DCS World Steam vs. Standalone

Two versions of DCS World compared: Steam version hosted by Valve and Standalone version directly from Eagle Dynamics. Which is right for you? I analyze the pros and cons.

[Off_The_Rail]

Important to note for the free Trial, You can Trial multiple things at once Example you can trial the supercarrier and the hornet together. Also the trial restarts every 6 months, So if you trialed say the A-10C II, six months later you can trial it again

[diegobasterrica]

hi! the biggest advantage Steam has for me is that it lets me pay using my own currency, standalone only accepts payments in Dollars and with that comes a 65% mark up in taxes (in my country obviously), it's too much, it's not even worth considering it. I enjoyed the video, it was well explained. see you.

[trevoC]

For VR Users with standalone, you can run OpenXR instead of SteamVR which removes the steam overhead and allows a much better VR experience with upscaling and FOV rendering.

[midnight]

One frequently missed reason, which is key for me, is if you steam family share - my family play some of my steam library at teams. They can't play from my steam library if I'm playing one of the steam games myself....keeping it standalone stops the missus and the kids nagging at me!

[ascherlafayette]

The free trials are a massive bonus for sure. Insanely generous offer from ED, I appreciate the vid

[billpii]

Had Steam and stand alone installed at one time but I switched to stand alone only TO GIVE THE DEVS MORE $$ TO DEV MORE PLANES AND HELO's. Steam takes 30% and I'd rather give that $$ to ED/DCS, they do excellent work and deserve every penny they can get IMO.

[novicepilotaviator]

Very comprehensive and thorough comparison of the pros and cons of Valve vs standalone for DCS.Thanks

[Chio_OB]

I have DCS on steam and standalone, I started with the steam version but when investigating buying mods I quickly switched to standalone. So purely money reasons make me prefer the standalone. + Miles!

[CurbSlayers]

Thanks for the comparison. Helped me make the decision to move from the Steam version to the stand-alone. Really appreciate it!

[Blind_Hawk]

Thank you very much for this comparison. As you pointed out no one made some kind of comparison like you did.
Now I can see why people are favouring the Standalone version more. Especially the free trials and discounts are really good!

[Scott]

I've actually been pleasantly surprised with the miles. I definitely remember buying the Tomcat, super carrier, Nevada, combat arms F-86, F-5. I think I had enough miles to get the Mirage 2000, WW2 assets plus something else I can't remember, it may have been something like the miles paying off half of either the F-86 or F-5.

[oliveraberg]

Just wanted to note that many of the pros you mentioned for Steam including content management and similar can easily be fixed by getting a different launcher (Skatezilla being a notable example). This allows you to manage content really well, jump between builds, set different software to autostart with DCS and can help you manage some settings including VR help tools. Simple Exe aswell so there isnt another complicated install. Also i noticed you didn't really mention Open Beta wich is how many if not most players play DCS (especially the multiplayer community). Hope this helps!

[rasse]

Thanks for putting this video out, I actually had this question a few days ago.

[jui]

Started on Steam. Purchased FC3 yesterday during steam sale. I was wondering about the difference. This video helps a lot!!! Thanks a lot !!!

[staitc]

If you would rather have the best of both worlds I actually have a guide on Steam on how to combine the two versions and play from a single install. It's a little finnicky, especially in regards to updates, but my guide has been rated pretty highly by people so I assume it's welcomed by the community. If you want you can check it out, it should be on the front page of the guides last I checked, but I'm sure searching the word "combine" will find it too.

[sebywest]

very well explained, thank you very much 🤗🤗

[AndrewKlinger]

Steam version can switch between Stable and Open Beta with a click (and ~10min to swap necessary files). This is important to me, as I fly WWII Multiplayer on beta and have a Discord group I fly frequently with on Stable.

[moist_mike]

One key thing for oculus users is steam has to have oculus app running, then steam vr running and the game. Definitely would recommend oculus users use standalone.

[AdastraRecordings]

As an owner of both versions I urge caution with the Steam version, I got robbed when several mods simply would not run on my system and I was refused a refund because Steam only offers refunds on games with less than 2 hours playing time logged, and yes that is a compound number, that includes any new DLC that does not work! Many mods are broken on Steam and they work fine in standalone, you can get 2 week free trials to test the content as some mods barely run or not at all for me in potato mode even though I have some mods running almost maxed out, this game sucks up resources.

I transferred all my licenses to the standalone after an awful experience with Steam support, they'll never receive another penny from me for DCS or any other game I decide to buy going forward.

[nutillion]

Some people already said, but in the standalone you can get free trials. Also you get DCS miles which will grant you extra discount when you have already purchased an aircraft so that you can buy another item with those ED miles.