Psyringe: I'm in the process of downloading the game, but it'll take at least two more hours. If I haven't fallen asleep by then, I'll test it and report back. Thanks for the heads-up by the way, I hadn't noticed that DRM mess when I bought the game (though I might have bought it anyway, out of curiosity about the concept).
oogla: Thanks, I ended up just buying it. After 20% discount it was $1.99 so I guess it's not much of a risk if it turns out to be too annoying.
Of course, when I'll actually get around to downloading and playing it is another story. :)
I lost the battle against the sleep, sorry. ;-/
I checked it now. Steam installs Games for Windows Live automatically, and displays your CD key. You need to enter this key into SecuRom to activate the game, and then you need to enter it into Games for Windows Live if you want to be able to save your game. Yuck.
At least we got the game for cheap, and no have the opportunity to play the game while these multiple DRM layers are still working, which they surely won't do forever.
It ought to be possible to make an "offline profile" in GfWL, but I've never done that myself.
Pheace: The Guild 2 series is -75% on Steam
Note that there's not really a reason to buy the whole series. "Renaissance" costs only 2.49 and includes the content from "Guild 2" and the "Pirates" expansion plus the additional "Renaissance" stuff.