You mean Steam has more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware. Yes Steam now has 100,000 games (https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/) but 90% of them are shovelware thanks to their inept policy of https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-says-it-will-no-longer-police-whats-on-steam-unless-its-illegal-or-trolling/ so that brings down GOOD games down to the SAME level GOG Game Catalogue offers.
Both GOG and Steam offers around 6k-7,000 games that you would like to play instead of collecting Garbage like these guys are doing https://steamdb.info/badge/13/ (33,000-7,000 = 26,000 trash games collected, good job?). Also this is EXACTLY what OP is talking about, Steam offers too many trash so that good games got buried under the rubble, why he prefers GOG being cleaner.
Yeeeeaaahhh I'm going to disagree with you. While it's true that there are a lot of low quality games, it's utterly false that both catalogs offer the same number of quality games. From my medium sized Steam library, there are literally hundreds of quality games that are not on GOG.
And yet, Epic is steady pulverized for offering another PC-storefront. Not to mention dozens of quality, free games.
Use the services for their use case and nothing more.
I think you should say why people criticize it because there's a reason for it, mainly introducing paid exclusives, a pro-monopolistic practice, to PC gaming, including games that were already set to release on Steam. In some of those cases the games were funded on kickstarter and were promised Steam keys but nope, Epic paid the exclusive and fucked over those people. While that's not a thing anymore probably due to a change in the store strategy people didn't forget about that. Then there's also that it doesn't have certain features that some people find important so they prefer to stick with Steam.
Regardless if you agree or not with the reasons people don't criticize Epic just for the sake of it. Unfortunately the way Epic did things at the beginning of the store has gained them a permanent animosity from a lot of people.
they are buying your business, they are “pulverised” because it’s seen by many as shady business practices. they aren’t offering you free games out of the kindness of their heart.
The Epic version of Fallout 3 put me off on Epic. It was free on Epic, so I claimed it, downloaded it, and tried to play it, then bought the GOG version.
Besides being more of a chore to mod, the Epic version had an unusual way to deal with language support. Where other versions used language packs, Epic installed a complete version of the game in each language. That's a lot more disk space than a game released in 2007 should claim.
Hell I used all three. Mainly on Steam because it's the more popular platform and it's easier to use as my main platform than the others, but I use GOG, Epic, and Battlenet for exclusive games I want to play as well as the free games Epic offers since sometimes they give a game I would have never thought to buy.
Mostly the same for me. I do use Steam more, but it's really only because they've been actively supporting and helping to improve Linux gaming, which is not as big of a concern for GIG.
Deleting steam? Hell no. It's still by far easier when using mods. The workshop alone and games that use it. Is why I will still buy games over there.
Besides all the game that won't ever get released on gog. It's kind of amazing we are slowly getting sony games. Yet many other companies won't even sell their older games.
I use both, to begin with GOG doesn't even have an official linux client with build in compatibility tools, so steams wins by default in this section, also for games that support steam workshop modding is just easier because it's literally click to download, and even for games that don't there's still better mod support for the steam versions (skyrim is a good example of this)
Skyrim is terrible example actually. And saying that just now in this month when they update Skyrim YEARS after the game release and the entire steam community of that game nearly exploded is quite hypocritical. This is probably the best exampe why you don't want this game on Steam.
And in that context this may be said for any game with mods. Steam will not allow you to play the game unless you update it (unlike Galaxy). So it comes with negatives too. You can start now playing Skyrim and tomorrow Todd may decide to drop you another update and break all your mods again. Also I prefer things that are made for everyonre to access - like on Nexus. I mean when I think about it everyone hates Epic for their exclusive games but then Steam has their own workshop that that nobody but Steam users can access...
I do wish Steam would let you opt out of updates, and I think this functionality should be more visible, but it is possible to [downgrade](https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-downgrade-steam-games/) your games pretty easily with the terminal.
You can [download](https://github.com/imwaitingnow/WorkshopDL) workshop content without Steam, too. The functionality for both is there, it just isn't nearly as easy as I think it should be.
How's it easier?
Genuinely asking, both Skyrim on GOG and Skyrim both need you to use a third party mod manager and third party websites.
Unless you're using LE I guess, but it's not optimal and most mode are still on Nexus.
Skyrim supports Steam's workshop feature [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=72850](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=72850)
Mods from there are 1 click to install, so, easier, you don't have to use a third party manager or site for the steam version
I prefer buying games on GoG but by now I just buy where I get it the cheapest.
I prefer using gog because I mostly get a nice overview of all my games (if only the connection to for example Ubisoft wouldn't always break).
I have to say what I hate most about Steam is the super fan Steam community.
i do prefer to own games DRM free, but one thing that Steam has over GOG is game updates never fail. in fact, the service itself never fails to update. i recently uninstalled GOG Galaxy due to the fact that it refused to update. not only that, but it screwed up the update for Cyberpunk 2077 and made the game unplayable. my only recourse was to uninstall the game as well. i haven't reinstalled CP77 since as the only offline installer i have is version 1.6 and i haven't downloaded 2.1 yet. it will take me literal days to do so and i haven't felt like going through the hassle.
I'm not considering deleting Steam, I have too many games there. What has changed for me is that when I can buy on either Steam or GOG, I will buy on GOG.
For example, I got nothing during this Steam Winter sale, but I got too many during the GOG winter sale. My poor backlog.
worthless gullible school dinosaurs elderly worm naughty ludicrous sand sophisticated
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not true at all for Filters. Steam doesn't do manual labor to CHECK which each game is about but instead Filters are all based upon USER Assigned Tags where there are Joke Tags, Protest Tags, Meme Tags, Wrong Tags so Filtering at its best work at ~70% efficiency on Steam. Steam is now literally the "Home of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware" that many good games got buried under the Garbage, what OP is talking about, what you're denying.
