It's that time of year again. The Steam Summer Sale is here, discounting plenty of PC games that you've had on your wishlist for years. Running from now until July 10th at 10am PT, you can grab tons of cheap games, install them on your Steam Deck, and forget you ever owned them, thus inflating your backlog tenfold. At least, if you can get past the Steam servers crashing from how many users are buying games. Some of the highlighted titles on the front page are Grounded, from Xbox Game Studios, Horizon Forbidden West, from Sony Interactive Entertainment, indie darling Balatro, and thousands more.

Source

 

[GengarsGhostlyGiggles]

I trust Steam under Gabe, but he's 62. He's not gonna live forever. Imagine Microsoft buying steam and it immediately turning it to shit.

 

[Xzi]

I trust Steam under Gabe, but he's 62. He's not gonna live forever. Imagine Microsoft buying steam and it immediately turning it to shit.

His son is seemingly poised to take over at some point, and Valve has a relatively flat ownership structure anyway. It's much more beneficial to all the employees there if it remains a private company rather than publicly-traded.

 

[OilFreak]

Man I love spending money

 

[Thardus]

anyone have any games they're looking forward to?

 

[poughstings]

Digital games are fraud.

 

[CoolMe]

Yea i noticed the server issues earlier today, pages take too long to load etc. On that note GG Deals has been having issues as well since it uses Cloudflare, same for other key sites that use Cloudflare, sometimes it can be a hit or miss when loading pages and sometimes they're completely broken

 

[m00k00]

Digital games are fraud.

I dunno, man. That's almost like saying watching a movie at the cinema is fraud. You can just watch it once and your money is gone. I guess in the end you pay for the hours of fun and entertainment you get out of it and the experience you had which will form long-term memories, if that makes sense to you.

 

[DJ-Yoshiman]

Nor am I. When PC games stopped receiving physical releases, I stopped supporting game studios. Digital only is 100% renting. Games can be delisted at any time.

Oh man, I can't even remember the last time I saw a physical copy of a PC game. Those were some days.

Wait, games can be delisted - as in, they can be pulled off the shelves and not sold anymore... like retail, right?

Not really different than in real life. The good news is the files for the game and the executable are on my hard drive, so I can still play it as long as that hard drive doesn't fail. Just like how I can keep playing that physical copy until the disc fails.

Well, that is, until technology catches up and the newer version of Windows makes it so I can't play that copy any more. Then it's time to sail the seas.

 

[Chary]

anyone have any games they're looking forward to?

Rune Factory 3 doesnt seem like it'll come to PS5, so I'm excited to grab that on sale from Steam. If anyone still hasn't played Dead Cells, they absolutely need to. XCOM 2 for $2.99 seems like a sick deal too.

 

[AlexMCS]

If I can not pirate it, I will not play it.

What a stupid comment to make. Steam is a game rental service. You do not own digital games, just like you do not own digital music, shows, movies etc.

Ownership is an illusion btw. The society is the one endorsing your "property", if it changes, so does what you "own".
A digital game is the same as a physical copy: binary data. You don't "own" either.

I get your idea regarding piracy, but if you can, you should also pay for the game to support the developers who made it.
You liked the game enough, didn't you? You'd want more from the devs or IP, wouldn't you?
Then pay for it.

I will still pay for and play uncracked games though, since they will all eventually get pirated.

Justice and property are privileges, not rights, and they belong to the truly strong.
Even "rights" are a byproduct of a society, not something you are owed.

I do agree that GOG is the ultimate compromise though.

View attachment 513344

Digital games are fraud.

Having 3 meals is more expensive than most games, and good food doesn't last long at all.
Which is why I skipped meals to save lunch money as a kid to get games. Zero regrets.
This is the epitome of bad comparisons.

 

[DJ-Yoshiman]

You know what, guys


Money is a fraud

 

[anhminh]

There sale are only possible because pirate exist. Without pirate there is almost no incentive for game developer to low the game price unless it's super old and everyone already buy it. Just look at how many game with Denuvo are on sale.

 

[V800]

I'm also of the idea that I don't really own my Steam games so I have an strict policy of buying games which are either under 5 dollars or free. That is a fair price for renting. I also favor GOG over Steam if the price is the same or pretty similar.

