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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2026
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Is it tho? Steam works just fine without it. I wound argue at this point even better, since I wound have a hard time still finding CDs etc. from 20 years ago with key, in working order AND have a drive to actually read it too.
What we need is an easy way to sell/buy used. Seems like the EU is the only driver of development in that regard.
GOG and itch are even better.
You are not planting trees that you will never sit in the shade of.
There will ALWAYS be inherent risk with digital that they hold the keys to. Digital is a nice supplement, if a physical copy is owned. You give them an inch though and they'll grind your grandma up to make animal feed so they can get eggs from the chickens and collude to price fix you out of your omelette.
GOG shows you can actually own your digital games with downloadable fully offline installers.
But what if they remove a game you've purchased? You're in the same situation as with a PlayStation.
As long as you're not able do download DRM free install files, you don't own the software you purchased.
Steam has "promised" to make games available in case their service closes, but we're living on a prayer
Steam has always had a backup option. GOG is well known and loved because of its backup option. Sony does not have any such backup option besides physical media. Same with Nintendo and Xbox.
And as Ubisoft showed with The Crew, even your physical media can be nuked remotely if it requires checking on a server to verify anything. It's no guarantee of anything.
But steam would require you to go online to install your backups. Unless you have DRM free install files, you're vulnerable. That includes physical media that has DRM
What if they disable the CD key? Same story. This is how they banned cheaters since ages too, nothing new. At some point you have to trust them.
What are you talking about? You can't ban a player from a downloaded copy of a DRM-Free game.
Only a tiny faction of all games are DRM free. And since you do not get a key for them, why did you assume I was talking about them?
Steam works because Valve is a private corporation with a leadership who actually like video games.
Which is why they're a part of Video Games Europe the group against Stop Killing Games?
Or why Steam has been selling slop even before AI?
Not my point. They aren’t saints, but Steam is still a far better steward for a digital storefront than most.
By doing the same as every other company?
Valve doesn’t try and lock in exclusives on their platform like the Epic Store or delete your account with games on it like Origin did. Steam provides plenty of notices about invasive DRM and anti-cheat that other stores don’t. Steam also has an easy refund process that doesn’t require you to call an agent. Valve does a lot to support gaming on Linux while all of the other platforms are almost exclusively Windows only.
Valve grew Steam's market share by locking in exclusives.
There were multiple digital distribution platforms in the early days, IGN even had one.
Then Valve forced exclusivity to starve out the competition.
Steam has its Most-Favored-Nation clause to prevent publishers selling games for cheaper on other platforms.
Valve fought against refunds for years until the EU told them to wise up.
Valve only started supporting Linux when needed to sell consoles. They just like most other companies saw Linux gaming as an extreme niche.
By exclusives you mean their own games? Or are you referring to the time before Steam Greenlight?
Yeah I remember D2D, it had awful DRM and they deleted my account one day without refunds.
No the competition died because they were trash. I used D2D, Origin, Impulse, they were all horrible compared to Steam.
No, Steam doesn't let you sell Steam keys to your game on other platforms for cheaper. That's very different.
I refunded things multiple times for the policy changes. As long as you gave a good justification and weren't abusing the system then they have always been quite reasonable.
No this started because of the Windows Store initiative back in 2012 where Microsoft was trying to consolidate the sale of all software to their proprietary platform. Supporting Linux was Valve's way of hedging against that future.