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Steam has you: how digital distribution takes away our games


Crush the mouse with your foot - this will be tantamount to an earthquake, which will distort the appearance of the whole earth, will fundamentally change our destinies. The death of one caveman is the death of a billion of his descendants strangled in the womb. Maybe Rome will not appear on its seven hills. Europe will forever remain a dense forest, only in Asia a magnificent life will flourish. Step on the mouse and you will crush the pyramids. Step on the mouse - and you will leave an eternity in dents the size of the Grand Canyon. There will be no Queen Elizabeth, Washington will not cross Delaware. The United States will not appear at all. So be careful. Stay on the trail. Never leave her!

Ray Bradbury. A Sound of Thunder

Around us constantly occur certain events, the significance of which we can fully appreciate only after a few years, or even decades. Often what seems to us insignificant today will have the most serious consequences tomorrow, and an act that alone could not affect anything other than our own life will turn an entire industry upside down. This is how the “butterfly effect” works, clearly illustrated in Ray Bradbury’s science fiction short story “And the Thunder struck”. The reality ... is often much more surprising than any fiction.

Probably everyone who is not indifferent to computer games dreamed of their own ideal project. Here are just a few managed to create the coveted “dream game”, without losing all the enthusiasm in the production hell. And the end result is often significantly different from the original idea. Nevertheless, miracles do happen: almost a quarter century ago, two friends managed not only to turn their dreams into reality, but to lay the groundwork for a radical revision of the paradigm of the relationship between the publisher of the video game and its end user. We are talking, of course, about the odious Half-Life, which made it possible to look at the first-person shooter genre from a completely different perspective, and the first (and still the only one of its kind in terms of convenience and functionality) Steam digital distribution service,the appearance of which is also largely contributed to this game.

It’s only a pity that with all the convenience and amazing features, the new content distribution model has a downside: from now on, the publisher can literally cripple your favorite game in a couple of mouse clicks or even select it. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's rewind time and see how events developed.

Half-life: it all started with Half-Life


In 1996, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, both unknown to Microsoft (both from Microsoft, who had worked in the corporation as programmers for 13 good years), founded Valve Software. The idea of ​​the guys was truly grandiose: they dreamed of creating the perfect first-person horror shooter, no less. Inspired by works such as Stephen King’s Fog and The X-Files television series, they put together a team, drafted a concept, licensed the Quake Engine developed by id Software, and set about looking for a publisher.


It is unlikely that Gabe Newell could have predicted that in 2017 he would be included in the list of 400 richest people on the planet according to Forbes, ahead of Donald Trump

The search was quite difficult: potential investors simply did not want to take risks, investing in the startup of those who did not have any experience in the gaming industry at all. But still, the times were different: in the mid-90s, publishers were still betting on innovation, instead of trying to create another Skinner box, encouraging players to buy as many loot boxes as possible, and Valve’s idea looked really interesting. As a result, the developers took Sierra Games under their wing and the work began to boil.

The prototype began to "grow flesh": every day the game was filled with more and more new ideas, many of which were born directly in the development process. Very quickly, the capabilities of the original engine ceased to be enough: the Quake Engine was completely redone, and GoldSource was born, which literally translates as "Golden Source". The name turned out to be prophetic: Half-Life won the title “The Best Game of All Time” four times, became the Game of the Year as much as 50 (!) Times according to various gaming publications, and its total circulation over the next 10 years after release reached an impressive 9.3 million copies.


Half-Life is arguably the most important and influential game in industry history.

For its time, this game turned out to be really breakthrough, forever changing the face of 3D shooters, having a huge impact on the formation of such a genre as immersive sim, and the industry as a whole. It is not surprising that Half-Life quickly acquired an army of fans around the world, among whom there were many creative people: hundreds of various modifications appeared on the basis of the project, since Valve provided the players with all the necessary tools. Some of them complemented the main plot, becoming a sort of game fan fiction, others, like Cry of Fear , turned into independent games with a unique history. But only one project could come closer in popularity to the original. This, of course, is about Counter-Strike .