Post automatically merged: Jun 27, 2025

I'm also of the idea that I don't really own my Steam games so I have an strict policy of buying games which are either under 5 dollars or free. That is a fair price for renting. I also favor GOG over Steam if the price is the same or pretty similar.

 

[Xzi]

Guys, I rented Half-Life 2 in 2004 and forgot to return it, when do you think Blockbuster is gonna call me and ask for it back? Might need to sell my car to pay the late fee.

 

[Ampersound]

I guess it's a good thing Steam isn't a game rental service then...

What a stupid comment to make.

Except that it is.
Better read the license agreement.

 

[NotUsingAnAltAccount]

I think you have a wrong definition of renting. Renting is when you borrow something for a fee and the agreement of borrowing it is that you will return it on a specific date. You can't "rent" something like a U-haul and keep it until the company takes it back. You "rent" an apartment for a set term and then renew that contract at the end. With subscription services, you "rent" the content available until your term expires.

With Steam, there is no end date set on your license. Therefore, rental is not an appropriate term here

Renting is not borrowing, as you don't pay when you borrow. Steam's agreement is nothing but a rent, a lease. Let's call it a lease if you insist.

Some people got too deep and comfortable with Steam until Valve on their own or on behalf of a developer or a publisher will take something away from you, like they did a couple of times in the past already. With GOG for example it's different. Try to take away the installer and game from my hard drive, I dare you to literally steal it from me as it's my installer, my file now. On my drive. It will work, always, it's not just an entry in my virtual library and it will work without Steam client which is a DRM to have a control over what you can even run. You don't own anything there, so that's not a buy. Just like physical copies, I own them physically. Come to my house and try to take them away from me. This is something you own. You bought it, it's yours. License? it's not only a license in this case, just like in case of GOG games. There's a huge difference between them. Revoke my license on GOG and of my physical copies, revoke my license on Steam. Let's go even further, ban my account on Steam and GOG. See who bought and who rented or leased something. Try to come to my house and steal my physical copies, go back, licenses as some people believe they are.

 

[SecureBoot]

Renting is not borrowing, as you don't pay when you borrow. Steam's agreement is nothing but a rent, a lease. Let's call it a lease if you insist.

Some people got too deep and comfortable with Steam until Valve on their own or on behalf of a developer or a publisher will take something away from you, like they did a couple of times in the past already. With GOG for example it's different. Try to take away the installer and game from my hard drive, I dare you to literally steal it from me as it's my installer, my file now. On my drive. It will work, always, it's not just an entry in my virtual library and it will work without Steam client which is a DRM to have a control over what you can even run. You don't own anything there, so that's not a buy. Just like physical copies, I own them physically. Come to my house and try to take them away from me. This is something you own. You bought it, it's yours. License? it's not only a license in this case, just like in case of GOG games. There's a huge difference between them. Revoke my license on GOG and of my physical copies, revoke my license on Steam. Let's go even further, ban my account on Steam and GOG. See who bought and who rented or leased something. Try to come to my house and steal my physical copies, go back, licenses as some people believe they are.

It's still not a lease because there's no "end" in the agreement.

How many steam games have DRM? A very small percentage and those games won't be on GOG anyway.

 

[NotUsingAnAltAccount]

It's still not a lease because there's no "end" in the agreement.

How many steam games have DRM? A very small percentage and those games won't be on GOG anyway.

Almost all of them, Steam is a DRM itself. Except for very few that you can run without the client. Doesn't matter if they're not on GOG, it has nothing to do with it. I don't know why you're pointing it out.

Well, I gave you examples. You don't buy anything there.

 

[SecureBoot]

Almost all of them, Steam is a DRM itself. Except for very few that you can run without the client. Doesn't matter if they're not on GOG, it has nothing to do with it. I don't know why you're pointing it out.

Well, I gave you examples. You don't buy anything there.

> I have you examples
> Didn't give you examples

And like I mentioned originally, if someone did pull that stunt, just crack it and move on. Buy your games though.

 

[NotUsingAnAltAccount]

> I have you examples
> Didn't give you examples

And like I mentioned originally, if someone did pull that stunt, just crack it and move on. Buy your games though.

I you can't read thru it with understanding then there's nothing I can do. You do you, pirate stuff if something happens, I don't have to. That's another difference.