Because it costs more money to provide separate services for two different versions of a game instead of just one, when no one uses the other version. GamersGate will sell the game, but only with Steamworks included.

Personally, I'd like them to revamp how Steam handles DLC. When I bought Divine Wind, they never fixed it up to a satisfactory condition, and I can't play EU3 prior to it due to how Steam handles the automatic installation.

Not in America. We simply don't have the necessary internet infrastructure to devote to all-digital distribution. Our speeds are...pitiful. I'd wager that most people simply don't have the capability or desire to spend days to download a 5+ gigabyte game. And games are only going to get bigger as better graphics, audio, etc., are desired.

Especially considering that consoles are limited in their storage capacity (due to a, IMO, desire to sell grossly overpriced, proprietary hard drives *cough*Xbox*cough*), you can only have so many games on there at once. I'd hate to have to redownload games whenever I wanted to play them.

They always talk about that providing patch for two version is unacceptable tough task for them,even though their games are installed as raw files with no protection.I realized why they've been involving users in long-running early beta testing.

I will wait till it appears on GOG.

Steam's DRM is fairly unobtrusive -- you just need to have Steam running, and don't generally even need an internet connection for stuff to activate (unlike Origin*!). And realistically, the presence of Steam's DRM probably goes a long way in keeping out stuff like Starforce, which is /vastly worse/ and used to break your computer. Or that garbage with Spore where you could only install it like five times**.

That being said, I do wish Steam would... I don't know, offer an alternate, lightweight client that did nothing BUT validate games you were trying to run, but otherwise didn't act as a full featured web browser.

Anyway, I probably won't be getting EU4. EU3 + NA + IN + HTTT was a very well-matured and complete product, and the Magna Mundi mod filled in the rest of the gaps. I have no doubt that EU4 will be good, it's more that I'm... not sure if it's really different enough from a product I'm already really happy with.

* Amalur is fantastic! Please quit trying to ruin my experience playing it, EA!
** Not that you'd want to.

DRM is always intrusive.

It takes space on my drives, occupies my memory, and wants to be the first in line to decide if a game loads when I click the icon.

Good they've decided to release Steam only: I won't miss them, and they won't miss me.

They really want to make the argument that Steam is anything but intrusive DRM (IMO)? Make it completely optional for the player to install. No install means none of that social fluff crap, multiplayer aspects, or the other stuff that people tout as outweighing its true nature. Sell it as a DRM free download like GOG installers with a unique identifier baked into the game itself so that if it were ever shared, they could determine where it came from, but otherwise nothing that impedes a person from using it.

But we'll never see that happen.

Also, I find it funny that people claim the DRM free crowd is not worth going after when they only sell it through one portal (or through a smaller one). Try selling it through Amazon instead and they might see a different ROI.

You forgot to post links to all the Paradox games on the wishlist.

Bring Paradox Interactive Games to GOG!

Well then one unit sold less... if this counts for something.

It's perfectly sane and reasonable that everybody here ignore the fact Paradox games are sold on steam DRM Free.


btw. on mid December, Paradox guys said that they are far with talks with GOG

are you living in the 1990s?

Steam's the gold standard in PC gaming these days, like it or not. a company like Paradox does only what's economically feasible and profitable. if their own (GamersGate) editions don't sell, why should they bother publishing them when they could just stick with the enormously profitable Steam edition? funny how people go on about wanting DRM-free editions and competition on the digital market, but nobody ends up buying them.

never mind the fact that none of the Steam editions of Paradox games i own (including Crusader Kings 2) need the Steam client to run. the games are basically DRM-free on Steam. so what's the problem?

The problem is that you have to sign your soul to the devil ;)

(I have Steam accout btw)

Ah, but you can always cheat and sell your soul to 3 (or more) devils, thus enjoy the slugfest when they all come to collect at the same time.
The biggest problem is to be able to do that without the devils knowing what you've done.

You mean you can download an archivable installer and that is it? Even a one time check for each installation is usually seen as DRM.