Steam has made quite interesting progress and also serves as platform for games being released on different OS. In addition, producers don't have to worry about DRM or delivering updates, which is a point you really should take into consideration to understand their reasons.

Gog, on the other side, has upgraded their services and is offering more and more modern games instead old ones before. With GOG Galaxy they did one step forward to offer chat and update delivering quite as Steam does. 

Which I do not take into consideration are services from producer companys themselve as Uplay, Origin, Battlenet aso., as they only try to bind customers toward single developers over devasting DRM pressure. 

Anyhow, I'd vote for releasing on other secure platforms to have more ... competition, otherwise I rate Steam getting distribution monopoly once, which can't be good for anybody.

It's not just about the money, I don't want to have to use Steam at all. Steam reserves the right to cancel my account at any time and thus take all my games away from me. I know that it's extremely unlikely that they will actually do this, but I don't think they should have that ability at all. When I pay for a game, I get to keep it, period. Therefore I will not use/support Steam.

It's a shame that it's unlikely that this game will not be made available without Steam, I will just have to live without then.

My first post. Hello guys. I wanted to throw my 2 cents in. Cornergraf. I agree with you totally.  I hate steam.  And have for years.  Back in the counter strike days (early days of steam) I thought they were going into a good direction.  Once they blew up..most everything changed.  And I didn't like that.  And definitely agree with you in that they reserve the right to cancel your account for any reason.  Yeah you can think or assume that someone with canceled account deserved it.  But who knows...they could make up a reason or plant a reason using today's technology.  Regardless let me get to my point.

I am now a stream user.  After avoiding them for nearly a decade.  It was Galciv 3 that made me do it.  Lol after doing my own research I realized that they were not going to release a non stream version. So I did what the other member mentioned above. Bought directly through Stardock. Still I'm very wary of the program itself. It actually binds itself in many ways to windows.  I feel like it is a serious security breach waiting to happen.  They also use the mind control that Facebook and Google employ to moniter everything you do. As far as the policy.  They reserve the right to sell that information.  Just like Samsung and smart phones.  So that's great. Sell it to the government and who knows who else. Let them know what I'm playing how often and what I search what I buy what I click on. Total invasion of my privacy and on these aspects I do not support steam at all. Unfortunately  my love for Stardock and Galciv currently outweigh those concerns. It's a great game.  

So there's my 2 cents. You all have a great day. 

Quoting The_Gear,

reply 7

Well, we're glad to have you here playing GalCiv 3!  

Indeed! The forums are doing great here. I'm a die hard jrpg fan and I'm loving your avatar! 

Stardock rules!