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steam vs gog, which game store to buy from?
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this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Every gimmicky feature on steam is fluff to lock you into an ecosystem. Buying steam games for achievements for example is really silly.
Truth is if you care about a sustainable games industry, then drm free and maximising developer cut is the right choice.
Choose the option that gives the developer the biggest cut, like itch or directly, and just use a launcher aggregator to manage it from one place like heroic launcher or playnite. I personally use gog for most but will use an alternative if it supports the dev better.
I don't consider Steam Input to be a gimmick. I use it to turn my Steam Controller (2015) into a mouse/keyboard like experience on a controller. Setting things up like touch activate gyro with mouse bound to the touchpads and gyro. And then using a combination of modeshifts and chords to shift the touchpads into a set of 5 inputs on edge/center tap and then an additional 5 when holding down the left grip. This lets me keep my thumbs on movement and camera controls throughout the game, and have to rely less on weapon wheels. An example is where I left click on my right to reload, center click to melee, up click to switch to gadget 1, and right click to switch to gadget 2, down click to switch to gadget 3. I also use Steam Input to set a sprint on the outer edge, so I can sprint when I want to instead of having to rely on things like toggle sprint or auto sprint.
And when I use regular dual joystick controllers like the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless I'll set the extra bumper button to act as a modeshift to turn the joystick or facebuttons into a dpad as an example, so I don't have to move my left thumb off the joystick to the dpad and temporarily lose my ability to move. This made Nier Replicant a fun experience for me setting up the dpad to switch between the 3 different weapons during combat while being able to continue to move around. Steam Input also lets me set up mouse input on the gyro while retaining analog triggers without having to bother with the much less feature rich 8bitdo controller app. People have used Steam Input to set up touch activated gyro on the dualsense and used conductive tape to set up touch activated gyro like on the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Controller (2026).
Steam Input also has things like touch menus and radial menus, so it can really change the gameplay experience due to being able to set up configs for game actions devs didn't set it up to do. Like an example is Doom Eternal where people kept asking to be able to bind specific weapons to the facebuttons or dpad so people could quick switch like keyboard users instead of the weapon wheel to bypass reload animation and shoot faster. Devs finally provided that option much much later, but Steam Input users were able to do things like set up a modeshift so holding down the right bumper would shift the facebuttons into something like keyboard keys 1,2,4,4 and behave as regular XYAB when the right bumper isn't held down without need for devs to change the game.
Steam Input changed the controller experience to one where I don't use aim assist on controllers, so when most people default to aim assist in games that just goes to show how valuable Steam Input has been for controller users who utilize it and want more from the controller experience beyond default Xbox controller setup. I would enjoy games less if Steam Input went away because of how feature rich it is compared to other controller remappers out there. Gotten to a point where even if I play non Steam games I'm trying to get Steam Input working with it, so I can customize my controller experience.
I use steam input but still purchase games from gog. Just add the game as a non steam game. Heroic and lutris even do it for you.
I just mean that buying games from steam for the gimmicks, like achievements, trading cards, and forums gives you less control over the product your purchasing.
Fixating only on features you don't care about to argue your point while omitting the features of Steam you find useful due to it not strengthening your position is rather misleading. Steam workshop is another I forgot I have found useful for mods for certain games.
GOG strengths like DRM free and install files are good enough to stand on its own without trying to make it as though Steam's feature only have things you see as worthless.
My only point is that drm free and a better developer cut are significantly more important than the other stuff.
And yes I chose those specific gimmicks because while steam has useful features it also has features that purely exist to keep you in an ecosystem without actually offering any utility, like achievements, trading cards, steam funds, and other features I mentioned. I happily use steam, but choose to purchase my games DRM free and try to maximise developer cut where I can, but being tricked into using a single store front is not a smart move.
It's why I pointed out the omission of Steam Input and only focusing on what you find frivolous even though you yourself use Steam Input made your argument seem misleading. That one truthfulness about using Steam Input did end up hurting the initial statement, since it went from what could have been waved off to ignorance or not finding use in it to becoming a sign of intentional removal of information due fear it undermines the main thesis.
It would have been better to state the pros of GOG which can stand on its own. Even now you seem to be undermining the utility of Steam Input choosing to keep highlighting the gimmicks which gives off the sense of still not wanting add to the idea that there is utility Steam provides beyond that. As though gimmicks negate whatever utility is provided.
All I'm saying is it would have been a stronger argument to bring up the utility you find in combination with bring up the negatives you find about Steam, which would have given off a stronger impartiality when it came to your stance conveying to readers you can recognize both the good and the bad. That would have led to a stronger final conclusion than one that seems more overtly one sided.
For linux support steam is king. Getting gog games working is a bit of an obstacle. Gog really needs to get a linux native client to remove the barrier of entry.
Probably less convenient than through steam, but just installing heroic launcher or bottles or lutris or the likes makes that really easy. Most of the games installed on my steam deck are through heroic, same with on my desktop pc. In fact heroic launcher was a significantly better experience for me compared to gog galaxy when I was on Windows.
I agree that GOG should put out a Linux client to make things easier, but with Heroic as an alternative, getting the games working is pretty painless. The only thing that sucks there is that Heroic doesn't update its Proton versions on its own.