Anyone familiar with green man gaming? GoG.com like sites?

[Tanooki]

I found this site a little while back and made an account, have yet to buy anything but I was curious how this one works out? Is this just some side partner to Steam where they run their own independent sale prices where you can find better discounts? Is there anything GoG.com like about it with stand alone installs?

And on that, are there other sites like GoG.com where you can get installs you can save locally to keep a backup of for later so you really kind of own it? I think some stuff on humble store does this.

[emwearz]

I would buy 80% (of my 600+) of my non indie steam games from GMG, most of my uPlay and Origin library as well. They tend to match steams sale prices / beat them, then have 20% vouchers on top of them.

GMG are a vendor for many publishers so they sell Steam / uPlay / Origin keys if that is how the publishers they sell games for distribute the game. The description for each game will tell you what form of DRM is used.

If no form of DRM is used, they will generally use their own DRM client called Capsule.

[Tanooki]

Ahh ok so that makes sense to me then. They're just a middle man between where the game is ultimately downloaded from but the game makers can use them to do even better shadow deals you don't always see on Steam or the rest. Regardless unless the game itself the developer wants no DRM on it, they'll thrown their own Capsule there or it will just be stuck with the Steam (etc) loader.

I saw on there yesterday they had Rocket Knight Adventure for $3 which is normally I think $15 on steam where it's not on sale. Castlevania LoD ultimate pack is $11 instead of $30(I think.) I was trying to figure out what was going on there. It appears they're UK based and due to laws there various games that have physical releases you can pay the same + shipping and get that instead of a download link but they won't mail them outside of there.

[emwearz]

Their physical sale prices (as you said you have to be in the UK) are nowhere near as impressive as their digital ones.

[Tanooki]

That's a shame for the locals. I didn't really check into it as it sees where I'm from and I didn't see that listed. I've got this site bookmarked now so I'll have to watch for deals. I'm quite tempted to snap up Castlevania LoD since I never got far on it due to other junk on PS3 a few years back.

[MrEco]

Unfortunately the rest of the gaming retail market has not yet caught up to GOG.com. Maybe in ten years they'll all figure it out. Maybe.

[J T]

DotEmu:
I'm pretty sure everything they sell there is DRM Free, like GOG. They have almost entirely the same catalog. I would recommend getting their DotEmu Collection which has a ton of games that aren't on GOG. They also have DRM-Free Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Collections. Other unique games include the Sudden Strike series, Silverfall games, Aura 1 & 2, and Salaambo. They also still have the games published by Nordic Games that were recently taken out of GOG's catalogue.
http://www.dotemu.com/en

itch.io
This site is an up and comer. They focus on indie games and they let developers keep a higher share of their profits than other sites (for example, Steam takes a 30% cut, whereas itch.io takes a 0-10% cut.) Lots of crazy stuff can be found on this site. They are a great source for free games and browser games, as well as paid titles.
http://itch.io/

Desura
Desura recommends their publishers go DRM free, but they don't require it like GOG. This means you can find games with DRM on this site, but they are infrequent. You also need to download the installers from the game pages without using the Desura client, I believe. Some of the bundle companies will provide desura keys as well as Steam keys, particularly IndieRoyale.
http://www.desura.com/

GamersGate
Not to be confused with the gamergate controversy, GamersGate sells a number of DRM-Free games mingled in with their Steam & Origin codes, and other forms of DRM. They do list if the game is DRM-free or not. It's also a little tricky because you have to download the game, then save your installer, then install, otherwise the DRM-Free installer disappears.
http://www.gamersgate.com/

From the developers themselves
You can also get DRM-Free games by purchasing directly from developers. This is less convenient because they can't guarantee you'll have access to the download for long. Some only give you a few days to download the installer, but it is a better way to support the developer and if you keep good backups you don't really need the cloud access.

Bundle Sites
Bundle sites are another good way to go for DRM-Free games, but you have to pay attention before you buy. Humble Bundle used to always have DRM-Free copies, but as they have become more popular, they often just include Steam keys. Other bundle sites of note are IndieGala, IndieRoyale, Groupees, and BundleStars. To keep track of the them all, I use this website: http://www.indiekings.com/p/bundle-tracker.html

Also, there are a few DRM-Free games on Steam. There is a maintained list here.

[Tanooki]

Excellent list of stuff there. I did not know dotemu though did stand alone DRM free(steam etc) installs. I really like some of their tablet/phone library of games and that one you suggested has a LOT of stuff due to having the Irem arcade package among others in there and it's on a deep 55% off sale right now too ($20 instead of $45.) I may just snap that up even if I don't use a lot there's some bonafide gems in there.

I'm a little familiar with most of the others you wrote and it's nice that itch.io does what it does for developers but I saw little of interest when I looked in the last week there unfortunately. Desura I thought was like steam requiring their system loader to install/use the stuff. Gamersgate I scrolled the same day as the other and it's kind of a clump of random stuff if you sort by the DRM free stuff but I'm sure there are goodies to find.

Humblebundle I'm signed up with but it is kind of confusing with them at times when looking at bundles or even just store buys if the game has a windows only install or a steam code since they like to stick those icons together.