GOG really needs to make their games easy to run in steam deck for the average user.

Since I got my deck I haven´t bought any game on GOG, cause its more convenient to buy on steam since I can play on my deck.

I really wish the GOG team do something about because it may hurt their sales, and I wish there was an easy way to play my games there.

You do know what's wrong with that sentence don't ya?

Steam deck is not a GOG problem!

It's not that it's not a problem, it's more that it's a missed opportunity.

It´s not a problem. I just think there is a huge market for people who will avoid buying games here because they play on the deck.

As someone who doesn't mind jumping through the hoops to play my GOG games on my Steam Deck, I very much concur that they are missing out on a market with handhelds, and Linux OS (Arch/SteamOS and Fedora/Bazzite in particular) for handhelds.

I know that most people will not take the time or expend the effort to figure out the best way to get games working on Deck.

If you haven't already, you might want to look into Lutris or Heroic. I install my GOG games on my Steam Deck using Lutris - really easy and almost all of them run, with a few exceptions (just like Steam games).

For me, they are perfectly convenient, far more convenient than the Steam counterparts. As an exemple, I wanted to play a game I have on my Steam account but infortunatelly I forgot to turn WiFi off, since the updates are automatic and not optional and the only available network was very, very slow for modern standards, I had to wait 30+ minutes before playing the game, excepy I had 15 minutes available. This never happens with installed GOG games.

Rant over, both Lutris and Heroic launcher have options "for your convenience".
You connect the launcher with yor GOG account and 1 click install from there (not realy 1 click but pretty easy).

You know, i was actually considering about getting a steam deck. It took a single video about steam deck activation to ditch that idea! Activation consisted of:
1. Language select - that's normal.
2. Timezone select - that's normal.
3. Internet connection - that's awkward, and i would probably send it back at this point.
4. Sign in to your Steam Account - that's bullshit!

Conclusion: I have no use for a device that A) you can't start without internet connection and B) without a third party account! This is the same DRM crap as nintendo Switch!

So to put it simply, from what i got from all this. Steam Deck is a Steam only console, and it was never designed for non-Steam games in the first place, and not to mention that it's DRMed!

Also people should stop asking why GoG games don't work on a Steam device and rather ask Valve about it!


And yes, it is a missed opportunity on GoGs part! GoG should make a DRM-free offline functioning GoG deck (to compete) or at least just focus on some Linux game ports!

You're completely wrong about it not working with non-Steam games. The biggest problem comes from it being Linux, but the Wayland gaming mode runs most games smoothly. There was a learning curve to install my games the way I want because I want the benefit of cloud saves for games I play on my deck and PC. I also want access to my achievements, which I can get with Heroic, but the cloud saves are janky at best. So I figured out how to install Galaxy on my Deck to use the games that way. I set-up Syncthing to get my games cloud saving when I need them to. But the platform is just Linux, and it is not DRMed like you think. You need an internet connection to set it up with your Steam account because that is the primary intended use, but no measures were taken to block it working without internet after the initial set-up, or without a Steam account.

You can install any operating system you want, VALVe has released drivers for a lot of them including Windows. But if you don't like the idea of a VALVe machine, get a ROG AllyX instead. More power, runs on everybody's favorite DRM OS by M$, and then you don't run into some of the compatibility issues.

Yes, it was designed to be a Steam console, no doubt about it and only being able to access the system after being connected to the internet, with a Steam account obviously, is a big issue and the reason I didn't bought it at launch and I've ranted enough about it here on the forum, about it and things like forced updates, not even mentioning smaller things like the On Screen Keyboard being broken for more than 1 year...

As mentioned previously, you can install other operating systems (including Windows) even without the first boot, and will work better than the other handhelds because of the track pads. A good alternative I've been testing for a few weeks is Nobara , wich has a HTPC/Deck version or the normal version if you don't plan to use Steam at all.
For emulation only my recomendation goes to Batocera, very easy to setup and ready to use.
You can run any OS (except Windows because Microsoft) from a memory card or pen drive, either to test or to have other options.

That said, any option comes with some quirks, like Windows being dificult to navigate and overall use, and other Linux distros being hard-ish to install and setup games (easy way is to use a tool like Lutris or Bottles).

The SteamOS GameMode makes it very freaking easy to setup and play games from GOG, along with almost unlimited Gamepad options.
Add a few plugins, like Powertools and DeckyUndervolt, it's possible to configure the device on-the-go and per-game to save a freaking metric ton of power and battery life, wich would be a bit tricky to do in a normal Linux distro, although, the biggest battery saving is coming from the "Powersave mode" governor, not allowing the CPU to get high frequencies too fast (usually easy to configure on any distro).

I don't think it can be called "third party" if STEAM Deck asks your STEAM account.

But you don't need to buy any games from Steam, just create an account there, maybe add few freeware games to that account, and use it to start things up.

Now, I suppose one can argue "but I don't want to support Steam", but then you probably don't want to support Steam by buying that device in the first place. There actually is a forum thread here that tries to document GOG game compatibility.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_games_that_run_on_the_steam_deck

The thread has been inactive for a long time though, so presumably Steam Deck isn't overwhelmingly popular around here.

Yeah. At this point it makes more sense to report games that don't work well.

1, Why ?
2, An average user doesn't own a steam deck .

Listen, to me Steam is "third party", it sure felt that way the first time i found out about it. And yes, i do still have a steam account, i think? but really don't see myself installing their DRM client bloatware ever again. And i definitely won't be buying a Steam Deck.