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One of Steam’s competitors will let you turn your digital purchases back into physical games, saying “you don't need a storefront's permission to play what you bought.”
Steam has very few competitors on PC. The closest is probably the Epic Games Store, but even Epic has acknowledged that most PC users only go there for the free games or exclusive collaborations.
However, there’s an argument to be made that GOG is Steam’s one true competitor as it’s doing something no other digital storefront is currently achieving: preserving games.
GAMINGbible has spoken to GOG in the past about its retro game preservation initiative - and new classic titles are being added all the time. It’s got all sorts of games from the PS1 Resident Evil titles to Wolfenstein 3D.
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GOG has shown it truly cares about games time and time again, but in light of PlayStation’s call to end physical media production, and Xbox likely following suit with Positron, the PC storefront is reminding users that it doesn’t have to be this way.
READ MORE: More PS5 games are heading to PC despite Sony's boycott of the platform
On July 14, GOG informed PC players that you can “download the offline installer of any of your games on GOG, save it to a disc and it's yours forever."
It's X post added: “You don't need a storefront's permission to play what you bought.”
There’s been a lot of drama recently about digital licenses, as when you purchase a digital game from the likes of PlayStation, Xbox, even Steam, you’re essentially paying for the license to play said game, not the game itself.
It won’t happen for a long, long time, but someday online servers will be shut down, consoles will burn out, and all of the money you spent on your digital library will be washed away.
This makes GOG’s digital-to-disc feature incredibly valuable to collectors. Sure, you have to provide your own disc and case to store the games in, but it’s so much better to actually own the game you bought rather than the permissions to play it.
Of course it should go without saying that this only works for games you bought from GOG. You can’t, for example, convert your Steam library with this tool.
It’s the exact opposite to what Xbox is supposedly launching later this week. Xbox Positron will allegedly grant you a digital license for any physical game you install to your console. This means you can play it on your PC, mobile device or whatever else supports Xbox games. You lose the license if you sell the game on and it’s installed by another gamer.
GOG has once again proven that it deeply cares about the current state of gaming, and it continues to make moves that empower gamers from all around the world.
It’s the kind of attitude titans in the gaming industry like PlayStation and Xbox are lacking right now, though Xbox at least appears to be trying to do better despite the layoffs.
