A new law has been passed in California which prohibits the use of words like "buy" and "purchase" on digital storefronts like Steam.
A new law has been passed in California which prohibits the use of words like "buy" and "purchase" on digital storefronts like Steam.
A new law has been passed in California which prohibits the use of words like "buy" and "purchase" on digital storefronts like Steam.
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I imagine GOG is exempt?
Probably not, sounds like it would apply to all digital store fronts. And a game from GOG could still become unavailable if it relies on game servers that are taken down.
If they did make an exception for stores like GOG, then some steam games would theoretically also be exempt because they don't use steam drm. So you could have some guys labelled "buy" and others labelled "get".
then some steam games would theoretically also be exempt because they don’t use steam drm.
I think the main difference that would arise between these and GOG would be the provision of installers. Even though some Steam games don't use its DRM, they're still reliant on Valve's servers and an online connection for installation. GOG games are reliant on CD Projekt's servers and an online connection for installer downloads, but upon download completion, one may install and reinstall games even while offline.
That's a critical difference in digital distribution, in my opinion.
That's true. The drm-free steam games can usually have their install directories moved around freely between computers, but it's true there isn't an installer program provided outside of the steam client itself.
Why would they be? They sell games, and have a storefront and launcher.
Because I can download and save installers for GOG games and install them without needing to connect to GOG at all. It's more akin to buying physical media than it is to Steam or other storefronts.
You still need your gog account to download games though. And they have multiplayer games anyways.
It's far better that it applies to everyone.
You still need your gog account to download games though.
I need an account to make the purchase and download, but I can then delete my account and keep the installers on a hard drive.
And you can delete steam and still play the games on your computer.
GOG guarantees that every game is DRM free and can be offline. Steam makes no such guarantees, and most games there will ship with some form of DRM.
No most games do not have drm. You can play most games on steam without launching steam.
I don't even understand why you guys are trying to argue. This new law should absolutely include every game store on the Internet.
Out of the non-free games 2/6 platinum games have DRM. 8/9 gold games have drm. And that's ignoring DRM via being live service game without support for self hosting server (a big portion if you also check the silver games).
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/BestOf2023?tab=1
Disclaimer, I used perplexity.ai to ask if each individual game included drm or not. Ignoring DRM that is one time verification and support offline play.
This new law should absolutely include every game store on the Internet.
If you buy a game on GOG, you can download the game and put it on 100 USB sticks and sell each one of them with a fully working copy for perpetuity. You buy the game on GOG. Just because the shop may go down doesn't mean you lose your product.
But there's no installer, so I can't reinstall it on another device. With GOG I have an installer just like I'd have with physical media.
It doesn't matter. GoG should still be held responsible to the law. Every game store should be.
You dont need an account to launch the game, so you own it.
Same with steam. You don't need steam to play most of the games you buy.
It's talking about games that require an always on connection. You can save the installer for games like that, but the game still won't work if it can't phone home.
I'm well aware — that's the whole point of DRM-free games.
Gog doesn't* (as often?) sell licenses that can be revoked as part of purchasing eula and therefore shouldn't really have to remove the misleading 'buy' word.
Many steam games you don't own and aren't buying, you're being granted access that can be revoked by the property owner. That's not just steam.
*I'm not a big Gog or games purchaser in general so I'm not sure if that's accurate. I'm sure you get the point though.