Do you prefer to buy games on Steam or GOG?
Do you prefer to buy games on Steam or GOG?
On the one hand I like GOG because it has no DRM and has better prices (in my country) than Steam and I have the feeling that on the one hand it follows more the open source philosophy than Steam itself, but Steam has helped enormously to play Windows games on Linux, so I haven't really made up my mind.
On the one hand I want to buy on Steam for the convenience, but on the other hand I prefer GOG because (in my country) is cheaper. Which platform do you prefer and why?
To give an example, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is currently $15 on Steam with regional pricing, but on GOG it's worth just $6.
I'm all-in on Steam, but I like that GOG exists and I hope it sticks around.
I buy keepers on GOG and then place them on separate drives. On Steam i buy stuff I'm ok with losing. It's one Gabe away from exploitation shenanigans.
I've given up on GOG. No linux client means the whole process of installing/launching games is rather tedious. Also linux game dependencies can be annoying to resolve
Steam on the other hand just handles everything. If it doesn't work at first, it probably will with proton.
I'd love to support an anti-DRM store, but it's tough when there is so much friction when actually playing the games
Steam, I can install the Steam client without any problems on moat distros, also Valve has done a lot of things to make the Linux gaming better.
Gog doesn't have a desktop app for Linux, they're focused totally Windows so I don't care about it.
If I want "DRM free" games, then I pay for the original version with DRM and then pirate it to play whenever I want.
GOG, because I don't care about badges and achievements and other trinkets, but I do care about DRM
800 games on Steam, 200 on GoG. I love the DRM free stuff, but Steam has so many great features its on a whole other level to be honest.
+Steam deck and Linux support is a huge positive.
GoG Galaxy is great, but also doesn't have a Linux client, which makes it less convenient. Still GoG has so many gems not available anywhere else that I am willing to split my game library just for the classics.
A long time ago I finally pulled down my Jolly Rogers and stored my eye patch, due to GoG, since one of the biggest gripes I had with games (all the way back to the 90s) was the DRM in the official bought versions and all hassle and problems it caused (but not in the pirated ones, which made them a superior product) and GoG's principle since the very beginning was "No DRM" and they never wavered on that.
I also have the practice of downloading the installers for my games and keeping local copies - which GoG lets you easily do but Steam does not - since a long time ago and due to professional experience I became aware that if you don't have it in your hands you risk losing it for some stupid reason and now the problem is yours (are you really willing pay what it takes to take it to Court?) whilst if you do have it and they want to take it from you, it's up to them to justify it in a Court of Law (and, lo-and-behold, when they have to prove it rather than just update a row in a database to say you don't own it, suddenly it's not worth it for them anymore). I would say the various instances of shops closing and taking the user's entire (supposedly bought) collection or even just shops outright taking eBooks and films from the collections users had hosted with them and totally getting away with it have more than proven my caution on that.
I did eventually also got Steam and bought some games from them up until the point when a game I bought would not work and they refused to refund it (because I only got around to try it out more than a month after I bought it), at which point I stopped buying games from Steam (curiously, when I moved to Linux I tried that game out again and under Linux it works). Even without that, with Steam I'm always wary because they have more restrictions than GoG and possession of my games in Steam is theirs, not mine.
Anyways, my GoG collection is many times the size of my Steam collection, I'll always favor buying a game from GoG over Steam if available in both (even if I pay a bit more for it in GoG, as the way I see it a game for which I can download the installer and keep it forever is a higher value product than one were I have to trust Steam for ever and ever to exist, have a client for my OS and not do any shennenigans) and a game only being available in Steam makes it far, far less likely that I'll buy it.
My decision tree roughly follows these steps:
- Steam for games that have an online multiplayer content, because GoG Galaxy sucks ass on Linux.
- Steam for games that objectively run better on Proton.
- GoG for games that support LAN multiplayer.
I used to also prioritize GoG because it was largely DRM-free, but the Luna partnership is putting doubt on that.
I prefer GOG but not enough to not buy from Steam. And each store has its pros and cons.
As a single player gamer, I love the DRM free nature of GOG, especially for classic games like Rollercoaster Tycoon or SimCity 3000. I have older PCs lying around and being able to play my games on them is very very nice.
On the other hand, updating my game is a chore and GOG Galaxy while cool isn't polished, and very buggy especially only Linux via Wine. I wouldn't even consider online multiplayer games unless it had its own server.
Compared to Steam which works with Linux by default, no Lutris or Bottles configuring to get games to work. Updates are seamless and online multiplayer is built into the client. Let alone remote play, steam families, big picture, and all the other features it does.
My only gripe with Steam is the GIANT question mark on what happens to my games when they pull support. I mean I can't even play my older games any more on my old Windows 7 machine, and its not like Fallout 3 is getting updates.
So my priority is thus: GOG then Steam, if its single player and the price is similar (+-$10). Steam then GOG if it makes sense or I need steam features (I.e. I got Stardew Valley on Steam since my SO has it there too and we can play together). Finally if the game is around $5 get it on either, or maybe both if I like the game.
