1 in 10 single player games will launch without steam.

This is awesome... so 9 out of 10 will not work: I can save me so much hassle into choosing which game to play.

Even better not to buy those games that will not start at all... so i can even save me lot of coins on top of the hassle... a true win!

One word: goldberg

9 out of 10 will not even know how to get it to work... it is almost like Goldberg was never intended to work for anyone not already some "hobbyist dev". Once they still get it to work after countless hours of failures... they may notice that still not every game is compatible with, as some games got many more layers of DRM.

Ultimately... DRM free and hassle-free is definitely "something different".

It's literally replacing a file or two with the goldberg dlls. If peoples cannot figure it out then that's on them.

One or two, or perhaps even three?

Is that the reason why when i had win xp for very long i couldn't download my games or enter steam but i was still capable of using gog since it's a browser download which i had a special browser at that time.
Then i moved to win 10 and that laptop was already ancient probably 12 years old when it got problems.
So then i decided to get a new pc and it has win 11 on it. Currently no problems with it.
I had simply enough with just using old pcs so i only bought a pc in 2003 and 2024 was my second pc i bought.

Goldberg dose not work with ever game. I have over 500 games on steam and so many do not work with Goldberg.

These are games with no other DRM, but steam DRM. I'm not even counting the games with none steam DRM.

Just get me FFXIII to run without Steam... i just doubt any dirty trick may help...

They're files to play some steam games without steam. They helping with some games though, and speed up loading of some gog games as well. Did you try stuffing the monies into the optical drive slot? Maybe bribing the DRM will help.

There's a few reputable options on the seas that seem to work (haven't tested this specific game myself, to be fair), one such from a certain "in-shape girl" (not sure if I'm allowed to share exact name here). Square Enix isn't going to notice $16 missing from their bank account (if it ever existed to begin with), and if you've already bought FFXIII then you're even more entitled to use the "alternative" options.

Yes, sure... cracked stuff will work but we are clearly leaving the "legal route" now... no easy workaround (setting up a text file, using a custom launcher able to override a DRM°° or perhaps even switch out a API file).

Yes i was buying the game on several platforms and yes, they are all DRMed.

°°I already asked the modders of Nova Chrysalia if they could do the "trick" but apparently they are not capable of. Sure, they can unpack and repack every single BIN inside the game but the EXE seems a holy grail. It can allow to "rip apart" every asset of the game in theory... just any stuff circumventing Steam... they seem to worry or incapable of.

Just admit your failure instead of becoming a clown, telling fairy tales.

Just because some games may work using your tricks... it is not the same for every game. Every single entertainer telling me "their Steam games magically works by replacing a few files and whatelse"... instantly lose their good mood as soon as i ask them to use magics on a single game. I can bring up a huge list... of games who will fail to work using such "cheap tricks".

You follow a strange black-and-white all-or-nothing logic. Did anyone here in this thread offer you a 100%-working guarantee?

OP started with a 1-out-of-10 premise. If Goldberg is able to shift this ratio towards a working 6-out-of-10, then I'd call this a clear win. Goldberg is a handy tool to liberate those games which are technically already DRM-free but still held in the prison of Steam's ecosystem by a few stupid API dependencies (achievements, updates, news, overlay, ...).

Re: FFXIII
You can't get your AAA, DRM-ed, Denuvo-infested, anti-cheat-locked, client-login always-online service-games working with Goldberg? Geez, was a surprise! That negates everything.... No wait, it doesn't. -.-

It got no Denuvo, there is no anti cheat and it can even be played offline, for a certain period at least...
If there would be any Denuvo or comparable, i would not expect anything from a single tool out there. Those stuff can only be played (outside Steam) using "cracking methods"... i am bright enough in order to understand the difference.

At least you was spelling out the true nature of Steam, congrats!

Nah i'm good.
Exactly!