Fields of Mistria is a really popular cozy game that capitalises on the success of Stardew Valley. You're not going to find it on GOG, though.
Keylocker is a really unique turn-based strategy game set in a Cyberpunk world that's also making the rounds. No, it's not on GOG, so don't bother.

That's the general problem. All games are on Steam, with no exception, mind you, because Steam is synonymous with PC gaming. If a game isn't on Steam, then it doesn't exist. Only a handful of titles are available on GOG.

I understand these types of corporate hijinks in the console space, but the PC world was supposed to be different, free. Why bother investing in a PC when your options are limited to a single monopolistic entity that does as it pleases?

Not true.

There are plenty of games that are not on Steam. look no further than GOG exclusives.
And of course there are some that are only available on Epic, itch.io, Zoom, or some other store, and some niche games are only available straight from the developer etc.

Steam catalogue is impressive, which is why I use Steam as a wishlist even for games that I plan to buy elsewhere, but they certainly don't have everything.

If you count freeware games, and maybe some old games, you can even say that most games ever made are not available on Steam. For instance, there are probably close to ten thousand games made with AGS, how many of those are on Steam? A hundred or two hundred, maybe.

Here is an excerpt from the Starsector website (an indepently made game currently only available directly from the developer):

"Will it be on Steam / will I get a Steam key later if I buy it now?

Putting the game on Steam is something I want to look at when the game is more or less “done”. It’s a complicated decision for various reasons – there are upsides and downsides, and it’s not something you can easily try and then back out of."

Saying "with no exception" is a bit misleading and too easily disproven, but the point it makes remains. Steam has made things so convenient for all involved and has such a significant market share that it feels at times as though they have a defacto monopoly, so much so that many games currently not available on Steam have to address the matter.

I can't use steam to:
- build my arcade machine (offline, 24hrs ready)
- for games that aren't there (gog, gamersgate, myabandonware)
- there are no legal bigheads on steam (all banned), there is plenty here as on d picture x D
- the only thing I like about steam is the CS game : )
- the only thing I like about gog.com is freedom : D
- in 2022 37% of gog's clients came from North America where steam is based, great!
here proof https://items.gog.com/GOG_NUMBERS/facts.png
- here we are rich and famous as I wanted https://www.gog.com/en/work/engineering-engineering-lead-angular
- gog.com is going to be an even better event in time, it's still very young

I can use steam to make sure my favourite devs will get more money xD
and maybe to see what's super new like in cinemas.
then I want my personal dvd = gog.com : )

I like it when people go "it's still better than consoles", and that's ironic considering that:

- Only PC games have to deal with launchers
- Only PC games have to deal with multiple DRMs including multiple launchers and/or Denuvo
- Only PC games don't have used games in most shapes and forms for nearly all games
- Only PC games have region locking in our year and day

And they're willing to pretend none of these are issues because you can mod your stuff, and consoles don't let you, therefore PC objectively better.

At least we have other stores besides steam (like the one we're on right now!), but see, the issue is that for most people, PC games are steam, and steam is PC games - in the same sense that Sony is PlayStation and PlayStation is Sony. The platform has the capability to be everything it's hyped up to be, but in the end it's console-ified with launchers, and not even good console-ification at that considering the above list generally doesn't apply to actual consoles.

I would place Steam's monopoly on PC gaming at the hands of the players more than Steam themselves. There used to be a good argument to Steam being more user-friendly than other launchers but recently I struggle to see what makes Steam launcher better than Epic or Xbox launcher except for community pages.

On PC you are free to install gog games, itch.io games, linux or windows, firefox or chrome etc. You have enough games to play for a lifetime on GOG.

Sometimes in life you need to make sacrifices and it's not the end of the world if you're not playing a game on GOG.

Part of the "freedom of the PC world" is, that your freedom to choose, which game(s) you want to play, is (in general) not limited to a certain hardware (some exceptions apply, ofc), resp. to a certain console.

I can't play a PS exclusive game on a XBox, or vice versa.
I can't play a Switch exclusive game on a PS, or vice versa.
Etc.

