No it doesn’t. It’s just a digital use license like in any other store. Here’s the relevant part from their User agreemet
We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a ‘license’) to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content
That is legally the same as any other store out there.
So why does GoG make a big fuss about that? Well, it’s mostly a PR stunt, but there is some truth to it. Games sold on GoG are, majorly, DRM-free (although not 100% of them, but close to it), this means that you can backup your game installer and install it and play it in the distant future even if GoG is no more. The reason why this is mostly a PR stunt is that you can do the same with most games from other stores as well, except you backup the game folder instead of the installer, because (and this is the part I think people always miss) if a game is on Gog and any other store it’s almost assuredly DRM free in ALL stores.
Don’t get me wrong, GoG is great and their policy on DRM is something that I think other companies should really imitate. But it’s not the be all and end all that some people make it out to be, and to me personally when I have to decide where to invest my money my choices are between a company that has a relatively decent DRM policy but doesn’t care for me as a customer, and a company that has literally spent millions making my gaming experience as a Linux user better, it’s a no contest. If I was on Windows I might consider buying more stuff from GoG because of their DRM policy, but being able to easily play games on Linux is more important for me than DRM.
What? How is a game from 2024 old? Also how is GoG involved in that at all?
Edit: I’ve been reading on the story of that game, and I think I know what you meant.
While Outcast: a new beginning is a new game, you probably meant the OG outcast game, which is from 1999. There was a 4 year window where the original game was only available on GoG because they patched a community mod into it. But in 2014 1.1 version was released for Steam with some more improvements, and in 2017 the game was remade. GoG doesn’t seem to have been involved in either of those, only on the original 2010 re-release including the community mod as a built-in.
Since the beginning of app stores and the release of Windows 8, Valve have seen the writing on the wall (see Apple v. Epic later) and realized they needed their own platform. It’s all about Steam OS.
The interests of Linux users and Valve merely coincide.
As for me, with a 99% single player games library, the most important thing is no mandatory launcher and no updates. Click, boom, I’m in the game.
So using GOG when possible.
The interests of Linux users and Valve merely coincide.
I’m not naive, I don’t think that Valve is doing anything out of the goodness of their heart. But they’re investing on something I care about, so me giving them money is an indirect way to invest in that.
As for me, with a 99% single player games library, the most important thing is no mandatory launcher and no updates. Click, boom, I’m in the game.
So using GOG when possible.
Mostly agree (except I don’t mind updates, you can always play without updating if you want to), and the fact that that’s my experience with Steam is a big part of why I buy from them. I can go from not owning a game to play it with just a few controller buttons, whereas with GoG I would have to:
Plug a mouse and keyboard to my gaming rig
Install a browser on that machine
Navigate to the website and download the installer
Figure out a good wine version to use and create a new profile for the game
Install any needed wine tricks to that profile
Manually create a shortcut for that game using that wine profile
Add the shortcut to some third party UI to be able to navigate to it with a controller
So yeah, the whole “click, I’m in the game” only works on Windows, which is why I said I can understand Windows users preferring GoG.
one major note about GoG’s drm freeness, most games on GoG are DRM free on Steam as well, sometimes with some small caveats though, such as the need to patch some of them, because the Steam builds of the games expect Steam to be there stuff like the achivements API and won’t handle gracefully a failure to use the API, but thats pretty easy to do most of the time and AFAIK is not an intentional anti piracy tactic
No it doesn’t. It’s just a digital use license like in any other store. Here’s the relevant part from their User agreemet
That is legally the same as any other store out there.
So why does GoG make a big fuss about that? Well, it’s mostly a PR stunt, but there is some truth to it. Games sold on GoG are, majorly, DRM-free (although not 100% of them, but close to it), this means that you can backup your game installer and install it and play it in the distant future even if GoG is no more. The reason why this is mostly a PR stunt is that you can do the same with most games from other stores as well, except you backup the game folder instead of the installer, because (and this is the part I think people always miss) if a game is on Gog and any other store it’s almost assuredly DRM free in ALL stores.
Don’t get me wrong, GoG is great and their policy on DRM is something that I think other companies should really imitate. But it’s not the be all and end all that some people make it out to be, and to me personally when I have to decide where to invest my money my choices are between a company that has a relatively decent DRM policy but doesn’t care for me as a customer, and a company that has literally spent millions making my gaming experience as a Linux user better, it’s a no contest. If I was on Windows I might consider buying more stuff from GoG because of their DRM policy, but being able to easily play games on Linux is more important for me than DRM.
They also do restoration on old games, to make them run fine on todays OS and hardware. Recent example of me: Outcast A new beginning.
What? How is a game from 2024 old? Also how is GoG involved in that at all?
Edit: I’ve been reading on the story of that game, and I think I know what you meant.
While Outcast: a new beginning is a new game, you probably meant the OG outcast game, which is from 1999. There was a 4 year window where the original game was only available on GoG because they patched a community mod into it. But in 2014 1.1 version was released for Steam with some more improvements, and in 2017 the game was remade. GoG doesn’t seem to have been involved in either of those, only on the original 2010 re-release including the community mod as a built-in.
Since the beginning of app stores and the release of Windows 8, Valve have seen the writing on the wall (see Apple v. Epic later) and realized they needed their own platform. It’s all about Steam OS.
The interests of Linux users and Valve merely coincide.
As for me, with a 99% single player games library, the most important thing is no mandatory launcher and no updates. Click, boom, I’m in the game.
So using GOG when possible.
I’m not naive, I don’t think that Valve is doing anything out of the goodness of their heart. But they’re investing on something I care about, so me giving them money is an indirect way to invest in that.
Mostly agree (except I don’t mind updates, you can always play without updating if you want to), and the fact that that’s my experience with Steam is a big part of why I buy from them. I can go from not owning a game to play it with just a few controller buttons, whereas with GoG I would have to:
So yeah, the whole “click, I’m in the game” only works on Windows, which is why I said I can understand Windows users preferring GoG.
one major note about GoG’s drm freeness, most games on GoG are DRM free on Steam as well, sometimes with some small caveats though, such as the need to patch some of them, because the Steam builds of the games expect Steam to be there stuff like the achivements API and won’t handle gracefully a failure to use the API, but thats pretty easy to do most of the time and AFAIK is not an intentional anti piracy tactic
Hey, great comment. You touched on everything, and did it with nuance.