The other day, we discussed how Steam added 19,000 games to its
library. But on the flip-side, there were also close to 1,000 games* >/removed/ from the Steam storefront in 2024 as well.
This includes 36 games completely delisted (removed from the
storefront entirely, as if they never existed), and 587 removed from
sale (store page exists, but no option to purchase or otherwise add to >library). If you don't own the games on Steam in either category,
there's no chance of getting them now. And since Steam is the dominant >distributor of PC video games, that means a lot of those games are
gone forever.
[The 300 or so remaining games are mostly free games -or
freeware versions of paid games-- where the free option is
no longer available, with a handful of test or unreleased
games making the deficit]
Now, in truth, the vast bulk of these vanished games are titles that
nobody has ever heard of. Only 41 of the 587 'removed from sale' games
were owned by more than 10% of Steam users (360 of those games were
owned by less than 1% of Steam users). But there are some notable
titles gone
[Including: Crazy Tactics, Spec Ops: The Line, Forza
Horizon 4, the entire 3rd season of Sam & Max( 5 games),
Beyond Good & Evil, Doom II, the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis
Collection, Devil May Cry 3 SE, Grand theft Auto,
NBA2K15, and many more]
1000 games gone, and that's on Steam alone. The number goes higher if
you include GOG, Epic, Sony Playstation, Microsoft's Marketplace, etc.
Whether you personally liked these games or not, they were games that
were popular and were removed not because they stopped being good and
worth playing, but for financial reasons that have little to do with
whether people wanted to play them or not. Now, if you want to acquire
them, the only option is to hoist the skull'n'bones. There's a reason
people are worried about game preservation. Stupid and awful as many
of these games may be, they are part of our common heritage and while
it is perfectly legal for these titles to be removed from storefronts,
the morality of it is a lot less certain.
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:38:07 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Of course they removed doom2, it's now bundled into Doom + Doom2 - you
gave out a code last month for it I think.
Technically, the Doom I + Doom II is a completely different game,
featuring an entirely different engine and significantly updated
visuals. It's still (largely) compatible with existing WADs but if you
want the original game (DOSBox and all) you can't get it on Steam
anymore.
The original version isn't available on GOG either, now that I check.
So it looks like, if you want to play Doom II now and don't own it
already, you're options now are: a) pirate, b) use a source port, or
c) use the Kex-engine version sold with the Doom + Doom II edition
being sold. But you can't acquire the classic Carmack-programmed
version of the game legally anymore.
Was rather displeased with GoG, downloaded Blade of Darkness (or so I >>thought by pressing the download game button,) only to find I'd
downloaded a stub installed that installed GoG Galaxy (once I shut off
the firewall, cause it generates a random temp dir every time it
unpacked so you couldn't simply unblock.)
Once that was in I could finally install the game, and fucking GoG gives >>you a desktop icon that doesn't start the game, it wants you to log into >>GoG to play it. FUCK THAT, it's a single player game!
Set up a direct link to the exe manually. FUCK YOU GOG!
Whether you find value in it or not, many people like using the GOG
Galaxy client (I happen to agree with you and prefer an offline
version, but IIRC, GOG reported than half GOG users prefer the
client,** so we're in the minority here). Nonetheless GOG offers both >options, which is more than can be said for almost any of its
competitors. That you picked the wrong one is your mistake, not
theirs.
GOG has forever offered manual offline installers, including for Blade
of Darkness (both versions). You downloaded the clearly labeled
"install game with GOG galaxy" version and not the one that is
"offline game installer" that's directly beneath it.
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:38:07 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Of course they removed doom2, it's now bundled into Doom + Doom2 - you
gave out a code last month for it I think.
Technically, the Doom I + Doom II is a completely different game,
featuring an entirely different engine and significantly updated
visuals. It's still (largely) compatible with existing WADs but if you
want the original game (DOSBox and all) you can't get it on Steam
anymore.
The original version isn't available on GOG either, now that I check.