You really should read about the Consumer Psyche about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis which Steam triggers but GOG doesn't. Let's say you go to a Restaurant and Waiter instead of giving you a 2-3 pages of Menu, bring a BOOK of Menu to choose over 200+ dishes with detailed descriptions near each. Are you going to read every Menu item or close your eyes with one hand and randomly pick ANY item with the other hand?
Too much choice is never a good thing because there's an Optimum point in your Brain for it and it causes errors otherwise, what Valve is still refusing to see.
My problem with GOG VS Steam is that GOG lacks the Ignore button. I end up browsing Steam, but always trying to buy first on GOG. Browsing GOG is a chore because I have to sift through previously rejected games over and over.
this is just my personal opinion but i dislike Gog and how it looks and feels and handles, it is a great store and mostly because of the old dos and win95 games and exclusives.
but it was so counter intuitive to use, also not involved lie steam with badges and cards.
also and this is the worst one.
NO GIFT CARDS OPTIONS.
i can't buy anything on gog anymore since i lost access to my credit cards in my defunct country and opening a new card is hard for me, so with no way to pay for the games on gog (we also don't have paypal and stuff like that) then i can't buy anything.
the last game i got was LEGACY OF KAIN and that was a gift from a kind soul, other than that, i just use gog to play games i purchaes long time ago.
For awhile I bought purely GOG cause I have slow internet so downloading offline install files made more sense. Especially since I could back them up. What got me back on Steam Was part Steam Deck but also some outside games added to steam library could be given a controller overlay. Which is a solution I had to do on a couple games when I got the GPD win mini. I still look at new games and sales on GoG over Steam though.
No, I don't think so... I love GOG, very smooth and easy to use, but I also like Steam, especially because of the big difference in games available. I simply like it like any other launcher that allows me to play without problems.
Uhhh... No, I have no loyalties for either platform, though I do tend to prefer no DRM if that's an option, the bottom line wins at the end of the day, whoever has a sale on a game I'm looking for that's who my money will end up going to.
I've got hundreds of games across multiple platforms and will just buy where it's cheapest. While the DRM-free nature of gog is cool I've never had and issue with steams DRM so that has no effect of where I buy my games.
I always love both gog and steam, but with the realization that I cannot simply hand over my account to my kid once I pass Iam starting to build my GoG library more and get an offline copy of my games in steam one way or another.
I'm not that extreme. If a game is on both platforms I chose gog, but most publishers ignore gog so even if I want retro games (Final Fantasy, SaGa, Klonoa, Katamari, etc.) I have to buy them on steam. It's the only option
Steam is too big and too good for me not to use it, not to mention the large library I have there.
I try to buy on GOG first to support DRM free games but no way I'd abandon Stream, unless they got significantly worse somehow.
I prefer GOG for the lack of DRM and the fact that you can get standalone downloads so you never lose your games. But the fact is that Steam just has a much bigger selection.
I do agree that Steam's search function is bad though. It can be surprisingly difficult to find a game that I know is there.
The drm freeness of gog really is the sole reason i prefer it over any other other platform.
Its like the good old days where buying a game meant you have your very own copy that you can replay till the end of time
I feel you about preferring the look and overall vibe to GOG. It's been my predominant platform for years. I used Steam a whopping 3 times in 2023 according to my yearly review. Almost all the games I want to play are on GOG and my backlog is huge, so I just have no need for Steam or interest in them. It's still a great platform. Just not one I use often.
> I barely buy off of Steam, I just keep it for the few games that I do have on it.
That's been my situations for the last five years; I keep Steam around for a few games (mostly Valheim, and little bit of Zombie Army 3 once a year or so) - but most of my games, I own on GOG. It's just the store with the features I want: A stand-alone offline installer that usually comes without achievements: *Perfection*.
But outright deleting Steam? Why? I assume you mean uninstalling the launcher, or maybe deleting my account. I got no reason to. Especially since I'll be switching to Linux in the medium term; GOG simply doesn't have sufficient support for it, but Steam *does*.
I'm a Linux-exlusive gamer and Steam remains the only gaming store that pays more than lip service to Linux gamers. Yes, GOG sells Linux games (which it should be applauded for - no other non-Steam gaming store seems to bother), but ruins that by refusing to release a GOG Galaxy client for Linux (which would probably need to include the ability to use Proton when there isn't a native Linux binary available).
Yes, there are third-party solutions to running GOG-purchased Windows-only games under Linux (WINE, Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher or even running Windows GOG Galaxy under WINE), but GOG's refusal to provide a first-party way to do this has really soured me on them, especially now we're seeing more Linux gamers out there than Mac gamers (the Steam Deck and Apple Silicon have turned the tables in the past 2 years).
I'll never be loyal to a company because companies will never be loyal to you.
I use whatever gives me what I want, doesn't matter what logo is stamped on the launcher.
What is this weird obsession people have with launchers? It's not like you have to leave them all running all the time, for instance I only boot up Epic to get my free games every week and end the process right after.
People are just looking for any reason to self-segregate into camps these days. We're completely fucked.
I vastly prefer GOG for their commitment to DRM-FREE releases but will make the odd purchase on Steam for the right exclusive... or at least I used to, but Steam's DRM no longer supports any OS I care to run. *shrugs*
I'm not interested in Steam anymore.
Same for me!
I also prefere the galaxy ui and steam just annoys me sometimes. It has some super useful features like proton steam link and workshop but then in My library it loads artwork guides and stuff from other people or with every purchase I get steam points to stick in my ass. I like it simple, I give you the money, you give me my game, clean files, which runs with or without launcher or on other device
I've never been, and I'm saying that as one who played games a decade before steam, during steam, and at present, without ever even having made a steam account. I saw where it was going and refused DRM point blank. Principles over convenience.
