Sounds hilarious but in many cases it is true. Unfortunately, many legitimate buyers of games got a worse version than those getting it in "non proper" ways... a reality a big mass will not enjoy to admit, nor even believe it, yet it is simply true.

I can just repeat the issue many times to the industry: Any DRM locked game that is still locked 6 months or more after release most likely and almost always will only hurt the legitimate buyers, no one else! It could be different for very fresh releases... yet not even this statement is immovable as a truth because many publishers who was simultaneously publishing games on GOG and Steam actually had very good sales and i was not able to find a good hint telling me "yes it did hurt the publisher". Whats ultimately considered true: The biggest sales are done in the first 6 months after release, for this reason many publishers are dropping Denuvo after (if they use it at all), which is indeed a good idea.

However... a game without one of the strongest DRM is not automatically DRM free after, it is just with less hassles toward legitimate buyers.

Yup, and it's pretty sad. It's like Denuvo DRM, where people who pirate the game get better performance than people buying it. At the end of the day, DRM only screws over the customer.

What can you be told when Steam is the primary focus, and anything else is just a money grab or afterthought for developers? But I take 15 seconds delay over performance issues. It is funny that games that have their own GOG version start up faster than the Steam version. So you can blame steam little for it.

100% true. There was many examples in which a cracked game got better performance than the "DRMed game". There was as well several cases in which Capcom was accidentally providing a DRM free version on Steam and the gamers testing it got a good bunch of more FPS without any framegeneration added. So, the myth "that a DRM may hurt performance" is true in many cases. However... there are even more issues linked to DRM, not just in some cases "performance issues"... for example the lack of any possible preservation and in some cases it may restrict modding or other stuff gamers may enjoy. On top of that, permanent offline-play is as good as impossible... only temporary, so, nothing someone could count on.

Hardly any serious pirate uses TPB still; most everyone from games to movies moved elsewhere, but yeah an adblock like uBlock Origin is a must. Combined with common sense, you shouldn't ever run into a virus.

Works fine for me in most cases, though I'm not really what you'd call a "serious" pirate. And if, I mostly go after older games anyway, nothing recent.

In the past 3-5 years, I think I actually pirated (a game I didn't own before) exactly 1 game, from 2011. Then did a couple "de-Steamifying torrents and that's about it.

Anything what is available on GOG and I want, I buy.

DRM probably won't be going away even if many more people bought drm free games. We'd need much larger numbers. Better to buying where one wants and strip the DRM out if needed for the time being.

Anyone who is paying a high premium for DRM free version of some AAA games on gog or other drm free store already is.

You really thinking scene peples would allow their cred to be ruined by infected downloads? Also there are things called virus scanners in the current year. Very handy I would say!

Malware that is detected because it was generic. Stuff gets cooked up all the time. Major companies get hit every month. This is not a paranoid perspective. Its no different than human sexual habbits.

Major companies often get hit when an intern clicks attachment in a shady email. Don't do dumb shit and you are good.

Whatever you say gramps. Only using MS defender for live protection and haven't had any trouble with viruses in years.

You can entirely avoid viruses or pretty much anything bad, if you know what you're doing.

Most systems become infected because users click on suspicious links or don’t understand what their doing. I witnessed a doctor almost get scammed when he called a number from one of those fake phishing pop-ups that lock your browser up. I had to stop him form doing it.

He had no idea it was a scam.

Some already have.


Also AVs are a joke lmao

Older family member almost did same thing. Just don't be stupid and you'll be fine.
This is why the first and best line of defense is being common sense. Sad it is being in short supply in current year.

It's okay, just had four games there, all gothic : )

Deleted yesterday; good people working for Steam, helpful, no hassle. Wishing them well...

I just realized I might have a second account and digging for it.....

OP realising what some of us have been saying was coming ever since Half-Life 2 originally dropped.

Even if goldberg was a magic bullet, it's beside the point, DRM is DRM is DRM, by voting with your wallet for games on steam you are actively taking part in and promoting that DRM'd ecosystem and do literally nothing for anyone wanting DRM free releases.

I will never consider the legal route worthwhile, let alone justified when a company treats you like a criminal right out the gate.

It makes sense for large scale operations, such as those companies, but for everyone else, it does seem like a taxing and bad-faith practice.

DRM waves a giant red flag.