Initially, the world-famous multiplayer shooter was nothing more than one of the modifications for Half-Life , developed by Minh Lee and Jess Cliff. Lee always dreamed of creating his own online game, and even was in The A-Team, working on a multiplayer mod for Quake 2 called Action Quake 2 , however, with the release of the SDK for GoldSource, he switched to the novelty, since he considered this engine more convenient and promising .


Minh Lee - the person who started Counter-Strike

Soon another enthusiast joined him, Jess Cliff, who not only helped in the development, but also promoted the project among the Half-Life fan community. The beta version of the modification, which was released on June 19, 1999, received the ingenuous name Counter-Strike , and its first servers were launched in the fall.

Despite the simplicity of the concept, being a completely non-profit project, Counter-Strike quickly gained popularity, competing on equal terms with hits such as Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament . Already in the spring of 2000, Valve noticed the modification, making friends an offer that was impossible to refuse: the company bought the rights to the name, and yesterday's amateurs became professional game developers, having received positions in the studio. The release of the full game took place on November 8, 2000.


Counter-Strike - one of the most popular online shooters in the history of

Counter-Strike quickly gained loyal fans, becoming one of the most (if not the most) popular network shooters: while the average online multiplayer projects in the beginning of zero did not exceed 2-3 thousand people, the number of active CS players was tens of thousands. And here Valve faced an unexpected problem: the World Opponent Network service, previously developed by Sierra Games and integrated into all games published by the company with an online component, was simply not designed for such loads.

Valve took decisive action, having bought WON in 2001 from the then owner (since January 1999 it was managed by Havas Interactive), and began to develop on its basis its own project, called Steam. At first, the developers only wanted to improve the performance of the network infrastructure, making it scalable, and integrate the service with their own anti-cheat and update distribution system for online games. However, then it was decided to go further and create not just a tool for supporting online projects, but a full-fledged store in which anyone can directly purchase a licensed copy of the game and immediately install it on their computer. In those days, the idea was truly innovative, and initially even Valve itself doubted that they could cope with the maintenance of such a project.They tried to enter into partnership agreements with Amazon, Yahoo and Cisco, but representatives of the listed corporations were skeptical of the idea (oh, if they only knew what profit they voluntarily refuse) and the company had to act independently.

The studio worked on the first version of Steam for the next 3 years, while maintaining WON functionality for already released games. Steam 1.0 was included in the distribution of Counter-Strike 1.4 , however, its installation was only an additional option. On July 26, 2004, the release version of the online platform saw the light. And the first single-player game, which required a Steam client on the computer, naturally became Half-Life 2 .


It was hard to come up with the best exclusive promotion for Steam.

In the future, Valve began working with other publishers and studios, giving them the opportunity to publish games on the pages of their store. The first third-party projects to appear on Steam were the Rag Doll Kung Fu (released October 12, 2005) andDarwinia (published December 14, 2005).

The Steam assortment continued to expand, and the service itself - to acquire new features. Among the many updates, two of the most important can be distinguished: the emergence of a social platform for Steam Community players (September 12, 2007) and the release of Steamworks (January 28, 2008) - a set of free tools that allowed third-party developers to introduce advanced Steam functionality, including DRM, into their games, game statistics collection tools, bugtracker, achievement system, multiplayer, user chats and much more. The first game to harness the power of Steamworks was the music arcade Audiosurf , which was released on February 15, 2008.


Audiosurf - the first project with Steam's hotly beloved modern players' achievements

Having estimated the prospects of digital distribution, Valve began to catch up with other large companies: today it is almost impossible to buy a game for a PC in which Steam, Origin, Uplay or another launcher (and then immediately a couple). As for the ancestor of all online gaming stores, his statistics speak eloquently.



Although Valve does not report on revenue, its success can be estimated using third-party tools. So, according to SteamSpy, in 2017, the company earned about 4.3 billion US dollars on the service (despite the fact that only direct sales were taken into account, without DLC and in-game purchases).

So, for some 10 years, Steam has completely changed the model of relations between the publisher and the end user, eventually becoming the most popular platform for distributing digital versions of computer games and practically monopolizing the market. But it all started with two programmers who decided to make a dream shooter. Butterfly Effect in action.

