I know users who are starting to buy in gog because of the energy blackout issue.

If the steam servers do not work, they may not be able to play their games, however, gog users are free of servers that control us. We can play our games with or without gog galaxy.

With the energy blackout your PC isn't going to operate in the first place, so DRM is kind of moot. :P

If there's a real blackout lasting days or weeks, video games will be the least of our worries.

yes

That depends. The blackout could be at the server site, or different parts of a city power grid, not necessarily your PC.

BUT! Assuming your house loses power, yes i agree the PC is the least of my worries. First worry is hot water, second is if my stuff stays cold in my freezer/fridge, and lastly would be... anything else that needs attention, like a way to recharge the phone as one's only way to get messaging out if you get snowed in.

Now if only say your AT&T/Viaero/ISP loses power but your house doesn't, well i'm sure your DRM games won't work... We got 911 calls in California when Netflix wasn't working, so you can guess where that goes with people who don't understand anything of technology.

I think overall, Steam is much more secure than GOG.

Because Steam is sure to be around for many decades into the future.

On the other hand, GOG's future is always uncertain every year.

And most GOG users do not have all of their games backed up, so if GOG goes down, then most of their games will be wiped out of existence right then.

Is steam’s resilience due to being the most established platform for being one of the first? Epic store seems more resilient due to backing from a company that produces profitable games themselves (Fortnite) and licensing to a game development engine (Unreal engine) that is used for a ton of games now.

Its safe to assume that for as long as Computers and gamers are around, Steam will always be around right along with them. Steam isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Definitely not in our life time.

Whilst I do acknowledge your point, if I had a brick for every time I heard this sentiment in regards to something that didn't last, I'd build a kremlin by this point and have plenty left over.

Considering that I can have the entirety of my GOG games backed up on multiple hard drives, ready for installation without any internet connection, I'd say my GOG games are pretty safe regardless of GOG's future.

Hello everyone!

This subject reminds me of a customer support report a friend of mine mentioned in the past:

Customer calling the support staff: "Hello, I need help!"
Support staff member: "How can I help you?"
Customer: "My Computer is not working anymore."
Support: "Can you describe to me what happened or what you are seeing on the screen?"
Customer: "I was writing an e-mail message, and suddenly the computer stopped working. It does not respond to any keystroke anymore."
Support: "Is there any error message visible on screen? What does it read?"
Customer: "No, nothing. The screen is went black."
Support: "Ok, calm down. First, can you please check whether the monitor's power cable is still plugged in properly?"
Customer: "Let me see... I don't know. It is difficult to identify."
Support: "Why is it so difficult? Just follow the cable from the monitor."
Customer: "Because it is so dark in here."
Support: "Then turn on the lights."
Customer: "The lights don't work."
Support: "What? Why are the lights not working?"
Customer: "Because we have a blackout here..."
:-)

Of course, there are multiple scenarios possible, were one would still be able to use one's computer or notebook even during a local blackout or a blackout on the internet provider's or publisher's server side. But others already commented on examples of more important things to take care of in such a case.

At least this thread made me think again of the funny situation described above, and to share it here.
So, thank you!

Kind regards,
foxgog

I'm sure people said the same about companies like Blockbuster, Nortel and Kodak.

Don't underestimate the ability for management to be too slow to react to an emerging competitor, new trend in the market or to make a good old-fashioned screw up.

I'm not saying that Valve will fail in the next couple of years, but in recent years it does feel that their monopoly power is being eroded.

Also, I don't intend on dying any time soon!

Anyone else remember the Internet titans AOL and Compuserve?... I don't think any one thing will "kill" Steam. I do think people are being naive in thinking it'll always continue as it is though. A combination of streaming / publisher level subscriptions, more AAA gamers buying consoles due to the severe GPU shortages, or simply Gabe will be in his 60's next year, doesn't keep himself in the best of shape, and if anything happens to him, majority control of Steam will be in the hands of his widow (Lisa Newell) who may well prefer a quiet retirement (ie, decide to simply sell Valve Corp to an industry giant like EA or Microsoft at which point "Steam" will gradually become MS Store / Origin over 5 years). A privately owned company with no public shareholders to answer to = that's absolutely a possibility. Everyone's obsessed with them "going out of business" and no-one thinks the business could simply be sold instead post-Gabe...

As for energy blackouts, I do know someone with a camper van whose roof is lined with solar panels charging 2x huge lead-acid batteries feeding a gaming laptop. He'll do just fine with his GOG games during a blackout. :-)

Valve and in an extension Steam, exists as it does due to the whim of 1 man. That man until recently was 1 burger away from from doing a full Elvis. It's his life time you need to consider.

I can't see Valve spontaneously collapsing or Epic turning to it dust, but I can easily see Gabe's wife and Son (both have been reported on having no interest in Gaming) cashing in a multi-billion pay day.

Now imagine someone like Disney owning Steam