why I would be paying a subscription service for something self-hosted

The subscription primarily serves as a way to support our continued efforts in developing, maintaining, and improving the application. It enables us to keep the core functionality free and accessible to all users, while ensuring that our work remains sustainable in the long run.

Think of it more like paying for Patreon and getting goodies as a return rather than paying for Netflix. It’s less about purchasing a product and more about backing our ongoing efforts.

I already have set up through Playnite…

I think there might be a misunderstanding about the purpose of GameVault. It’s actually not designed as a replacement for Playnite. In fact, GameVault integrates seamlessly with Playnite—it complements your setup by acting as an additional source, similar to how Steam functions alongside Playnite.

Just about everything you charge for is just leveraging some service or tool someone else already made for free.

I understand your perspective, but please consider that our app itself is entirely free to use. The only paid features we offer are integrations with third-party services—these integrations are optional enhancements and aren’t required for using the core functionality of our app.

It seems you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. DRM and copyright are not the same, and the legal situation varies significantly depending on jurisdiction.

Many countries, like Germany (§53 Abs. 1 UrhG) and France (Article L122-5, French Intellectual Property Code), explicitly allow “private copies” of media for personal use within private circles, such as family and close friends by law.

yeah browsing that 4000 game folder list sure is the same fun.

Because we decided its the main distribution platform. But there are multiple.

We’ve contacted heroic regarding a collab but they never wrote back. You can do this as a fallback though.

We had fantasies about it but its just too much work for us two, there are community clients for linux natively in development tho.

https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues/284#issuecomment-1865310371

It could handle modpacks, thats even an example on the site. You dont need to open it up to the internet, it works perfectly fine in LAN and VPN aswell.

it is not exclusive to Windows Store. We also provide Windows Releases directly on GitHub, and there are guides on running this on linux aswell.

There are ways to run this on linux.

Sorry if there were any miscommunication: We have github and email support aswell, its just lots of people find talking in real time easier.

https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-backend/issues

we don’t have any unit tests, yes shame on us. But dozens of users are running this using linux wine and for instance steam deck already, its a community effort but hey, it works. See here.

it is mostly optimised for pc atm. it will save them perfectly fine and you can download and browse them using this as well, but its still on our roadmap to build in a web based emulator, native emulator support and auto-install for roms. See details here

we do have Github aswell. it’s just most people find discord easier. Here you go, trooper:

https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-backend/issues

1. It’s for groups, mostly. Families & Friends.
2. It’s not really a replacement. It is a way for you to have a steam like experience for games where you would not have one. Games lying on your server.
3. No, not at all at the time, but maybe in the future

Thanks for looking into it

It does, it needs about 120mb of ram I think.

For now we gave up on it but we may look into it in the future. I’m sorry, we’re just two guys and it would mean to redevelop the entire client.

always has been

No. There are releases to download on github aswell.

See here: https://gamevau.lt/docs/client-docs/setup#alternative-installation-options

you do you, its just a warning because of potential malware, i’d personally rather self-compile than pirate something when i have the damn source-code.

I understand your perspective, but that’s just how the world is today as you can see.

Our terms are flexible, allowing you to pause or cancel your subscription whenever necessary. It’s not like some shady lock-in gym contract that has to run for x months before you can cancel and auto-renews without your consent.

While I acknowledge that recurring costs can add up, this model is essential for sustainable business operations today. Predictable monthly revenue is crucial for planning and growth. Just subscribe to things you need, like or want to support and unsubscribe from things you dont need. For most of our users and compared to other services, our pricing is affordable, with 5€ being easily manageable on a monthly basis, or 50€ annually if you want to save 10€.

Oh and again… noone forces you to buy this. And you can bypass it if you want to. They’re just goodies. The core features of GameVault and everything you’ve used up until today will always remain free.