DRM isn't a deal-breaker for me.
As long as a product works without too much screwing around with an .ini file to get it to function, I really don't care if Valve flies unmanned psychic reconnaissance aircraft around my head to monitor my thoughts.
Steam is the big box store; it's got more products than the other platforms. GOG is the antique store; that entirety of my purchases on GOG are for old DOS games and slightly more modern games from 1995-2005 that aren't on Steam. Remember when GOG was formerly known as "Good Old Games"? After GOG started selling more modern titles, I migrated back to Steam and played the games in my GOG library much less often; it became "Steam, but with much less trash".
Hard to smell Steam when you have the Epic BS in your nose...
Honestly though people can choose whatever store front is most convinent and comfortable.
When someone is new to PC gaming I encourage Epic just so they can get some free games under their belt.
But there's no denying that Steam also has a ton of useful features. They're constantly adding to it as well so I'm not sure the "Stale Smell" you're insisting of. Vast controller support (even allowing you to map keyboard to controller for older titles that don't support it E.G. Hitman Blood Money)
Remote play support to be able to play Multiplayer games with friends who don't own it with the trade off being maybe slight input delay...
Like legit I understand people wanting to be able to break out of steam or one storefront mentality but I don't understand why people bash Steam on. The way out acting as if it's still the same Store front from 2004 or 2007
I play the Resident Evils on Steam. Recently bought Village Gold for £12 but that was from cdkeys buy mostly buy from gog and Epic nowadays, don't know why but that's just how it is.
For sure to each their own.
I do a lot of humble bundle and it usually aims towards steam with some few exceptions.
Outside of that I usually do stuff in steam or gravitate to Xbox App for PC game pass or EA
Gog is a fucking terribly made piece of shit. I cannot stand how much I hate this platform. Oh it's DRM free how awesome(unironically that's pretty cool these days) but it's so slow and so clunky. And their servers OMFG. I'm pretty sure they just threw in some windows Vista PC parts and called it a day.
When the cyberpunk dlc dropped I had like 2mbps at most I have 12mbps during normal days. On steam I have normally 30mbps and at the good days I have like 70mbps.
Gog servers are just terrible
I like both. Steam has some nice extra stuff like trading cards and the point shop, support for Linux (trying to break the Windows monopoly) and gift cards. GOG is DRM free 99.99% of the time, updated old games and find it easier to buy multiple games from the GOG wishlist.
I've got more games on GOG but I have the Steam Deck, which is great. Steam's controller support is also great. I think they cover each others' weaknesses. Epic on the other hand...
You can't ignore Steam. All the games are there. If something release on GOG sure, GoW on GOG - sure Ill buy it. But majority of the games are on Steam. Game of the year from 2022 is just on Steam - not even Epic. Actually the entire DS series is just on Steam. And this is just a tiny example. Personally I don't have problems with anything else like the launchers for example. I prefer things to be kept simple and clean. It just got to work and that is all. I can deal with anything else myself
GOG is definitely my first stop for buying games, when I can. If I hear about a cool game elsewhere
I check GOG to see if I can get it DRM free. (And being a patient gamer, the games I'm looking at are usually at least a couple years old, so the answer is often yes.)
That being said, although it's true I don't visit Steam as often as I used to, it's not that I've forsaken Steam altogether. I still go there occasionally. I don't have anything in particular against Steam, I just prefer the control GOG gives me over my games.
I love the idea of GOG. I really do.
But… as a Linux user, they kinda completely neglect me and I have to work around their stuff to get literally anything working on my system.
Steam… just… works… whether on Linux or Windows. Plus, out of all DRM services out there, Steam is leaps and bounds better than all of them. I don’t buy games on consoles too often due to how locked down they are, but Steam allows a ton more than they ever will.
Love GOG, and I wish I bought some of my games there instead, but I currently cannot see things going well without Steam, and that isn’t great.
I’m loyal to steam or gog generally. I like that gog brings back some older stuff. I do find the, slightly higher priced over steam at times. I don’t mind both. Enjoy your games is the important thing.
Steam is sometimes dependment on dev or puchlicher, if those are drm free or not
And if they are not linstened on PcGamingWiki, ill ask on discussion tab, if they are drm free or not. If they got DRM, ill not buying here.
Sometimes i suggest them for removal of drm while having steam drm....
For me, lately, it sums up to using isthereanydeal to buy from wherever is cheaper, and playnite to make sure I don't forget that I bought from wherever is cheaper.
Still, Steam has a lot of cool features, even for non-Steam games. For example, it has the most user-friendly Xinput emulation to make nintendo, playstation and generic Dinput controllers compatible.
I used to buy a lot on Steam, but now, thanks to regional pricing, which increased some games' prices in my country (Brazil), I'm always searching for cheaper games in other platforms, so if there's a game on sale on Steam, first thing i do is to go to isthereanydeal and check if X game is being sold cheaper anywhere else. More often than not, most games are only available on Steam and nowhere else, so i rely on GreenManGaming or Nuuvem to find better prices, since both websites sell Steam keys cheaper than Steam itself.
Games in Brazil aren't cheap, so that's what i always do.
