Great. Thank you for your continued work on this list.

Technically, I would never consider any distributor that doesn't provide offline installers to be DRM-free.

Could I petition for you to please re-un-add it? By your logic above, Steam should be added to the list of "DRM-free" stores since there are 4+ games which can be bought there and then used DRM-free (after using their client, after updating...after jumping through hoops). There is a whole thread on this forum about what games on Steam can be played DRM-free (after jumping through aforesaid hoops).

Absolutely. A DRM free store should be fully free of anything, you can just download the installer off the site through your browser, then can even have no Internet access while you install just the game and play.
And I was under the impression this was about fully DRM free stores, not stores that may have a few possibly DRM free games :/

^ I agree with that distinction too. If you're talking about DRM-Stores rather than DRM-Free games, there's generally an expectation that shopping for those games from those stores will involve either DRM-Free by default on a store level, or at least games be clearly marked as different from those that aren't. So there should really be a minimum standard of inclusion for either : 1. The store is either a full DRM-Free store or had a dedicated DRM-Free category, or 2. Games should be individually marked DRM-Free (like Humble) or at least have visible offline downloaders (itch.io), etc, so you know what you're buying before you buy it. Include Steam & Epic where there's zero way of telling them apart short of detective work on incomplete 3rd party community maintained lists that most people don't even know exist, and you might as well scrap the list and just write "All stores have DRM-Free games except Origin & uPlay", which isn't particularly helpful as the ease of buying something that's marked "DRM-Free" via GOG in store or Humble is not remotely the same shopping experience as "95% DRM'd but you won't find out which is which until after you've bought them..."

Given some of the replies before mine, it might be worthwhile to separate stores like GOG (which provide direct download of installers or compressed folders via browser) from other stores where a specialized, proprietary piece of software from the store is required for initial download and/or installation. Even if you don't wish to do that, it would be helpful to make a note indicating where a download client is required.

Can no one answer this?

How about: 3. DRM-encumbered games are marked as having DRM, and any other game not marked is DRM-free? (Basically, like 2, but the other way around.)

It is for singleplayer. Otherwise there are quite a number of games that are definitely not DRM free for multiplayer. Now Gwent is multiplayer only, with the singleplayer campaign released separately, but what sets it apart in a bad way on GOG is that it has microtransactions, not that it's DRMed multiplayer.

Then what about GameJolt, it's more curated as compared to itch.io?

I really wouldn't add any platform where only select games are DRM free. Chances are what you're getting won't be DRM free. A one off does not make a platform a source for DRM free games in general. Steam and the like really should not be on that list.

Also, if you have to do wiggling to get the games to actually not have DRM it's not DRM free. You had to remove the DRM component one way or another with either hacking, commands, or other workarouds. The DRM is still there for the average user. This is why I wouldn't put Epic, GamersGate and the like on the list.

Also, speaking of Epic, the lack of information (indeed, suspiciously quiet!) on DRM is a good reason to keep away. Who knows which way it will go?

If we follow the most strict definition here, there will be only 2 stores left on the list.
I think that is not what everybody want.

Steam is quite evil, but I believe that it sell much more DRM-free games than GOG.

I think that depends on how it's done. Eg, if the store had accurate tags, DRM search filters and some form of guaranteed refund system for unmarked games that turned out to be DRM'd, then I guess that would work for some. I mean if you downloaded a game from GOG and it refused to start throwing up SecuROM, etc, errors you'd almost certainly get your money back if they couldn't fix that. So to me the big difference between DRM-Free games vs actual DRM-Free stores is that the store would have have to specifically state that all unmarked games will be refund guaranteed on grounds of DRM, and remain permanently DRM-Free (no "bait and switch").

That list of 3rd party games is barely 6% of Steam's 27k catalogue and falls well short of GOG's +2000 titles. And even if it were bigger, what people are saying is that if you're focusing on the stores rather than the games, what counts for most people is the whole experience of actually being able to buy them hassle free and some legal guarantee of remaining like that vs future patches. Eg, that list of DRM-Free Games on Steam is useful if you know in advance the titles you're looking for. You can't however, search for DRM-Free games on Steam the same way you can on Humble, nor browse and buy DRM-Free games without constant back & forth tabbing to incomplete 3rd party lists which most people don't even know to look for.

Ideally, Steam could solve that problem with more honest labelling of 1st party DRM (Steamworks & CEG) they same way they do with Denuvo, but they don't & won't because the whole Steam platform is all about encouraging then "normalizing" Steam's own overwhelmingly implemented DRM until most people start to want to not see it as such. In fact the only way of figuring out which games use CEG is the extremely annoying process of copying the Steam game's APPID into Steamdb.info, then searching for an obscure "cegpublickey" database field within a sub-menu, etc. That simply isn't something the average user is going to do. From a legal perspective, the Steam "subscriber" agreement doesn't even give anyone the right to play Steam games outside the Steam client, so DRM-Free on Steam is more an unofficial hack that often involves fiddly workarounds (eg, manually renaming the Steam client's .exe, creating steam_appid.txt files then manually copying APPID into them, or use source ports or retail patches, then finally zipping your own installer, etc), than an "out of the box" DRM-Free product properly sold as such...

Ultimately if Steam want to be included on DRM-Free store lists, then it's up to Steam to raise their game and start honestly labelling games as such in-store prior to purchase, not on everyone else to lower their expectations into the realms of requiring 2x 3rd party research tools + post-purchase hacks in a manner contrary to the Steam Subscriber Agreement used to purchase them. If games on that list like Deus Ex, Gothic, Quake, Tropico 3, Unreal, etc, which are all sold on Steam with DRM but you need to download a retail patch to remove it, then by extension you should also include any store (including EBay) that sells old retail discs of the same games whose DRM is removed by exactly the same patches. And if "sold with DRM but that can be patched out and run without the client in a pseudo-legal fashion" is the new standard for inclusion, then you might as well include every store that has ever sold a retail disc game for which a 3rd party "NoCD's" are available...

Edit: If you simply want to include a list of places that sells at least one DRM-Free game, then you need to change the subject title to a more honest "List of places where you can buy some DRM-Free games", because hacks & workarounds of 5% of content (contrary to the store's EULA) complete with hiding all information about the store's own DRM being in 95% of games there does not remotely make that "a DRM-Free store".

If it requires a client at any point, it's not DRM free in my book, and I don't think you can download stuff without one on Steam, or Epic for that matter, can you?