But what is the reason for such a frenzied popularity? In fact, it is commonplace, and it can be expressed in one phrase: digital distribution services are really convenient. You no longer have to queue up on the day of release for the sake of buying another hit or languidly wait for pre-order delivery: you can get any title in just a couple of mouse clicks and play in the forefront thanks to the preload function. There is no longer a need to manually search and install patches or additional software needed to run: a smart launcher will do everything for you. Now you can also forget about backup copies of the saves: the necessary files are automatically transferred to the cloud. Well, if your backlog is scheduled for years to come, you can also save a lot by buying the game during the seasonal sale, since the discount in the digital store is much easier to track:the service itself will send you a notice of a reduction in the price of goods from your wish list.


Steam completely changed the face of modern PC gaming.

Anyway, modern digital distribution services have long ceased to be ordinary launchers: the same Steam is essentially a full-fledged social network for gamers, allowing you to find friends to play together, participate in discussions, save screenshots, write guides and reviews, create and download mods, give gifts and even trade in-game items. It’s only a pity that all the pluses listed cross out one fat minus: from now on, the purchased games do not belong to you.

Foreign games, or Why you need to read license agreements


When registering with any digital distribution service, you must accept the terms of the user agreement. Often, you are asked to repeat a similar manipulation when buying a particular game or when it is first launched. Frankly, have you read this document from and to at least once? No? In this case, we offer you a list of the main provisions that are one way or another set forth in such agreements.

  • Your account is the property of the owners of the digital distribution service.

An account is provided to you for use in order to make purchases and does not belong to you. You own only personal and payment data (for the processing and use of which, by the way, you also consent to registration).

  • You are not buying games, but a license to privately use a copy of the corresponding software.

This nuance must also be understood. From a legal point of view, “buy” means becoming the full owner of the game, whereas in the case of digital distribution, you essentially rent it for an indefinite period. In this case, the publisher retains all ownership rights, and he can do whatever he wants with the original product or change the conditions under which you are given the opportunity to use the software.

  • The product is delivered “as is”.

Also a very interesting point. According to him, the publisher disclaims all responsibility for the quality of the software. In fact, even if the game for which the money was paid does not start, the copyright holder is not required to fix anything or issue patches. Of course, if this happens on the release, the publisher will make every effort to eliminate the bug as soon as possible, but only for the simple reason that if it does not, it will incur huge financial losses, and no one will buy its next game. But it is important to understand that these actions are dictated by a purely economic benefit, and if the correction of certain programmatic problems is unprofitable, no one will move a finger.

  • Owners of the site can restrict user access to services at any time without explanation.

Again, no one will simply block your account: any digital distribution store is interested in as many loyal customers as possible. At the same time, if your account falls into the ban, the store administration reserves the right not to respond to your requests at all and not to take any action to clarify the circumstances. Moreover, determining the cause of an erroneous ban, if the problem is not widespread, is resource-intensive enough.

  • The terms of the license agreement may be changed unilaterally without prior notice to customers. You agree to the new terms by continuing to use the digital distribution service.

At the same time, you don’t even have to buy anything: you turn on the computer, the Steam client automatically connects to the authorization server, and this fact in itself is considered consent to new terms of service that you have not even read.

Similar conditions existed in the digital era, when computer games were distributed exclusively on disks. But de facto, you could completely ignore them: at least it would be strange to assume that an evil publisher would send special forces for you to select a DVD with a game for which, for example, the license expired.


“Do not be silly! Slowly put the disc on the floor and push in my direction ... "

But now times have changed, and digital copies of games, in fact, are beyond your control. You can say: “Well, yes, licensing agreements are written in such a way as to protect publishers and platform owners as much as possible, this is not unusual. And for me personally, this did not do any harm, although I have been using a variety of online services for a long time. ” In this case, you are lucky: perhaps the games that were somehow affected by the actions (or inaction) of the copyright holders simply lie outside the scope of your interests. Meanwhile, many precedents have already accumulated to date. In order not to be unfounded, we consider specific examples.

Fantasy first-person action Dark Messiah of Might and MagicReleased on December 21, 2006, Arkane Studios, which was under the wing of Ubisoft at that time, was not only an excellent combat system, but also had very good Russian localization. However, the last patch, correcting a number of minor bugs, led to the fact that the demoness Zana, who was accompanying the main character during the good part of the adventure, spoke in German.


