I think what you should do is buy it here, then you should add it as a shortcut on steam. Its pretty much like buying it on steam without the DRM :)

As far as I know, you can add just about any game to your game library in Steam, whether it uses Steam or not. Whether it was a game distributed by Steam or not.

In fact, you can add just about any exe file on your computer (Steam automatically scours through your start menu for games and apps). Heck, im sure you can even add Windows Solitaire or Microsoft Office on it if you really wanted to. Pretty much any program that you can add onto your Start menu, you can add it to Steam.

Just go to Games > Add non-steam games and the rest is self-explanatory.

yes i know you can add non-steam games to steam and blah blah blah... but its not the same :P i'm picky like that...

but i'll still prob get it from here... waiting to see if the $ goes back up again... lol

Chris Taylor said he wouldn't release Supreme Commander on Steam because they took "a producer sized chunk" of the profits.

The major feature I like about Steam is I no longer have to stuff around hunting for patches. It's all done instantly and automatically. Take, for instance, The Witcher. I bought the original The Witcher Collector's Edition, and even though I love that game, the process of going through, getting the DLC, the patch and the enhanced edition patch sometimes discourages me. Especially since I always somehow get confused and lost on the Witcher site, and it takes me ages to find the files.

I'm not a lay person who can't figure out how to execute executables, I'm a life-long PC gamer and computer technician. Steam just makes it so easy. Steam even gives news updates on Steam activated titles, and changelogs on the patches, if you want to see them.

However, personally, I'm willing to sacrifice time and effort by doing things the harder (non-Steam) way in order to support CD Projekt. We need more developers as talented and as driven as they are, taking risks and making great games, showing what wonderful things can be done with a medium as versatile and powerful as a PC. Rather than making Medal of Duty: Future BattleOps 7 - The Balad of the Gay Cut and Paste Job.

I'm actually interested in this question too. Personally, I don't care one bit about the Steam overlay; its a mostly cosmetic bit of fluff. It's not bad, but its not necessary either. What I'd like to use Steam for is for the cloud saving ability. It's been announced that the Steam version of The Witcher 2 will have the ability to back up your save files to the Steam Cloud. I don't know about you guys, but to me, that sounds like a pretty good idea. The problem for me is that there are so many versions of the game (physical has premium and collector's, plus different dlc from different retailers, and digital has steam, gog, impulse, etc, again with different dlc and features) that it's actually preventing me from pre-ordering. I'm leaning towards the boxed collector's set because I want to have all the really great stuff that comes with it, but I also kind of want to buy it via gog because I want to support the devs directly, and then there's the Steam version, which has the cloud saving bit. I appreciate having a choice when buying my games, but goddamn, this is a little much. I digress there a little, but for me it would be so much simpler if I could buy the boxed collector's set and activate it on Steam. The best of both worlds!

Hello.

Same problem for me.

I prefer Steam for some tools like auto-patch and others things.


Will we have a steam cd-key (for steam users) if we want to buy this game here to help cd projekt?

Yes, and what would it change from what I said, was just referring to his choice of avatar and opinion been somewhat contradicting. A bit like a nazi wearing a Che t-shirt.

Godwin's Law!

They're all the same, MoH, CoD, BF... I'm surprised they dare claim to be from different companies. Even the abysmal lenght of singleplay and level gain killstreaking of multiplayer are like cut from the same cow. Cash cow. Who buys these games?

As handy as Steam can be with the patching and whatnot, I'm getting this game from GOG.

No it is not, for what I am saying is not an hyperbole, but thesis associated with its anti-thesis.

Through I admit I could have made the example by only using the Che t-shirt, it been the most prominent capitalization of a communist revolution figure. =p

Same boat (and I didn't even know about steam cloud saving: that's huge).

I'd love to purchase directly from GoG, but I'd also like to activate it on steam for auto-patching, easy reinstall, cloud, etc.

I'd love to buy The Witcher 2 from GoG and then just activate it through steam to get all the goodies everyone mentions here. Auto-patch, cloud saving and I am somewhat of a stats nerd so just a really minor thing like seeing how many hours I've spent in game is something I enjoy.

But I seriously doubt this would work, still GoG is the more logical choice for me even without the goodies steam provide.

As far as I know the only games you can buy and activate on Steam are Steamworks games, which The Witcher 2 will not be. So if you buy it from here you most likely won't be able to activate it on Steam. That being said, GOG's the better choice both from a developer standpoint and a consumer standpoint.

CDProjekt RED will see most (if not all) of the money from copies sold through GOG, whereas they will lose a sizeable chunk from Steam copies (I don't know the exact amount, but it's got to be at LEAST 20-30%, though I've heard people claim it can be as high as 50%). So if you're interesting in supporting them financially it would be better to buy through GOG. Plus it could influence other developers and publishers to release DRM-free games in the future if the sales are high enough.

Consumer-wise, you actually get a better deal with the GOG version of the game. First and foremost, no DRM whatsoever, which is huge in my book. I love Steam (especially when they have awesome sales), but it's still another form of DRM and if I can get a version of a game that doesn't require DRM that's the version I want (or at least the one with the least intrusive DRM). Also, you actually get more content with the GOG version. Both Steam and GOG share most of the same bonus content (Making-of videos, soundtrack, world map and letters, game guide and manual and papercraft figures). Where they differ, though, is that the GOG version comes with a digital copy of the artbook AND your choice of one of 5 free games. Steam will supposedly have Steam achievements though, so if you really want those I suppose that's the way to go then.

For my money the GOG version will be the best digital distribution version available.

I have a steam account with over 100 games on it.However in this case i'd prefer my copy nothing to do with steam - in case my account was hacked/i no longer had internet access etc.....