Still waiting for the day Steam bites the bullet and just publish titles DRM free by default (as in if a studio really wants DRM they have to pay Steam extra, and Steam publishes that their DRM is in use)
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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DRM, digital locks, hardware locking fuses etc. should be illegal. If I buy a car I can change the lights, swap out the engine, do whatever I want with it, it's mine, I own it. Why shouldn't I be able to do the same with my phone or game? Why should some company have the right to tell me what I can and can't do with my own property that I payed for? That's not DRM (digital rights management) because they have no right to manage my property, it's OSM (ownership subversion mechanism) and that's what we should call all that anti consumer bullshit.
It's already up to the developer whether or not they use Steam's DRM. And fucktons of games don't use it.
So if I buy the games they can run without Steam on my machine?
Yes. You can even copy the installed files and just launch the executable on another machine that doesn't even have Steam installed.
Feel like that’s something should be made more clear for people
That's the thing. The vast majority of people are happy to support game devs and the steam service. That's probably why this is not an issue causing vast losses.
While not vast with game preservation and playability a big concern actually being clear that a majority of games are perfectly playable without the Steam Launcher would ease concerns
I'm not sure the majority of games is DRM free though. But youve got a point.
Not really. I mean I know that DRM free titles exist on Steam, but what I would like is the DRM free to be the standard
Publishers would just pay the extra fee and pass the cost to us. They care about controlling the data than they do about actual sales. You know.. capitalism.
Erm yes but in all likelihood the only ones that could reasonably afford said extra fees is AAA corporates who I don’t feel bad sailing on the high seas to download.
Meanwhile the more smaller and often Independent probably can’t afford the costs in paying for DRM protections and so would go without them. Hell a number would even likely use it as a marketing tool “my game is available DRM free, unlike that Activision-EA Slop.”
Fair point. Let the giants pay the tax to treat us like criminals while indies get to market themselves. It just makes it easier to decide who to support and who to pirate.
Valve's better than Epic Games, but they still have every incentive to keep users in their ecosystem with DRM. To that end, the Steam Deck's Proton compatibility layer and touchpad driver are integrated into Steam, rather than functioning independently of it.
Using the Steam Deck is possible without buying any games on Steam, but making Steam the core part of the distribution inherently encourages its usage.
Edit: I like the Steam Deck, but I don't think it's unreasonable to point out the aspects of the platform designed to encourage the use of Steam.
Valve's better than Epic Games, but they still have every incentive to keep users in their ecosystem with DRM.
Very true.
Thats why Proton on the Steam Deck only works with Steam running in the background.
Lmao what? You have proof for this? It's just as likely that it was easier to do it the way they did.
Not true about Proton. It's Steam DRM that requires Steam running in the bg, same as on Windows.
Wine can be set up in a similar way, but Valve's default setup is designed to for use with Steam first and foremost.
A bigger issue is that the Steam Deck touchpads don't work without Steam being open. A more open approach would have been to write independent driver software for the touchpads.
Valve's far and away better than Nintendo, but has still designed the Steam Deck to be heavily reliant upon Steam to function. The Steam Deck is priced in a way that anticipates increased consumer usage of Steam, but in isolation of Steam, it would be more usable as a Linux PC if it were more software-agnostic.
A bigger issue is that the Steam Deck touchpads don't work without Steam being open. A more open approach would have been to write independent driver software for the touchpads.
It works for me when I tested it in desktop mode with the Steam Launcher not running.
Meanwhile I play all my GOG games on my SteamDeck. Sure it runs SteamOS and Steam in a sort of Big Picture Mode, but it's still just a Linux PC, you're free to use whatever software on there in Desktop mode, and then you can add all the apps and games you want to the Steam launcher, and run them that way. You're not forced to stay in Steam, nor are you forced to only buy games from Steam. You can exit Steam on the Desktop mode and still use Proton to play Windows games, but that leaves you with more overhead running than when you do it from Steam in the big picture mode.
A bigger issue is that the Steam Deck touchpads don't work without Steam being open
This is interesting, because the touchpads on the Steam Controller do work without Steam being open, at least on Linux, though without cursor acceleration. I wonder why the touchpads on the Deck were handled differently.
It works for me in desktop mode with Steam Launcher not running. Maybe their OS got corrupted and they need to do a reinstall.
Does this mean the "PLEASE ADD TURKISH LANGUAGE 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷" spam all over the community hubs will stop?
Don’t be confident in the idea that VPNs will escape regulatory notice. The open web as we know it is rapidly being maimed.
I bet steam will create a "Steam (Turkey)" as a child company to deal with this.
Guessing it would end up being like this
I don't think thats a unfair ask. One local representative in each country seems perfectly fair for me.
Being said? the user information part? strictly locked to their own content. If the user account is registered in that country they have access. Providers could 100% do that with most operational databases out there. It's a requirement for stores in order to do payment information. Steam and Epic already do this as it is.
Should they be able to access that information in the first place is a different discussion, that needs to be had in that corresponding country, but if the country has already decided it needs access to continue, there's no reason it should have access to all user data. The only thing they really have claim to is their own countries data.
The issue is not the rep, it's the vague "content oversight." If the goverments can ban anything they deem "risky" that's censorship not regulation. That's exactly why piracy will explode. Let the game begin..
Fully agree. if they actually go through with banning it, piracy will thrive. People aren't going to just not play games as a result of not having access to a game. Smaller launchers will rise, people will download from other sources. A method of obtainment will be found.
Countries do this way more often than you think... they have always done that with movies preventing official releases or releasing edited versions, and as for games tons have localized versions since ever, from censorship of nudity in Japanese games in the USA market to censorship of Nazi flags in games in Germany and even LGBT references in tons of Eastern countries. I'd love if piracy exploded because fuck them billion dollar companies, but they usually just change a few art assets and that's it.
What type of content you fear your government may consider risky? Is someone there in a paranoia of video games causing violence?
Unless they would be banning stuff like GTA, Call of Duty and Battlefield entirely because of violence, I really doubt gamers would go out of their way in enough numbers to cause any ruckus just because they absolutely have to play the version of the game that has an LGBT flag in some building or certain character is transgender.
That's a very common and very reasonable request, and given the size of Turkey, I don't think they'd prefer to lose the whole market there instead of having a lawyer in the country to deal with local legal requests.
Only when it's companies run by manchildren, like X and Rumble, they go on the internet to cry about censorship and shit when they pikachu-face-discover they have to follow a country's laws to operate in that country.
ps: You are already not buying games when you pay for them on Steam.
Im pretty sure their happy to loose turkey. For years keystores have abused the worthless lira to buy cheap steam games and resell them for a massive markup and steam doesn’t get any cut and miss out on a more lucrative sale