Sony’s controversial PlayStation Network requirement for its PC games is once again in the spotlight after the company delisted the original Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam and the Epic Games Store and added the PSN requirement to the upcoming single-player remaster.
The advantage and point of the DRM-Free nature of GOG is that once you download a game, it stays on your computer even if the game is removed and made unavailable to download. And you are able to download an “offline installer” file which can be backed up and used to install the game at any point in time even without an internet connection. So buying it on GOG knowing it may be removed is still hugely advantageous.
To play devils advocate, semi-similar is true on Steam for the most part. Even though the original was pulled by Sony, you can still download and play it if you previously purchased it.
I do have an expansive offline library though, I admit. Though I’d also say that a company removing access to something you paid for is the most moral reason there is to pirate that something.
Yeah for sure. You can still download it from Steam at the moment if you already have a license for it, and probably for quite some years, so thank God for that. But if it ever stops being available for download for some reason from Steam, the game won’t be able to be downloaded at all anymore. On GOG, as long as you kept a backup of your personal installer file, the game will always be installable forever as long as you don’t lose your backups and there isn’t some crazy post-apocalyptic event that takes away our technology.
I checked GOG as soon as I saw this post. Hopefully they don’t take that down, too.
If Sony pulls it, they pull it. GOG wouldn’t have any options, it’s not theirs to sell, they are just a storefront.
The advantage and point of the DRM-Free nature of GOG is that once you download a game, it stays on your computer even if the game is removed and made unavailable to download. And you are able to download an “offline installer” file which can be backed up and used to install the game at any point in time even without an internet connection. So buying it on GOG knowing it may be removed is still hugely advantageous.
To play devils advocate, semi-similar is true on Steam for the most part. Even though the original was pulled by Sony, you can still download and play it if you previously purchased it.
I do have an expansive offline library though, I admit. Though I’d also say that a company removing access to something you paid for is the most moral reason there is to pirate that something.
Yeah for sure. You can still download it from Steam at the moment if you already have a license for it, and probably for quite some years, so thank God for that. But if it ever stops being available for download for some reason from Steam, the game won’t be able to be downloaded at all anymore. On GOG, as long as you kept a backup of your personal installer file, the game will always be installable forever as long as you don’t lose your backups and there isn’t some crazy post-apocalyptic event that takes away our technology.