Their tagline is literally ‘you buy it, you own it’. But does it really grants ownership?
No it doesn’t. It’s just a digital use license like in any other store. Here’s the relevant part from their User agreemet
We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a ‘license’) to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content
That is legally the same as any other store out there.
So why does GoG make a big fuss about that? Well, it’s mostly a PR stunt, but there is some truth to it. Games sold on GoG are, majorly, DRM-free (although not 100% of them, but close to it), this means that you can backup your game installer and install it and play it in the distant future even if GoG is no more. The reason why this is mostly a PR stunt is that you can do the same with most games from other stores as well, except you backup the game folder instead of the installer, because (and this is the part I think people always miss) if a game is on Gog and any other store it’s almost assuredly DRM free in ALL stores.
Don’t get me wrong, GoG is great and their policy on DRM is something that I think other companies should really imitate. But it’s not the be all and end all that some people make it out to be, and to me personally when I have to decide where to invest my money my choices are between a company that has a relatively decent DRM policy but doesn’t care for me as a customer, and a company that has literally spent millions making my gaming experience as a Linux user better, it’s a no contest. If I was on Windows I might consider buying more stuff from GoG because of their DRM policy, but being able to easily play games on Linux is more important for me than DRM.
They also do restoration on old games, to make them run fine on todays OS and hardware.
Recent example of me: Outcast A new beginning.guess i remembered wrong.What? How is a game from 2024 old? Also how is GoG involved in that at all?
Edit: I’ve been reading on the story of that game, and I think I know what you meant.
While Outcast: a new beginning is a new game, you probably meant the OG outcast game, which is from 1999. There was a 4 year window where the original game was only available on GoG because they patched a community mod into it. But in 2014 1.1 version was released for Steam with some more improvements, and in 2017 the game was remade. GoG doesn’t seem to have been involved in either of those, only on the original 2010 re-release including the community mod as a built-in.
Edit: It’s amazing, GoG PR is so good that they get credit for removing DRMs from games they didn’t (and are DRM free elsewhere), being anti-DRM (while allowing DRM content and even producing some by some standards), and now they take credit for remakes and rebuilds they were not even involved in. I like GoG, but people give them way too much credit and it gets annoying.
Since the beginning of app stores and the release of Windows 8, Valve have seen the writing on the wall (see Apple v. Epic later) and realized they needed their own platform. It’s all about Steam OS.
The interests of Linux users and Valve merely coincide.
As for me, with a 99% single player games library, the most important thing is no mandatory launcher and no updates. Click, boom, I’m in the game.
So using GOG when possible.The interests of Linux users and Valve merely coincide.
I’m not naive, I don’t think that Valve is doing anything out of the goodness of their heart. But they’re investing on something I care about, so me giving them money is an indirect way to invest in that.
As for me, with a 99% single player games library, the most important thing is no mandatory launcher and no updates. Click, boom, I’m in the game.
So using GOG when possible.Mostly agree (except I don’t mind updates, you can always play without updating if you want to), and the fact that that’s my experience with Steam is a big part of why I buy from them. I can go from not owning a game to play it with just a few controller buttons, whereas with GoG I would have to:
- Plug a mouse and keyboard to my gaming rig
- Install a browser on that machine
- Navigate to the website and download the installer
- Figure out a good wine version to use and create a new profile for the game
- Install any needed wine tricks to that profile
- Manually create a shortcut for that game using that wine profile
- Add the shortcut to some third party UI to be able to navigate to it with a controller
So yeah, the whole “click, I’m in the game” only works on Windows, which is why I said I can understand Windows users preferring GoG.
I should have been clearer, I don’t mind the initial configuration, it’s the subsequent launches I want to be instant. That’s the feature I find most excellent on the Steam Deck: instant resume. You pick up your console because you have 15mn to kill and actually game 15mn.
This has not been my experience with Steam on desktop however. I don’t game everyday, and not all my games were on Steam (when I was still using it semi regularly), and I would invariably wait for Steam to update, followed by the various utilities and the games. And if it was a new machine, having to remember where to disable the damn ad popup …
With a fast Internet and playing often I’m sure it’s way less of an issue.
Oh and when I had network problems and it would take a long time before going in offline mode every time.you can always play without updating if you want to
Can you? I never saw a straightforward way to do this.
I still have a partition running Windows for modded Skyrim, and the cardinal rule is never ever run it from Steam in case there’s been an update, which would mess up the modlist.My other issue is ideological: I don’t think they do anything unethical but I don’t like having this private company’s always online closed source software running in the background on my computer.
Clearly people are happy with Steam, and as far as companies go it’s an okay one. I won’t argue with the AIO buying, installing, and the myriad of features.