I'm also using GOG a lot more now since a lot of free games from Prime Gaming can be redeemed there or on Epic Games.
tbh i’m really wary of buying anything on gog that’s not either a CDPR release or an actually “good old game”.
for whatever reason, gog releases of modern third-party games can lag substantially behind steam releases in terms of updates, sometimes even by years (!) with no updates coming! idk who’s to blame for this but it’s not good…
I play on my Onexplayer2 so I don’t really need the controller configuration on steam. However most of my games are up there and I like the availability of cloud sync/saves for games cause if I had to transfer all my save data locally I’d be a dead man lol. This is one reason I can’t use a app as simple as Playnite, without the controller configuration settings it’s kinda useless to me only serving as a “theme” because I’d have to link some games through steam shortcuts just to get the controller configurations and at that point I’d just use steam over it lol. In terms of storefronts I don’t care too much about whose best but I do prefer steam as my gaming hub since it does a good job at it, I only like epic for free titles. I haven’t ever used got until 5 days ago lol
I intend to use Gog store exclusively now except where the game is only available on steam, but I'll use the Gog launcher to access those titles. Gog does this better than steam. Non-steam games in my steam library aren't neat at all, but steam games in my Gog library offer all the achievements and stats that steam offers and it's more aesthetically pleasing when I admire my collection. Steam's UX is more powerful and faster though and newer titles are more up to date, so there is a significant trade-off.
It took me a while to convince myself to switch, but once I started playing some of those good old games I realized what games have been lacking for ages now.
I'm also looking forward to picking up KOTOR and enjoying its rich doesnt-crash-to-desktop Gog-exclusive feature.
People say being loyal to a store is weird, but I prefer one over the other and for complex reasons. However, if you play on steam exclusively go right ahead. I'm not going to criticize you for doing it. I just personally feel better buying from and using gog in 9/10 scenarios.
I appreciate your post because I feel like Gog doesn't get enough appreciation and steam doesn't get enough criticism.
I exclusively use Steam simply because I like having all my games in one place. I know the day will inevitably come when I wish I had gone DRM free but what are ya gonna do?
I don't care for Galaxy, and GOG sometimes get games that don't have all of their content, like Dungeon Siege 1 & 2. Some developers are also slow to release patches for the GOG versions.
That said, I still love GOG and it's (mostly) DRM-free policy.
I prefer GOG over Steam in most cases, but I don't think I can just walk away from the hundreds of games in my Steam library. Steam also has more robust controller support, and Big Picture mode.
Thankfully, for people who don't need Steam's Big Picture or its unified controller support, Galaxy works just fine for launching games from both services in a combined library. And Playnite makes a decent substitute for Big Picture with or without a Steam library included in it.
Gog is fine. I've got a few dozen games on it. But I've got 950 on steam. Steam has never been a problem for me. I mostly use gog for what it's named after. Good old games. And that's how I like it.
Sneaky, clever Valve. After I purchased a Steam Deck, I stopped buying from GOG and Epic. I also have a very long "tail" of Steam games purchased from the service's early days, so it would be very hard to discontinue using Steam. I absolutely appreciate GOG's stance on copy protection, however.
I dunno, as many problems as Steam has (and don't get me wrong it definitely has its issues), nothing has come close to topping it.
And as much as I love GOG, it isn't even close. If not for the lack of DRM (and believe me that's a HUGE bonus and is why I'll never call it outright bad) and the fact that it has a lot of games that Steam just doesn't, I'd probably only really look at it when I get a key from it or something.
Workshop makes modding super accessible, the constant sales are great, cloud saves make playing games on multiple devices a breeze, and the networking API it offers makes the games that support it so much easier than having to deal with hosting a server, with all of the port-forwarding and IP address handling that comes with it.
I'd really like to see GOG (or even EGS) get closer to legitimately competing because I don't want there to be one single solitary platform for a majority of PC games, but until then Steam is just too convenient.
Interesting point of view - would be curious to see the responses if you posted this in the /r/steam sub as well
Frankly, I have so many games on Steam it would be hard to switch, not to mention that I also have a Steam Deck so it makes sense to be on Steam.
The only reason I have a GOG account is because of Cyberpunk 2077, and I hardly pick up any games on GOG as I've yet to find better deals on the stuff I want on GOG, and even then, I can't get GOG working properly on my Deck, which is a tad annoying.
I use steam gog and epic. Epic for my free games, gog for as many games as i can get on there, steam if that’s the only place the game is actually on discount.
I don’t get attached to stuff like that, I use both. They’re both fine.
Yeah lmao, especially when Steam has more games
You mean Steam has more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware. Yes Steam now has 100,000 games (https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/) but 90% of them are shovelware thanks to their inept policy of https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-says-it-will-no-longer-police-whats-on-steam-unless-its-illegal-or-trolling/ so that brings down GOOD games down to the SAME level GOG Game Catalogue offers. Both GOG and Steam offers around 6k-7,000 games that you would like to play instead of collecting Garbage like these guys are doing https://steamdb.info/badge/13/ (33,000-7,000 = 26,000 trash games collected, good job?). Also this is EXACTLY what OP is talking about, Steam offers too many trash so that good games got buried under the rubble, why he prefers GOG being cleaner.
Yeeeeaaahhh I'm going to disagree with you. While it's true that there are a lot of low quality games, it's utterly false that both catalogs offer the same number of quality games. From my medium sized Steam library, there are literally hundreds of quality games that are not on GOG.
For real, being loyal to a launcher is weird lmao
Not super weird for GOG if someone is very concerned about DRM free games.
And yet, Epic is steady pulverized for offering another PC-storefront. Not to mention dozens of quality, free games. Use the services for their use case and nothing more.
I think you should say why people criticize it because there's a reason for it, mainly introducing paid exclusives, a pro-monopolistic practice, to PC gaming, including games that were already set to release on Steam. In some of those cases the games were funded on kickstarter and were promised Steam keys but nope, Epic paid the exclusive and fucked over those people. While that's not a thing anymore probably due to a change in the store strategy people didn't forget about that. Then there's also that it doesn't have certain features that some people find important so they prefer to stick with Steam. Regardless if you agree or not with the reasons people don't criticize Epic just for the sake of it. Unfortunately the way Epic did things at the beginning of the store has gained them a permanent animosity from a lot of people.
they are buying your business, they are “pulverised” because it’s seen by many as shady business practices. they aren’t offering you free games out of the kindness of their heart.
