All you fools paying for games/movies/music that are only useable with a specific digital platform.

Back when PC games were on physical media (which pretty much doesn't exist anymore) there was a time when you could do what you want with the game. Install it on whatever computer you want, play it when you want, how you want and so on. Eventually Steam came along. You could download a game or even physical copies of some games started requiring a Steam activation, even though the game was on the CD/DVD, you still needed to link the game to Steam to activate it.

When Steam started to take off and digital only was becoming more of the norm, the physical games became fewer and fewer and by this time any physical games (for example: Assassin Creed games to Uplay, Mass Effect games to EA and so on) required a digital DRM link to a digital platform and you were at the mercy of needing these digital platforms active in order to play a game you paid for.

Soon movies/shows and music were on the same path. Rarely do you see a new album release on CD and many movies/shows are no longer transitioning to physical media after they've left the theater or ran their run on TV. Many of these shows/movies are being produced and only available on some streaming platform or they're ran on TV or the theater and instead of going to physical they drop into a streaming platform that the developer/distributor owns. 5 years ago you could go into any local store such as Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and so on and you'd walk down several aisles of physical media for movies/shows/music (on CD) and now when you go into these stores you see a small end cap with DVDs or in the case of Best Buy, they no longer carry DVDs/Blu-Ray media.

People today are so okay with giving up their control for the idea of convenience of all these streaming channels or digital gaming platforms and then they have the audacity to turn around and bitch when they're told they will no longer own games. Ha, you fuckingretards, you brought this upon yourself. You already surrendered your control years ago. We won't get it back so shut the fuckup and take it up the ass.

I'm personally on a mission to get as much physical media as I can for older PC games (already sitting on 120+ older games I can play when I want) and movies (over 1300 movies and 40 complete TV show series owned on media which I've got all on my plex server) that I can watch on Plex or if I really needed to I can pull out one of my multiple DVD/Blu-ray players and connect them to my TVs to watch media that way. Any new PC games I get I strictly purchase off of GoG because I can download the game files to my side and install the game when I want, where I want and I don't need any kind of digital platform to run the games.

You said he had to install them off DVD. He doesn't have them on DVD. They files are already on a drive on his side, he simply just needs to install it. Installing a game from files already on a drive is a lot faster than having to wait for them to download and install.

You clearly didn't read all of his post:

I have a large library of original gems like Dungeon Keeper, MGS, SIMS, Flight Simulator, Crysis, Dead Space, Elden Ring, and more backed up on my 3 TB drive that I can play even 20 years after release. I converted all my physical games to digital formats for preservation. My kids can also play them without having to purchase them again.

Here are the steps:

1. He buys recent games from GoG.
2. Downloads the files to his side (he doesn't need to install them at this point in time if he doesn't want to)
3. Game files are readily available on his side to do with as he pleases. He can install, uninstall, install uninstall the same games when he wants without having to re-download them because he has the files on his drive.

If you didn't know, having a game downloaded from GoG requires zero internet connection to play the and requires no DRM of any kind to run the game. Steam or Origin or Uplay (maybe EGS, I don't really know much about it), they are digital DRM platforms. You need them to run the game, even if it's in offline mode for Steam you still need verification to initially run the game before going to offline mode. GoG requires none of that from the a games you purchase from it.

So, yes, you misread it. He has the game files already on his side which is why he said no need to redownload and wait 7+ hours.

I've got a couple 50+GB games saved on my computer, these are game files that are not currently installed. If I want to play one of the games it takes maybe 10 minutes to install it. I play the game and I can uninstall when I'm done. If for some reason I want to play the game again later I just install and wait about 10ish minutes then I can play it again.

Sorry if you don't understand.

I think what @danishanwar was referencing was the fact that he has all his games downloaded and ready to go and made no mention of needing to install a 100+GB from DVD in 15 minutes. I think you just misread what he wrote.

