Well, not that i use any "client-launcher" on my gamer PC... in fact there is NO shop-launcher installed at all. I use my Notebook in order to download some games that will not need a client "at some later stage" anymore... those are the games i can now run on my totally "client-launcher-free" gamer PC.

Still, the clear majority of my games are from GOG using a installer.

It is easy to tell for me if my gamer-PC is running any game without a client-launcher, because there is no launcher installed at all... this is my condition as the "bare minimum" for passing DRM free. It is not the best level yet, just the minimum i do demand for getting this "DRM free" label.

So, yes, i am not as strict as you, but i got some clear limitation on what i can allow and where "to stop".

No, because it is also Steam and Epic Client for example. If the game works after the installation without internet connection and if it is possible to copy and use the game on another computer. That's number 2. in my opinion.

No, itch.io, zoom, some Humble games and some (rare) gamesplanet games too (for example). :-)

Yes, that's true and should work for a lot of games. I prefer simple archives (7zip). For some (older) games it is necessary to create some registry entries or other things like that, but that's fine.

As I said, that's a matter of opinion and I'm more relaxed about it than some other gamers, but I can't get to the game without the DRM client. On the other hand, I completely agree with you, the game itself is DRM-free once you've installed it. In the case of Civilization VI or Subnautica, for example, I'm very happy about that and despite my preference for DRM-free and offline installers, I buy such games on sale and archive them myself.

Everyone has to decide for themselves how far they want to go and support this. Personally, I only buy very few games from other providers, usually at a heavily discounted price.

Long live the offline installers :-D

Nowadays i actually only buy DRM free on PC because those account-locked stuff just smells to bad, and i already got more games i can actually play... so i got to be very picky soon.

I got now a PS5 Pro as a backup for games that simply can not get out of DRM, yet i still want to play them. Physical discs are a "sweet DRM" for me, but apart from that i usually do not accept any other DRM anymore.

Excuse me, Humble Bundle is NOT DRM free in general. They use mostly Steam as their "game host", so it obviously is according to the Steam rules. Steam is not making an exception for them... i never heard of..

There can be some exceptions... as always. Albeit, according to your very strict DRM free philosophy, which is including an installer... i doubt they got anything to offer.

Not that i ever was testing them, to be fair... it is just by logical means impossible as long as they are not hosting the entire game themself. For example, in case you want FF XVI you even will have to create a Steam account using the Humble Bundle offer. It simply is... sorry to say... in this case a "key provider".

Sure, it is not impossible getting a "DRM free" game on Humble Bundle because someone could get a GOG key there, which then will lead to a DRM free game, but in general... they are just DRM free as long as the "host" is allowing for it.

Most fun example: Horizon Forbidden West is by my lower standards DRM free on EGS but Humble Bundle is only providing the Steam version and this version is locked = not DRM free no matter how much we drop our standards.

I mean, it is OK not to be to restrictive as long as it may lead to a DRM free (not account bound DRM of the main game at least) game, but you obviously are very strict and "watering down" matters is not your approach.

That’s right, but their store includes a "DRM" filter allowing to only browse the games distributed as DRM-free offline installers. (it’s not obvious, it is only shown on the search page)

According to this filter, 1 554 of their 13 983 games are available DRM-free. So I treat it as a store only including the ~1 500 DRM-free games, and ignore the rest.

I was doing the huge work checking all "DRM free" games and with the exceptions of the ones i do already have there is none i found interesting. I guess i simply got very high "standards" or a very different taste.

I think GOGs curation works well...