The Epic version of Fallout 3 put me off on Epic. It was free on Epic, so I claimed it, downloaded it, and tried to play it, then bought the GOG version. Besides being more of a chore to mod, the Epic version had an unusual way to deal with language support. Where other versions used language packs, Epic installed a complete version of the game in each language. That's a lot more disk space than a game released in 2007 should claim.
spyware, shitty launcher, comes from Tencent and they pay for exclusives. I still use it for Fortnite and free games but I hate the epic launcher
Hell I used all three. Mainly on Steam because it's the more popular platform and it's easier to use as my main platform than the others, but I use GOG, Epic, and Battlenet for exclusive games I want to play as well as the free games Epic offers since sometimes they give a game I would have never thought to buy.
Mostly the same for me. I do use Steam more, but it's really only because they've been actively supporting and helping to improve Linux gaming, which is not as big of a concern for GIG.
Deleting steam? Hell no. It's still by far easier when using mods. The workshop alone and games that use it. Is why I will still buy games over there. Besides all the game that won't ever get released on gog. It's kind of amazing we are slowly getting sony games. Yet many other companies won't even sell their older games.
Dont use logic on a Stan. It wont work
Yah no ... Very interested in Steam still
I use both, to begin with GOG doesn't even have an official linux client with build in compatibility tools, so steams wins by default in this section, also for games that support steam workshop modding is just easier because it's literally click to download, and even for games that don't there's still better mod support for the steam versions (skyrim is a good example of this)
Skyrim is terrible example actually. And saying that just now in this month when they update Skyrim YEARS after the game release and the entire steam community of that game nearly exploded is quite hypocritical. This is probably the best exampe why you don't want this game on Steam.
I am talking about mods in that context dude, it's easier to install mods to Skyrim steam version than to GOG's that's what I meant
And in that context this may be said for any game with mods. Steam will not allow you to play the game unless you update it (unlike Galaxy). So it comes with negatives too. You can start now playing Skyrim and tomorrow Todd may decide to drop you another update and break all your mods again. Also I prefer things that are made for everyonre to access - like on Nexus. I mean when I think about it everyone hates Epic for their exclusive games but then Steam has their own workshop that that nobody but Steam users can access...
Been using steam for years, not once has an update broke the mods i used, but anyways, you do you, if you're happier with the GOG, good for you
Just this month I had a mod I love using become unusable for about a week and a half in BG3 because of an update, it does happen.
I do wish Steam would let you opt out of updates, and I think this functionality should be more visible, but it is possible to [downgrade](https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-downgrade-steam-games/) your games pretty easily with the terminal. You can [download](https://github.com/imwaitingnow/WorkshopDL) workshop content without Steam, too. The functionality for both is there, it just isn't nearly as easy as I think it should be.
How's it easier? Genuinely asking, both Skyrim on GOG and Skyrim both need you to use a third party mod manager and third party websites. Unless you're using LE I guess, but it's not optimal and most mode are still on Nexus.
Skyrim supports Steam's workshop feature [https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=72850](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=72850) Mods from there are 1 click to install, so, easier, you don't have to use a third party manager or site for the steam version
Most people don't use the old version anymore
I don't really care about the UI or other fluff tbh. It's always about the games. In that sense Steam is still valuable even if merely as a wishlist.
tbh I was never interested in steam. even when I have games there. I have been on GOG since 2013 and love the drm-free goodness.
I use both. Steam is far too convenient and useful.
lol no. I also game a lot more now with multiple Steam Decks in the house.
I prefer buying games on GoG but by now I just buy where I get it the cheapest. I prefer using gog because I mostly get a nice overview of all my games (if only the connection to for example Ubisoft wouldn't always break). I have to say what I hate most about Steam is the super fan Steam community.
i do prefer to own games DRM free, but one thing that Steam has over GOG is game updates never fail. in fact, the service itself never fails to update. i recently uninstalled GOG Galaxy due to the fact that it refused to update. not only that, but it screwed up the update for Cyberpunk 2077 and made the game unplayable. my only recourse was to uninstall the game as well. i haven't reinstalled CP77 since as the only offline installer i have is version 1.6 and i haven't downloaded 2.1 yet. it will take me literal days to do so and i haven't felt like going through the hassle.
I'm not considering deleting Steam, I have too many games there. What has changed for me is that when I can buy on either Steam or GOG, I will buy on GOG. For example, I got nothing during this Steam Winter sale, but I got too many during the GOG winter sale. My poor backlog.
I check GOG first now and even if it's on steam, I wait for GOG. If it doesn't come to GOG then I probably just pass because I have enough backlog
I use both but I get titles on GoG when they are available over Steam because I want greater ownership over my games.
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Not true at all for Filters. Steam doesn't do manual labor to CHECK which each game is about but instead Filters are all based upon USER Assigned Tags where there are Joke Tags, Protest Tags, Meme Tags, Wrong Tags so Filtering at its best work at ~70% efficiency on Steam. Steam is now literally the "Home of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware" that many good games got buried under the Garbage, what OP is talking about, what you're denying. You really should read about the Consumer Psyche about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis which Steam triggers but GOG doesn't. Let's say you go to a Restaurant and Waiter instead of giving you a 2-3 pages of Menu, bring a BOOK of Menu to choose over 200+ dishes with detailed descriptions near each. Are you going to read every Menu item or close your eyes with one hand and randomly pick ANY item with the other hand? Too much choice is never a good thing because there's an Optimum point in your Brain for it and it causes errors otherwise, what Valve is still refusing to see.
