this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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FYI you have never owned a game. It's always been a license. Even when it was physical. It's the same for GoG too sep you get an installer for later. It's still only a license.
Also Steam did not give us DRM. DRM has existed for decades before steam was made.
Yes, if we want to get technical, we don't legally own those games, obviously. However, so long as they are DRM free, we can always install them on whatever hardware we choose, as long as its supported. Thats why people say DRM takes away a player's ability to "own" their games.
For a lot of games, Steam is just an installer. They start fine on their own if you copy the folder.
Yeah, I have a few games like that. That means they're DRM free. The issue with Steam is not that it forces all games on it to have DRM, but that is doesn't make games that DON'T have DRM easy to identify.