GOG Wants Gamers to Know Its Offline Installers Can’t Be Taken Away from You While Steam Reminds Them That Players Only Get a License to Play

[Peter_Brosdahl]

GOG stands apart from the gaming digital distribution crowd in that unlike others it offers a seemingly rare and unique opportunity for gamers to buy and download their games but then keep them.
Now while all this may seem like a water is wet type of thing it is a reminder to folks about their rights when purchasing anything from a digital distribution service, be it gaming or perhaps a video streaming service.

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[Elf_Boy]

What irritates me about Steam is that I can not run a game on my desktop and a different game on my laptop. Regardless of any legal mumbo-jumbo in the Steam agreement, I paid for those "licenses" separately, the two computers are on the same network and only a few feet away from each other.

 

[Denpepe]

What irritates me about Steam is that I can not run a game on my desktop and a different game on my laptop. Regardless of any legal mumbo-jumbo in the Steam agreement, I paid for those "licenses" separately, the two computers are on the same network and only a few feet away from each other.

You sgould be able to if you use the families function of steam, may need to make an additional account

 

[MadMummy76]

What irritates me about Steam is that I can not run a game on my desktop and a different game on my laptop. Regardless of any legal mumbo-jumbo in the Steam agreement, I paid for those "licenses" separately, the two computers are on the same network and only a few feet away from each other.

Unless this changed recently you could run different games at the same time just not the same one.

I hope GOG will give early warning before going out of business. I don't want to download every installer just in case.

 

[Brian_B]

I should try it with my Steam Deck - not sure what it does if I have 2 machines with games on at the same time

 

[DrezKill]

Unless this changed recently you could run different games at the same time just not the same one.

You can also run the same game on both machines at the same time if you put Steam in offline mode on one of the machines. That's how my bro and I were able to play Halo MCC LAN co-op using just my one copy of the game.

 

[Ditchinit]

Unless this changed recently you could run different games at the same time just not the same one.

I hope GOG will give early warning before going out of business. I don't want to download every installer just in case.

Call me crazy if you like, but I keep and maintain current copies of the offline installers for every game I own on GoG ... for just such a potential eventuality. By their counting, GoG says I have 730 games in my library; that's probably a close guess but it doesn't include de-listed or re-listed titles.

I also hope they don't break their offline installers in some way - by going offline themselves - such that I would then need to re-download everything again.

 

[Zarathustra]

I wish I had bought more things from GoG.

I just got into the habit of making Steam my first stop after I pre-ordered the Half-Life 2 + Counter-Strike: Source "Gold" bundle back in - what - 2003? 2004? Can't remember.

GoG definitely were the good guys all this time.

Their store was less exhilarating and had less of the content that I wanted, and I regret not spending more of my money there.

I hope GOG will give early warning before going out of business. I don't want to download every installer just in case.

Companies tend to keep up appearances so they can try to raise business saving investment until the very end. Often if you think you might go out of business, it can become a self fulfilling prophecy as both customers and investors stay away.

So that probably won't happen. If/when they shutter it will happen VERY fast.

I'd recommend starting your downloads sooner rather than later

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

For years I did the same, forgetting to check them first, and still do occasionally, but for the most part, I try not to repeat that mistake.

 

[Niner51]

I just recently started to look at GOG more for games. Looks like I'll be looking their way more often.

 

[Ditchinit]

New interest in buying from GoG is good and all, but those of us who've been long-time GoG customers know there is a downside to it.

Most people buy their games from Steam for two reasons: 1) that's where most of their games have already been purchased, and 2) that's where most of their friends have purchased their games.

As a result, the GoG online gaming community is frightfully small compared to Steam ... and rare is the game that allows cross-play between the two stores. But if you're like me and you couldn't care less about being part of an online gaming community, then GoG games work just as well as Steam games (aside from lackluster developer support, tardy updates, and a plethora of other related drawbacks due to GoG's community size). Steam workshop items rarely work with games purchased at GoG; some do, but that has to be enabled by the game developers and is usually an afterthought.