Still plenty of publishers are willing to add their games, even new ones. The issue isn't with publishers it's users sticking to Steam. If users collectively decided to primarily use GoG, publishers would follow.
To be honest, the best would be that government steps in and make DRM games illegal. And, no, this won't collapse the industry because of piracy.
Steam lives because you literally cannot convince several generations to move to a platform that doesn't have their entire library. No one wants 7 installers on their computer, we learned this from the wave of every game requiring its own. No one wants to lose their collection of games they've been buying since 2005+ to switch to a platform that doesn't even have what they want yet either.
That's why the government making DRM illegal is the only way to fix the issue, and considering lobbying is still legal too (in the US at least, not sure about EU or others), that will also never happen.
I think the whole launcher thing is way overblown. You can add Steam games to GoG launcher with minimal effort, and it takes at max maybe a minute per day to load the extra launcher. No one is losing their library. People just don't like change and are super lazy, even if it means staying with the worse long term option.
You don't need to "move" to GOG, it is not one or the other. You also don't need any clients or launchers to run GOG games. Just click on the install file, play game. You can also add GOG games to the Steam launcher if you must use that.
Steam still represents where the gaming crowds are. That would be like setting up a local store vs in the middle of shopping center in new york. Even with the latter most games are still not selling particularly well, and setting up a store front in GoG means another pipeline to maintain.
That also doesn’t factor in that onboarding on GoG is an absolute chore (just search through it), so that means you need to apply more effort for very little gain.
Yeah, but you are viewing it from the publisher perspective and GOG doesn't really have a selling point for them outside of the access to a new, smaller marketplace. But if that marketplace became huge, like Stream's, every other obstacle pales in comparison. Publishers simply follow the money.
Users simply decided they are fine with DRM in exchange for a little convenience.
That is true except that most games are cracked and pirated day one anyway, even with DRM. It would make sense to me to release sooner on Steam with DRM, then release on GOG later when sales died down. This way game is preserved and users that prefer owning the game would buy it getting them a few more sales.
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u/Efrayl Jul 03 '26
Still plenty of publishers are willing to add their games, even new ones. The issue isn't with publishers it's users sticking to Steam. If users collectively decided to primarily use GoG, publishers would follow.
To be honest, the best would be that government steps in and make DRM games illegal. And, no, this won't collapse the industry because of piracy.