The German language gives Zana a certain charm, it is only a pity that at the same time the essence of the story is lost

You can correct the situation only by finding the desired file on the network and manually replacing it in the localization folder: since Arkane Studios is now owned by ZeniMax Media holding, and Ubisoft, which is the copyright holder, is clearly not interested in reviving the franchise, you should not wait for official patches, which means that the Russian version The “dark messiah” will remain broken forever.

This case is rather comical, and the problem can be solved without much difficulty. But fans of Warcraft III will not be envied. On January 29 this year, a remaster of the game, called Warcraft III: Reforged, was releasedand the "reforged" version of the famous strategy in just a few days became the lowest-rated game on the Metacritic aggregator (at the time of writing this material, its rating is only 0.5 points). The project “excelled” literally from all sides: in addition to bugs, buyers found that many previously announced changes in the game were simply absent (for example, instead of completely reworking clips, only two cinematics were replaced, the interface remained outdated, and there were no story changes or additional missions in the game did not appear), but for some reason the old high-quality voice acting was removed, while the new one turned out to be very mediocre and inexpressive.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the end, the most important thing in the game is the gameplay. And here the list of problems turned out to be much more impressive:

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  8. - The Frozen Throne Reign of Chaos;
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What does a failed remaster have to do with the topic of our article today? The most direct. Blizzard took advantage of its right to make any changes to the implemented software products by forcibly updating the classic version of the game. Yes, yes, you understood correctly: now the owners of the original, along with those who bought the remaster, enjoy all of the listed bugs, breakdowns and restrictions absolutely free. The difference is that the original version of Warcraft III did not receive updated graphics (although the launcher still downloads 30 gigabytes with new assets), but maybe this is for the better: among other things, many players note that highly detailed models of characters and units on the background of the low-poly environment (even the hack here) look at least awkward.


At the sight of such a “quality” remaster, nothing but the sacramental “Damn, Uther!” Comes to mind.

However, broken games are by no means always the product of disorder among developers: often the problem lies in licensing certain materials used to create the project. One of the most revealing such stories happened with the cult Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven . In an effort to recreate the atmosphere of the 30s of the XX century, the Czech studio Illusion Softworks included a lot of classic compositions by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, the Mills brothers and many other jazz artists in the soundtrack of the game. When the license to use music expired, the game was simply taken out of sale. However October 20, 2017 Mafiashe returned to virtual shelves again, but without musical accompaniment: all that was left in her were original tracks written for the project by Czech composer Vladimir Ĺ imunek. Of course, previously sold versions were forcibly updated.


Without the same music, Mafia will never be the same . Alan Wake

almost suffered the same fate . On May 13, 2017, Remedy Entertainment announced that the game would be withdrawn from sale in two days due to the expiration of the rights to use certain musical compositions in the soundtrack. Fortunately, Microsoft intervened: less than a year later, both parts of the epic, which tells about the misadventures of Alan Wake, returned to digital stores, moreover in its original form, with all the audio tracks.


The soundtrack in Alan Wake is no less important for creating an atmosphere than the visual.

But the story of Alan Wake is an exception to the rule. This franchise is too promising from the point of view of commerce: the series has become a cult, fans still wait to continue, gaming publications with an enviable regularity recall the project, all this spurs sales and makes a profit. If further support is not profitable, then the game is simply withdrawn from stores, and today there are already quite a lot of such cases. Here are just a few of them:

Wolfenstein 2009




A direct sequel to the famous Return to Castle Wolfenstein , which was released in August 2009. Developed by Raven Software based on the id Tech 4 engine, this game was published by Activision. Subsequently, the rights to the series passed to Bethesda Softworks, which successfully restarted the franchise. Nobody needed the game itself and soon disappeared from the Steam pages.

Agent Games 007




In 2006, Activision received the rights to develop games about James Bond, the famous agent 007. Quantum of Solace , Blood Stone , 007 Goldeneye , Goldeneye Reloaded and 007 Legends were released by the studios owned by the publisher . None of them can currently be purchased legally: after the expiration of the license, the listed games were removed from the catalogs of digital services.

