[SXX]

Steam dont require games to have any DRM. Developer might avoid Steamworks altogether and can also make it degrade gracefully: for instance disable online features if Steam API is not available.

This is entirely up to developer to decide how they use Steam.

PS: I am game developer.

[bscphil]

Right, but OP said Steam "doesn't enforce DRM". Saying they don't require developers to implement it is different than saying they don't enforce it.

[stavros]

Different how? If it's not required, then it's not enforced, no?

[xiaq]

I guess "Steam doesn't enforce DRM" can be understood to mean that Steam doesn't enforce DRM regardless of whether the game uses its API.

[stavros]

Oh hmm. I don't know exactly how it works, but I think Steam DRM is different from using the API for friends and things like that.

Very not sure about that, though.

[thristian]

Game developers are not required to implement Steam DRM to sell their games on the Steam store.

If a game developer chooses to implement Steam DRM, Valve will enforce it.

[stavros]

Yes. What is the other meaning? DRM that doesn't enforce protection?

[bscphil]

Not sure where the confusion lies here. If the developer wants Steam DRM, then Steam enforces it. It's not just the Steam API integration, if the game has Steam DRM and you try to start it without the Steam-specific files and your cached login present on the system, it won't work.

I call that "enforcement", and most significant games on Steam use it.

[stavros]

The sentence "Steam doesn't enforce DRM" has only one valid meaning, that Steam the platform doesn't require you to have DRM to be on it.

The alternative, that Steam DRM is used but doesn't actually do the thing that DRM is supposed to do, ie prevent copying, is nonsensical, and thus can't be what OP meant.

Therefore, we are forced to assume that they meant that "non-enforcement" means that Steam the platform doesn't require DRM for your game to be on it, which is true, it doesn't. That's the only reasonable interpretation.