Edited: Really hoping GOG grows to an enormous level of success.

I have a feeling you came to the wrong place...

I would write more but the very same feeling is telling me it's pointless.

IDK what you're trying to say. I edited my message to be more succinct and to the point.

It's pretty unlikely to happen as things are right now, unless there is a massive shift in consumer preference. I think it would be a much more realistic expectation to hope GOG can be more competitive, capture more of the player base, and get more games here on day 1.

Replacing Steam and becoming the defacto marketplace for buying games just isn't possible, given that many pubdevs would never release a game without DRM. If you also add in the sheer size of the player base on Steam, you can see that convincing at least a majority of them to abandon all their purchases, achievements, "friends", and the community on Steam to switch entirely to GOG becomes pretty difficult.

Steam would have to mess things up pretty badly for there to be a mass exodus from the platform. That's not entirely impossible, just not for the forseeable future in my opinion.

Highly unlikely if not nigh impossible considering the massive numbers of sheeple who have been and are successfully conditioned to simply not care about the DRM'ed licensing scheme they're helping to maintain with every purchase on the other platform.

GOG may be able to slowly but surely gain a (slightly) bigger market share over the next years though.

You also have to ask whether it's in the best interest of GOG to be Steam's replacement. GOG works really well for standalone singleplayer games that can be played offline.

However, there are a bunch of issues when you take into account multiplayer games, free-to-play games (with microtransactions), and also live service games. Steam also has a secondary marketplace for in-game collectibles, if I remember correctly. They have a heavy reliance on the internet which make it quite difficult to provide those games as standalone offline installers.

Although many of us here don't seem to have an interest in them, there is a sizable number of players who do want to play those kinds of games. If we look at multiplayer games again, anticheat also becomes an issue with massive servers. Both players and developers want it, but I doubt many on GOG would want to see that in their games. We'd much rather prefer local multiplayer options, like LAN and splitscreen.

GOG and Steam have very different audiences, although they are in the same space and do overlap quite a bit. More importantly, the players have very different expectations from both stores. GOG would have to change quite a bit to serve those customers as well, and I don't think that would be a good thing.

Probably never. It mostly depends on factors outside of GOG"s control, but given what's currently happening in the industry, we can hope for some growth at least.

I don't think GOG needs to replace Steam. If majority of Steam users are willing to buy a 2nd DRM-FREE copy on GOG of a game they already have on Steam even at a deep discount price then GOG will be in a really good position. Then GOG will be able to get more publishers to put their games on to GOG if they know in doing so will get them 10 to 100+ millions extra revenue. If this does happen then GOG will likely get more day 1 GOG release or at least get more popular games on GOG earlier within 1 year after the Steam release (depends on the game). This will also help reduce the likely hood of GOG version of games being outdated or far behind other platforms version due to GOG version generating a lot of revenue for publishers and developers. They will be more incentivize to keep their games updated on GOG as well.

GOG DRM-FREE policy limits their ability to get always online popular live service games unless they decide to change their policy on always online live service games being DRM-FREE which I don't know how that will be possible, probably will be quite troublesome. So from this GOG won't be able to replace Steam. Steam also have lax curation when deciding which games will be on Steam and their job is mainly to verify the game is safe and not malware. 120,000 games on Steam vs 12000 on GOG. Even if a large majority of Steam games are shovelware or asset flips Steam also get all the hidden gems by doing this. GOG should focus on getting as much very positive games from indie to AAA they can on GOG. If they are still curating games they however need to increase the pace and be faster with getting more releases on GOG so they have more games to offer to their users/customers.


GOG won't become a bigger player in the game industry if more people don't support it. GOG will need to improve their product and services for their clients, as well as get more amazing old and modern releases on GOG. I am pretty hopeful after seeing Square Enix heavy push with their games on to GOG lately that it may increase the chances of other big publishers doing the same if Square Enix makes quite a bit of extra revenue by doing this.

I think GOG is heading in the right path, also recent events from Sony discontinuing physical disc for games after 2028 helped GOG gain a bit more users.

The comments on this small video are quite revealing concerning how the masses see steam:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G0cURfGafKQ

Not that I'm criticizing anything. Humans tend to create and follow "cults", by nature.
Nintendo has one of the oldest and biggest cults in videogaming.
Xbox had its own smaller cult (now also decaying).
SONY had is decades-long cult which is now facing its "theological conflicts"
Throughout these last 20 years steam managed to create a similar cult status among PC gamers.

Even GOG is also a cult. The DRM-free Cult.

I'll admit we live in interesting times. A few years ago, when GOG was facing severe backlash because of its business decisions I remember some of its customers stating in the forums that they'd stop buying on GOG and just stick to Playstation because of the "I own the physical disk" guarantee. Now that it's all gone topsy-turvy I wonder how those folks are feeling.