Blur




Released in May 2010, the arcade race had every chance of becoming a hit, but alas: Split / Second, which came out almost simultaneously with it, overshadowed the competitor, and the game failed even despite the high ratings of critics. The second part was canceled, the Bizarre Creations development studio was closed, and the game itself was discontinued in 2012, as Activision decided not to renew the rights to licensed cars.

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast




The eighth game of the series appealed to both players and critics, but now it is nowhere to get it: Sega's rights to use Ferrari cars have expired.

Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason ("Anabiosis: The Dream of Reason")




Although the game was released on December 5, 2008, the digital version appeared in the Steam catalog only in 2012. And safely disappeared from the pages of the store a year later. The reason for this was the legal dispute between Action Forms (subsequently split into two teams - Tatem Games and Beatshapers) and the publisher 1C.

The godfather




At one time, Electronic Arts tried to grab its chunk from a successful franchise by buying the rights to develop games for The Godfather. But if the first part, released in the spring of 2006, was warmly received by the audience, the second turned out to be a failure: only 241 thousand copies of the sequel were sold at the start. As a result, EA canceled all plans for the development of the continuation and did not renew the license, after which both games disappeared from the Steam virtual shelves.

MLB Series




Baseball managers, previously released by 2K, left digital stores in full force after the publisher broke the contract with Major League Baseball. The last game of the series saw the light in 2012.

Shaun white snowboarding




The snowboarder simulator, whose face was three-time Olympic champion Sean White, was released by Ubisoft in 2008. For such a niche product, the game turned out to be quite successful: according to the results of 2009, the publisher reported 3 million copies sold. Despite this, Ubisoft considered that paying for a license to use the name of a famous athlete was too wasteful, so in 2016 instead of Shaun White Snowboarding 2 , Steep saw the light , and the original game disappeared from digital platforms.

Infernal




Released in March 2007, a third-person action star was missing from the sky. However, this game can’t be called bad either: it’s a very strong action movie, albeit not distinguished by its outstanding cut-scene production and sophisticated plot. Unfortunately, in 2010, the Metropolis Software studio was closed, so now we will not see a continuation in which the developers could work on the bugs, nor the original in the Steam catalog.

SEGA Rally Revo




Released in the fall of 2007, SEGA Rally Revo was the last game of Sega Racing Studio. Despite an aggressive marketing campaign (Sega even shot several Tonya & Donya comedy shorts featuring Natasha Ledgero for release) and a warm welcome from critics, the rally simulator failed to sell. And the publisher himself, of course, did not renew the rights to licensed machines, preferring to remove the game from digital distribution services.

This list can be continued for a long time, without even mentioning games in films, animated series and comics ( Deadpool, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan , both parts of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Jackson's King Kong, DuckTales: Remasteredand many other projects were withdrawn from sale by economical publishers immediately after the license expired). Here are just copyrights and related rights - not the only problem of digital distribution. Strictly speaking, you can suddenly lose your entire library if the same Steam suddenly closes. Seems incredible? But such a precedent has already taken place.

Games for Windows Live, with which any active PC gamer must have a lot of unpleasant memories, was not only an online service for playing on the network: Microsoft planned to create a full-fledged digital distribution platform based on it that could compete with Steam. GFWL had its own store (in it, by the way, exclusively sold Halo 2 and Gears of War), a system of achievements, tools for social interaction between players - in general, a quite good gentleman's set. Here is only one trouble: all of the above worked very badly. It got to the point that even before the release of Dark Souls on PCs, fans of the series wrote a petition to Bandai Namco asking them to remove the integration with Games for Windows Live from the game: in 2012, no one was hoping that Microsoft could make the ill-fated service even something more or less sensible.


Microsoft had grandiose plans for Games for Windows Live, but the service did not take off

And this time, gamers were looking into the water: on August 19, 2013, the corporation announced that on July 1, 2014, support for the platform would be completely discontinued. The problem is that in a number of games GFWL acted as DRM, in addition, all DLCs required additional activation in the service. And if from the games of the Batman: Arkham , Bioshock , Resident Evil 5 and Red Faction: Guerrilla series, the developers eventually deleted all the traces of Games for Windows Live, and the same Bulletstorm , which did not start at all without online activation in the Microsoft service, as a result received a reissue, then Fable III was useless to anyone, and now this game has also disappeared from Steam.


