Shot across the bow: Steam vs GoG

(tags online, game, Windows)

Obviously Steam and GoG, who both sell games for download, are in competition with each other, but it has never been more clear than this weekend's deals.

GoG offers for the first time Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil, IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 this weekend, at USD 9.99 each. I got the mail directly from GoG.

Then I learn later through Kotaku that Steam is offering BG&E, IL-2 Sturmovik and Farcry for USD 9.99 combined. (The other game, Dark Messiah Might and Magic is not available in my region!) It's just for the weekend though, but that's enough.

Which one do I like better? Obviously the Steam deal is compelling, since I want to play BG&E and IL-2 Sturmovik (probably with my Xbox controller just for the latter.) But GoG is totally DRM-free, and I can download again anytime I want, working on multiple computers.

Except games for me now are a play-once affair. I rarely get nostalgic about games. I'm currently thinking of going with Steam since it's the same level of convenience and cheaper. I'll think it over one more day though.

However, does this mean that whenever GoG gets a deal just to publish, Steam will try to cover the deal in response? This will be interesting.