GOG if I can, because DRM freeness has to be rewarded as much as possible
whenever possible I buy games from Itch.io as some devs provide Steam keys alongside their source code and packaged versions for most (if not all) platforms which is usually: [Windows, Linux, Android]
Steam. Works on Linux.
First of all there's one huge misunderstanding I see lots of people making, Steam does not enforce DRM, some games on Steam are also DRM free and you can just copy the installed folder to another computer without steam and play them, in fact games that have DRM announce it in their page.
But also some games on GoG have DRM. So long story short, both Steam and GoG sell games with and without DRM, but only one of them tries to bullshit you about it.
I buy from Steam 100% of the time (except for games I get f on Humble Bundles or stuff like that), my reasoning is that the money I give to Valve is being invested in making games run better on Linux, and since I use Linux I have a vested interest in seeing Valve improve that. That being said, if I was in your shoes and games were half the price on GoG I might buy them from GoG, but the lack of an official Linux launcher and no cloud saves is still annoying so some games I might still get from Steam.
GOG is pretty great, but Valve and their love for Linux makes Steam my goto. Plus I have a Steam Deck.
I was all in on GOG 10-12 years ago when they said they were working on Linux support "soon"
After so many years of promises and no action, while Valve pays developers to improve Linux gaming, I'd rather buy from Steam
Prices tend to be similar between the platforms here, though
I strongly prefer GOG to the point where I often don't buy games that are not on GOG.
That being said, one reason to buy from Steam is steam workshop. So if I want a lot of mods, I may buy from Steam even when available on GOG.
When its cheap, I sometimes buy on GOG, but its almost always more expensive than Steam in my region, even before accounting for bundles, which is how I buy the majority of my games. It also doesn't help that most of the games I play aren't on even GOG, when I do go to look, discoverability isn't great, and I've had some issues with GOG's support in the past (nothing major, just a pain compared to Steam).
I do like the Idea of GOG, but with developers/publishers generally being uncooperative with publishing off-Steam, and GOG just missing too many features anyway, I can rarely justify it.
Steam simply due to the convenience and already having a ton of games there. Steam sales are nice too of course.
GOG is awesome, but more for older games or for games I want to play at a LAN. Like the good old days where you hang out with friends, throw a CD (or now USB stick) their way and ten minutes later you're playing together.
GOG for sure. Wish it had a native Linux client tho :(
I love GOG, and support GOG, especially when it comes to nostalgic old PC games... but... I love steam achievements, I love the Steam Deck, and I love seeing my gaming stats, like top 10 games played and such. So I default to Steam.
If its available on both, GOG. Always. Even if the game was $15 om gog and $6 on steam.
I play them through steam with Proton. It's tedious installing and adding the games, and updates are a similar manual process as installing them. But, I want to support DRM free software.
Edit: From the comments here... Hm, maybe it's not a well known thing that you can run gog games on steam w/Proton?
Usually Steam. I like the idea of GoG, but a lot of the time if you want mods you're basically forced to buy it on Steam because of the Workshop. Also, I kinda like having everything in one place.
You can add games to Steam to use proton so where they came from doesn't matter. You can also use Proton forks and bypass steam altogether - much of the underlying tech is Wine; proton is a patched and optimised version of Wine not a stand alone Valve product. Its great what they've done but it is still a collaborative open source effort.
As for which store, I go on price and sometimes go with GOG even if more expensive because of DRM, and sometimes Steam because of the convenience of the workshop.
I don't think it needs to be any more complex than that - these are company's taking your money for the same product. Its kinda pointless being "loyal" to a retailer - its more important to focus on value for money and quality of service for each purchase.
Mostly Steam, but if I get a hankering for an old DOS game I'll check for it on GOG before taking a boat out. Because GOG has it preconfigured in DOSBox when you buy it.
steam if multiplayer, since i have the client open all the time so it can update. I liek to have GOG handle single player experiences if possible and offered. though its really for me pricing, and generally speaking, 3rd party stores give me the better deal for steam keys. (not like g2a or anything, but like humble and shit)
Basically in the same as you, but Steam is cheaper in my country, and I have a larger library of modern games there thanks to Humble Bundle and friends gifting me games there
I buy multiplayer games on steam since that's where my friends are. I pirate almost everything else unless I want to support the developer (typically small indie games or high quality stuff like FromSoft). If I buy a game, I do prefer GOG but steam can be convenient, especially on Linux.
GOG is usually my first choice, mainly because its a european company and because of DRM. But I also try to not buy all of my games only on one store. You never know when it suddenly goes to shit and then all your games are trapped in that store.
I prefer Steam because of cheaper games in my country and because of service. All those reviews, tutorials and mods matter.
Steam bcs it's way easier for me to get a giftcard from my local store
If I ever purchase games, it do be Steam.
Used to buy on GOG because DRM free, but grew to dislike proprietary games altogether. Didn't want to be shackled to x86 anymore.