Sorry for "reviving" this thread (since people is posting again I guess it's ok) but I was curious as well and searched about this too. I noticed, for example, the Steam version has trading cards and achievements and while I like the way GOG works and its premise, I also like those kind of benefits from Steam. That said, it would be great if I could redeem my GOG game on steam, but I know there are a lot of things to take in consideration in order to let customers do that.

So, I bought a shiny new video card which came with "a free copy of Witcher 3." Back in the day, not too long ago, this meant a disc. Nowadays, that is not the case. Instead, the company from whom I purchased my video card provided me with a redemption code. When I submitted the redemption code, I was directed to GOG.

*ahem*

I have NO INTEREST in using GOG's services. I'm sure they're fine and dandy, but I use STEAM. I have absolutely no desire to use any other video game download hub. One is good enough for me. I did not CHOOSE to get my "free bonus game" only redeemable via GOG, and I don't want to install their downloader. I'm a bit upset about this. The Witcher 3 is available on Steam. If it was NOT available on Steam, that would be another story. But it IS on Steam, so there is no reason to not provide an Activation Code for Steam.

Let me be clear: I have nothing against GOG.com, or any of Steam's other competitors, for that matter. But I don't want their services. I have no interest in them. I've used Steam since its inception, and I'm happy with Steam. Steam is not the problem here. In this case, GOG is the problem. The manufacturer of my new video card is guilty, as well, as they are not providing their customers with redemption OPTIONS... but I'm certain this was not their choice since, as I understand it, GOG.com was developed by CDProjekt, the developers of Witcher 3.

This is absolutely NOT good business. People want companies which are friendly. Sure, lure them to your site via the redemption on a free game... That's a sound plan. But then, provide these potential new customers with Activation Code options for other popular program managers (like Steam), and offer it right up front! This shows compassion and understanding, and you may actually win over some customers with this approach. At this point, I'd rather just log on to Steam, purchase ANOTHER copy of Witcher 3, and give GOG.com the big one-finger salute!

It was your intention to buy "a free copy of Witcher 3" with video card? Or maybe you wanted new video card and "a free copy of Witcher 3" was a surprise bonus?

You obviously do not know how GOG.com works. GOG.com actually sells copies of games while Steam rents them only - if Steam will go mad or from some point you'll not agree with their regulations then your Steam account will be deleted and you'll loose access to all "your" Steam games.

From GOG.com you can download games' installers and store them on your PC or archive them somewhere else (optical disks, external HDD, NAS etc.). You can use GOG Downloader or just your web browser - you are not forced to install anything specific to download games from GOG.com.

And if you'll use GOG Downloader it will NOT SPY on you (your PC) like Steam application is doing all the times.

You have "nothing" against but you're complaining really badly. Steam is problem here and anywhere - they're evil. And you're a problem - you act like a stupid. I hope It's just some misunderstanding and when you realize that GOG.com gives you MORE and BETTER options you'll stop acting like a moron.

Steam is not a friendly company. Not for paying customers, so called "gamers". Steam is not selling games - Steam is just renting them. Steam is forcing customers to use Steam Application which is spying on them. Customers can't run games without Steam Application. Even if "offline mode" will be executed then sooner or later Steam Application will connect with Steam servers to verify customer's right to use a RENTED game.

CDProjekt RED together with Nvidia (not a manufacturer of your video card) gives you right to OWN a copy of "The Witcher 3" game. And you want to give that ownership right to Steam in exchange of "rent right" that looks like a "slave chain" (Steam Application).

[i]One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.[/i]

GOG.com gives you FREEDOM but you're complaining because there is no "golden chain" like on Steam. For free people chain is a chain and its color (obviously fake) doesn't matter while it's permanently holding you with one "landlord" (slave master).

GOG.com is land of freedom and If you prefer Steam slavery you can go there... and we will give you one-finger salute for goodbye... :-/

... but if you prefer to be FREE human being then you're welcome here. I hope you'll learn how much it's better to use GOG.com then being used by Steam.

BTW I'm not owner, worker nor affiliate with GOG.com or CDProjekt Company. I'm just a customer who wants DRM-Free games without on-line connection required to play games. Like I did for over 25 years of my life (I'm 40).

I'm with you in your opinion, companies should not force you to uses different platforms against your will. However, probably you will need to send the e-mails to Gog official team and the company who sell the video card with the promotion, because one of them is the culprit (probably the second, but be sure there were not warnings about how was to redeem the code)

Now I think so, I can see a probability there: Red Project made team with the company which sell the video-card (not ATI or Nvidia as they manufacturer the video-card chip only) and that would explain why the code is redeemed in Gog instead of the number one store in the current day (YES, S-T-E-A-M because numbers are numbers), so, maybe a e-mail to Red Project should be send too (Gog and they are brothers, but are not the same entity).

However, if the promotion was very clearly that Witcher 3 was to be redeemed in Gog instead of Steam, then, ouch, was your fault (Search for the small letters the store and/or the box of your card). If there were not warnings, this is a promotion wrongly designed by Redproject and its backfired to them (And you are a victim).

I see the problem here: The FREE milk turned out to be regular milk, not chocolate milk.

Pro tip: If your key is a gift code there are PLENTY of people here who are not rabid anti-steam gog fanboys who may be willing to trade it for steam keys.

Shhh we're not allowed to like Steam any more.

This is stupid, now I have 4 gaming services that I must use to play the games I play. Just let me use steam and nothing else. These companies think they can compete with steam and its just hilarious. You need to realize that this is just more and more of an inconvenience to us gamers. Talk about DRM free all you want, but last time I checked, I just click on a game to play it through steam. Not sure how thats any different here.