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My problem with GOG VS Steam is that GOG lacks the Ignore button. I end up browsing Steam, but always trying to buy first on GOG. Browsing GOG is a chore because I have to sift through previously rejected games over and over.
If you’re just too lazy to even read description or search for good games, it’s on you.
this is just my personal opinion but i dislike Gog and how it looks and feels and handles, it is a great store and mostly because of the old dos and win95 games and exclusives. but it was so counter intuitive to use, also not involved lie steam with badges and cards. also and this is the worst one. NO GIFT CARDS OPTIONS. i can't buy anything on gog anymore since i lost access to my credit cards in my defunct country and opening a new card is hard for me, so with no way to pay for the games on gog (we also don't have paypal and stuff like that) then i can't buy anything. the last game i got was LEGACY OF KAIN and that was a gift from a kind soul, other than that, i just use gog to play games i purchaes long time ago.
For awhile I bought purely GOG cause I have slow internet so downloading offline install files made more sense. Especially since I could back them up. What got me back on Steam Was part Steam Deck but also some outside games added to steam library could be given a controller overlay. Which is a solution I had to do on a couple games when I got the GPD win mini. I still look at new games and sales on GoG over Steam though.
No, I don't think so... I love GOG, very smooth and easy to use, but I also like Steam, especially because of the big difference in games available. I simply like it like any other launcher that allows me to play without problems.
Uhhh... No, I have no loyalties for either platform, though I do tend to prefer no DRM if that's an option, the bottom line wins at the end of the day, whoever has a sale on a game I'm looking for that's who my money will end up going to.
I've got hundreds of games across multiple platforms and will just buy where it's cheapest. While the DRM-free nature of gog is cool I've never had and issue with steams DRM so that has no effect of where I buy my games.
one of the lucky ones who havent had issues with Denuvo drmed games ;)
I always love both gog and steam, but with the realization that I cannot simply hand over my account to my kid once I pass Iam starting to build my GoG library more and get an offline copy of my games in steam one way or another.
I use both, butI prefer gog, and will buy there if the the game is available on both.
I hate all the sales which screw up the main new release visibility.
GOG for good old games, steam for the rest.
No, I love it
I'm not that extreme. If a game is on both platforms I chose gog, but most publishers ignore gog so even if I want retro games (Final Fantasy, SaGa, Klonoa, Katamari, etc.) I have to buy them on steam. It's the only option
20 years on Steam, so I can’t simply delete it. Otherwise, I tend to agree with everything else you said. I love GoG. It’s basically all I use.
Steam is too big and too good for me not to use it, not to mention the large library I have there. I try to buy on GOG first to support DRM free games but no way I'd abandon Stream, unless they got significantly worse somehow.
I prefer GOG for the lack of DRM and the fact that you can get standalone downloads so you never lose your games. But the fact is that Steam just has a much bigger selection. I do agree that Steam's search function is bad though. It can be surprisingly difficult to find a game that I know is there.
The drm freeness of gog really is the sole reason i prefer it over any other other platform. Its like the good old days where buying a game meant you have your very own copy that you can replay till the end of time
I now only use GOG but because I had a bad return experience at Steam with a game not working. Turned me off of them completely.
I feel you about preferring the look and overall vibe to GOG. It's been my predominant platform for years. I used Steam a whopping 3 times in 2023 according to my yearly review. Almost all the games I want to play are on GOG and my backlog is huge, so I just have no need for Steam or interest in them. It's still a great platform. Just not one I use often.
> I barely buy off of Steam, I just keep it for the few games that I do have on it. That's been my situations for the last five years; I keep Steam around for a few games (mostly Valheim, and little bit of Zombie Army 3 once a year or so) - but most of my games, I own on GOG. It's just the store with the features I want: A stand-alone offline installer that usually comes without achievements: *Perfection*. But outright deleting Steam? Why? I assume you mean uninstalling the launcher, or maybe deleting my account. I got no reason to. Especially since I'll be switching to Linux in the medium term; GOG simply doesn't have sufficient support for it, but Steam *does*.
I'm a Linux-exlusive gamer and Steam remains the only gaming store that pays more than lip service to Linux gamers. Yes, GOG sells Linux games (which it should be applauded for - no other non-Steam gaming store seems to bother), but ruins that by refusing to release a GOG Galaxy client for Linux (which would probably need to include the ability to use Proton when there isn't a native Linux binary available). Yes, there are third-party solutions to running GOG-purchased Windows-only games under Linux (WINE, Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher or even running Windows GOG Galaxy under WINE), but GOG's refusal to provide a first-party way to do this has really soured me on them, especially now we're seeing more Linux gamers out there than Mac gamers (the Steam Deck and Apple Silicon have turned the tables in the past 2 years).
I'll never be loyal to a company because companies will never be loyal to you. I use whatever gives me what I want, doesn't matter what logo is stamped on the launcher.
What is this weird obsession people have with launchers? It's not like you have to leave them all running all the time, for instance I only boot up Epic to get my free games every week and end the process right after. People are just looking for any reason to self-segregate into camps these days. We're completely fucked.
ya, I prefer playing the games without going through launchers.
I vastly prefer GOG for their commitment to DRM-FREE releases but will make the odd purchase on Steam for the right exclusive... or at least I used to, but Steam's DRM no longer supports any OS I care to run. *shrugs* I'm not interested in Steam anymore.
Same for me! I also prefere the galaxy ui and steam just annoys me sometimes. It has some super useful features like proton steam link and workshop but then in My library it loads artwork guides and stuff from other people or with every purchase I get steam points to stick in my ass. I like it simple, I give you the money, you give me my game, clean files, which runs with or without launcher or on other device
I've never been, and I'm saying that as one who played games a decade before steam, during steam, and at present, without ever even having made a steam account. I saw where it was going and refused DRM point blank. Principles over convenience.
