I’ve had this question looking at the Quake con sale, and Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth is for sale on both platforms. I ended up buying it on GOG. What is your opinion?
Steam, but only because 95% of my library is on there. However, I think often GOG is probably the better choice.
This. I love GoG for what they do and their whole ethos, but I have damn near my entire collection already on Steam and like to condense as much as I can as hard as that may be. Steam is still by and far the best launcher, but every year GoG Galaxy gets a little bit closer to being an actual contender; literally all the rest are absolutely terrible dumpster fires.
Why is that by the way? On my PC I have Amazon, Battle.net, EA, Epic, GoG Galaxy 2.0, Itchio, Rockstar, and Uplay clients (along with some individual game launchers) and not a single one comes close to being as feature rich, streamlined, and just clearly built for the customer/player as Steam is. I know Valve has a lot more experience under their belt but it feels like the others aren’t even trying. Most of them are just in your face about their store fronts and barely function as a library after the fact.
Steam as it’s more straightforward to running it on Linux.
I bought cyberpunk on gog and it’s just a bit more work to get it installed and running.
If possible, I’d exchange it for a steam copy.
Used to be GOG for DRM free games, now it’s Steam because of Linux support and the Steam Deck
Ditto
Lutris makes installing GOG games with proton pretty easy. Haven’t had issues on my end
Used to be GoG but now Steam. I run Linux so it’s nice to have a client that makes that easy rather than having to rely on a 3rd party one.
Check out Heroic Game Launcher. It works with GoG, handles GoG Galaxy Cloud Save support, and works with Proton (similar to Steam). A very good client.
As someone also using Linux, Steam has an official client, the workshop and is continuously advancing gaming on Linux. While GOG promised a native client years ago they haven’t delivered and Heroic has much fewer features than Steam.
Yeah, heroic is amazing and I really appreciate the amount of work that’s gone into it. It’s still much more convenient to buy direct from Steam and it rewards the company for the efforts to push gaming on Linux forward.
I’ve been trying to get Heroic working with my Epic account to no success.
Generally, that has been my experience with most open source solutions to closed source app gardens.
GOG. I like actually owning the games I buy
Yup. Steam is my go-to because of easy game steaming, steam deck integration, etc. But I know what I’m sacrificing for that convenience. Luckily Valve is an incredibly customer focused company and I have a huge amount of (well deserved IMO) faith in. GOG however is definitely still the best way to own your games.
I’m on Linux, so if I buy from GOG, I don’t get cloud saves or automatic updates. If we had Galaxy on Linux, it would be my default store. But it’s not on Linux, so I shop on Steam.
Heroic launcher handles cloud saves for GOG. You can also have automatic updates.
Neither are guaranteed by the seller though. They could change their API tomorrow and break compatibility. Unlikely though that is, if they want my sale, they can do the work themselves rather than relying on an unofficial project with hooks into their store.
When I used Windows I mainly bought on Gog for the DRM-free aspect. Now that I’ve switched to Linux almost completely, I find Steam’s software for running Windows games on Linux to be just about the most seamless and easy to use, compared to other stuff I’ve tried like Lutris and Heroic Games Launcher.
Same story here. I thought Linux support would be right in line with GoG’s philosophy but their stance has been understandable but a bit disappointing. Valve makes it easy for me so they get my money.
They did actually promise a native Linux client years ago. Seems they stopped caring at some point though.
Steam, because I would want to support the company that respects linux users.
GOG also offers Linux versions of any games that have such a version.
You’re right, but I think OP meant almost all the games that are developed by Valve have a Linux version, meanwhile non of the games developed by CDPR has it.
Always GOG. While I’ve loved Steam for years and still do, I’d rather have a stronger ownership over my games.
Steam but mainly because I have a steam deck so ease of use.
Steam. I need higher Linux compatibility.
I’d go steam, they games probably drm free on both and steam has a Linux client and cloud saves and workshop
GOG because it’s more convenient and less ableist.
Steam’s colour scheme makes it difficult to read and causes eye strain and headaches for people with astigmatism, like me. The way the light text bleeds into the darkness surrounding it makes it difficult to read anything so I can’t be sure of the price that I’m paying without copy/pasting it into notepad or something. When I made a thread pointing this out years ago, when they disabled the old theme system, Valve’s mods banned me from the forum and deleted my thread.
