GOG reportedly suffering from staff turnover and poor management: “Current business model is likely running out of steam” : games

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How is that different from backing up the game folder on steam? In both cases it's true that:

You're not doing anything illegal at the moment you do it
You can use it to play the game on a different computer (as long as the game is DRM free which is not granted on either platform)
The company (Valve/GOG) can't remotely erase your copy
If the company removes the license from you your backup is now technically illegal but it's unlikely to be enforced

I fail to see how GOGs approach is any different, they still sell you a license and you're backing up the installer in case the license gets removed and/or you're forbidden from redownloading the game.

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So you can just pop that folder on any computer and run it, without installing Steam and without a Steam account?

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On most games yes, like I said before I've copied games from my computer to others to play in lan to convince friends to buy a game.

Then there are badly implemented games, where you need to either delete the steam library from the game folder or replace it with an open implementation.

And the rest are the ones that have DRM (which are not available on GOG anyways so they don't matter for this discussion).

[–] RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Actually, some games have DRM on steam and have a DRM free version on GOG. I even saw a game that had a DRM free epic and gog edition but the steam version had DRM. Might be a edge case, but still exists

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yes, there are a couple of corner cases, I know of 1. But what I stated is still true as a general rule.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago

What they mean is that technically you still are being granted a license to use it. The same was true for things like DVD movies. They're technically correct, but missing the point.

[+] woelkchen@lemmy.world -19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

GoG Vault would disagree with you on that.

They are free to disagree on laws but they are still bound by them.

You can download the full installers and keep them, nobody can take them away or disable it remotely

That's true but if your license is revoked, you're illegally in possession of the game assets.

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's not how it works but hey, you do you

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It 100% is how it works. Read that EULA next time you install one of those games via the installer you downloaded from gog.

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah & we still get to keep the installers, but hey I seriously do get your point

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

It’s less clear than you say.

In principle the First-sale doctrine should apply but it has not caught up with reality yet.

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

and?

Games

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