Steam?

[Hendricks3]

is there a way to make steam and other platforms into physical?

[SeiberGraff]

unfortunately for steam, no. but for GOG. you can do it since the games that you buy on there is DRM free

[Hendricks3]

5 minutes ago, SeiberGraff said:

unfortunately for steam, no. but for GOG. you can do it since the games that you buy on there is DRM free

even if i dl the games or no useful programs that can do the conversion?

 

[Donut417]

8 minutes ago, Hendricks3 said:

even if i dl the games or no useful programs that can do the conversion?

Outside of GOG all other platforms have some form of DRM. GOG games are DRM free. 

[Hendricks3]

2 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Outside of GOG all other platforms have some form of DRM. GOG games are DRM free. 

damn too bad gog dont got all games

[TetraSky]

You can technically backup game files to discs if you wanted to. This would let you restore it relatively quickly if needs be. But it barely compresses the folder. It's basically just taking all the files from the install path and putting it in a single file.

 

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4593-5CB7-DC3C-64F0

 

Otherwise, having a bunch of external hard drives on which you put your games and keep them in storage is another solution.

 

[Hendricks3]

28 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

You can technically backup game files to discs if you wanted to. This would let you restore it relatively quickly if needs be. But it barely compresses the folder. It's basically just taking all the files from the install path and putting it in a single file.

 

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4593-5CB7-DC3C-64F0

 

Otherwise, having a bunch of external hard drives on which you put your games and keep them in storage is another solution.

 

would this be let me install it to ssds and thing like that?

 

[Echothedolpin]

Just now, Hendricks3 said:

would this be let me install it to ssds and thing like that?

 

It would help if you explained what exactly you were attempting to accomplish.

[emothxughts]

1 hour ago, Hendricks3 said:

is there a way to make steam and other platforms into physical?

You boil water?

[Needfuldoer]

[ Moved to PC Gaming ]

 

As others have said, you can back up your downloaded Steam game files to other storage devices (NAS, external hard drive, burn to disc, etc). However, those games will still need to authenticate against Steam to make sure you have a valid license. If they didn't, that would be piracy (which is not something we help with here).

 

16 minutes ago, emothxughts said:

You boil water?

No, that's evaporation. They're looking for condensation.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, Echothedolpin said:

It would help if you explained what exactly you were attempting to accomplish.

I think you know.

[Echothedolpin]

38 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I think you know.

I try to assume the best and let them dig their own hole if know what I mean.

[Hendricks3]

4 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

I try to assume the best and let them dig their own hole if know what I mean.

meaning like take my library and turning it into physical media meaning i can take lets say cp2077 and save it to an ssd and either boot it from it or actually install it

[Dedayog]

9 minutes ago, Hendricks3 said:

meaning like take my library and turning it into physical media meaning i can take lets say cp2077 and save it to an ssd and either boot it from it or actually install it

You can't just save agane to an SSD and play it like that.

 

You need the steam front end.

 

So if you have Steam, you can just redownload.

 

Unless you want to boot off the SSD from somewhere you don't have your steam

 

 

[Hendricks3]

17 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You can't just save agane to an SSD and play it like that.

 

You need the steam front end.

 

So if you have Steam, you can just redownload.

 

Unless you want to boot off the SSD from somewhere you don't have your steam

 

 

i just wanted to know if there was a possible way to have my licenses that i paid for backed up not just dl em to a nas but fuck the consumers amirite?\

 

[Avocado Diaboli]

7 hours ago, Hendricks3 said:

i just wanted to know if there was a possible way to have my licenses that i paid for backed up not just dl em to a nas but fuck the consumers amirite?\

Your license is your Steam account. When you "buy" a game, you just attach a license to your Steam account. That license gives you access to the files from Valve's servers. And if the game uses DRM, it also authenticates you running the game, so you can't just copy the files from one machine to another and run them without logging into a Steam account that has the appropriate license. That's what DRM is intended to do. If you just want to have your Steam library portable, install all your games on a drive that you can remove from one PC and insert into another, where you then log into Steam as well. Unless that's not your intended goal, you need to be less vague about it.

[Echothedolpin]

34 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Your license is your Steam account. When you "buy" a game, you just attach a license to your Steam account. That license gives you access to the files from Valve's servers. And if the game uses DRM, it also authenticates you running the game, so you can't just copy the files from one machine to another and run them without logging into a Steam account that has the appropriate license. That's what DRM is intended to do. If you just want to have your Steam library portable, install all your games on a drive that you can remove from one PC and insert into another, where you then log into Steam as well. Unless that's not your intended goal, you need to be less vague about it.

Plus as far as I know, as long as you logged into steam once, you can run it in offline mode essentially forever as long as you don’t make account changes, purchases, or updates.

 

It’s probably the most generous DRM scheme of all time.

[Doobeedoo]

Your license you bought for so callled "owning" the game is authentication requirement with the server it self. So yeah DRM free GOG only option for what you have in mind.

Unless something drastically changes that no store will be DRM it's almost useless to me storing unusable data if it requires server authentication. I mean I download faster than HDDs speed if I' have NAS for something like this it's a waste. 

It sucks but most games are DRM based, companies usually don't like putting their games on GOG at least not initially or some ever.

