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General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 06, 2014
Freedom of choice. Optional client. Cross-play. Coming soon to all gamers!

Earlier today (or was it yesterday for you?), during the [url=http://www.gog.com/news/cd_projekt_red_gogcom_summer_conference]CD Projekt RED and GOG.com’s Summer Conference we dropped the news about our next big step forward! GOG.com has always been home to more and more of the the best games in history (for Windows and Mac), both classic and new. Differing in shapes, flavors, and sizes they had one thing in common: they were mostly single-player, and our focus was mainly on the experience of a singular gamer. If that's your thing, nothing really will change. You can always enjoy your favorite games 100% DRM-free on GOG.com, with no need to activate your game online or remain connected to play your single-player title. Just like GOG.com has always been about.. But what if you want to play with your friends?

Today we are excited to announce GOG Galaxy, a truly gamer-friendly, 100% DRM-free online gaming platform that will finally provide the GOG.com community with the easy option to play together online. GOG Galaxy will allow you to share your achievements, stay in touch with your pals and get the updates for your games automatically. We've developed this technology to improve your GOG.com experience. We think GOG Galaxy really deserves your attention and we hope many of you will give it a try! But, here's the great thing: it is totally optional, so it's all up to you! If you do not want to play online, or use our optional client to access these features, then no worries, you will always be able to play the single-player mode 100% DRM-free, and download manually the latest updated version of your favorite title from our website. Now, for one more feature we call cross-play. We always believed in an open world for gamers, with no obligation to be tied to a specific platform or client; and this is why GOG Galaxy will allow gamers to play with their buddies who use Steam, without any need to use any 3rd party client or account, nothing, nada. We’re taking care of connecting GOG.com and Steam players, so just sit back, relax and give it a try.

See the outtake from the CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Summer Conference

Talking of which, we are proud to announce the soon-to-come launch of the beta phase for The Witcher Adventure Game, a faithful adaptation of the board game of the same title. It allows up to 4 players to play together, whether they use Steam or GOG.com. Cross-play at its finest! If you wanna get the chance to try it out, please visit and sign up to get in the queue for your beta access key. You can also simply take advantage of our amazing [url=http://www.gog.com/tw3]pre-order offer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which includes 2 beta access keys for he Witcher Aventure Game, delivered to you as soon as we start handing them out to public.

We believe GOG Galaxy has the power to provide the best of both worlds. Playing the single player mode of your favorite game, 100% DRM-free, while still having the OPTION to use our soon-to-come client for an enhanced experience (auto-patching, achievements, and much more) or play online with other GOG.com (and Steam) players if you so wish.

There will be more GOG Galaxy titles coming up this year, so stay tuned for more news and get the word around!
Post edited June 06, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted June 06, 2014
As long as it remains optional and users have the option of deciding EXACTLY what is enabled and/or allowed. If this means GOG turns into the same achievement-hell and surveillance-driven gaming nightmare that Steam is — then GOG just died and so did my love for GOG.
Posted June 06, 2014
Awesome, can't wait for this! Stay classy, gog!
Posted June 06, 2014
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hmcpretender: This would be DRM.
For the multiplayer part, yes. So if you are really a purist, then that is a no no. But in that case you already have a problem, read on:

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hmcpretender: If the system is DRM-free it must not check wether I own the particular game or not, so it would be totally possible to use a pirated copy for multiplayer.
I think that is mostly impossible already now with many GOG games with a functional multiplayer game, even on LAN. Ie. you get a serial code with your GOG game, and two or more people sharing the same serial code can't play online against each other. It has been already argued before that that is also a form of DRM.

I personally care about the DRM-free part only for single-player, as that is where it matters. Online multiplayer part will most probably anyway become inactive at that point when the game authentication isn't possible anyway, so in practice it normally won't matter much either way, even if the multiplayer part was also fully DRM-free.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by timppu
Posted June 06, 2014
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damien: Why is no one asking if that means we will be able to play GOG classics online? am I missing something here? Does galaxy, for example, also mean that I can now play Duke Nukem 3D or Unreal on multiplayer with the GOG community?
Apparently not, since "games need to support the service". So it only works for games designed with this functionality in mind, although there be a [url=http://www.gog.com/forum/general/more_details_about_galaxy_please/post115]possibility to incorporate this into DosBox and other open emulation software used. Not likely for gog to do this themselves though (maybe a wishlist entry is in order; further confirmation either way would be nice).

