I never buy anything online for this very reason unless I have some gift card or something to spend. the only exceptions are some video games which only available online for purchase, and I make no delusions that they cannot be taken away. I download and install the games I really want to keep around, and buy the physical copies when I can (make sure it actually is a physical and not some download code in a box)
retro gaming has none of these flaws. you get a physical copy, no dlc to download or patches to install, and I don't need to update my machine to play anything, passable bugs usually or just fun glitches, and you get a collectable that can be displayed on a shelf. win win win win.
Digital gaming is like a junkies idea of a good time. consumption driven, interchangeable, constantly changing and needing the next fix....no respect for the gamers they milk, especially since their profit margins are so high with digital consummables and loot
Hasn't Valve publicly stated that if they go out of business or something they will make all their games accessible? [1] Obviously a forum post isn't exactly top-tier evidence but if it's true that's at least a tiny bit reassuring.
All that said, I usually buy my games off GOG when they're available there, simply because I like the guarantee that the games will continue to work even if they decide that I'm not cool enough to serve.
> Hasn't Valve publicly stated that if they go out of business or something they will make all their games accessible?
Valve is currently facing a situation where a game on Steam that includes third-party DRM will completely stop working in September of this year. There's no way they'll be able to follow through on this commitment outside of their own titles.
They refer to Steam DRM, which a lot of games use, not just their own. Of course that doesn't solve the issue for games that use some other DRM or that for some reason require some servers to run.
I made a decision years ago that I would stop buying things on steam and only buy them in GOG. It was hard sometimes - gog only got older games and definitely not the best of the newest titles.
I found that I would simply hold off on buying each new title for "a year or two" and if I wanted it still and it wasn't on gog I would buy from steam. I found that after "a year or two" I had no interest in it. I'm not sure why that is - likely psychological - but it kept me on gog.
So, I agree - gog is great. I appreciate them. But its hard for most to make that shift.
retro gaming has none of these flaws. you get a physical copy, no dlc to download or patches to install, and I don't need to update my machine to play anything, passable bugs usually or just fun glitches, and you get a collectable that can be displayed on a shelf. win win win win.
Digital gaming is like a junkies idea of a good time. consumption driven, interchangeable, constantly changing and needing the next fix....no respect for the gamers they milk, especially since their profit margins are so high with digital consummables and loot