Isn’t the DRM provided by Steam optional? Like, the developer/publisher is the one ultimately in control of whether or not its used. And plenty of games on Steam do not use it.
The percentage that do not use DRM on Steam is insignificant, around 4%. That leaves 96% that do use DRM.
I really hope it’s the article writer calling Steam the “devil” of DRM, because if the new owner is going to frame Steam in such a way, it makes me think they don’t even understand what they’re competing with…
“Steam is winning with its ease of use,” he says. “In that regard, I think much can be done in GOG without losing its core values and the way it operates in general.”
Yeah, not really. Ease of use is part of it but I would argue GoG is equally easy. Steam also has a breadth of features for users.
More importantly, as it pertains to GoG, Steam allows DRM.
This is a fundamental problem for GoG. Publishers want DRM. Consumers largely don’t care. For that reason, Steam has a much larger library, especially for big AAA titles. Every game that’s on GoG is also on Steam. They’ll always be the little guy catering to a niche market of consumers who demand DRM-free games. Get rid of that and we can start talking about ease of use and features.
Obviously, that’s not what I want, but if they want to compete with Steam, it’s what they’ll have to do.
You’re right that the AAA will be published on Steam first. And since people want to have all the games in one store, they will buy indie/AA/old games on Steam instead of Gog even if those titles exists on Gog.
But I still think it is better for Gog to stick with the DRM-free niche, people will not move away from Steam anyway as we have seen with Epic store.