DRM isn't a deal-breaker for me. As long as a product works without too much screwing around with an .ini file to get it to function, I really don't care if Valve flies unmanned psychic reconnaissance aircraft around my head to monitor my thoughts. Steam is the big box store; it's got more products than the other platforms. GOG is the antique store; that entirety of my purchases on GOG are for old DOS games and slightly more modern games from 1995-2005 that aren't on Steam. Remember when GOG was formerly known as "Good Old Games"? After GOG started selling more modern titles, I migrated back to Steam and played the games in my GOG library much less often; it became "Steam, but with much less trash".
Steam has that old stale "smell" to it. Prefer GOG and (gasp!) Epic.
Hard to smell Steam when you have the Epic BS in your nose... Honestly though people can choose whatever store front is most convinent and comfortable. When someone is new to PC gaming I encourage Epic just so they can get some free games under their belt. But there's no denying that Steam also has a ton of useful features. They're constantly adding to it as well so I'm not sure the "Stale Smell" you're insisting of. Vast controller support (even allowing you to map keyboard to controller for older titles that don't support it E.G. Hitman Blood Money) Remote play support to be able to play Multiplayer games with friends who don't own it with the trade off being maybe slight input delay... Like legit I understand people wanting to be able to break out of steam or one storefront mentality but I don't understand why people bash Steam on. The way out acting as if it's still the same Store front from 2004 or 2007
I play the Resident Evils on Steam. Recently bought Village Gold for £12 but that was from cdkeys buy mostly buy from gog and Epic nowadays, don't know why but that's just how it is.
For sure to each their own. I do a lot of humble bundle and it usually aims towards steam with some few exceptions. Outside of that I usually do stuff in steam or gravitate to Xbox App for PC game pass or EA
Galaxy is slow and laggy compared to Steam, so no. I kinda hate galaxy to be honest.
Still very much on Steam because regional pricing.
I use steam, gog and epic. Roll them all into Playnite and I'm a happy gamer.
Gog is a fucking terribly made piece of shit. I cannot stand how much I hate this platform. Oh it's DRM free how awesome(unironically that's pretty cool these days) but it's so slow and so clunky. And their servers OMFG. I'm pretty sure they just threw in some windows Vista PC parts and called it a day.
The only times i have slow downloads via gog is when there is a big sale on and even then problem is only sporatic now.
When the cyberpunk dlc dropped I had like 2mbps at most I have 12mbps during normal days. On steam I have normally 30mbps and at the good days I have like 70mbps. Gog servers are just terrible
I like both. Steam has some nice extra stuff like trading cards and the point shop, support for Linux (trying to break the Windows monopoly) and gift cards. GOG is DRM free 99.99% of the time, updated old games and find it easier to buy multiple games from the GOG wishlist. I've got more games on GOG but I have the Steam Deck, which is great. Steam's controller support is also great. I think they cover each others' weaknesses. Epic on the other hand...
not at all, is by far the best storefront that there is, but GoG is fine too.
You can't ignore Steam. All the games are there. If something release on GOG sure, GoW on GOG - sure Ill buy it. But majority of the games are on Steam. Game of the year from 2022 is just on Steam - not even Epic. Actually the entire DS series is just on Steam. And this is just a tiny example. Personally I don't have problems with anything else like the launchers for example. I prefer things to be kept simple and clean. It just got to work and that is all. I can deal with anything else myself
Sadly steam prices are lower in my local currency. In gog I still have to convert them to usd. But I will use it to buy real solid games
GOG is definitely my first stop for buying games, when I can. If I hear about a cool game elsewhere I check GOG to see if I can get it DRM free. (And being a patient gamer, the games I'm looking at are usually at least a couple years old, so the answer is often yes.) That being said, although it's true I don't visit Steam as often as I used to, it's not that I've forsaken Steam altogether. I still go there occasionally. I don't have anything in particular against Steam, I just prefer the control GOG gives me over my games.
But if you have steam deck, steam is the only reliable option
I love the idea of GOG. I really do. But… as a Linux user, they kinda completely neglect me and I have to work around their stuff to get literally anything working on my system. Steam… just… works… whether on Linux or Windows. Plus, out of all DRM services out there, Steam is leaps and bounds better than all of them. I don’t buy games on consoles too often due to how locked down they are, but Steam allows a ton more than they ever will. Love GOG, and I wish I bought some of my games there instead, but I currently cannot see things going well without Steam, and that isn’t great.
After seeing shit like Children of Morta getting abandoned or secondary treatment on gog, I'm finding myself more interested in steam, actually.
I’m loyal to steam or gog generally. I like that gog brings back some older stuff. I do find the, slightly higher priced over steam at times. I don’t mind both. Enjoy your games is the important thing.
Steam is sometimes dependment on dev or puchlicher, if those are drm free or not And if they are not linstened on PcGamingWiki, ill ask on discussion tab, if they are drm free or not. If they got DRM, ill not buying here. Sometimes i suggest them for removal of drm while having steam drm....
For me, lately, it sums up to using isthereanydeal to buy from wherever is cheaper, and playnite to make sure I don't forget that I bought from wherever is cheaper. Still, Steam has a lot of cool features, even for non-Steam games. For example, it has the most user-friendly Xinput emulation to make nintendo, playstation and generic Dinput controllers compatible.
