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Steam forcing updates to Win 10/11 to play games - do you actually "own" games bought through Steam? (inv.tux.pizza)

submitted 2 years ago by CifrareVerba@lemmy.world to c/PCGaming@kbin.social

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[–] Heresy_generator@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

When you bought your games through Steam did you buy the right for Valve to support every OS forever?

If you install every game you bought through Steam before Steam stops support for your OS you should still be able to run those games through their own EXEs or launchers so yes, you do own the games. What you're really losing is access to Steam's store and the ability to install the game from them. Which sucks, but it's not fair to suggest this impermanence in gaming is something new; physical media didn't and doesn't last forever either. Disks get scratched up and cartridges wear out; consoles die and production ends.

For anyone effected by this I would suggest they install every game they own and have a really good backup / restore plan. But even then, eventually no one will make compatible hardware and it will be impossible to find used. After that it's all about whether virtualization and emulation are good enough for them to be playable. But in the end, sadly, nothing can last forever. So it goes.

[–] bvanevery@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Since when does Steam provide game installers "bare" that don't need Steam whatsoever to do an installation? I thought they infected all games they sell with Steam, in essence being a DRM platform. I just checked on this issue, read some article somewhere, and they indicated this is true for the vast majority of titles sold on Steam.

GOG, on the other hand, provides both a GOG Galaxy and a standalone .exe installer for the games they sell. You can back up that standalone .exe installer and use it anywhere. If you want to sneakerware it over to an old machine, you can. Once GOG has handed you that .exe installer, they're not involved anymore. They are not a DRM platform. In fact that's one of their main selling points that they pitch: no DRM.

I've bought a few games from GOG. I have never bought anything from Steam.

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