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. 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
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.
I’ve learned my lesson to never buy again from any other than Steam.
Every other launcher except GOG Galaxy are pure trash. And about a year ago I switched to Linux, so now I only buy from Steam. They make gaming better for everyone, they know it’s a win-win situation.
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.
GoG if possible. I’m very slowly trying to buh more from GoG as insurance from the eventual enshitification that I sadly know Steam will fall prey to.
Yeah, not a bad idea to hedge your bets. With all luck, it’s not for another long while. I know for myself, I’ll buy mostly on Steam, but if I got a game I really really like and want to preserve, I’ll get it on GoG then stash it on an external SSD. So if shit hits the fan and Valve grows devil horns overnight, I’ll at least have my favorite games sans DRM.
