What's the difference between GOG and Steam? [closed]

This is kind of subjective, but I'll throw what I know about the two into a makeshift answer:

Steam

• Steam Sales are great, letting you get some new and hot games for a really cheap price
• Notably large amount of games, although...
• There's a LOT of garbage on Steam, you should probably check out THIS series of videos which are mostly on games sold on Steam to get what I'm talking about.
• Not the greatest support, but at least they recently brought in refunds...

Good Old Games

• You can find a LOT of old, classic obscure games that you can't on Steam

• From what I found, cheaper prices than Steam.

• There aren't any community features - this is a storefront, plain and simple. (If you're like me, though, you won't really care.)

• NO. BLOODY. DRM.

Personally, I think Good Old Games is the better pick, but it's really hard to say which is better. It's also even HARDER to say where the two are going in the future. It really does look like stuff like Steam and GOG are going to be the future of PC gaming, and maybe even gaming in general, but who can say for sure?

There is more than a storefront on on GoG (contra DJ Aftershock's response), but the community is lesser than at Steam. Each game (or game series) has a dedicated forum, some are more active than others. Sometimes for classic games the gog forum is the best one available, though.

Plus, gog never tried to rm -rf / any of it's users Linux boxen. ;)

For modding most games you'll find yourself reliant on the Steam community even if you buy from GoG, humble bundle, or other DRM-free outlet, with lesser ease of configuration. But, it is DRM-free, so there's no chance of being locked out of your own crap because Valve showed you its fickle side. Even games that have been removed from GoG (Afaik, just the pre-3 fallout games) are still available for redownload by those who bought them when they were available.

Well, they're different platforms run by different companies. Valve has been taking more of a hands-off approach with Steam, their goal seemingly to make it a popular distribution and community platform. GoG on the other hand specifically targets older games (although they've broadened their scope now, GoG stands for "Good old Games") which they modify to run on newer OSes and then sell them (with publisher permission). You'll find older games on Steam as well, but they make no guarantee about performance or compatibility.

To summarize: Steam is a distribution platform. It also has some social elements built in to the service, such as friends, chat, groups, etc. Steam games require you to initially connect to the internet, and after that they allow for offline mode (your mileage may vary, I've never gotten offline mode working quite right). Publishers can optionally include additional DRM.

GoG is (currently) more focused on the storefront aspect, although they're working on developing a more robust client with social features as well (GoG Galaxy is a nice first step, but it's no Steam replacement). GoG games are DRM free - after the initial download you're good to go.

I use both services. You don't have to pick between them. I generally buy games on whichever platform offers the better deal.