• Julian@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Its pretty much up to the developer. You can have no DRM and not even require steam to be open, or you can make your game unplayable.

    • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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      2 months ago

      Imo Steam should tell people whether or not a game actually requires Steam (or another form of DRM) to run. I know they already do it for things like Denuvo, but they should also note if the game actually uses Steam as DRM or if the game can be launched without it.

      • warm@kbin.earth
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        2 months ago

        Steam sells DRM-free games too, you can download them and then uninstall Steam and they will work. In this case though, on top of purchasing the game, you are buying a license to download updates for it through Steam. It’s a developer decision.

        • blindsight@beehaw.org
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          2 months ago

          You still aren’t “purchasing” it.

          For example, you don’t have right of resale the same way you would with physical goods. You’re buying a license to the game for personal use, regardless, you just don’t have DRM limiting your access.

          • warm@kbin.earth
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            2 months ago

            Well that’s just digital goods, not Steam specifically.

            You do get all the files for the game, that will work for as long as the OS will run them, with or without Steam (this is as close as you can come to ownership for software). Rather than a license to use them files, which become useless if you don’t run the game through Steam.