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Recently we had news that DRM-free store GOG has been struggling with losses, and here's Steam continuing to just smash through previous records.

With the previous all-time high of 26,922,926 users online back in April 2021, on November 28 it yet again broke the record with 27,384,959 according to SteamDB. At the time the record hit, around 7.8 million were actually in-game and while it's of course spread across so many, the winner continues to be Valve's own free to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with about 915,791 online playing.

It's not a big surprise this time around, since it hit during a big sale event so no doubt millions of people are picking up and playing a fresh set thanks to the discounts.

A question for you: do you expect the Steam Deck to push Steam player numbers even higher? For a lot of people, it will be an additional device but no doubt it's a device that will be pulling in some new users who didn't previously use Steam or even a PC. It will be thoroughly interesting to see if there's much of an effect there.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam
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Teodosio Dec 1, 2021
I would be curious to know how many preorders they got for the Steam Deck!
And how many are they planning to ship in Q1 and Q2 2022.
kuhpunkt Dec 1, 2021
QuoteA question for you: do you expect the Steam Deck to push Steam player numbers even higher? For a lot of people, it will be an additional device but no doubt it's a device that will be pulling in some new users who didn't previously use Steam or even a PC. It will be thoroughly interesting to see if there's much of an effect there.

I think there will be an effect, but it will show up only over the next few years. The Steam Deck exists to push the PC as a platform and people won't just abandon their consoles over night... but it will help people migrating.
I for one would have bought likely hundreds of games if GOG would have provided that Galaxy client for Linux (https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/release_gog_galaxy_20_for_linux)... Now every penny has gone to GabeN and Steam
NeoTheFox Dec 1, 2021
GOG is in a bad place; when they started bombing my inbox with "personal discounts" I knew they were struggling, and I do feel sympathy for the company that fights DRM. But I stopped buying from them a long time ago because I don't want to be a second-class citizen. They provide a lot of services to Windows and OSX users, including friend servers, auto-updates, cloud sync, and achievements. Not to mention a good library for games even outside of GOG. But the best I can hope for is a downloadable .sh installer with nothing. It's very hard to justify paying for this kind of service, especially when a much smaller itch.io managed to provide me with first-class support, even with Wine.
fearnflavio Dec 1, 2021
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I never buy from GOG. Even if they provide the Linux installer, for everyday use the experience is not good. No official client or whatsoever. Completely different from what we have on windows like was said above.

I think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug which I regret it because I simply forget I have those games. Since I use only Steam and Heroic most of the time.
vipor29 Dec 1, 2021
I may have to grab my library off gog just in case and just store them on some blank Blu rays
CatKiller Dec 1, 2021
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Quoting: fearnflavioI think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug which I regret it because I simply forget I have those games. Since I use only Steam and Heroic most of the time.
You could add them to Steam as non-Steam games. Which also gets you controller support for games that don't natively support controllers.
Beamboom Dec 1, 2021
Quoting: fearnflavioI think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug
Buy them on Steam too ! They are both really good, worth it imo. Should definitely be played. And there's no denying the comfort of Steam Play.
fearnflavio Dec 1, 2021
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Quoting: CatKillerYou could add them to Steam as non-Steam games. Which also gets you controller support for games that don't natively support controllers.
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: fearnflavioI think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug
Buy them on Steam too ! They are both really good, worth it imo. Should definitely be played. And there's no denying the comfort of Steam Play.

For sure, I finished both already tbh.
The Witcher 3 a few years ago and Cyberpunk I finished two months ago using Lutris.

Great games besides the bugs, hehehe.


Last edited by fearnflavio on 1 December 2021 at 12:07 pm UTC
Zlopez Dec 1, 2021
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Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: fearnflavioI think the only games I have there are The Witcher 3 and Cyberbug which I regret it because I simply forget I have those games. Since I use only Steam and Heroic most of the time.
You could add them to Steam as non-Steam games. Which also gets you controller support for games that don't natively support controllers.

And you can use Proton with those games too. :-)
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