{"id":112551,"date":"2016-12-05T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=112551"},"modified":"2016-12-05T11:02:03","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T09:02:03","slug":"the-very-best-alternatives-to-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/112551-the-very-best-alternatives-to-steam","title":{"rendered":"The very best alternatives to Steam"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels important to start off this article by stating that there is no true<\/strong> alternative to Steam.<\/p>\n

The site and client is used by most PC gamers for a good reason, and that’s because it’s earned its way to the top.<\/p>\n

That said, there are other viable places to look for your purchases which can definitely supplement your Steam gaming.<\/p>\n

Check out the the best alternatives to Steam below:<\/p>\n

\n

GoG<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

GoG is the one client on this list that we would consider using completely over Steam.<\/p>\n

It has often has decent sales running, its customer service is impeccable, and all of its games are available DRM-free.<\/p>\n

It also has the one thing virtually nothing else on this list does – classic games you can’t find on Steam.<\/p>\n

A ton of effort has been put into making old games run on modern systems, to the extent that’s its actually easier to buy and play certain games on GoG than anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\"GOG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Origin<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Origin has seriously stepped it up \u00a0over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n

Some of the year’s biggest games like Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 can only be played using the service, while EA has made genuine in-roads with third-party titles, bringing a large number of Ubisoft games\u00a0to the client.<\/p>\n

In other areas like customer support and refund policies, it has actually surpassed Steam as a gaming client.<\/p>\n

In addition, services like Origin Access are highly persuasive, giving you the better part of EA’s online library for just R50 a month.<\/p>\n

\"origin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

itch.io<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

itch.io has a couple of big factors going for it that make should make it a serious contender for your gaming time.<\/p>\n

It has a massive amount of great indie games you can’t really get anywhere else,\u00a0which are DRM-free and nearly always dirt cheap.<\/p>\n

\"itch\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Gamersgate<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gamersgate is one of thsoe services that’s actually secretly pretty great.<\/p>\n

While they don’t have anywhere near the same size library as some of its competitors, they do tend to offer \u00a0a great selection of DRM-free AAA games along with a nice indie selection.<\/p>\n

\"gamersgate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Uplay<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Uplay constantly feels like it’s not quite as good as it should be.<\/p>\n

I probably wouldn’t haven’t ever installed if it wasn’t a requirement\u00a0for playing Ubisoft games, but it’s slowly grown on me in recent years.<\/p>\n

In truth, there’s actually not all that much wrong with the service, it offers decent prices, the client is snappy, and the friends system works just as intended.<\/p>\n

Giving out some of their biggest titles in the last few months as part of their Birthday celebrations was also a nice touch.<\/p>\n

Add to this the fact that it’s the only way you can play Rainbow Six: Siege on PC in South Africa and its not going anywhere soon.<\/p>\n

\"uplay<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Humble Bundle<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

Humble Bundle is one of the the more unique storefronts on this list due to the fact that it started life purely as a bundle service.<\/p>\n

That option still exists and you can still specify how much you wish to pay and what percentage you wish to give to charity, but it now forms part of a fully-fledged storefront.<\/p>\n

As an added bonus, those games including usually include added extra like artwork and albums you can’t really get anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\"humble-bundle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0Now read:\u00a0How to build your own drone using a Raspberry Pi<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think Steam is the beginning and end of PC gaming? Think again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":112553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23559,17576,23561,85,19609,697],"class_list":["post-112551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc","tag-alternatives","tag-best","tag-clients","tag-steam","tag-store","tag-valve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112595,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112551\/revisions\/112595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}