As for steam: the bigger a company gets, the higher the odds that it'll make big, stupid decisions. And - as soon as old Gaben steps out for good - it's almost certain that some very greedy and unscrupulous CEO will fill his fat shoes and make some radical and unpopular changes.

Given the state of the economy currently, expecting people to buy the same thing all over again isn't really feasible. That's why Day 1 releases are important. GOG is losing out on quite bit of revenue by not having more games release here alongside other platforms.

This is true which creates a catch 22. If the majority of Steam users did buy a 2nd DRM-FREE copy on GOG even on a deep discount then that will put GOG in a really good position to get Day 1 releases as well. However to get Day 1 releases GOG needs to be able to generate a good amount of revenue for Publishers/Developers and in order to do that they need a lot of users to buy games from GOG to help generate revenue for the Publishers/Developers. Thankfully we have Publishers/Developers that are exception and are willing to put theirs games on GOG Day 1.

It is up to GOG to figure out how to solve the problem of gaining more users and getting more publishers to release their games on GOG. We users can only do only part whether it is supporting GOG through GOG patron, spread more awareness about GOG with others, buy games on GOG that is currently available which helps support GOG in getting more great games onto GOG.

Honestly the current issue is that GOG is missing a ton of AA and indie releases, it could get by with those alone with a few AAA games here and there. As it stands GOG ends up being last when getting any releases so most, me included will get it on steam when its cheap likely to play it once then never again. Buy the time GOG gets to sell it if at all people will have moved on.

GOG is now a place to repurchase games for an offline installer and that's it. As for the OP this store would likely fall off way before steam.
Not sure where you get the idea devs would release day one on GOG by buying 2nd hand. If anything it just re-enforces what all devs have been doing. Release on steam at launch after a period of time sell on GOG for a small amount of revenue. GOG can't really do much besides keep the existing customers happy, can't get new once and if they do anything wrong the community just lashes out.

I am talking about the scale of purchases, if 50 million steam users (can include console users that have a PC too) also bought a 2nd copy of a game DRM-FREE on GOG at a deep discount for $2-5 that would be anywhere from $100-250 million dollars in revenue. Do this at scale and GOG will be in a really good place. This signal to Publishers that a lot of users want DRM-FREE copies and that a lot of revenue can be made on GOG. This in turn will make it more likely for Publishers to also release their games on GOG day 1 for potentially even more revenue. Even if the GOG version do not get a Day 1 release it would be a lot faster probably 1-6 months (majority of games) or within 1 year from Steam release.

It is as Hurricane0440 said expecting majority of users to double dip especially in this economy is very unlikely to happen. Majority of users favors convenience over DRM-FREE, digital rights ownership, game preservation etc. They want their games wrap up in a nice box in one place and I understand that, I use to be "Steam Or No Buy" user myself for a good part of 20 years. PC gaming is synonymous with Steam nowadays. Steam is a great product and service and it is not a surprise why the majority of users use it.

I think GOG appeal will continue to grow as the push for an all digital age intensify. There will definitely be more anti-consumer policy these AAA companies like Sony will push that will tip the scale in GOG favor albeit slowly.

The best possible outcome is that GOG stays about this size and remains profitable.
The bigger it gets, the worse the service will become.

This is very often the case with tech marketplaces.

Most of the absolute best games end up here anyway.

I don't think GoG can ever get really big, because so many gaming companies want to use DRM.

However, it’s not just about what companies want, but also what gamers are going to do.

The gaming world is changing, because consoles are starting to force all-digital games on users without any choice. Consoles used to be the easy and cheap way to start playing games. Future consoles will cost over $1000, and, more importantly, games cost more on consoles than on PC. This makes PC gaming in the future more versatile, cheaper, and gives better options.

Another thing is when game companies try to push digital games where you basically own nothing. There’s a side effect to this: many games have licenses even before they’re sold to consumers. Voice actors, music, subcontractors, all those licenses have expiration dates. This is really important because sooner or later gamers start getting frustrated when they lose the products they bought. That makes them look for other options, and GoG is the best choice for that.

Of course, as long as Steam keeps supporting games past their license expiration, those players don’t notice the problem. So I don’t expect Steam players to switch to GoG, but console players might. Sony and Microsoft are likely to cause issues for their player base in the next generatio gaming, they’re just too greedy for money. Consoles are losing the aspects that made them great; they’re turning more like PC gaming, but without the benefits PC gaming provides.

So console players go to Steam or GOG. More players are on GOG, the less chance game companies can ignore it. My point is that losing what you’ve bought will be more common in the future, and it will gradually affect gamers, making them more aware of the situation. As more and more digital product licenses start to expire.