However installing on Linux really isn’t that hard anymore.- Install the GoG (or Epic for the free stuff) game from Heroic Launcher
- Play.*
Heroic is a better experience for installing, but I prefer Lutris, paired with lutris-gamepad-ui when not using keyboard and mouse. I made a little script to launch it when I turn on my controller, and turn off the controller when I quit. I’m in a game in a few seconds, even if I didn’t play in a month - when bluetooth doesn’t for some reason take 10s to connect
Even if some tinkering was needed, for a game I play often I would have spend less time waiting compared to using Steam.
*conditions may apply
I get your point, but here’s the thing, GoG has never given a cent to Lutris, Wine or Heroic, I know about those and the many others that came before such as PlayOnLinux. But those are not useful thanks to GoG, they’re useful despite it. If I have to use an open source tool to “emulate” a game, and another one to organize and manage my library, I’ll give those guys money and pirate the games and get the same experience a lot cheaper. Because, like Gabe Newell said, piracy is a service problem.
you can always play without updating if you want to
Can you? I never saw a straightforward way to do this.
I seem to remember a pop-up asking you whether you want to play without updating. Also I remember being able to stop a specific game from being updated by selecting the version to use in the settings, of course not all games use this, but the ones that accept mods usually do. I remember I had my CK2 pinned for a while because of mods.
I don’t think they do anything unethical but I don’t like having this private company’s always online closed source software running in the background on my computer.
I get that, but I only open Steam when I’m going to play something, so it’s not always online running in the background, and the vast majority of games I play are closed source so that’s a moot point
Can you transfer your games legally to another person?
There is your answer.
Yes. So does buying it on Steam, or anywhere else.
Anyone claiming otherwise is LYING TO YOU.
Edit: apparently, some of y’all are misunderstanding me, so I’ll connect the dots for you more explicitly:
- Anybody who claims that games are “licensed, not sold” is lying to you.
- Steam claims that games are “licensed, not sold.”
- Therefore, Steam is lying to you.
In case it somehow still isn’t clear, this is the exact fucking polar opposite of “shilling for Steam!”
The bottom line is this: nobody – not GOG, not Steam, not brick-and-mortar stores – gets to somehow ignore or override Federal laws like copyright law and the Uniform Commercial Code. And THE LAW SAYS that when you buy a copy of a copyrighted work, you own that copy!
Steam can lie to you and try to frustrate your ability to exercise your property rights, but that does not mean you don’t have them!
You are arguing from the rights consumers are supposed to have. Everyone else is arguing from the rights consumers do have. Hope this clears up the confusion for you.
Just because a right is infringed upon doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Moreover, being subjugated under tyranny doesn’t mean you should accept the rhetorical framing of the tyrant!
Technically no, it still grants you a license like any other store. In practice it’s a bit closer to ownership than what you get with other stores, as GOG does not have the ability to take your games away once you have downloaded them and you can do whatever you want with the files. But you’re not legally allowed to sell your copy for example.
In the Germany you are allowed to sell it, however no platform has implemented this and nobody fought for it yet. But there are several verdicts regarding this.
I’ve been laughed at for this before, but I feel like this is exactly what NFTs could be used for. You could resell it and you’d lose the access to the game. I really feel like this would make digital game ownership a thing, without “akshully it’s a license”
You know what, that’s the most sense I think I ever heard regarding nft. However it breaks at two points.
For one the software itself needs to be dongled with this, which brings a lot of issues and dependencies.
The other thing is the nft cryptography needs to be safe and reliable ‘forever’. Cryptography is ever evolving so it might be okay for now, but who knows, especially with quantum processing supposedly close by, for how long.
Functionally, yes. Legally, no.
Can you transfer your game to someone else? If not, then its not functionally yes either.
You can just copy the installer and send it to them, so functionally it works. What you can’t do is transfer the license which means legaly no just as the comment said.
So i cant sell it, therefore not functional
Put the installer on a usb drive (or a cd if you’re cool) and hand it over to the person you want to “transfer” it to. Physical media, like the good old days. Except it’s better because all the drm is gone.
You’ve never owned software in your life. Everything you’ve ever purchased is a license to use software. Even when you had physical media. Even when you own a disc or a cartridge.
Even FOSS.
If a company wanted to revoke it, it would be illegal for you to use that physical media. Enforcing it would be pretty unrealistic, but they could sue you for copyright infringement if they revoked your license and then found out you used it anyway.
That’s complete bullshit:
Software I’ve written is owned by me.
Open-source licenses (F/LOSS) mostly cannot be revoked.
Public domain exists.
