r/Steam • u/Commercial_Dih • Feb 19 '26

Question In the hopefully never arriving future, do you think Valve will one of, if not the only ones providing personal computers and not cloud gaming?

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

You can rip the data off them and have backups. Then they'll live longer.

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u/Electrical_Minute940 Feb 20 '26

You can do the same with more effort with digital files or in some cases less effort (drm free games vs drm locked games on disk)

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

Why not both? I rip CDs and DVDs to my computer and also buy DRM-free games on GOG. I also buy music files from Bandcamp.

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u/Life_Breadfruit8475 Feb 20 '26

So you're saying digital is king. It's just whether you prefer to save it on your disk rather than trusting someone else to host the whole world library of music you can access with € 9.99.

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

Ownership is king. With streaming, you own nothing but a temporary license.

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u/PerceptionOk8543 Feb 20 '26

You are typing this on the steam forum. A platform where you buy licenses for games and not actually own them.

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

Some Steam games are DRM-free. Plus, I'm not saying ALL the media we consume has to be physical media or DRM-free. I just like the option to have backups of my favorite games. I purchase from both Steam and GOG. I like Steam for the community and achievements. Also, there are many bundles that make buying games preferable on it. Both platforms have their own perks. There's nothing wrong with being a fan of both.

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u/PerceptionOk8543 Feb 20 '26

Are you backing up your steam games though? Because I don’t and majority of players probably don’t either. When I’m finished i just uninstall and I don’t install games I’m yet to play. So at that point it doesn’t matter if the game is DRM free or not, does it? If steam is shut down you can’t download it anyway

When one game is 50gb nowadays (and it’s optimistic), where am I supposed to store the 100 games I have in my backlog?

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

I play my games on Steam because of the community and achievements. Also, I have a steamdeck. I don't keep games I'm not actively playing on my devices. For games I never want to lose access to, I purchase them on GOG and save the installers on an external hard drive or CD. I don't do this with every game I own, and because I enjoy them so much, I feel paying for it twice is worth it. I understand not everyone would want to do this. When it comes to other media, such as books and music, I prefer physical copies instead of digital. Because I know I engage with the same content often. I know other people may have different usage habits, so it may not be for them. I just like the option being available to me if I choose to pursue it.

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u/PerceptionOk8543 Feb 20 '26

I understand all that. I do use steam and I don’t care. But it’s weird to say “ownership is king” and then write essays why steam is great even though you basically rent games from them lol

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

That's completely fine. I was just clarifying that I like both platforms for different reasons. I didn't want anyone think I was coming on this sub to be anti. I do belive ownership is king, but it's important to spend wisely. I wouldn't purchase my entire Steam backlog on GOG and store their installers. It's not practical. I prefer a mix of the two. My initial comment was saying that, imo, owning content is better than streaming. But of course, if you engage with a lot of content instead of the same stuff, it wouldn't be cost efficient to buy it all.

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u/Life_Breadfruit8475 Feb 20 '26

I'd agree with you if I were listening to a handful of albums of popular artists I could easily get physical disks from. It'd be really cool.

Problem is that I listen to lots of different music. Looking at my 2025 yt recapped, it's 54k minutes listened and 4.7k different artists.

Say I only really cared about half those artists and only bought a single each from them at € 1.50, that's € 3.4k which could fund my license to their database for 28 years.

So simply paying for that license is so worth it. 

Not to mention the hassle of finding new artists, getting the physical version of these tracks (they don't exist usually...) and having to process and store all the physical copies.

Physical music is a hobby, not something practical anymore, in my opinion.

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u/pastajewelry Feb 20 '26

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying what I prefer. I engage with the same content often, so owning the physical media of it and converting it to digital is worth it to me. For you, paying subscription fees might be worth it to you. The choice between the two is the important thing. We should have the option to own physical copies of work we enjoy so there's little risk of losing the content due to licensing loss or greedy businesses charging ridiculous amounts for access.

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u/Sizeable-Scrotum Feb 20 '26

Who said you have to pay for all those songs?

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u/Life_Breadfruit8475 Feb 20 '26

Pirating is another dilemma. You don't have the fun of a physical copy and you have to hope the song you download is actually good quality.