As more and more online digital games with no DRM (such as GoG) keep growing and growing, why is Steam standing still? Why does Steam keep selling games with DRM? Why can I get some games on GoG without DRM but on Steam, you get the DRM (of having to use the Steam client, of having to keep it connected, etc. etc.)?
The solution is for the Valve Corporation to modernize Steam. The same games that are DRM free at other stores should be offered DRM free on Steam. All Steam users should be asking why they are getting an inferior product compared to these other stores. It is reminiscent of when Steve Jobs began selling DRM free music on iTunes. If anything is for sure, Steam is not the iTunes of gaming because Steam is not leading the way on DRM free games.
Steam essentially ties all its games to its browser (and is trying to mask this with ridiculous ‘Steam Achievements’, ‘Steam Social Services’, and ‘Steam User Generated Content’). But there is another company out there that wants to tie all games to its browser… to its operating system. Windows 8 and its fear of a ‘locking’ down of games software is no different than what is going on with Steam today. If Microsoft makes Windows 8 do this, this would be a classic co-opting of Steam. If Windows 8 is the Great Evil, what does that make Steam which is identical but smaller in scope?
Why doesn’t the Valve Corporation compete against Windows 8? (Going to Linux is just fleeing, not competing.) The way to compete is to differentiate oneself from what Microsoft is trying to do. Sell DRM free games. Microsoft and many other companies (like EA) cannot and will not compete against that.
Someone needs to ask the Valve Corporation when they are going to get with the program. When is Steam going to modernize itself? When will it start selling DRM free games?