This post caused me physical pain just reading it. Glycol and water looks very similar too.

While I won't completely disagree, it's absolutely standard anymore for a higher end video card to include a game or two, it's the baseline. So, the industry standard milk was white instead of chocolate.

The main difference is that it's long since been part of the purchase, it's not so much a "free" thing anymore, cause if company A isn't offering it, 15 others will be and people will pass them up for it. It's like buying a new phone that only comes with a USB charger, when you don't have any USB capable devices. (unlikely I know, but bare with me). You can use it, but you have to go to your friend's house, your parent's, the library... it's just really inconvenient that you can't use the product that was included - industry standard - with what you bought, the way you want to use it, ie plugging it into the wall, or playing the game on Steam.

I'm not saying that the company shouldn't advertise a little, bring the user to GOG, but it could give you the option of redeeming here, or getting a Steam key for the game.

I just want to use Steam myself. I have games on Origin that I don't play, because it's not Steam. I don't know if there's anything wrong with Origin, I just don't feel like dealing with it for the few games I do have on there. The same is true with GOG. I don't know how the service is, but I'm not really interested in finding out. It honestly sounds a lot more complicated, "owning" the game, downloading things, dealing with patchers and lauchers like it's the 90's again.


Maybe steam has a "golden chain", but I like all of the things that you were complaining about TPR. DRM; it doesn't affect me because I buy the games. "Renting" them because you can be banned; well the people who are banned are people cheating in online games, and as a player I like that because it heavily discourages it!

And as a game developer, I WANT some DRM, and I WANT cheater banning. If I make a game a specific way, it's because that's how I think it should be played. If it's single player, go ahead, ruin the game for yourself, I really don't care. But if it's online, don't ruin it for everyone else.

Steam does hardware surveys, sure, but they ASK about them, a few times a year you can opt in via a popup. They do a DRM check to see if the right files are present (and unmodified) for the game you're gonna play, but I would consider neither of those things spying. And if they do something more, I truly don't care, I don't have anything to hide.

And as far as freedom goes, freedom means doing whatever you want, including opting into "slavery". As a free person, I don't mind walking beside the chain, because it protects me. I'm not tied to it, I'm not a real slave. The chain guides me, and it makes playing games very easy. I used to pirate everything, and if there's any real freedom, that's it. But true freedom is anarchy. Getting most pirated games to work is a nightmare, yes because of DRM. Do you think they should be pirated easily? I don't.

The Sims 3; every time you wanted to install a new expansion, if you did one little thing wrong (which was likely since you'd only do this once every few months), you'd have to completely uninstall EVERYTHING Sims 3 related, then install all over, cracking them in the right patterns and what not. Crazy annoying, but I did it 11 times, each time harder than the last. Why? Because I didn't want to play it on Origin, and I don't think it's worth the price. And I don't support EA either.

GOG is fairly close to a truer freedom, where you're pretty much left to your own devices, messing with everything on your own, dealing with patching the game on your own, modding the game on your own. I don't like that. I like getting on my computer and seeing "Oh, Space Engineers did it's weekly update! Let's just click this button to read about it. Nice, cool stuff, let me press this button to play the game. Awesome, I'm playing."

But even if GOG was that easy, I'm already attached to Steam. It would have to have all of Steam's notable quality of life improvements, and beyond, to ever elicit interest from me.

And if you're wondering why I'm replying on GOG forums if I don't care about it, I wanted to know if I could purchase Witcher 3 from here - to fully support the developer, CD Projekt RED - but get a Steam key so I could have it and play it on my preferred platform.

There are dangers in giving one company a Monopoly as it allows them to dictate what you can and can not do with the software. Steam's EULA clearly favours the publishers as you do not legally own any game you buy on Steam and they can take that away at any time without notice and with no way to legally dispute that if it happens (and it has happened)

Steam has no refund policy and the worst customer support in existence which again limits what you can do if a game does not work or it was not what you were expecting.

Those are an inconvenience to gamers.

With GOG I can just click an icon and play the game with or without a client if I chose with no worry about buyer remorse if I do not like it or the game does not work as I can get a refund no questions asked.

That is what is different here.

It surely could...

I replied here because I decided to explain why me as an average Steam user appreciates Steam and wouldn't want to switch really, because a lot of the fans of GOG don't seem to understand why someone might prefer what they deem an inferior service. Most of those GOG fans don't really seem very nice, so I wanted to make an attempt at lessening the animosity the people like you have towards the Steam lovers in the thread (and hopefully elsewhere). Find some middle ground, since so many of you have laid out why you like GOG and hate Steam, I wanted to show my side.

Some of the people here, like wolfsite dislike Steam but are civilized about it, and I perfectly respect that. But many more of you are just mean spirited. Based on my experience in this thread, if Steam and GOG were identical in function, and I didn't have 300 games on Steam already, I'd choose Steam over GOG, simply because so many of you are dicks.

And as far as Witcher 3 goes, yes I came to GOG and am posting in a Fallout subforum, but I was simply reading to find out. I figured it was a much better metric to read a past game's release information where someone probably had answered already and just be done with it. I found the answer was that no, it can't be done, and I found that there are a lot of jerks here. Now I wouldn't join GOG if only for the community. I hope CD Projekt RED isn't too disappointed in you guys for scaring away potential customers from the largest gaming platform in history.

Don't waste time with offenses, the critic against unclear promotions are valid, always.