Clearly any game he gets through GoG he needs to get the initial files downloaded to his side, but after that he can store them however he wants and where he wants. He now has the files on his side and simply needs to install the game from said files when he wants to and it doesn't take hours to wait for a 100+GB game to download again if he wanted to replay a game.

You still don't own it. Even the Steam subscriber agreement tells you that you don't own it.

F. Ownership of Content and Services

All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Content and Services and any and all copies thereof, are owned by Valve and/or its or its affiliates’ licensors. All rights are reserved, except as expressly stated herein. The Content and Services are protected by copyright laws, international copyright treaties and conventions and other laws. The Content and Services contain certain licensed materials and Valve’s and its affiliates’ licensors may protect their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.

You can read more about it here, if you want. You don't actually own the games. You have the rights to use the games until basically Steam sees fit to remove those rights from you. Now, maybe that'll never happen or maybe one day something happens and Steam has to shutter - all those games you "own" are no longer available to you.

You don't own your game if it's locked behind any kind of DRM - this includes digital forms such as Steam where it requires Steam to play the game (online or offline mode).

Even back during physical media not all games were owned by people - some still had you at the mercy of connecting to the developer's servers to verify your game key and if at any point that server is taken off line you have no way for the game to run.

There has been very little ownership for games in a very long time other than what GoG offers. At least with GoG you can download the files to your side and then do as you wish with them. You don't need any kind of online verification to play the game. That's as close as we have to owning a game these days.

I've enjoyed going back and playing older games over the crap that's been released recently. Baldur's Gate 3 is okay, but I think Larian did better with Divinity: OS2.

I've had more fun going back and playing older games such as:

• Call of Duty 2
• The Saboteur
• Company of Heroes
• The Chronicle of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
• Soldier of Fortune
• Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

I could cut off the xbox plan (I don't use it - tried to download Star Field on the PC since I do pay for a sub to it and the download failed after 100GB. The XB pass couldn't just restart the download from where it left off and I would have to redownload that 100GB, plus the last 50GB that it never got to....F that. Fix your servers MS. So glad I'm not paying for use of it myself) and let my daughter watch some ads to get a free sub if she wants. It won't be $16 or $18 out of my pocket a month.

If it was an option for me, I still wouldn't watch ads nor pay for it myself. Based on the one time I wanted to use the service myself it absolutely blows and isn't worth it.

Most people these days are stupid and don't understand how much control they've given up for a little extra convenience. I won't lie, I was part of the problem for a while, but 5-6 years ago I stopped buying into digital DRMs such as Steam. I'll only pay GoG for games because with GoG I can download the game files to my side, store them on what I want, use them when I want and not have to be connected to any kind of DRM to play the game.

I used to easily buy 4-5 dozen DVDs/Blu-ray movies a year and multiple full TV show series on disc. Today most movies and nearly all shows created don't come to physical media anymore. This means that if I want something I have to pay to stream it and I never get to have it in my possession ever again (in any legal ways).

I've got 1000+ movies on disc and over 4 dozen full TV show series on disc. Along with 100+ physical PC games and even 3-4 dozen VHS in my possession still. I've got multiple blu-ray players, two blu-ray drives on my computer, a functional PS2 and PS3 to play discs if needed and a functional VCR to play my VHS.

For me it's not about having a tangible item (though don't get me wrong, I do love the old physical PC games with all the artwork, items and boxes), it's about being in control of using what I own, when I want and how I want. You can't do that with a digital copy of a movie or game on a DRM controlled system. You're at the mercy of the digital distributor, period. If your connection to that distributor is severed some how, some way, all that stuff is gone. Poof! Vanished. But as I said before, most people are stupid and don't even understand this.

Don't you fret, folks. It's okay that digital content is being stripped from consumers because Sony has sold nearly 40,000 PS5 a day this year alone! Can you believe it? Wow!

Good on you Sony for being able to finally have inventory for people to buy and with all this money you're bringing into the bank it seems you can't afford to renew your contract(s) to retain these shows from Discovery for your customers that paid you money to have access to them.

F'ing pathetic.