Steam is DRM, they actually specify this themselves. In their terms and conditions (or EULA) you will they refer to their
UI as Digital Rights Management & Social Networking software.

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I bet it's going to be a movie!

Witcher or Cyberpunk movie ........ damnit, gunna have to change my pants now!

As you all can see by the picture, pre-orders are already available :)

Edit: What I forgot to mention is I took this photo on my phone a couple of months ago, they've pre-order deals on Cyberpunk 2077 too (EB Games have it online). I was taken by surprise as even CDPR & GoG don't have pre-orders available yet.

Fuck, that is expensive!

EDIT: Ah, my bad. I wrongly assumed it was Euro rather than Australian dollar.

As I've already said, I can't and won't support Steam's business model.

Just accept that people don't want to deal with that kind of stuff.

Some people like mayonnaise, some people don't. No amount of arguing will convince them otherwise.

The only time I'll personally deal with Steam is if I buy a super discounted box copy and have the code for it.

I agree with you.

Consumer buying is the most powerful tool on the free market, people should consider the effect their decisions have choose ethically. Companies like Steam can imitated consumer power, except their hive mind plans only for their own future.

An example would be here in Australia where the big Supermarket chains screwed the Diary Farmers so they could reduce their milk prices to $1 per litre. They have been successful and almost totally squashed out the free trade prices on milk. Short term savings are great as these chains take up the cost, long term it's really really really bad for the consumer and the producer.

It's like me saying you could have $5 today or $30 at the end of the week, the short sighted greedy will always take the $5. That's why buying specials on Steam is like an addiction for them.

So by imitating consumers with their spending power, but having a cohesion consumers never achieve, companies like Steam can monopolise the market and then charge what ever they like.

Already companies like Egosoft, Deepsilver, Slitherine, etc., are now solely Steam ....... anyone who buys into that model is a 7 second retard.

CD Projekt RED & GOG.com please let GOG have some exclusive goodies which are only available with GOG TW3 pre orders - just give Steam the basic crap (sorry i like my exclusives...)
Except Slitherine had never been on Steam before til recently (im almost sure this is correct and one other game because people begged on their forums - douchebags) - and most of their games are non Steam.

This is true, and Egosoft was the same with all their titles until recently. Games like X:Tension, X:2, X:3TC, etc., I bought as physical copies (still have them) which were independent of Steam, the only catch was you needed to register your CD Key online to get updates which is fine by me.

But now Egosoft is Steam exclusive (X:Rebirth), by this I mean it can't be played independent of the Steam UI. Recently I email them as to why I'd seen their games appear on Steam and not on other distributor sites (e.g. GoG), the response I got suggested that the companies future model was to start releasing all new games on Steam while slowly migrating their old games over. I was after Distant Galaxies, but after discovering how easily Steam can delete an account with over 500 games for apparent use of a VPN ..... let's just say I'll play the games I have on Steam but never ever purchase another which solely requires it.

I also notice a person can't sell items through their "Digital Trade" system unless they have made a recent purchase from Steam, they say this is due to "security" reasons .......

I smell free games incoming... but of course for a limited 48-hours time.. and the server will be overloaded.

Ignoring an optional feature isn't breaking anything. You're not modifying or removing any game files. Applying a patch to make it run without Steam would be, and I'd argue that even removing steam_api.dll (if the game has alternate functions if that file is removed but requires Steam if it's present) is "cracking" or "patching away Steam", but copying the game folder as-is is not.

I care about bad attitude of Steam which is enough for me to avoid it altogether. If their official backup tool requires DRM while manually it's not needed it's simply lame and idiotic. It means they can drop DRM from the official tool and it won't make any difference. And since they don't, it's insulting for their users.

Please, don't put words movie and Witcher in one sentence. I'm still trying forget about it's existence.

Is this discussion still not settled?

@Steam refusers: Stop arguing the DRM angle that much.

It is up to every hosting service whether they'd like to offer DRM to their business clients, and it's up to the customers whether they will accept that. That's not really among Steam's major problems, at least not for me personally. I don't buy DRM'd products and won't install a sales/marketing platform on my PC ("Steam Client"), but in principle, I have no beef with companies which find customers who do.

@Steam refusers: Here's a smallish list of angles you could argue instead, because these points affect non Steam users as well.

Steam represents an uncontestable monopoly that shapes the market like a console manufacturer would - without any of the production costs Microsoft and Sony bear, with nowhere near their employees and without any moral justification for that influence on the market.

As a mere third party provider of hosting services, Steam has inserted itself between customer and developer in a way that the developer's survival hinges on his "getting on Steam". The internet has provided vast opportunities for game developers to sell their products; the utter shortsightedness of PC gamers has basically narrowed millions down to one.

Steam readily destroys any possible competition with extremely low bulk prices for keys; insipid PC customers are already used to receiving a Steam key wherever they buy. If they were interested in the survival of the platform, they would instead reject that "bonus" key.

Steam tricks greedy competitors into becoming "key resellers" (which is such a ridiculous thing to do I don't even) and has e.g. already destroyed Humble Inc. as a promising competitor with the perverse and unprecedented practice.

Steam is a service that factually lets PC game prices plummet ridiculously (it's just wonderful how Double Fine recently protested loudly without saying "Steam" once), which does threaten particularly smaller developers.

Steam advocates infantile 'social' instant gratification mechanisms and forced community building with "achievements", collectible cards and similar bogus virtual toys and community activities. Ubisoft and EA are trying the same mechanisms right now, but somehow their customers still do recognize that it's bullshit.

Steam forces its client, account registration, DRM and update services on retail products, which essentially makes those obsolete.

Steam ridicules Kickstarter developers who promise "freedom from publishers" but then run into the arms of the largest and most influential game publisher immediately.

Steam is operated by a skeleton crew already and strongly develops in the direction of a service that doesn't support any paid employees at all.

Steam openly rejects any kind of responsibility for the products sold, which finds its crowning achievement in the fundamentally irresponsible Early Access service; refunds or support ought to be perceived as an act of grace by their customers.

Steam is situated in a country the government of which routinely justifies the factual global 1984 reality with the war against terror AND continuously has to shift blame for frequent shootings away from its barbarous gun laws to violent video games. In other words: If I were the NSA, the very first online service I'd force into complete data submission compliance would be Steam.

Steam customers are unwilling to understand that a single relevant monopolous game publisher for the entire PC platform doesn't spell its salvation, but its doom.

The fact that series were bad doesn't mean they couldn't be good. I see no problem with putting that in one sentence.
I disagree. Besides lock-in issues of Steamworks, Steam proliferates DRM. I.e. simply by selling games from publishers who insist on it. It's enough to avoid it and support those who advance DRM-free distribution.