So it looks like, if you want to play Doom II now and don't own it
already, you're options now are: a) pirate, b) use a source port, or
c) use the Kex-engine version sold with the Doom + Doom II edition
being sold. But you can't acquire the classic Carmack-programmed
version of the game legally anymore.
Who would want to play the 30 year old dos version anyway when they can
have an update graphics on that works on modern systems?
I'm guessing they removed it cause they were making no sales of it.
Was rather displeased with GoG, downloaded Blade of Darkness (or so I
thought by pressing the download game button,) only to find I'd
downloaded a stub installed that installed GoG Galaxy (once I shut off
the firewall, cause it generates a random temp dir every time it
unpacked so you couldn't simply unblock.)
Once that was in I could finally install the game, and fucking GoG gives >>> you a desktop icon that doesn't start the game, it wants you to log into >>> GoG to play it. FUCK THAT, it's a single player game!
Set up a direct link to the exe manually. FUCK YOU GOG!
Whether you find value in it or not, many people like using the GOG
Galaxy client (I happen to agree with you and prefer an offline
version, but IIRC, GOG reported than half GOG users prefer the
client,** so we're in the minority here). Nonetheless GOG offers both
options, which is more than can be said for almost any of its
competitors. That you picked the wrong one is your mistake, not
theirs.
There were no versions, there was a "Download Game" button and that's
it.
GOG has forever offered manual offline installers, including for Blade
of Darkness (both versions). You downloaded the clearly labeled
"install game with GOG galaxy" version and not the one that is
"offline game installer" that's directly beneath it.
No I did not, I claimed the game, and there was only a "Download Game"
button with absolutely NO MENTION WHATSOEVER of GoG Motherfucking
Galaxy, and no links at all, just one button.
Why in the hell would I want to have an install of a single player game
that forces you to also run a completely unnecessary app as well.
Steam used for copy protection is one thing - the game won't run without
it, but that is not the case here, it's GoG forcing their app to be run
even though there is no need at all for it.
<snip>
On 1/5/2025 4:31 PM, Xocyll wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading theOnce you have downloaded it thru Galaxy, if you check the games page in >Galaxy you will see the links to download non-Galaxy install files under >"Extras" in the top menu.
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:38:07 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Of course they removed doom2, it's now bundled into Doom + Doom2 - you >>>> gave out a code last month for it I think.
Technically, the Doom I + Doom II is a completely different game,
featuring an entirely different engine and significantly updated
visuals. It's still (largely) compatible with existing WADs but if you
want the original game (DOSBox and all) you can't get it on Steam
anymore.
The original version isn't available on GOG either, now that I check.
So it looks like, if you want to play Doom II now and don't own it
already, you're options now are: a) pirate, b) use a source port, or
c) use the Kex-engine version sold with the Doom + Doom II edition
being sold. But you can't acquire the classic Carmack-programmed
version of the game legally anymore.
Who would want to play the 30 year old dos version anyway when they can
have an update graphics on that works on modern systems?
I'm guessing they removed it cause they were making no sales of it.
Was rather displeased with GoG, downloaded Blade of Darkness (or so I
thought by pressing the download game button,) only to find I'd
downloaded a stub installed that installed GoG Galaxy (once I shut off >>>> the firewall, cause it generates a random temp dir every time it
unpacked so you couldn't simply unblock.)
Once that was in I could finally install the game, and fucking GoG gives >>>> you a desktop icon that doesn't start the game, it wants you to log into >>>> GoG to play it. FUCK THAT, it's a single player game!
Set up a direct link to the exe manually. FUCK YOU GOG!
Whether you find value in it or not, many people like using the GOG
Galaxy client (I happen to agree with you and prefer an offline
version, but IIRC, GOG reported than half GOG users prefer the
client,** so we're in the minority here). Nonetheless GOG offers both
options, which is more than can be said for almost any of its
competitors. That you picked the wrong one is your mistake, not
theirs.
