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Sony Buys, Shuts Down OnLive
Jay Maynard writes The OnLive gaming service that rose from the dead and became an inexpensive way to get high-end performance on low-end hardware has now been purchased by Sony Entertainment. Their games, desktop, and SLGo Second Life services will all end on April 30, 2015, and be free to use until then."
On Live filed for an alternate bankruptcy protection status and as part of the process sold assets to Sony. Sony didn't come in heavy handed and Buy On Live then shut it down. The headline it inflammatory.
The only thing that requires Steam to still be around is the multiplayer system Steamworks.
In order to play *any* game bought from Steam, the Steam client must be running and have an internet connection.
That's not true! I have several games on Steam that will run just fine on it's own (I can even copy them to my laptop without Steam installed and they work there too).
Not all the games on steam use Steamworks or any sort of DRM...
Kerbal Space Program is one example.
In order to play *any* game bought from Steam, the Steam client must be running and have an internet connection.
This is incorrect. Please stop spreading disinformation and/or stating things as facts that you have done no research or testing on.
Yes, there are some games purchased from Steam that require the client to be running in order to load the game, even in "offline" mode. However I have multiple games in my Steam library that do not require the Steam client to be running. I manually start up the Steam client only when it is needed and leave it off the rest of the time and have no problems with certain games.
The original CEO/investor, Steve Perlman, was forced out. The company is surely being sold for a pittance and at great loss for the investors. Even if the idea didn't work out, if the investors/CEOs hadn't made the company, the engineers wouldn't have had jobs in the first place. They can make big money, and in this case they lost a large amount. The engineers just shrugged it off and got another job.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Name them.
I'm not a big fan of Steam, and if I have a choice I will always prefer a completely DRM-free option, the the grandparent poster was correct. Here is the list of games that you can run without the client loaded. It only took me a second to find this list with Google. (Actually, that's a lie. I used Bing, but that sounds like something that I shouldn't admit here!)
You still need the client to install them, and if you use the Steam backup/restore facility then you also need the client to be logged in.
But why does any of that matter? The number of games I play today that I'll have the slightest interest in playing more than a couple of years form now is very small indeed. Steam has thus far proven more reliable than my aging media, as well.
I always look on GOG first, but if there's something good on Steam, I have no hesitation in buying it. If it goes tits-up, GOG will get it eventually. (OTOH, EA's system can die in a fire with EA.)
This worry about some 1% per year chance of Steam breaking, if sincere, is a sign you need to take your OCD meds. Most people just use that line as a rationalization to pirate the game, of course.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.