Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Getting this game without Steam?

I've had some bad experiences with Steam in the past, so I want to avoid them as much as possible. I didn't find out about this game until very recently, but I am extremely interested in this game. However, I can't seem to find any way of getting this game except from Steam, aren't there some other ways available?

GOG release will be soon.

Though soon might mean anything between "probably not tomorrow" and "next century"

I really don't get how people are so hot for steam... I found it to be a horrible system from day 1 I had to use it, so I try to avoid it as though it was a victim of the Black Plague.

Keep an eye on the GOG forum thread Divinity Original Sin on GOG.com - Status Update thread (or use this link to see staff posts only). It's supposed to be available in a couple of days.

Or you can order the deluxe BOXED EDITION which I did over a month ago and I was told I had to wait and ADDITIONAL TEN DAYS AFTER RELEASE DATE for the game to arrive since it ships from Belgium!!!! Every other game is usually overnighted or shipped in advance to arrive on your doorstep the same day the game is released. I ended up buying the Steam version as well just so I could play at release.... Pretty Lame if you ask me for somebody willing to pay a premium to support the developer!

I've used it since before the HL2 launch, so I've pretty much seen every iteration of it over the past 10+ years. From a simple chat/matchmaking server for CS 1.x (and probably others), to the multi-platform distribution system it is today. It's not a perfect system (not that there is one), but as far as digital distribution models go, it's one of the better ones.

Although, I will say that I have zero interest in their "social" garbage, like the trading cards. I also went on a mini-crusade when the Orange Box was released, because at launch it required the Steam Overlay, and I hate the overlay. I have it enabled for precisely one game, TES IV: Oblivion, and that only because the ObSE requires it to operate.

The retail version is Steam.

Depending on when day 1 was, I might have to agree. Steam improved a lot in the last years. There are still some issues, their bad refund policy for example and general consumer unfriendliness when dealing problems.

But, the system improved a lot, offline modus is working (mostly) these days, sharing of different libraries works now much better, and the frameworks they offer to developers make developing and implementing of a lot of features much easier, which means that we see those features in a lot more games these days.

Do I still prefer gog.com over steam? Definitely, but avoiding it like the plague? Nope. the deals are fair, DRM is limited from the side of steam to just one-time activation mostly and the features are convenient. Still gog.com has no drm at all, no regional pricing even when they have to pay the different out of their own pockets in some cases, a good catalog and with gog-galaxy they offer soon at least some of the steam features as well.

So if you do not want the boxed collectors edition and are not in a hurry to play this great game than you should imho wait simply a little bit more for the gog.com release of the game.