I’ve fallen out of love with Steam. I feel they’re far too cold and corporate, despite the fact that they try and make gamers feel like they’re the guardians of PC gaming and all they do is help aid the survival of the PC. In reality, Valve are running a business, and a successful one at that. I recently covered my thoughts on Steam in more detail in an article, but to sum up, I find Steam to be very anti-consumer, anti-support and completely hands off when it came to dealing with its customers.
It’s a great shame this once great game developer has thrown off its good reputation as a company that is ‘for the gamers’ and become a profit driven shell of its former self. For the record, I do admit that Steam has been instrumental in making PC gaming relevant once again, but it holds a huge amount of all the downloadable game sales.
It’s important to remember that Steam isn’t the only place to buy your games from, so let’s take a look at some of the best Steam alternative available today.
GOG Galaxy
GOG Galaxy is GOG.com’s very own client for buying and managing your games. It’s a mixture of good old games (GOG, get it?!), and modern titles. While it is missing many major titles it does boast some big games such as The Witcher 3, Civilization IV and Mount & Blade, which are all available through the service. However it does tend to focus on older games and more so recently, it has focussed on independent games. Most recently it’s seen the release of fantastic indie titles such as Skylar & Plux, Inner Chains and Blackwoods Crossing. In 2016, they introduced GOG Connect, allowing GOG users to connect their Steam account with the opportunity to download titles already purchased through Steam for free.
Itch.io
Itch.io is a website and app that focuses on the sale of independent games. The service launched back in 2013 and allows developers to have customised game pages. Initially, it was said that Itch.io would have a pay-what-you-want model, and many of them do still have this model. All the games on the platform are independent, with some of them taking the form of games made from various game jams and experimental projects. Some of the larger indie titles do have a standard price, and as of 2017 there are currently over 40,000 games available on the service. If you are looking for something new and unique then I would totally recommend Itch.io to the indie game lover.
Humble Bundle
One of my favourite websites for PC games is Humble Bundle. Firstly, as you may have guessed, Humble Bundle specialise in selling game bundles, usually at wonderfully low prices. Earlier this year, it released the Freedom Bundle, the biggest bundle they’ve ever done. Costing just $30, it featured The Witness, Stardew Valley, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, Subnautica, and The Stanley Parable as well as dozens more.
One of the finest aspects of Humble Bundle is that it gives a percentage of each sale to charitable causes and so far it has raised over $95 million for charity, according to co-founder John Graham. There’s also the Humble Store, which frequently has fantastic deals. Humble Bundle mainly sells Steam keys for its games so the Steam client is recommended, but they do have DRM free keys for various titles.
Direct2Drive
Direct2Drive was a game download service that launched in 2004. Created by IGN, it used its good relationships with publishers to offer over 3,000 titles. It allowed people to download the game file directly to their computer completely DRM free, which gave them full access to the title so that could do exactly what they wanted to do with it. Only problem is that this led to files quickly being illegally distributed.
In 2009 it refused to sell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 due to its integration with Valve’s Steamworks, meaning that gamers would not be able to play the game without installing Steam first. This made headline news 8 years ago, but Modern Warfare 2 would be the first of a number of games to require some sort of DRM. Steam’s domination would lead to Direct2Drive’s downfall, with IGN selling the service to GameFly in 2011 who merged it with its own service. Direct2Drive was relaunched a couple of years ago under a new company using its original name. It’s a nice service, although some games do require the Steam Client these days. It focuses on indie gaming but does boast mainstream titles such as Prey, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and The Elder Scrolls Online.
Green Man Gaming
Green Man Gaming is a British company which sells codes not only for PC and Mac, but also for Playstation (3 & 4) and various Nintendo formats though their own websites. They work closely with a number of publishers and most of their games are sold as Steam codes, meaning you need the Steam client to download and play them. They aren’t necessarily cheaper than Steam, but often do match Steam prices, meaning it’s an alternative if you’d rather not give your cash to the Gabe brigade.
In the United Kingdom, Green Man started selling boxed games as well, giving gamers the opportunity to trade in their games. Back in 2014, Green Man Gaming opened a publishing arm to assist in helping developers bring their games to market. While it may not be cheaper than Steam, it does look like a more ethical company, which is something well worth paying for.
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