this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Steam itself is drm though. If you have a pc that can't connect to the internet or is no longer compatible with steam (like an XP pc for example), even if you have the game files, you can't play then without first installing and updating steam.
I have an XP pc for period-era gaming and I can't touch anything steam related for it so instead I have to either look for them on the internet archive or hope there is still a torrent for such an old game. Or failing both, actually find a physical copy. This still means I can't really play Valve's XP games though because of their requirement of Steam no matter how you bought the game.
Sort of, but only if you're launching through Steam. You can launch DRM-free Steam games through the executable file without launching Steam if you already have the files downloaded.
Games on Steam don't require Steamworks or any other DRM, if your game won't launch without Steam running that's a choice by the game developer and not a restriction imposed for Steam.
There is a whole list of drm-free games that will work without the launcher or with instructions on how to make them run without the launcher. If a game makes use of Steam's APIs, it won't run without proper authentication when opened with the launcher even if it is drm-free. You would need to launch it directly from the game's files in that case.
I'll look into it, saves me buying a game again on gog