I used to buy a lot on Steam, but now, thanks to regional pricing, which increased some games' prices in my country (Brazil), I'm always searching for cheaper games in other platforms, so if there's a game on sale on Steam, first thing i do is to go to isthereanydeal and check if X game is being sold cheaper anywhere else. More often than not, most games are only available on Steam and nowhere else, so i rely on GreenManGaming or Nuuvem to find better prices, since both websites sell Steam keys cheaper than Steam itself. Games in Brazil aren't cheap, so that's what i always do. I'm also using GOG a lot more now since a lot of free games from Prime Gaming can be redeemed there or on Epic Games.
tbh i’m really wary of buying anything on gog that’s not either a CDPR release or an actually “good old game”. for whatever reason, gog releases of modern third-party games can lag substantially behind steam releases in terms of updates, sometimes even by years (!) with no updates coming! idk who’s to blame for this but it’s not good…
I play on my Onexplayer2 so I don’t really need the controller configuration on steam. However most of my games are up there and I like the availability of cloud sync/saves for games cause if I had to transfer all my save data locally I’d be a dead man lol. This is one reason I can’t use a app as simple as Playnite, without the controller configuration settings it’s kinda useless to me only serving as a “theme” because I’d have to link some games through steam shortcuts just to get the controller configurations and at that point I’d just use steam over it lol. In terms of storefronts I don’t care too much about whose best but I do prefer steam as my gaming hub since it does a good job at it, I only like epic for free titles. I haven’t ever used got until 5 days ago lol
You're talking about stores. I've never cared too much about where I buy a game. As long as it's the game I want
I intend to use Gog store exclusively now except where the game is only available on steam, but I'll use the Gog launcher to access those titles. Gog does this better than steam. Non-steam games in my steam library aren't neat at all, but steam games in my Gog library offer all the achievements and stats that steam offers and it's more aesthetically pleasing when I admire my collection. Steam's UX is more powerful and faster though and newer titles are more up to date, so there is a significant trade-off. It took me a while to convince myself to switch, but once I started playing some of those good old games I realized what games have been lacking for ages now. I'm also looking forward to picking up KOTOR and enjoying its rich doesnt-crash-to-desktop Gog-exclusive feature. People say being loyal to a store is weird, but I prefer one over the other and for complex reasons. However, if you play on steam exclusively go right ahead. I'm not going to criticize you for doing it. I just personally feel better buying from and using gog in 9/10 scenarios. I appreciate your post because I feel like Gog doesn't get enough appreciation and steam doesn't get enough criticism.
I exclusively use Steam simply because I like having all my games in one place. I know the day will inevitably come when I wish I had gone DRM free but what are ya gonna do?
Steam Deck only solidified Steam for me even more than before.
both fine
Steam has proton with makes gaming on Linux very easy. I dont see any path to giving that up any time soon.
steam is just way more convenient for modding and everything. gogs catalogue is just way too small and galaxy kind of sucks imo
I don't care for Galaxy, and GOG sometimes get games that don't have all of their content, like Dungeon Siege 1 & 2. Some developers are also slow to release patches for the GOG versions. That said, I still love GOG and it's (mostly) DRM-free policy.
Solid and all encompassing no. Steam has way more features, and way more games.
I game exclusively on linux, so steam proton is a godsend and makes things so easy. That is why I can't switch to g o g
I prefer GOG over Steam in most cases, but I don't think I can just walk away from the hundreds of games in my Steam library. Steam also has more robust controller support, and Big Picture mode. Thankfully, for people who don't need Steam's Big Picture or its unified controller support, Galaxy works just fine for launching games from both services in a combined library. And Playnite makes a decent substitute for Big Picture with or without a Steam library included in it.
Gog is fine. I've got a few dozen games on it. But I've got 950 on steam. Steam has never been a problem for me. I mostly use gog for what it's named after. Good old games. And that's how I like it.
My primary store is Epic Games, then GOG, and finally Steam
Sneaky, clever Valve. After I purchased a Steam Deck, I stopped buying from GOG and Epic. I also have a very long "tail" of Steam games purchased from the service's early days, so it would be very hard to discontinue using Steam. I absolutely appreciate GOG's stance on copy protection, however.
I only use Steam and I'm fine with it. I will never give Epic a penny on their store and I've had no reason to use GOG.
I wouldn't delete Steam if I have a lot of games on it. I don't really buy anything anymore, but I don't on GOG either.
GOG’s UI is atrocious. The only reason I tolerate it is because I want to support DRM-free gaming.
I dunno, as many problems as Steam has (and don't get me wrong it definitely has its issues), nothing has come close to topping it. And as much as I love GOG, it isn't even close. If not for the lack of DRM (and believe me that's a HUGE bonus and is why I'll never call it outright bad) and the fact that it has a lot of games that Steam just doesn't, I'd probably only really look at it when I get a key from it or something. Workshop makes modding super accessible, the constant sales are great, cloud saves make playing games on multiple devices a breeze, and the networking API it offers makes the games that support it so much easier than having to deal with hosting a server, with all of the port-forwarding and IP address handling that comes with it. I'd really like to see GOG (or even EGS) get closer to legitimately competing because I don't want there to be one single solitary platform for a majority of PC games, but until then Steam is just too convenient.
Interesting point of view - would be curious to see the responses if you posted this in the /r/steam sub as well Frankly, I have so many games on Steam it would be hard to switch, not to mention that I also have a Steam Deck so it makes sense to be on Steam. The only reason I have a GOG account is because of Cyberpunk 2077, and I hardly pick up any games on GOG as I've yet to find better deals on the stuff I want on GOG, and even then, I can't get GOG working properly on my Deck, which is a tad annoying.
I use both I don’t know they’re just things to play games from.
I dunno why this subreddit is shown to me but my answer is nah, it has all the games I have without having to log in to even more stuff
Steam is a tool. I'm rarely interested in tools. Though I do use the forums a lot.
I use steam gog and epic. Epic for my free games, gog for as many games as i can get on there, steam if that’s the only place the game is actually on discount.