GOG – a digital distribution website – is now offering the power to merge your Steam account in order to obtain DRM-free copies of certain eligible games with its new feature: GOG Connect.
A careful and thorough read of your Steam Subscriber Agreement will reveal that in fact what you are doing with steam is – to put no finer point on it – renting. Whilst this isn’t the kind of subtle distinction that will cause people to lose very much sleep at all, it is reassuring to know that Good Old Games is attempting to give us back our games.
This valiant effort does, however, come hand in hand with a couple of important things to bear in mind: the first is that the service is reliant upon partnerships with game publishers, and so far the list of compatible games is not exactly daunting. The second is that any links you make will not be reversible, meaning that if you download a DRM-free version of a game, you cannot then refund it on steam hoping to amass a collection of free games – it will be taken from your GOG account as well (quite rightly so).
The complete list of eligible games is as follows:
-The Witness
-FTL: Faster Than Light
-The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
-Galactic Civilizations 3
-Trine Enchanted Edition
-Saints Row 2
-Shadowrun Returns
-The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
-Bit.Trip Runner
-Braid
-Breach & Clear
-Breach & Clear: Deadline
-Broken Sword: Director’s Cut
-Mount & Blade
-Project Zomboid
-Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Silver Earring
-To The Moon
-Two Worlds
-Unreal Gold
-Unreal Tournament GOTY
-VVVVVV
-Xenonauts
As you can see, this will need to grow considerably to muster any real approach to Steam’s throne; however, it may be that GOG isn’t trying to compete with the giant. People could happily use both services, and it is admirable to see a company making an effort to champion actual ownership of games – something the industry seems to gradually be moving away from.
