GOG, hands down. I find their DRM free stance very respectable. GOG will celebrate its 10th year anniversary next year and as far as I'm concerned, they have always respected their business engagement.

EDIT: Now I see who wrote it. Surely you've heard of gogrepo? Why haven't you run it already?

There is very little point in comparing them. GOG is like a shop that sells DVDs, while Steam is more of a rental service. Sure, if all you want is to "just see the movie/play the game", they seem close enough. But if you think of the future, eg having your kids inherit your vast library, those 2 are not even remotely similar.

It's probably also because I have no kids but future proofing really does little for me. I don't sit around playing classic games on legacy devices now, I don't expect to be doing so 20 years from now either. If anything I expect to be re-buying my collection, whatever part of it I still care about, yet again some day in the future just to update them to whatever we're using then that's better than what we're using today but likely incompatible in some ways, same as many of us are now re-buying games we purchased physically on GOG because that's more convenient for us because digital or patches or compatibility for newer OS'es etc etc.

There are a gazillion ways the GOG installers will eventually have to be replaced or 'fixed' or require older OS/devices to still work that far into the future, which is a hassle many of us are trying to avoid right now and I doubt that will change in the future. Heck, someone in the future could install one of our latest installers, something could block Galaxy from working properly and it could prevent the game from launching with the desktop shortcut as a result, leaving future users perhaps clueless how to bypass it without having to go dig for answers. It'll be far easier to rebuy your classic collection, which by then will be dirt cheap anyway, on whatever 'classic' service is running the games at that time, updated for the newest thing.

That's even ignoring the notion of 'ownership' of your GOG games. When GOG eventually goes down, what do you have to show for your ownership? Are you saving all those receipt emails and/or printing them to hand to your kids later? (not that this couldn't *easily* be faked/spoofed). If you don't, what separates your kids ownership of these games from a pirate who just downloaded the Full 'classic' GOG collection.

(PS: Same goes for Steam of course. TL:DR, I don't believe in a futureproof digital library)

I'm talking only about Gog's own services.
Users shouldn't have to rely on 3rd party scripts for important things like updating their installers or properly searching the catalog.
Why? See Magog that has suddenly been semi-discontinued.
I haven't used gogrepo yet, because I really need the features of the new version (if it will ever be finished).

If a game is available DRM-free from a store that can offer support for the game, like GOG does, I will always prefer to buy this DRM-free version. So I obviously prefer GOG over Steam.

Having this kind of support has become an important factor to me, which is why I rarely buy games from other DRM-free retailers, since most of them can't offer this.

Another factor is how frequently the GOG version gets updated compared to the Steam version. We all know of games that rarely or never get updated on GOG while the Steam version does.

I will not turn down a game if it is not DRM-free, it's not a deal-breaker for me. Especially when it comes to games that are extremely unlikely to ever be DRM-free, like Dirt 4 or Elite Dangerous.

That maybe true but look at the games when they are not on sale and you will find that the prices on Steam are usually the higher ones. In fact 60% of the time this is usually the case. The point of a sale is to try and lower prices to what people wanna pay. I found a few games on Steam that I want and a few on GoG that I want. Its why I use both, but I prefer GoG for many reasons

I don't think there is any store that offers some kind of mass-downloading tool for all your games. There is no "download all your Steam/Origin games" buttons in those official clients either. Neither does e.g. Gamersgate or Humble Store offer such mass-downloading tools for their games/installers.

So it should be expected that a third-party tool needs to be used for special needs like that. Luckily GOG doesn't try to prevent people from creating such.

The good thing about e.g. gogrepo is that as it is merely a python script in GitHub, anyone else can contribute and even take over (fork) the project as well, if the original author loses interest/doesn't have time/gets abducted by aliens. I guess for now people let him do it if he has certain vision where to take it now (as the next version was supposed to change many things and bring new features).

Not sure if Magog could be similarly taken over by someone else, or does it depend on the original author.

The current version works fine already. Sure it takes quite a long time to get the full manifest file, but it gets the job done already now.

I recall you don't want to use it because it doesn't preallocate the hard drive space for the files it is going to download, and you fear that causes lots of file fragmentation. Not anymore than if you e.g. downloaded your GOG games using your web browser. Does that mean you never download your GOG games, because of the file fragmentation?

Come on, just do it. Do it! If and when the new version comes, you can switch to it.

I'm also happy because I found/heard about workarounds to the two new features I was wishing for gogrepo, ie. blacklisting files (so that they are not downloaded even though they are in the manifest file), and dividing the collection to two or more paths/drives (as my collection doesn't fit into one 2TB hard drive anymore, so I need to divide it to two).