Maybe Fable III was inferior to the previous parts, but still was a great game.

Not so long ago, it shared its fate and, no matter how incredible it may sound, GTA IV with add-ons: on January 10, the game was withdrawn from sales again due to the ill-fated GFWL. Rockstar promised to "fix the situation", and even add support for Steam achievements, without specifying, however, when the patch will be released that removes the dead service from the project: given that they have GTA Online's constantly generating profits , this task obviously does not is a priority. By the way, the fourth part of Grand Theft Auto suffered twice: in 2018, a lot of tracks sounding on various radio stations disappeared from the game.


Well, and now how Nico Bellic steal cars without Vladivostok FM? It remains to ride a taxi

By the way, third-party online DRMs, which have also become fashionable due to the rapid development of digital distribution, can themselves cause a lot of problems. So, the Chronicles of Riddick dilogy was discontinued for the simple reason that the developers of the Tages copy protection system, which was built in both parts, went bankrupt and the online activation servers were disconnected. As a result, even previously purchased copies are absolutely useless today, unless, of course, they were previously activated.


Riddick is able to defeat anyone except DRM

A similar fate befell Tron: Evolution. Here the situation is unique in its own way: Disney, which published the game, paid for the license to use the online version of SecuROM copy protection for 10 years and did not renew it. As a result, not only new customers suffered (and the game was withdrawn from stores after the license expired), but also those who grabbed the toy at the sale, but never launched it, as well as those who played it before, but revoked the activation ( for example, when replacing a system drive or reinstalling Windows).


Cyberpunk has nevertheless come, but a little different than we expected. We

summarize all of the above and outline the key problems of modern digital distribution services from the perspective of the end consumer:

  1. , Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battlenet, PSN, Xbox Games Store Nintendo eShop, . .
  2. DRM, , -. , Steam , DRM- , , ( ).
  3. From a legal point of view, you do not purchase digital goods, but licenses for the right to use software. Since the games themselves are the property of the publisher, the latter can at any time limit your access to your product, change the code or multimedia content included in its composition, and you can’t do anything about it.

Simply put, every owner of a digital game library can lose it overnight, and no one will compensate him!

In this regard, there are not so many ways to assemble a full-fledged collection of single video games that will not be controlled by third parties, which means that you really do not really own much (though not de jure, de facto), but still they are. You and I can still:

1. Buy games on discs


This method is relevant for computer games of the “worthy” era (with a few exceptions like the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic mentioned above , the disk version of which, although supplied with the Steam activation key, could function autonomously) and console releases for consoles up to the 7th generation (i.e., Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) inclusive. Acquiring physical copies of PC games is currently pointless: firstly, the vast majority of modern releases will still require online activation, and secondly, you risk finding inside the box instead of a disk only a sticker with a license key or a DVD with the Steam installer, as this was the case with Metal Gear the Solid the V .


Your face when the game itself was not in the box with the game

However, with the free from online DRM games of past years, you can get into trouble. If FEAR received an offline version of SecuROM, which generally works quite well now, and Quake 4 had no protection at all (at least the gold edition with all the latest patches released by 1C), then, for example, the Russian edition of Suffering 2it is protected from malicious hackers by the odious StarForce - the driver that repeatedly pleased you with BSOD on an even place, asked to remove the "prohibited software" from the computer, having detected an antivirus, and because of which your DVD drive eventually crashed. Alas, it will not be possible to launch such games on modern versions of Windows, which means that the only thing that remains is to look for foreign publications on eBay and other similar sites that “star power” has bypassed.


StarForce is so reliable that even the owner of a licensed copy cannot start the game

Console releases are also not so simple. Having bought a disc for Playstation 2, you can immediately insert it into the console and enjoy the game (or run it on a PC using the emulator, which is also an absolutely legal action today), but with Playstation 4 this number, alas, will not work: since the development of digital distribution has freed the hands of developers, "for gold" is often sent raw (or even incomplete) versions of games that turn out to be inoperative without a patch of the first day or a couple of dozen gigabytes of content on top. Therefore, you need not just get a licensed disk at your disposal, but install the game on an internal or external drive and then download all updates, after which you should not delete the game.

