I don't think people think like me
Though I do think we need to clear up a the multiple overlapping parts of this

1) Steams Rise to power
The Myth
Gaben swooped from the heavens to Save PC gaming by setting up a digital promised land. Gamers threw their physical media aside and marched into Gaben's downloadable utopia.
The Reality
In 2004 the decades most anticipated game had Steam as a prerequisite, with much grumbling and swearing millions of 56K modems screeched in a new era. A few Digital elite with 64K or 128K Broadband lines chuckled with superiority.
By 2006 a handful of 3rd party games also had Steam as a prerequisite, a few years later the majority of games required Steam.
During that time the vast majority of PC gamers were still tied to Physical media, the speed and costs of Digital downloading were prohibitive for most. Only a handful of people would have actively chosen Steam, for everyone else the choice was Create a Steam Account or simply miss out on the vast majority of games. Nearly every one (including me) put up with Steam and chose the former.

The idea people actively chose Steam over another viable option (such as steam-less physical media) is rubbish. There was no choice other than swap to console (which many people did) or ditch the hobby.

2) No Steam, No Buy
These guys are a tiny minority, just like "No GoG, No Buy". Most people if there is no other option will buy a game they want on Epic or Origin or uPlay.

3) People actively choosing Steam when starting PC gaming.
People are not looking and comparing Steam, Epic and GoG when they start PC gaming. They're not choosing Steam because of all its functions. They hear about a brand new game and think "That sounds cool", they then go and look for it online, and when they do the chances are its Steam only.

Yes its a far better situation than it was 5 years back, but still the vast majority of PC games are only on Steam. Again the choice is Create a Steam Account or simply miss out on the vast majority of games. Nearly every one will chose the former.

4) Existing Steam users will prefer Steam over another option
Yes, I fully agree. If given the choice a Steam user will much prefer to stick with the system they know an buy there. However, for most games its not like they actually had a choice since they Steam only anyway.

No offense, but you're deluded. They absolutely chose Steam, and for years were mad whenever a game was only on disc and not on Steam. Now they're mad when it's not on Steam because of other clients. Consumers love client features and love Steam and you need to face that reality.

From 2004 til about 2008 Steams DRM had zero effect on me and my wife.

I bought a dozen games for her to play on my account and she played those and I played mine, at the same time on different computers from the 1 account.

Worth pointing out I was 1 of the digital elite with home broadband in 2005

All was good till 2008 when Valve updated Steam.

Suddenly wife could no longer play her games while I played mine. We had to create another account for her and re-buy her games.

I agree, people don't care about DRM until it becomes intrusive, but the biggest issues with online DRM like Steam is they can (and have) changed the rules post purchase and your circumstances change. With the later, I talked to dozens of parents on the SFS forum that were pissed off that their kids couldn't play their library of games without unfair restrictions.

Believe it or not, I do see their point of view. Its simply I don't classify a situation where Steam is a prerequisite as someone choosing Steam, because it implies there was another option (other than not playing at all)
The only time I've heard of people being mad that a game is only on physical media and not on Steam is for old games such as No One Lives Forever where they are not published any more.

I never heard anyone from 2004 to 2010 pick up a hard copy disc without a Steam key and say "hey you got this bound to Steam?"

Also what features? At the point where Steam and physical media both coexisted Steam was a barebones mess. It had basic Mulitiplayer and Forums, thats about it.

I guess every single "feature" Steam got can be replaced with another solution, but indeed... people are lazy and the industry gave their best in order to mainly only supporting Steam so for many gamers it was simply "either Steam or nothing at all".

However, time has changed and nowadays people get "all at the same place" including DRM but this is no biggie because they want to be there all the time, so a "lock" is appreciated or ignored, it seems.

Fact is... in term Cyberpunk or Witcher 3 is sold 5-6 times more on Steam, with same conditions... even the DRM is removed everywhere (CD Projekt Red could have locked it in order to give GoG some more value) then obviously in a equal situation we can expect this multiplier for most of the games. Maybe the multiplier is sometimes 3-4 times instead of 5-6 times in term it is a small indie, which generally is in favor for GoG gamers. Because they are usually not demanding trophy and all the other "fancy-schmancy", just the game.