If this was the case, it would make the endeavour slightly more worthwhile to me personally at least. As it is, I'm with the 4-bit-classic gent.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by MoP
Posted June 06, 2014
Good move, GOG. I really like this. I'm glad that Galaxy will be 100% optional for those who want to keep using GOG the way it is, however I think I will be using Steam much less in the future.....
Posted June 06, 2014
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Erich_Zann: OK, playing a bit the thick-in-the-head luddite here, but please bear with me :

- on the whole I don't give a rat's ass about multiplayer
- I don't give a flying fuck about "sharing achievements" or "staying in touch with my pals" (I know how to use email & phone, thanks)
- I am not (that much) mentally disabled, and thus I know how to click the download links in the "My Games" section of the GOG website

So I can safely ignore this, and nothing will change for me as far as using GOG goes, right ?
That would be rad.
+1

Seldom have truer words been spoken.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts about this. The only actually usable feature would be enabling multiplayer for those old games that no longer have their original servers up. I don't think that's happening with this Galaxy thing though.
Posted June 06, 2014
You guys on GOG deserve max of the max of the max... RESPECT.
Love you.
Posted June 06, 2014
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Pheace: Either there's something that links the game to GOG or the Galaxy client, or there's no ownership check.
Let's take Torchlight II as a possible example. Retail version requires an online authentication to install and activate. When you go to play online, it check on Runic's server if the key is valid for online play. If it is, it connects to GOGGalaxy through the GOGGalaxy API, and it allows you to connect with GOG and Steam players (again, through the GOGGalaxy API).

Let's take Unreal Tournament (pre 436 patch) as another example. It used a serial which was only checked against other players in the same match. You fire the game up, connect to the GOGGalaxy API, find the server you wish to play and join it. A duplicate key is detected. Steam players are authenticated through Steam, GOG players are authenticated through GOG, retail players are not authenticated. Retail player with duplicate key gets kicked out.

Final assumption. UT post 436. No checks to play online. Connect online and play, either in GOGGalaxy or out of it. Same as you currently can.
Posted June 06, 2014
will this mean simulated LAN over internet for classic games that only have LAN multiplayer???? if so, nicely done
Posted June 06, 2014
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Tarm: Finally! Now Steam will get some real competition. :D

Questions.
1: Will I be able to download and install GOG games through GOG Galaxy like in Steam?
2: Archive them like with the download client?
3: Will the download client be merged with GOG Galaxy?
4: Are the download client going to be supported in the future?
5: Is there a chat function?
6: Does this mean GOG have done a deal with Steam because of Cross - Play? And if so is it probable that there will be future deals with Steam? Thinking a bit about the release and pricing "war" between GOG and Steam here.

Sorry if those questions already have been asked and/or answered but threads like this explode and these threads is basically the only time I go TL: DR.
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johnnygoging: 1. yes
2. don't know, but I would assume yes as the new client will completely replace the current downloader
3. yes
4. with patches? no. via gog's support? unlikely, but this is unclear. they might just tell you to update and use that.
5. yes.
6. interesting, isn't it? this is not clear and they haven't said so far. but if gog can interface with Steam then there must be some level of inter-company cooperation here. how far it extends is unclear. personally I think the new client is an extension or subset of the steam API.
Thank you for the quick answers. :)

Hopefully we'll be able to archive through the new client, that's what the download client is for after all and if merged with the new it *should* be available in the new client too. Logically that is.

Yeah the hint about Steam and GOG deals is a very interesting thought.
Posted June 06, 2014
excellent news!
Posted June 06, 2014
Will be only applied to newer games with multiplayer like the ones from steam? Or would affect to old games with only can use Hamachi? (Would be AWESOME if we could set games with the second ones : )
Posted June 06, 2014
I'm a bit on the fence about GOG getting a client (too) as I'm already not a fan of Steam like most people seem to be.
Because lets look at what the Steam client is, it's basically a webbrowser with the functionallity to manage games, all functions that are already present in an operating system, so what people appraise about it is which is basically a redundancy in functionality which makes me scratch my head.
Having even more clients is having more redundancy as Galaxy won't be replacing Steam/Origin/Uplay but coexist, I know I'm going against the flow but there you have it.
The only way I see Galaxy being able to blow the other clients out of the water is by dominating the other clients like you can play Steam bought games on Galaxy for instance, in other words there would be no need to have Steam anymore but I don't think that is possible.
That having said it won't prevent me from using Galaxy in the future however, unless it's bug ridden garbage of course.
Posted June 06, 2014
THIS IS PURE GENIUS! Thank you guys! Can't Wait!
Posted June 06, 2014
Hope Galaxy will have a nice interface to keep our game collection organized, the actual shelf is problematic when the collection grows a bit too much.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)