Pretty much the only feature I am looking forward in the new version would be the sped up manifest file update. Nice if it has the other new features too I am looking for. The preallocation of HDD space is not important to me, my current GOG installer collection is fine even with the little file fragmentation there may be.

I don't believe in future-proof either, but when I have Win 9x games that'll play just fine provided you apply a no-CD crack (e.g., Discworld Noir, or even something like Anno 1404 *at the time of release*) it's easy to see that there's a clear difference between something that might break by accident and something that almost certainly will break because it's by design.

I think we already discussed about this :P
Anyway:

There aren't also many other stores with a full DRM-free catalog with standalones.
If the majority of existing sites follows bad practices (for the user), it doesn't mean that GOG should do the same.

Eh ok, but that's a big IF.
There's a possibility for Gogrepo, but I highly doubt for Magog, because it's quite complex and requires an online server.

One thing is downloading & defragmenting a few games, another is 700..
Also, I was interested in other gogrepo new features I don't currently recall (maybe better filters, custom paths?).

Neither I have any kids, that's why I said it's an example.

You're deliberately ignoring the fact that GOG services are non-mandatory once the game is downloaded and that's exactly what makes the ownership different from rental. You can install some GOG games today on your PC and then stash it in the basement. If 220V power service will be available in 50 years, so will your games. You've said you're not into legacy hardware - so you can take the installer package, drop it into DOSbox and you're golden, for as long as some guy will keep maintaining the emulator. It's not about time making the games stop working by accident, it's about Gaben doing it deliberately.

Actually, from the law point of view as of today, a remote service is not a good proof of ownership, it's exactcly the receipt emails which are the proof of purchase, just like the receipt you get in a brick and mortar store. I'm not saving those emails, just not deleting them : ) And there are bank records, too, which are as solid as they get.

I'm not against rental at all, eg. I'm a fan of Netflix. What I can't stand is masquerading rental as sale, because it's false advertisement.

I am an avid GOG fan I do not buy steam games whatsoever.
That said rationally from a consumer purchase position, steam wins hand down.
Why would I pay a higher price for an inferior product (multiplayer cut out).
Why would I purchase an inferior product that periodically has restricted features (version mismatch with steam patch dates; steam only ladders, etc.)
Why would I as a consumer deal with an inflexible company that will not even give store credit for a pre-order that on release is a product not fit for purpose that I as a consumer could not of been aware of being that as an expanded standalone 'broken it should not have been'.
Not that steam does not present a similar issue, but the issues are definitely less with AAA games it seems which are FAR more prevalent on steam to take chances on the LIMITED content dribbled out to us on GOG.
Steam may be DRM, but it doesn't seem to be breaking machines, but it's TOS & account locking practices are despicable so plus one to GOG there, they are clearly less anti-consumer.

At the end of the day though they need content, simile` in function so that their catalogue is of same value; even more so than specific value and their customer service still needs to step up their game.

The fact of the matter is if consumer rights matter a wick to you and you don't want to get extorted for $500 for complete DLC Expansion passes that are becoming the norm; GOG is all you have.
Steam is superior so if you have no spine and lots of money spend big & live large capitalism needs you like a fruit bat needs overripe pears.

Since the thread has mentioned future proofing, I would like to provide my experience.


After getting burned with 8-Tracks, Records, and Beta vs VHS, I vowed to never get burned again.

For each technological jump with Vesa, AGP, PCI, & PCI Express; IDE/ATA & SATA; and floppy & hard disks, I have kept at least one case & motherboard in storage along with the appropriate stripped parts that supports the technology.

(It would be sacrilege to throw away a Vodoo 3dfx & not have the corresponding equipment for it.) :P

During this time, I have always imaged & cloned my hard drives, and stored appropriate parts in a storage container in the attic.

(I started building my own computers in 1995.)

Therefore, it is why appreciate GOG & DRM free products as oppose of using Steam for the last several years & no longer engaging in the Steam's Summer & Winter Sales event because GOG's current business model fits my proclivities.

I will admit that I am taking advantage of higher capacity hard drives for storing all of media in one place & utilizing GOG to do this in an easier fashion.

I will be retiring in the near future & will have more time on my hands to finally complete my huge backlog of games with everything consolidated in one place. :)

I use both.

If the game is avaliable on both, I'll always choose GOG over Steam because of it's DRM-free policy.

If the game is avaliable only on Steam and I really want to play it, I'll purchase it there. I won't keep myself from playing the game just because it's only avaliable on Steam.

I'M NOT GIVING UP ON 8-TRACKS!

If you think I'm going to pitch my copy of KISS Dynasty you're nuts!