However, sure the long time "demand" for Steam on the PC market may have pushed many older gamers to Steam, and nowadays they simply stay because "convenient" to them. There is on the other hand new gamers who are totaly new to the PC market, and still... even those may chose at least 5 times more the Steam platform. There is many different reasons, but i guess: At least every second gamer who knows Steam (or heard about) never heard anything about GoG or may barely (if at all) know it. So that already will wipe out half the gamers... in this term factor 2 for Steam. If those gamers may someday check out GoG they may think "oh, so few games, more expensive... "... and then they may just keep stick to the old place. Impression counts too... nowadays we are pretty much "on the surface" of things. Maybe every second of them, in term they are visiting GoG at all... never heard about DRM and may be surprised if their game may stop working because of lack of internet or other issues bound to a DRM.

People may not believe me how stupid some 08/15 customer are. I can tell many examples of a lot of situations... i can only say... without advertisement nothing works. Some people may not even know the biggest electronic-shop inside their own country (i know, hard to believe). I think only a fraction of all Steam users will say "Steam is that supreme, we will never buy on another place"; this is true, same counts for GoG users. For me the answer is not that clear because i simply have a "priority" and the platform with a better offer (for MY needs) is on my priority list. In rare cases i still may buy on another place. Money is not playing a big role but for the majority it indeed is very important, thats why Steam keys are such a huge success.
Ultimately it all will add up... every little measurement, every little guidance by someone else will drag or push people toward a certain direction, because we are "social animals" or in a huge number "acting like sheeps". and the ones able to give more guidance usually will "win the race". Steam as a platform was for a long time not supreme at all, but the huge support from the industry and finally gamers aswell gave them a leading role. Nowadays the platform increased a lot... not so hard with so much wealth. However, most of the stuff is non required cosmetics, especially for offline-gamers who got their familiy or friends and simply want to enjoy a good game. The majority is not always right but in many cases it will simply set the way for everything in dominance.

Most people have way more games than they ever play. So, somehow it makes me believe they may become satisfied just by "owning" it... which is a well know behaviour and the reason why we simply can not stop buying new stuff, even if we are far beyond the ability making use of it. Whats most hilarious is the high grade of irrationality, because in fact... they do not even really "own" most of those games but you can make them believe that they will truly own it and even telling them "how much value their account got". This is a construct of huge irrationality, kinda like the cryptocurrency market... but it works pretty well; which may need some sort of investigation. Fact is, the feeling for "whats real and/or truly owned" is kinda fading away over time... maybe like a second reality only created by bits.

Indeed i am a huge dreamer and i love to "dive" into a gaming world... making it "my own world"; however, as soon as i am out of this game i can still judge pretty well whats is real and what not... and i can say which stuff is truly owned and whats just a "fairy tale".

you kind of need to get out of the 2004-2010 track. this is 20 years ago. there are now steam users who where not even born then. you cannot use that argument for them, and they still chose steam more often than not when they bave the choice.

Well you weren't paying attention then.

I'm not gonna have a debate over whether consumers like/prefer Steam over DRM free. The answer is so blatantly settled and obvious that it's not worth my time.

Maybe because most games that I was interested in are already here on gog or, thanks to steamless/goldberg, I can download them from steam and remove the basic drm without risk a malaware with an open source project and uninstall steam (I only use it as a downloader).
Maybe because I only care to be able to backup the installer/installed game that can work offline (I don't really care if gog is missing achievements... I don't use them anyway since I don't download gog galaxy at all).

Maybe because I started gaming again in 2012 and now we got Skyrim on Gog (the last game I actually paid for here).

Maybe because I got a big backlog and I can finally focus on it since I don't really want to buy anything else (I just got 2 items in my wishlist and I think I only would like to buy one... but I still don't, even with a discount right now).

Maybe because there are multiple giveaways from both gog and epic and amazon so many that my permanent library is bigger than microsoft subscription (sorry I forgot the name).

Maybe because I got my first paid good game from itch (Summer in Mara) and I really like the fact that there is a platform without any big limitation (I think it's great that anyone can publish there and there is no minimum payout, while for customers there is no drm, a simple way to download installers and no regional price (this was a big thing on gog in the beginning)).

I just don't see any reason to worry about gog anymore... if anything happen to them I got my installer downloaded, I got some alternatives too, but even if nothing happen to them I don't really plan to buy lot's of games in the near future (like 4-5 years) while I'm playing my backlog... and with so many giveaways I think I will get a lot to play even after my backlog will be gone.

