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

• JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

  source
• woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

  source

  • MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

    source
  • GhiLA@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    and?

    source
  • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

    source
• Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

  source

  • lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

    source

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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).

      source

      • RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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

        source

        • -> View More Comments