2. Use the services of online services that distribute game distributions without built-in protection


At the moment, the main such platform is GOG (Good Old Games) - a subsidiary of CD Project, the author of the famous series of games about the Witcher. Initially, the online store was positioned as a place where you can buy old games, modified for modern operating systems and equipment, but after the restart, which took place on September 23, 2010, the latest releases began to appear in the service. But although today's range of the site is no longer limited only to classics, the main rule of GOG has remained unchanged: only games that are completely free from DRM, including offline, are published here.


GOG - the last bastion on the path of arbitrariness of computer game publishers

Games without copy protection can also be purchased on sites such as Humble Bundle, IndieGala, Itch.io and several others. But do not forget: your purchase must be downloaded, because all of the listed services operate in a legal field and will be required to replace the game distribution with a “modified” one (for example, without a soundtrack) at the request of the publisher.

3. Buy games on Steam


No, this is not a mistake: in fact, there are many games on Steam in which anti-piracy protection is absent in principle. A fairly extensive list of such projects is published in PCGamingWiki . If you want to check if DRM is built into the game installed on your computer, just open the folder with the executable file (the path to it looks like ... \ steam \ steamapps \ <account name> \ <game name>), exit from Steam and try to run the game: if everything goes smoothly, then there is no protection. By the way, similar manipulation can be done with other clients: many games from Origin or EGS are also deprived of protection.

Of course, to make such a game your own, you will have to manually archive the corresponding folder and save it in a safe place, that is, outside the client’s service directories. Although the same Steam has the necessary tools for creating backups of games, this option will not work for us, since you still need to log in to the service to restore the backup.

4. Keep on a separate drive installed and activated copies of games purchased in the "digital"


The method is radical and resource-consuming, but reliable as a Swiss watch. Since Steam supports offline operation (you only need to activate your account on your PC once), you can take a separate drive, install the operating system on it, the client of the digital distribution service and all the games from your virtual collection, and then transfer the account offline. If the game has third-party DRM (like the same Alone In The Dark 2008), it must be launched and activated at least once. After that, you will have at your disposal an untouchable supply of games that you can play at any time, even if Steam suddenly closes tomorrow. Why do we recommend having a separate drive for this with a separate copy of the operating system? Theoretically, activation can fly off during a Windows update, and you won’t always keep the Steam client offline (you’ll probably want to play some kind of shooter over the network). A dedicated drive will allow you to encapsulate your entire game library, as well as to avoid situations when a patch installed in the background safely cuts out the soundtrack from your favorite game.

Of course, all these measures require a huge amount of disk space, because the times when the weight of games was measured in megabytes are long gone: modern AAA-projects weigh at least several tens of gigabytes, and the sizes of the heaviest of them even approach 300 GB, as in case with the same Call of Duty: Modern Warfare . But you just don’t have to worry about this, because Western Digital has already thought of everything for you.

WD_Black - external storage for real collectors




The modern market offers many external drives of various capacities, but none of them is suitable for storing backup copies of games or even more so for launching them. The reason for this lies on the surface: when developing such devices, the manufacturer thinks about anyone, but not about gamers. Why? Let's speculate.

Why can an ordinary consumer purchase an external hard drive? Obviously, in order to store documents, photographs, music, books, films, possibly some utility programs on it. Compared with the distribution of a modern game, almost any of the listed files will be negligible, which means that downloading it will not require any exorbitant speeds or large volumes. Similarly, low bandwidth will not affect the playback quality of multimedia content, because even for 4K video with a frame rate of 60 frames per second, a speed of 50 MB / s will be more than enough. As a result, external drives of the “civilian” type use slower, but at the same time more economical HDDs of small and medium capacity. This doesn’t affect user experience.however, it helps to further reduce the cost of the device, reduce the level of energy consumption and heat dissipation.

The situation is different with games. Even if you only plan to save backups of distributions on an external drive, you will already need a rather high data transfer rate, otherwise, copying the same Red Dead Redemption 2weighing 112 gigabytes will take forever. If you want to run games directly from mobile storage, then the device’s performance becomes extremely important, because the download speed of individual locations and even the minimum FPS will depend on it: if the PC does not have enough time to quickly load the resources necessary for rendering 3D scenes into operational memory and VRAM, you will be expected by constant friezes (which is especially noticeable in open world games) and various kinds of visual glitches like drawing textures directly in the frame, objects emerging from the air and jumping shadows.