I think the new generation should be worried about drm if they want to... I'm done with that. Even if all games will use denuvo from now on, I can still play games for decades.

Ah yeah,... Epic... they would not have a chance vs. Steam but they really got tons of money and the entire year there is X mas for Epic gamers... https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-free-games-list/

I would not call it "strong" in the term of Epic but indeed... they will catch the gamers this way.

Just do not screw with the account, else all the shiny presents are gone...
Sympathic? Not really... https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/05/06/valve-is-being-sued-over-steam-monopoly-accusations but who cares about such "spec"... i know to well, it is more a matter of being "legitimate" and "integrity" when it comes to social issues.

I think, mainly people are attracted to cheap deals... finding them can be like a drug to many people and if they are fine with almost any game, they will have endless free games... indeed.

It does not attract me, however... because i have some "bigger goals" i want to achieve. A huge collection of the in my mind very best games possible in the best shape and of course, truly owned. No hassles with hidden updates... once a game is "fixed" it will stay this way for very long or until maybe the OS may break something... then it may need a new fix but this is not very common. The game, once in good shape... stays untouched and is truly mine; there is no better feeling than this, it is in my control, not any other control.

No, for them, the argument is GameX 3 : "Return of X", just like GameX and GameXX, is only available on Steam, and thanks to the events of 20 years ago Valve has a massive share of the market.

The Vast majority of popular games are Still Steam only.
Yes it was decided, in the choice of having a Non existent DRM Free version of a game and a Steam version of game that actually existed, people chose the version that did exist.

Its Really not a valid argument

Reminder that there are PC gamers now that don't even know or care that PC once used physical media. "OK cool", they will reply before launching Elden Ring/Grand Theft Auto V/Hogwarts Legacy, etc. Trying to explain to them the benefits of offline gaming (naturally via Internet) will confuse them. "Why would I not have internet? Why should Steam shut down when they are still going strong after 20 years? Please stop talking in hypothetical fearmongering." Now try doing that without coming across as a fanatic. You'll have a nice uphill battle.

I have a up to 10 Gbit fiber and i still worry i may not always have internet... because i am not always at home and at some locations there is not even a internet.

I have Internet to get my data and to communicate, not in order to let others spy on me or trying to "control my data". I know the true value of things and i need a fast net for fast downloads... all the other stuff is not affected by this speed. Why would i even want the crappy "mobile-net" on most locations... either i use a quality thing or i will leave it allone... i know the value of quality, no compromise.

The argumentations are sometimes a bit weak, but surely, most people know not so much regarding the meaning of quality, rather hype and "i do what others are doing... playing Fortnite for example":

Most zoomers actually defend Steam's drm instead of understanding its drawbacks because they've never had the experience of installing a game from a disc without the need for an online client.

Once worked for a company that was moving from remote 3rd party hosted server to bringing all systems back in house. This was back in 2010. About 2 weeks after migration happened a construction site up the road cut through our gigabit leased line, took over a week to repair.

The reality is, even if you're paying over a grand a month, there's no such thing as a 100% reliable internet.

I can totally agree...

Actually, in the beginning i had almost a month no fiber net, and i had about 20 calls or so... they told me it is my own failure and i had to explain my "lack of guilt" week after week. Someday they found out that they made a issue at a data center.. so i was totally innocent but still had no net for around a entire month.

However, i got a compensation with a slow "mobile connection", however, this wireless at my location is truly crappy and pretty unstable. It all depends on how close to a strong antenna your home is located... as soon as you are at a "bad location" it can hurt the quality of any mobile connection a lot, up the point it is nearly unusable or non practical in longer terms.

I know of a location, there is not even any net at all... and the mobile connection fails to work because the signal is not strong enough, it really depends on your location a lot. But even fiber can be failing because of very different issues.

As for the state: They are doing nothing, or only if it is already planned. Customer wishes are not taken into account... unless they pay for themself... no matter the cost. Sometimes you can not even pay it yourself because if the state decides there is no net there is simply no net at this spot... your voice is sometimes meaningless because you got no voice. So, indeed everything is possible... i trust no one except the ones i love the most.

Keep lying to yourself if it makes you feel good.


It is not just "zoomers" at all. It's the vast, vast majority of the PC gaming market.