[Hendricks3]

17 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Your license is your Steam account. When you "buy" a game, you just attach a license to your Steam account. That license gives you access to the files from Valve's servers. And if the game uses DRM, it also authenticates you running the game, so you can't just copy the files from one machine to another and run them without logging into a Steam account that has the appropriate license. That's what DRM is intended to do. If you just want to have your Steam library portable, install all your games on a drive that you can remove from one PC and insert into another, where you then log into Steam as well. Unless that's not your intended goal, you need to be less vague about it.

I thought i was being pretty clear but ill do better. Let’s say i bought rdr2 on steam and there is not need for the rockstar launcher, i wanted to know if it was possible to download the game or lets say verification files that i can then install it onto a portable ssd or hdd and essentially, do like we used to do back when companies sold windows games in physical form and just install it onto even i have to verify the game’ quote on quote ownership with steam but it wouldn’t as heavy gb wise as it is properly installed.

[Avocado Diaboli]

1 hour ago, Hendricks3 said:

I thought i was being pretty clear but ill do better. Let’s say i bought rdr2 on steam and there is not need for the rockstar launcher, i wanted to know if it was possible to download the game or lets say verification files that i can then install it onto a portable ssd or hdd and essentially, do like we used to do back when companies sold windows games in physical form and just install it onto even i have to verify the game’ quote on quote ownership with steam but it wouldn’t as heavy gb wise as it is properly installed.

The only thing you could do is just download and install it on your portable drive and after installing, try compressing the folder it installs to. You can change the installation path in the Steam settings. You can also move game files of already installed games to other drives with Steam. And once you want to play the game again, decompress the folder and tell Steam to verify the game files. That should work, though obviously you'll have to accept that compressing and decompressing takes time. Though I'd have to ask why you would do that to begin with? Do you reinstall games that often that it's not feasible to just re-download them again if you want to replay them at a later point?

[thrasher_565]

cds were the drm back in the day saying you bought this ok here you can play it.

since there no physical cd steam needs need to no hey you bought this or hears a download.

 

there is no like mass id witch saves everything you bought so all you need to log in to say google and well w.e sight you long in to knows you bought said game but well its probably will happen having one account. but hasten yet.

 

other then gog allows you to download it from them then take it were ever you go..but yes they dont have all the games. they do have cp2077 thow...

 

if there updates then you have to re download it for gog thow. some games wont work or patches depending on os you have like no man sky will give a serten update but other wont work. there might be a way to patch it from what i read but w/e

 

like others said you can download on steam and play it offline people said forever but thats a long time so...

 

things like the switch you can download the game and play it offline but have to connect to the net once and i beleave you need to long in once every 30 days?

 

its still a problem on steam you bought a game say on windows xp and steam updates and well no longer works on the new os... its a problem witch dose need a fix for...and well they can take a game from your libray you bought...

 

 

for like the switch 2 its complicated there's physical games and some are just keys no game on the disc just how steam became steam orange box didn't have the game on disc and to download steam to play. there was a cd made of it from what i read thow.

 

Edited August 5, 2025 by thrasher_565

[menguele]

There's a small selection of games that are sold on Steam that have de facto, no drm, you'll need to check on pcgamingwiki since its a case by case thing

[Mark Kaine]

Technically any computer hard drive etc is "physical" so I always find this kind of questions a bit weird, why not just say online drm? And yes of course you can "remove" that part, you could even run it in the steam client, but that's illegal, you bought drm, there's no get out for free card in that sense. 

[Mark Kaine]

On 8/5/2025 at 9:13 AM, thrasher_565 said:

cds were the drm back in the day saying you bought this ok here you can play it.

since there no physical cd steam needs need to no hey you bought this or hears a download.

Well actually... Most CDs came with a code... So literally online drm The only difference now is steam not giving you the code, which should imho be illegal, but apparently isn't otherwise G A B E would be in jail and not the Bahamas, no? 

 

On 8/5/2025 at 9:13 AM, thrasher_565 said:

like others said you can download on steam and play it offline people said forever but thats a long time so

You definitely can't, typically there's a 3-12 month "grace period" where either the drm or steam itself will simply "forget" that you're logged in and force you to go online or else no play whatsoever.

 

(yes I tried that, many times, over the years, ie my 2017 Lenovo laptop is offline since at least 3 years at the moment, there's no "Steam play" for me even though I never logged out or fully shut down the laptop afaik and steam is actually still running)

 

^only game I can play is Colin Mcrae 2 or something, which isn't even on steam, from DVD lol...

[Mark Kaine]

On 8/5/2025 at 5:43 AM, Hendricks3 said:

I thought i was being pretty clear but ill do better. Let’s say i bought rdr2 on steam and there is not need for the rockstar launcher, i wanted to know if it was possible to download the game or lets say verification files that i can then install it onto a portable ssd or hdd and essentially, do like we used to do back when companies sold windows games in physical form and just install it onto even i have to verify the game’ quote on quote ownership with steam but it wouldn’t as heavy gb wise as it is properly installed.

You can definitely do that lol... all you have to do is point steam to the installation folder and "install" or "verify"

 

Downside is it *will* most likely download stuff if there was any updates or it just feels like it....

But yes that's pretty much a guaranteed time saver overall (got plenty of games backed up that way, several TB, I never really play them, but hey, I could if I wanted )