There were no versions, there was a "Download Game" button and that's
it.
GOG has forever offered manual offline installers, including for Blade
of Darkness (both versions). You downloaded the clearly labeled
"install game with GOG galaxy" version and not the one that is
"offline game installer" that's directly beneath it.
No I did not, I claimed the game, and there was only a "Download Game"
button with absolutely NO MENTION WHATSOEVER of GoG Motherfucking
Galaxy, and no links at all, just one button.
Why in the hell would I want to have an install of a single player game
that forces you to also run a completely unnecessary app as well.
Steam used for copy protection is one thing - the game won't run without
it, but that is not the case here, it's GoG forcing their app to be run
even though there is no need at all for it.
<snip>
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 19:31:19 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:38:07 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>> entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
Of course they removed doom2, it's now bundled into Doom + Doom2 - you >>>> gave out a code last month for it I think.
Technically, the Doom I + Doom II is a completely different game,
featuring an entirely different engine and significantly updated
visuals. It's still (largely) compatible with existing WADs but if you
want the original game (DOSBox and all) you can't get it on Steam
anymore.
The original version isn't available on GOG either, now that I check.
So it looks like, if you want to play Doom II now and don't own it
already, you're options now are: a) pirate, b) use a source port, or
c) use the Kex-engine version sold with the Doom + Doom II edition
being sold. But you can't acquire the classic Carmack-programmed
version of the game legally anymore.
Who would want to play the 30 year old dos version anyway when they can
have an update graphics on that works on modern systems?
I'm guessing they removed it cause they were making no sales of it.
Whether you find value in it or not, many people like using the GOG
Galaxy client (I happen to agree with you and prefer an offline
version, but IIRC, GOG reported than half GOG users prefer the
client,** so we're in the minority here). Nonetheless GOG offers both
options, which is more than can be said for almost any of its
competitors. That you picked the wrong one is your mistake, not
theirs.
There were no versions, there was a "Download Game" button and that's
it.
There very much is an offline option.
https://imgur.com/a/0fRd2Xd
You can argue that GOG pushes the Galaxy option over the offline.
That's almost certainly true. Given what I've read that most people
prefer the client (which I personally don't understand, but different
strokes and all that), that's even understandable, if not desirable
from my standpoint. But they have always offered a offline installer
option, and it's pretty much exactly where it has always been. The
only change I'd personally recommend is changing the terminology ("stand-alone installer" rather than "offline backup", but whatever.
But GOG offers an option to install without using Galaxy.
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 19:31:19 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
On Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:38:07 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote: >>>>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>>>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs >>>>say:
Of course they removed doom2, it's now bundled into Doom + Doom2 - you >>>>gave out a code last month for it I think.
Technically, the Doom I + Doom II is a completely different game, >>>featuring an entirely different engine and significantly updated
visuals. It's still (largely) compatible with existing WADs but if you >>>want the original game (DOSBox and all) you can't get it on Steam >>>anymore.
The original version isn't available on GOG either, now that I check.
So it looks like, if you want to play Doom II now and don't own it >>>already, you're options now are: a) pirate, b) use a source port, or
c) use the Kex-engine version sold with the Doom + Doom II edition
being sold. But you can't acquire the classic Carmack-programmed
version of the game legally anymore.
Who would want to play the 30 year old dos version anyway when they can >>have an update graphics on that works on modern systems?
I'm guessing they removed it cause they were making no sales of it.
Whether you find value in it or not, many people like using the GOG >>>Galaxy client (I happen to agree with you and prefer an offline
version, but IIRC, GOG reported than half GOG users prefer the
client,** so we're in the minority here). Nonetheless GOG offers both >>>options, which is more than can be said for almost any of its >>>competitors. That you picked the wrong one is your mistake, not
theirs.
There were no versions, there was a "Download Game" button and that's
it.
There very much is an offline option.
https://imgur.com/a/0fRd2Xd
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