Isn't Desura doing that?

I believe so!

In fact I'm unaware of how to do this through Desura, as in the library if I right click the only option is install (unless they download the installer file in addition to the game content files at once?).

edit - I'm a doofus. You click on the "Profile" for the game, and you see the purchased downloads on that page.

But still, I am not sure if having cloud saving and achievements in GOG would matter that much, as long as they are not _Steam_ cloud saving and achievements. So in essense, to these people GOG (and any other site) would be a no-buy site, unless they offer Steam keys.

But that is a double-edged sword, because then GOG would be backing up their competitor, making its own service less relevant. If you buy games from e.g. Origin or UPlay, do you routinely get free extra Steam keys from those services too?

Previously we were talking about game patches/updates. A GOG downloader that, in addition to allowing downloads of installer packages, can download the game files directly, and can deliver patches/updates to game files if necessary. That's all.

I'm a little confused by mentions of cloud saves, achievements, and GOG selling Steam keys. Sorry, I should have clarified better that I was only thinking of a client that downloads and patches games. I wasn't really thinking about cloud or achievement features.

I see, yes those are matters of convenience, but the auto patching is probably the biggest one.

Well, in theory, if GOG did offer all of those things (auto patch, cloud saves, etc.), they would be offering many of the same features as Steam, and I think the reasoning people use in "No Steam, no sale" would effectively be neutralized. But I'm just guessing/theorizing.

But to bring this back since I think it's getting off track, I think that when GOG sells "newer" games they're mainly focusing on indies and such. Then, later on when larger titles are all updated and expanded with DLC, they could possibly come to GOG.

I think it's a matter of GOG playing to their strengths, rather than trying to outright compete with Steam.

I do too.

I wasn't talking about whenever or not Steam makes patching easier but more about the " You don't need to wait until the other five problems are fixed that would warrant a proper patch. " part.

If devs usually wait for several issues to be resolved before releasing a patch it's not because it's complicated to create an installer, it's because releasing a patch/new version takes a lot of works, you need to build a new release version, launch regression tests, then do QA tests, etc, etc... the more complex the project is the longer it take and a lot of this work take the same time no matter if you have corrected a single issue or a thousands.

Exactly, personally I wouldn't mind at all Steam or any other DRM including the always online kind, if only 6 month or one year after release they would offer a way to create a fully DRM-free backup.

If would be a good solution for everybody, publishers would have a "perceived" protection of DRM during the initial sale period of the game, peoples who want Steam features(Replace Steam with Origin, uPlay, or anything else) would have the game on Steam, peoples who want DRM-free would have it after some time and peoples who want both... well they could easily have both.... If only Gabe wasn't all talk and more peoples cared about it...

Well... sadly it was already like that during the CD-check era, it's still like that during DRM era and I am sure the same discussion will continue at the during of the streaming era... nobody care until it start impacting them directly.

I really don't care about the technical issues. Do developers like Steam? Hell yeah. That is what I care about.

Yeah, I have said this multiple times myself. Alpha Protocol is a good example, icky limited activation DRM on day one but with a promise to remove it after sales died down. They followed through on that promise and removed it with the final patch. This used to happen with disc checks all the time.

Steam could easily integrate it into their backup feature. After all DLC and patches have released just click a checkbox that makes the backup function create a DRM free installer. I would guess they don't do this because it's a hassle and not enough people are demanding it. If a Steam game is ever removed from libraries though that tone will change.