I'll allow Steam's platform a little room here, but not too much. They've been reliable since 2003, with the promise of backing up games to play offline if the service goes the way of Athenian gods.
However, to your point, I'll easily find my way to (insert a random pirate site - non-disclosed) download something that I own just because it's ONLY available exclusively through a platform like EA Play or Ubisoft. GOG's Galaxy platform is what I wish all gaming platforms to be. I'm getting too old to care about such nuisances, but would like to think that preservation of any game (rather written: any software) culminates into preservation of DRM-free archives.
I love and stand by Steam, but all that needs to happen is that Gabe Newell retires, or the company is purchased. Once that happens, kiss it all goodbye. (And probably also kiss awesome Linux compatibility goodbye as well.)
I think there's zero chance they can make a halflife 3 that'd live up to the hype and actually feel like halflife, and that's likely why they haven't made it.
It's a similar situation to what happened to the fallout series. Bethesda took a stab at it, but, if you loved fallout 1 and 2, nothing they made really felt like fallout, even if they were good games.
Not quite on the level of duke nukem forever, mainly because apogee was mismanaged at it's very core, and valve, well, hard to say that it's not managed well.
The thing is, making a good game is not really necessary here. They could make a mediocre halflife3, get slaughtered in the reviews, and still make a ton of profit, Gaben just won't do it because he doesn't want to go out like that. Understandable, but, it's mostly his fault that he's in this situation. If they released 3 a couple years after the episodes, they could have continued that incremental release pattern more or less indefinitely, it's just that at the time they were focused on other things (that turned out to be more profitable) and by the time they got back to making games again, it was too late, too much hype to live up to, so on the shelf it goes.
> Gaben just won't do it because he doesn't want to go out like that.
I just don't think he cares. half life 3 can sell 100m copies at $70 a pop (so, 7 billion dollars in raw revenue before various fees) and it still wouldn't touch Steam, which has estimated 9 billion dollar revenue in 2022 alone. Maybe it'd make even more as a service game or by integrating steam marketplace stuff like TF2/Counterstrike, but the number of games that make steam level revenues year after year can be counted on one hand.
For some reference, Fortnite hit 6b in 2022 and 26b in 6 years leading up to 2022. very strong average of 4.3b, but fortnite's game team is twice* the number of employees Valve has in the entire studio. A lot of labor needed to maintain one of the highest earning games out there, and Steam still comes out on top in raw revenue.
(I can't find exact Valve numbers, but LinkedIn still lists them with "200-500" employees. And since Epic has at least half of its 4000 staff on Fortnite...)
> Beat Hazard 2 - online DRM. The game can't be started at all without being online. It is fully DRM-ed!
> Fishing: North Atlantic - Scallops Expansion. - does not work without Galaxy. In other words: this DLC is COMPLETELY DRM-ED! (Update 08/2022: GOG said that it was fixed, but it's only partially. The DLC can be installed and played offline, but it still requires Galaxy running in the background to be recognized as installed.)
> King of Seas - Possibly a bug, but it isn't possible to save the game without Galaxy.
> Spellforce 3 - Skirmishes against the AI require an online connection.
> Tempest - crashes when started without Galaxy since the last update. Possibly a bug, but so far GOG's only solution is 'Use Galaxy'.
> Two Point Hospital - part of the single-player content is gated through online connectivity. I.e. one has to register online and be online to unlock. Plus: core gameplay mechanics (staff handling, diagnostics) are bugged in offline mode.
> Northgard - solo mode required Galaxy. But according to GOG and the devs, that was a bug and as of 02.04.2021 the solo mode is DRM-free again. ... However, it was still not possible to select opponents for skirmishes in offline mode. You need to be online to select an opponent for offline skirmish mode. But as of 05.06.2022 solo mode now doesn't require Galaxy to select opponents anymore. Northgard is finally DRM-free again.
> Absolver - Boss re-matches are locked behind an online requirement. Boss loot too. As well as some techniques that can be used in offline play but can only be learned online. Absolver also installs the invasive EAC anti-cheat software even for single player and won't start without it.
> A list of multiplayer games with DRM will get very, very long.
> just assume that all multiplayer games, that aren't on the 'DRM-free multiplayer list', are DRM-ed.
The only feature that requires Galaxy to operate is registering Galaxy achievements.
Galaxy is adding almost zero value for players. And we keep getting games that won't run unless it's running. (Or -- forgive me if I overspoke -- games that will run but won't let you save the game.)
The cost-benefit balance is very clearly far into the negatives. Why would you want another platform to implement something similar?
who cares about the warning if its extremely inconvenient. Tell you what, I'm going to format your computer on Jan 1. You have plenty of warning so no big woop.
>who cares about the warning if its extremely inconvenient.
1. you're not mandated to use Windows 10/11. you can use Mac or Linux
2. Windows 7 got its last security update almost 4 years ago. This isn't even about Steam at this point; more and more software will be incompatible and you're more and more vulnerable to breaches as you use that OS. You should probably change to something receiving updates. I don't particular care what.
>Tell you what, I'm going to format your computer on Jan 1.
I didn't know now being able to get security updates from a 3rd party application equated to formating your hard drive. Should probably fix that since you're 4 years out of date with Windows 7.
There is no world in which supporting an operating system for 14 years, 8 years past the support of the vendor, can be described as “extremely inconvenient”. Again, they are not deleting anything off of your computer so your snark about wiping my machine is disingenuous and irrelevant.
However, to your point, I'll easily find my way to (insert a random pirate site - non-disclosed) download something that I own just because it's ONLY available exclusively through a platform like EA Play or Ubisoft. GOG's Galaxy platform is what I wish all gaming platforms to be. I'm getting too old to care about such nuisances, but would like to think that preservation of any game (rather written: any software) culminates into preservation of DRM-free archives.