this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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Used to prefer GOG over Steam. GOG did nothing for Linux gamers though, they didn't even release their Galaxy client for Linux. Will prefer GOG over Steam again when this changes (they said recently they want to change this, but only after Valve has already invested a lot into making Linux gaming a real thing with almost zero friction). That's also basically the best thing that Valve has done - they really did help to make Linux gaming a reality, and Linux gaming is an important step towards toppling Windows' dominance. They deserve a lot of credit for that. But there are also plenty of other things that you can criticize about Steam.
If you're on Windows though, you should definitely always prefer GOG over Steam because it's DRM-free (you buy it, you own it). Of course, there are many more games only available on Steam, so it might not be possible all the time, but at least you should prioritize your choices.
We also have plenty of other monopoly problems, one of the biggest is YouTube.
I'm not really disagreeing with you, as with GOG you are guaranteed to get a DRM free game (and an installer which is better than Steam's backup, as it's guaranteed to work offline), but they still sell you just a revocable license.
How is the license revocable without DRM? They have no mechanism to revoke it other than stopping you downloading it from them again.
Yea you just lose the ability to download it again. AFAIK that's what happened with The Witcher 3's DLCs brought through some gray market sites.
You obviously lose access to cloud saves, multiplayer and any other feature from the client l. Playing the game after that is no different than playing a pirated copy (practically and legally, if you care about that).
What I mean is that you don't own the copy any differently than you do on other platforms.
I don't really see it much differently than Steam, as if a game is on GOG it's going to be either DRM-free or at worst use the weak built in DRM (which can be bypassed easily).
That's not to say I dislike GOG, I think the real value of it is the support and patches for older games. They also have a more generous refund policy (30 days, no time limit).
Edit: to be clear this is an issue with ~~capitalism~~ the sale of fully digital media, not with GOG and no, I'm not advocating for NFTs.
I disagree that is legally no different, if you used a "grey" market seller to obtain access in a way gog deemed illegitimate then you never had license to use it. If you had a legitimate licence then using it after say gog terminated you account, you would still have legitimate license to use the copies you already downloaded despite gog not providing their services to you.
I was just using it as an example for what happens, because it's the only times something like this has happened. Still, according to their user agreement, they sell you a license through them (so the publisher licenses the license to GOG and they then issue a license to you to access the game), which means that on account termination you lose it and any right you had.
To be clear, I don't think "ownership" matters that much usually, since data is not a finite resource, but there's a few cases in which it does, for example: you can't sell or lend the games or you can't legally host a tournament or other public events unless you get another license that allows you to do so.
Anyways, my point is that the GOG's DRM free policy is good, but to me feels meaningless and more like a marketing gimmick and the laws on these things are unfairly against the user. What is meaningful for preservation tho is their "Preservation Program" through which they maintain older games to keep them working on modern systems (which includes fixing legal issues that prevent them from being sold)
I use Linux and I prefer GOG to Steam
GoG is probably a pretty small company, I can't really expect them to have a full Linux support system when Linux up until Windows 10 support ended was probably a pretty small niche that is now a slightly bigger niche.
I haven't had any issues loading my GOG games through the Heroic launcher on ZorinOS