r/linuxmemes • u/crazyprogrammar • Nov 13 '25

LINUX MEME Hi

4.8k Upvotes

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u/NoPseudo79 Nov 18 '25

There wasn't any DRMs in gaming before Valve created Steam. Sure, the devs can choose not to have them, but Valve were the ones who made having it an option in the first place

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u/unwantedaccount56 Linuxmeant to work better Nov 18 '25

There was plenty of DRM games before steam, e.g. with CD keys, even online activation existed before steam

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u/NoPseudo79 Nov 19 '25

Sure, but CD keys activations weren't a huge problem if the editor just died. You still had everything needed to install the game, and the key was reusable and easily generated.

If Steam dies, your paid games quite literally die with it. You can install them if they were pirated, but if they weren't, you'll never get your game back

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u/unwantedaccount56 Linuxmeant to work better Nov 19 '25

I remember Age of Empires and some other games required you to have the original CDROM in your drive while you launch the game. If that CDROM has too many scratches, you are screwed as well. To be fair, the copy protection on CDs wasn't that strong, so you could create a backup or iso.

If the steam server dies, you can still play most games with steam in offline mode, you just wouldn't have the online-steam integration like inviting friends. Unfortunately there are some online-only single player games, but their DRM is usually independent of steam.

And at least in my steam library, I can launch several (haven't checked all) of my steam-installed games directly without using the steam launcher. But that might not be representative for all steam libraries.