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As Xbox and PlayStation flounder, Steam is reportedly having another record year
(www.eurogamer.net)
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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In case anyone’s not clear as to why: Sony has announced that they’ll stop producing discs and that they can take your content at any time for any reason.
Historically, Steam has promised they will never do that and will offer DRM-free (clarification: they’ll remove the Steam DRM) downloads.
Also, all of them have jacked prices up. Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam have raised hardware prices around 35-40%. However, Steam runs on PCs they don’t sell, as well as Macs, and they have a Linux distribution they provide for free called Steam OS.
Can you give us a credible source? I want it to be true, but I don't want my only source to be hearsay.
I have never seen anyone back that claim up, despite it being a very popular one to make. People like to pretend they own their steam games but until that gets enforced by law; you don't.
You don't own any software! All software is licensed, yes, even FOSS software. The only software you own in a traditional sense is public domain which not only is a vanishingly small portion of software made, but is also a category that is difficult or impossible for software to be made a part of, depending on the laws in your country.
This is no different for Steam vs. anywhere else you can buy games, even with physical copies. The only benefit of physical copies is that it's much harder to remove access to those games after you purchase the license, unless there is online activation or DRM.
Edit: I should clarify the only other software you own is the software you create or paid to have created. Then you can license its use for others, or not, as you choose. So MS owns Windows, and I own some small number of applications I've created, and other companies or individuals own the software they produced. But none of that has any bearing on games on Steam or anywhere else where you're spending money to get access to a copy of a game.
Tekinukly. Software might still come with a license, but that license has no teeth without some form of DRM. This is a stupid way to try justifying the DRM steam has. In all practicality, you own whats downloaded to your drives without DRM.
I already addressed that. Steam has DRM, because Steam wouldn't exist without it, and the physical copies publishers sold instead would still have DRM. There are DRM-free games on Steam - they don't require publishers to use it. Direct your ire where it belongs.
Maybe it is better expressed as degree of control you have over the data on your drive, disk, whatever. When you choose to buy a game from steam, especially if it is on a website like GOG, you are choosing to have less control over your data. With large companies like Sony moving towards anti-consumer practices, it isn’t wise to believe that valve would never do the same.
As Gabe said, piracy is'nt a pricing issue, it's a service issue. This problem has been addressed before and it will be again, if need be.
And Gabe can have a accident or a heart attack tomorrow and die and then it's not a benevolent autocrat that controls your game collection anymore ...
And his point will still stand.
I want to say I read it in an interview like 15-20 years ago
If you reach out to Steam support, you'll get a response like this.
(Not my support ticket, this was stolen from Reddit)
But who knows what measures are in place and if that would include all games.
Edit: I'm dumb and misread the convo. My response is about if Steam went away, you would still be able to access your games but the convo is about would Steam remove games from your library.
Steam delists games, however, if you already bought it, you still have access to it.
Valve has not jacked up prices: Their game prices have been consistently among the cheapest and the only reason their hardware is expensive now is because part manufacturers are mostly price gouging (lying about AI being the cause of ALL the increased costs, which isn't true, just like it wasn't entirely true with the bitcoin mining craze).
It's also worth pointing out that Valve has made massive contributions to Linux gaming (and Linux in general), which enables people to game on potato-spec machines and compared to other gaming platforms, they are far better than almost all of them except for GOG.
DRM is up to publishers, not Steam. Valve doesn't enforce or require it, and it's unlikely publishers would lift DRM from their games because Valve asked.
Steam does have a DRM mechanism - it's optional and easy to circumvent, but it's there
Yes, and Steam doesn't force it on a publisher. They can opt out.
Steam itself is DRM
There are many, many DRM free games on Steam.
Stop spreading this nonsense. There are arguments against Steam, but until they require DRM to be on their platform, this isn't one of them.
None of them are DRM free. Every game requires the Steam client to download, launch, and play. Stop spreading this nonsense.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam
Was there something you wanted to add?
Stardew valley is one example I know of. The developer didnt enable it so you can buy and install the game then copy the installed contents to other computers and run it without steam and play multiplayer all with the same copy. Steam can be closed or removed on all of them
Incorrect. DRM free games on Steam do not require the Steam client to be running to run them.
Try it before commenting.
I have tried it. It doesn't work.
Then you didn't try it on a DRM free game.
Not by my definition. Not in the same way as denuvo or dvd movie drm is.
It is in the sense that you can't play the games without it.
You can. Many of steam games you can just archive or copy over somewhere else and they'll still work just fine.
Wow it's truly insane how you guys will just blatantly lie to defend your precious gaben.
Go ahead and disconnect your PC from the Internet for a few weeks and see what happens to your "DRM free" steam games.
I have a laptop that stayed offline for a year. Steam worked just fine in offline mode the whole time. What did you think was going to happen?
Ok dude.
And you can get a crack for most DRM out there (nowadays, even Denuvo).
Being weak and possible to work around for those with sufficient technical skill doesn't make it any less a DRM.
Steam's DRM is clearly only trying to stop the people with average and below technical skills from installing and running the games outside steam, not trying to stop the people with higher technical expertise from going around it (and in fact if you use something like the Goldberg Emulator there are even more games which can be made to run outside Steam than just the "many" you talk about).
By comparison the no-DRM posture you see in with GOG is not only "here are the offline installers to download" directly from the page for the game in your library but even "CONTRACTUALLY game publishers cannot sell games here with ANY DRM".
"The rules are there but we don't enforce them" is a very different posture from "we make sure there are no such rules".
None of this affects the fact that, contrary to what the person above claimed, there are games on Steam without DRM.
No, cracking the game vs just copying the downloaded file is not equivalent. How did you not see that? With copying the file it means the original file is already DRM free and does not require steam. So steam is just a glorified downloader and launcher in that sense
Even if Valve promised DRM-free downloads if they go belly up there's no chance in hell they'll ever actually do that
Why do you think that? Turning off DRM would be trivial and they might even end up being legally obligated to do just that either because of laws or because of how whatever hypothetical bankruptcy they go through might be structured. Never mind Valve going belly up seems highly unlikely to begin with. If it does ever happen and it happens in the way you describe, piracy will absolutely skyrocket and people will stop buying games online after they've had their trust shaken.
They'd get sued to oblivion if they disabled DRM for all their games and you know it. This is just delusional.
I've heard it requires a DLL to disable steams basic drm, and it's been that way for 20+ years.
You can do this right now with the Goldberg Emulator, but it doesn't work well for games which are deeply integrated with Steam's API (for example, to do things like Cloud Saves).
Its less that they can and more that they definitely will. The fact that they can has been fear-mongered and pearl-clutched over since the dawn of online sales.
Until now its been handwaved away as obviously nobody would actually shoot themselves in the fucking face like that. But then they did.
Sony and StudioCanal isn't the first time it's happened, though. It's just making a lot more waves.
How have Epic and GOG been faring?
Epic is run by an idiot.
GOG had its ups and downs, but I've been able to build a sizeable library there.
GoG appears to be around 2.5% market share as of November 2025. For contrast, Steam is around 75%.
Frankly, I don't give a shit about Epic Games. Tim Sweeney can go suck-start a shotgun for all I care, complete piece of shit human being.