Man, these game stores—Steam, Epic, GOG—are straight up screwing us. They’ve trapped us in these separate little worlds where each one has its own “exclusives” and sales, forcing us to juggle multiple accounts just to find a good deal or play the games we want. And once you’ve sunk enough money into one, you’re basically stuck there. Steam especially has this monopoly going where people don’t even think about switching, ‘cause who wants to lose hundreds of dollars in games… And it gets worse—they don’t let us move our games from one platform to another. If you’ve got a ton of games on Steam, but want to switch to GOG for the DRM-free stuff? Nope. The devs and publishers are locked down, too, and we’re all at the mercy of whatever deals these companies cut. It’s like they’re holding our game libraries hostage, and it’s beyond shady.
Now, with the way things are going in the U.S., government protections are gonna get GUTTED, data caps, insane internet fees—this situation is only gonna get worse. They’re already planning to scrap the entire FDA, wait til the FCC and FTC get theirs… If Steam decides to mess with us, it’s not like we can just grab our games and go. This whole setup is a disaster waiting to happen for anyone who just wants to game without getting screwed over.
First you made a post complaining about how expensive game subscriptions are, which you now deleted.
And now you make a post about owning hundreds of games on gaming platforms.
What is it? Are you broke? Or do you just make pointless topics to complain about the way things are? It’s not going to change, your utopian scenario is based on hopes and dreams. But that’s not how the industry, or how the world, works.
Steam developed like this naturally, from being game launcher and library, to a store for their own games, to a store and library for other studios to publish on too. It works, and does its job well. Other companies thought they could do the same, can’t blame them for trying. This is how businesses work, they develop and compete, some make it, some don’t.
I don’t get how anyone is getting screwed over.
Also, what’s an alternative? Everything is physical again? 99% of indie games cease to exist. But hey, at least you don’t have to fumble around with a few accounts, although CD-keys will probably be back, which is basically the same. Or would you rather buy directly from the devs or publishers? Great, accounts for every single one. Have fun with that.
Steam has not (as far a I know) payed for exclusives.
That’s how any platform or store works. I don’t understand what you want to be happening. Consumers will go to whatever store they like more and you’ll always have the choice to use another store.
If you’ve got a ton of games on Steam, but want to switch to GOG for the DRM-free stuff?
Why not use both?
They’ve trapped us in these separate little worlds where each one has its own “exclusives” and sales, forcing us to juggle multiple accounts just to find a good deal or play the games we want.
So do you just want one platform, or…?
If you’ve got a ton of games on Steam, but want to switch to GOG for the DRM-free stuff?
You can actually if the game isnt on DRM, on steam, go to the instalation folder and do a zip. To play it without steam.
I only use Gog, and the good thing is, as you wrote, I CAN take my stuff and just leave, not that I would have any reason to at the moment.
Well, I do have other accounts like Steam and Ubisoft, but that’s only about ten games in total. Stopped buying there a long time ago when I realised I can’t backup my purchases and have to use their platforms to play.
I do miss out on many AAA titles, but seriously, they don’t appeal to me anymore. And I can wait until they drop on gog eventually.
But I don’t really see the problem in multiple accounts. If not owning is not a problem for someone why should he/she care?
Stopped buying there a long time ago when I realised I can’t backup my purchases and have to use their platforms to play.
Many games on Steam are actually DRM-free, but of course it’s not as easy as just going on GOG. You’d probably have to go to some 3rd-party website, like PCGamingWiki or SteamDB to find out.
