to use third-party tools just to access games you bought without downloading a desktop client isn't as consumer-friendly as the way GOG offers offline installers directly for every game.

my point is that having to use third-party tools just to access games you bought

In other words, contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism. You had to download that DRM-free installer somehow, yes? I'm betting you used a web browser to do that. I.e. a third-party tool used to access the games you bought.