I sent an email to Epic Games about the same problem in their store and got a response that could be summarized as “Don’t care, go fuck yourself.” so they are not a good option either. I don’t like gambling so I won’t use EA’s virtual casino, and I want to keep the games I buy so Ubisoft’s store is also not an option.
It’s GOG or piracy for me.
Steam’s colour scheme makes it difficult to read and causes eye strain and headaches for people with astigmatism, like me.
The Steam Store is just a website where a user style such as https://uso.kkx.one/style/219929 can be applied like any other. Game prices are just black on white using that theme:
The Steam Client itself is largely or perhaps even fully controllable via command line (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Command_line_options#Steam) and you can set any color scheme to your terminal as you like:
The Steam Client also supports skins since forever: https://steamcustomizer.com/
Steam may not have color schemes for all kinds of visual impairments and that’s a legitimate criticism but Steam has a bag full of aforementioned features for customization, so with a little bit of research (I was curious about that myself, so I spent like 5 to 10 minutes) I found quite easy workarounds. As someone who does not like to be blasted in the face with light themes, I look for similar workarounds all the time.
That works for a browser but I would still need the client to install, uninstall, and manage game settings. Steam skins only work for a few areas of the client. Most of it will still be unreadable.
I’ve never had any issues with headaches, have you talked to your doctor about maybe getting a blue light filter added to your prescription? Also, you can pick a different theme for Steam as well. I’m a big fan of Metro.
It’s not blue light. It’s blurriness caused by the white of the text bleeding into the black. Straining my eyes to read it causes headaches. I can use light mode things with no problems.
Steam skins don’t reskin most of the client anymore. I used to use a light skin similar to Metro when Steam still properly supported it.
OK, in that case I would see about getting a new eye doctor, if you can. If they were doing their job right, they should have made sure the prescription you got corrected the astigmatism. My doctor worked with me to get it perfectly right, so I don’t have any issues anymore with small text, including on Steam.
If you or someone else who reads this can’t afford to get glasses, there is help available. If you’re in the US, check out New Eyes, which works with those who can’t afford to have their vision corrected.
I have glasses. This isn’t something that they can correct for me. Glasses don’t fix the shape of your eyes. Maybe this can help explain what it’s like? It’s about conferences but it’s the same for anything with that colour scheme. The smaller the text, the worse it gets.
Dark mode is not good for everyone.
No, glasses don’t fix the shape of your eye, but they do correct for that uneven shape. I would know, because they’ve corrected my vision and it’s now crystal clear after being blurry from astigmatism for years. It sounds to me like your prescription just isn’t quite right, because you shouldn’t have any issues if they had nailed it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dismissing that you have a problem, and I’m not defending Steam or saying they shouldn’t have more accessible options for those with sight issues. What I’m saying is it really sounds like your glasses aren’t where they need to be, and that’s why you’re having issues. With the tech they use to make lenses these days, you should definitely be able to dial in a prescription to get perfectly clear vision with astigmatism.
Glasses don’t correct this issue.
Steam for a few reasons:
- Ease of use with the Steam deck
- Prices are often cheaper, albeit often through sites like Fanatical/ Humble
- Synergizes with my only subscription, Humble Choice
- There is a lot of content missing from games on GOG compared to Steam. Most of it is trivial, but sometimes it is substantial. It has created a rhetoric about GOG customers being treated as second class citizens. Google Sheets
I used to try to buy my games at GOG where there wasn’t a significant financial difference. I liked what they were doing, especially with GOG Galaxy at the time. The pendulum swung back to Steam over time, and now I’m just not buying games any more.
GOG. DRM-free support needs all the help it can get. I have nothing but respect for Steam, so it’s my secondary choice. The only exception is if it’s a game that’s been out for a while and there’s been discrepancies between GOG and Steam support (or a dev/publisher with a history of said issues), in which case I’ll go with the one that’s better supported.
Honestly I’m so lazy and deep into the ecosystem now if if it’s not on Steam I just won’t play it. There’s too many things to play, and I don’t care enough to bother with multiple launchers and accounts
This is exactly why I buy from both. I don’t want to be one of those people who is so invested in one platform that they can’t afford not to spend their money there.