Given these features, we have developed three lines of external drives that are focused on the needs of modern gamers:

  • WD_Black P10 Game Drive - compact and capacious 2, 4 and 5 TB hard drives (special versions of WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One for 1, 3 and 5 TB are also available);
  • WD_Black D10 Game Drive - a high-performance external drive with a capacity of 8 TB with built-in active cooling system (also available in a special version of WD_Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One with a capacity of 12 TB);
  • WD_Black P50 Game Drive - High-speed external SSDs with a capacity of 500 GB, 1 and 2 TB.

Let's get to know each of them better.

WD_Black P10 Game Drive




WD_Black P10 Game Drive is a compact (118 × 88 mm) external hard drive with USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface, compatible with personal computers running Windows 8.1 and 10, Mac OS 10.11 and higher, as well as with current game consoles (supported Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Playstation 4 Pro with firmware version 4.50 or later). In performance, this model is identical to the internal HDDs of the WD Blue series: the data transfer rate reaches 140 MB / s, which allows you to quickly back up even the most difficult games. So, for example, copying a 50 GB distribution will take no more than 6 minutes.

The WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One is optimized for use with the Microsoft game console. It also comes with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate two-month coupon, which takes advantage of the Xbox Live online service and gives you access to over 100 games for Xbox One and PC.

WD_Black D10 Game Drive




WD_Black D10 Game Drive can rightfully be called "heavy artillery." In terms of performance, it is in no way inferior to the top SATA HDDs: support for the USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface provides the ability to transfer files at a speed of 250 MB / s. In addition, this model is equipped with a built-in air cooling system that maintains the optimal temperature regime inside the case, guaranteeing stable operation of the device and eliminating its overheating even under heavy load. The combination of high capacity, reliability, versatility (like the WD_Black P10, the drive is compatible with PC, Mac and current consoles) and impressive speed characteristics makes the WD_Black D10 an almost ideal solution for those who are building a digital game library: you can easily install your entire hard drive on this hard drive a collection of gamesand its performance is quite enough for comfortable gameplay.

WD_Black D10 Game Drive has another interesting feature: on its case there are two Type A USB connectors with a power of 7.5 watts, which allows you to use the hard drive as a charging station for wireless accessories (for example, keyboards, mice or headsets). It also comes with a convenient stand that allows you to mount the drive vertically.

The special version of WD_Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One is more capacious (12 TB). In addition, each buyer also receives a gift code on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (valid for 3 months).

WD_Black P50 Game Drive




The WD_Black P50 Game Drive SSD is the fastest device in the family: thanks to support for the SuperSpeed ​​USB interface (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2) and the use of advanced 3D NAND flash memory, its performance reaches a record 2000 MB / s, which is almost 4 times faster than SATA SSD and only 400 MB / s less than the NVMe SSD WD Blue SN550. High speed data transfer can significantly improve the performance of your PC, laptop or game console (Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro with firmware version 4.50 or later are supported). And thanks to shockproof execution, you can be 100% sure of the safety of your collection of games.

Such an impressive arsenal will help you effectively manage your digital game library, choosing a drive that is optimally suited for capacity and speed. For example, WD_Black P10 can be used both to store backup copies of distributions, and to install games that are undemanding for hard drive performance (releases of previous years, CD and DVD images for previous generations of consoles prepared for launching on an emulator, etc.) .

WD_Black D10 is ideal for those who are tired of freeing up space every time for a fresh release, sacrificing the necessary files: since this model is not inferior in performance to top SATA hard drives and has its own cooling system, you can install games directly on an external drive and play directly from him. It will also serve you well as a backup system drive for installing and storing activated copies of DRM games offline, since the impressive capacity will allow you to download your entire Steam library without any problems.

Finally, the WD_Black P50 will not only provide you with sufficient free space, but will also help you “boost” your PC or console: performance comparable to that of the NVMe SSD in the mid-price segment ensures fast location loading and a stable frame rate even in the most graphically sophisticated games.

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