this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
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Forgot about steam's forced DRM on purchases. Forgot about their inconsistent policing of content in games they sell. Forgot about steam not wanting accounts to be inherited when you pass away. Forgot about their 30% cut for small devs while bigger devs get a smaller cut. Forgot about a lot of things.
Don’t read this as a general defence of steam but I do want to correct a factual mistake: there is no forced DRM on steam.
Plenty of games are released on steam which do not rely on the steam client to be started and are in fact DRM-free. They can be backed up, and played on any machine without steam installed.
Some examples are Cyberpunk2077, the System Shock remake, Shadow tactics, and most of the devolver digital catalogue. The issue I personally have is that steam itself does not declare the difference anywhere in the store front, but at least it is always accurately catalogued on the lovely pcgamingwiki.
Yeah, would be nice if they added a DRM disclaimer like they did with AI
Usually accurately displayed on the PCGamingWiki, at least. I've tested games that it listed as having SteamDRM and discovered that they're actually DRM free. My experience is that new entries on Steam are likely to be listed as using SteamDRM. People usually just assume it's active when they're making the initial page.
Yeah I think that’s a more reasonable assumption. Presumably the new page template comes with the steam info pre-filled and has to be confirmed manually before someone then can correct the entry.
Still love that they even have this info nicely organized at all!
Not a thing.
Also, are you complaining that smaller devs get a bigger cut than larger devs? That's certainly an interesting gripe...
Smaller devs have to pay 30% of their revenues to steam. If a game sells well enough, their revenue share increases and steam takes a smaller cut, 25 or even 20%. This greatly benefits publishers of big games and unfairly punishes smaller developers. I think that's a perfectly fair gripe.
It's easy to forget when you see the competition.
There's not steam added drm, for games that the developer didn't add drm to you van just go to the games folder and launch the executable.
For a good chunk of games without drm they're even portable, ie you can copy the game's folder to a flashdrive and run it anywhere or give people working copies.
My guy, Steam is DRM
I understand what you're saying, but it's literally not. DRM is very specifically code added to games to prevent them from being copied and shared. Words mean things, ya know
No. It literally is. It is specifically Digital Rights Management. You are using the colloquial term, not the literal. Words do mean things.
You have no capacity to access these products via any other system than Steam. You have no means to redistribute, modify, etc. except for what Steam forwards to you. This is no different than Netflix. It is no different than Spotify.
Denuvo is also a DRM solution, that is leveraged to prevent tampering and reverse engineering. This is because Steam's DRM guarantees do not rise to the level desired by many publishers. These DRM solutions are more consumer hostile, sure, but it's ignorant to suggest Steam does not perform a portion of these duties as well.
You have to log into steam to be able to launch any game you own on steam. As opposed to launching the game standalone.
This is the gateway you have to cross to access what you paid for.
That's the management of digital rights, right there. It's not complicated.
Seems I need to update my definition, polled some friends (I didn't vote) and this was the result
You can still launch games you've downloaded without steam preventing it unless the game has developer added code preventing it, but if people consider having to use the storefront to buy and download them drm, then it seems I should update my word usage
Unless the game has DRM built in by the developer, you can just fucking launch the game standalone my yin
That's what I said in the earlier comment
Steam isn't preventing you from launching shit
It's not complicated
Sorry for being a snarky jerk, but it's literally what I said earlier, you can just go to the game folder and launch the executable. Steam doesn't prevent it, it's not stopping you from doing anything.