However: I can play any PC game on my PC (if my OS and hardware is capable of running said game) - regardless of the store, where I buy the game.

And if I don't want to support a particular store, because of my principles, that's on me.
Now, does that mean, that - in the worst case scenario - I have to forego some games, which are exclusive to that store?
Well, yes! That's what that means.
See - "having principles" comes with a 'price'.

Certainly not Tekken 3 : ) I do play it on my gog`s console : ) with original dvd bought on internet auction and pcsxr emulator that does not need PS bios. (legal)
@that being said I can say I play Tekken 3 on GOG.com. And going for the rest of consoles and titles ^ Hi Sony! I am waiting for more titles : D but until then.... Hi Nintendo... Hi Sega....oh some Sega is here already : D no no there`s no limit! 🎼 "We do what we want and we do it with pride"
time for gog`s unofficial theme xD 2Unlimited - No Limit This must be Zuzanna_Editor singing with King_Kunat ; D

Never heard of those games and i do not feel a lot of FOMO for missing out on them. On top of that, those games are using a DRM. Why should GoG ever get them if they are DRM even on Vapor?

I think the main reason Stardew Valley was such a huge success is simply because most people never was experiencing those content in reality, so it need to be done virtually. Somehow a waste because if they would create a real garden... it will be good for their health and even save up lot of coins.

Consoles have had regional locking for decades. In the 90's you could not buy or import games properly for the SNES without physically modding your SNES to play Japanes games. Even up to the PS2, regional DVDs were blocked by the firmware, and even the PS3 was region locked. Modern consoles still require a VPN to acquire region locked content (much like PC), though usually they can be played without remaining in said region. Discs have to be imported, which is still something of a hassle in some cases.

So region locking is the one thing on your list I take issue with.

Which really makes GameBoy Advance the best console ever.

Not only did the design correct mistakes of its predecessors (such as too dark display), but it also worked with games made anywhere in the world, and was 100% backwards compatible with GameBoy and GameBoy Color.

And the game modules were also memory cards, so the game and save game files were always together.


The only thing that's more convenient than that is PC, because it can do almost anything, including GameBoy emulation.

PS3 owner here! I have a PAL console, yet I'm able to play my few US (discs whose serials start with "BLUS") discs alongside my EU ("BLES") discs, absolutely no problem there. It also runs Asian ("BLAS") discs. If I had a JP disc, it'll run too. In fact, there's exactly three or four region locked games in the PS3's entire library.

To put things into perspective, the PS3 is a console that came out in 2006, and since then region blocking has been completely absent on consoles unless you're one of the unlucky owners of those three or four aforementioned games. At roughly that time, steam et al. introduced region blocking to the PC world!

Availability and purchasing your stuff might still be a problem, sure, but the point is one that you made yourself: they can be usually played without remaining in said region. Good luck figuring out how to handle this with steam.

Better yet is that I didn't import any of my discs - I only have one disc I was gifted from abroad. All these EU, US and Asian game copies were just being sold as used games that I snagged locally.

Come to think of it, I have three Vita physical games back when the console was still on shelves, and my Vita is a Hong Kong model. My games were rated by the ESRB and PEGI - this Vita can run them.

I exclusively use GOG. I don't want to give steam any money,

Recent evidence from the Wolfire v Valve lawsuit is showing many emails between Valve and dev/pubs where it showed Valve used contracts, threats, and negative actions towards dev/pubs that did or wanted to sell their games cheaper on other stores compared to Steam.

Economist did an analysis on the data and found that not only did Valve's tactics help in having higher prices for consumers, but it also resulted in less choices for consumers on where they want to buy their games because it removed a lot of the incentive to put games onto other stores. Its a pretty big document and I am not doing it justice with just a few sentences.

Source:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59859024/348/1/wolfire-games-llc-v-valve-corporation/

How many other DRM free games could have been on GOG if Valve didn't do this anti-consumer and anti-competitive tactic, especially if GOG could have competed with a lower revenue share to entice lower prices for games on GOG compared to Steam? But that choice was taken away from consumers and from dev/pubs because of Valve's own greed.