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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
What about older games that from the beginning allowed you to host games either on the net or on LAN, will they be changed to work only on Galaxy (the multiplayer part that is)? Will this option remain?
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Diversion
Posted June 06, 2014
This announcement has one of my favorite words: Optional

Maybe I'll use Galaxy, and maybe not. It's nice to have the choice.

Kudos to gOg for keeping us customers as the priority instead of making us conform to your ideas of how things need to work.

Best of luck for a smooth launch.
Posted June 06, 2014
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Diversion: What about older games that from the beginning allowed you to host games either on the net or on LAN, will they be changed to work only on Galaxy (the multiplayer part that is)? Will this option remain?
We have some ideas on the older games but we're still working on getting everything sorted :) I personally hope we can have Galaxy facilitate the multiplayer options on older games so that you can just click and play them just like in the old days :)
Posted June 06, 2014
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JudasIscariot: GOG Galaxy will allow you to play the online portions of a GOG game with other players no matter which service they bought the game.
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Pheace: What's a GOG game in this definition? Any game on GOG? Or a game designed around Galaxy?
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JudasIscariot: Any game on GOG :)
According to http://www.gog.com/forum/general/more_details_about_galaxy_please/post76/?staff=yes
Will Galaxy only work for games made specifically to support it, or will all our existing GOG titles work on it? If not, will existing titles be updated over time?
Games need to support our service like The Witcher Adventure Game.
So... does all that mean any game on GOG can use Galaxy for its multiplayer functions, but only games designed around Galaxy, like TWAG, can use its full functionality? Or something else?
Posted June 06, 2014
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amok: It was a load of PR speak without substance and even factual wrong information. You do not own your games, you own a license to play them. Freedom of choice is not something "we call" as a new invention, it is something it is. "We give you freedom of choice" for example, is much better. "We call this FREEDOM OF CHOICE" almost implies that this is a gOg invention. and the share audacity to announce an optional client and then say "We call it the OPTIONAL CLIENT". It is like a bad comedy film. "I have made an mechanical horse... I call it the MECHANICAL HORSE"... and it is also not a gOg invention, Desura, for example, have had an optional client for years.
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npalsensei: All I see is

1) they're making a client that, unlike steam, will be optional to use and still DRM-Free. That sounds like taking Steam and tearing all DRM free out of it, which would be epic. I'm now using GOG Downloader for my downloads and updates, it's always on but it's very basic so a better client is welcome.
2) You can still download games and updates the old way, aka freedom of choice. You don't like the client, you don't use the client, you still get to play games, unlike Steam and Origin that CAN lock you out pretty easily. My net was down for a month, guess what games I could play. GOG games I already had installed beforehand. Origin? Nope. Steam? Nope.
3) Client will support multiplayer and online features like achievements and stuff, for games that support it. Still optional though if you want to play offline, you won't get locked out of the game from what they're saying. There's also talk about cross-platform communication, I'd love to see that happen.
4) I don't know about Desura, don't really care either, but if they had something like that, all the more credit to them for being the first I suppose? Nice to see GOG follow them I suppose? Or something? How's that bad?
You misunderstand me. I like the sentiments of the announcement, but I think it is horribly executed.
Posted June 06, 2014
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JudasIscariot: Any game on GOG :)
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VanishedOne: According to http://www.gog.com/forum/general/more_details_about_galaxy_please/post76/?staff=yes

Games need to support our service like The Witcher Adventure Game.
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VanishedOne: So... does all that mean any game on GOG can use Galaxy for its multiplayer functions, but only games designed around Galaxy, like TWAG, can use its full functionality? Or something else?
We will be adding the ability to use Galaxy to any game that will work with Galaxy but this will take time. Basically, we will be updating the installers to have Galaxy functions while remaining standalone i.e. you can run them just as you used to before Galaxy :)
Posted June 06, 2014
Also, will GOG be slimming down potential games to sell based on whether or not the games can be configured to work within Galaxy's online play model?
Or will Galaxy take care of such loose ends and make "any game" work within the Galaxy "play with anyone" model?
Posted June 06, 2014
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saiyan: How about including a downloader function in the client?
...
Well said. +1
Posted June 06, 2014
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Thegevin: Also, will GOG be slimming down potential games to sell based on whether or not the games can be configured to work within Galaxy's online play model?
Or will Galaxy take care of such loose ends and make "any game" work within the Galaxy "play with anyone" model?
I don't see us slimming down our options, I see Galaxy as something that will expand our scope now that we'll be able to offer multiplayer across services while remaining DRM free :)

We'll do what we can to make "any game" work but it depends on the game, as always :)
Posted June 06, 2014
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Pheace: My main concern with this currently would be piracy.

One of the main benefits for publishers in having online components/multiplayer is the simple fact that pirated copies a lot of the time have no way to participate in those.
Several games on GOG already have CD-key checks for online multiplayer.
Posted June 06, 2014
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MaceyNeil: Yes if you want to buy a full featured product that is meant to be DRM Free and then accept that you should only access half of that product because you do not agree to the use of a steam 'DRM wrapper' without being adequately compensated for a product with essentially less functionality perhaps even without the main component around which the game is based (starcraft2/D3/etc.) then YES, you have the choice :D enjoy it.
The problem you described already exists, but in a different (in my opinion even worse) form:

http://www.gog.com/game/brutal_legend

Multiplayer notice: The DRM free version of Brutal Legend is single-player only.
Posted June 06, 2014
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pbnjoe: What I'm wanting to know is *how*, if no deals were struck :)
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Gersen: Probably the Galaxy app will use the official Steamwork DLL to communicate with Steam like all the Steam games does, technically it's not hard IF Valve allows it of course.
That only works with Steam, though. What about all others clients?
Posted June 06, 2014
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saiyan: How about including a downloader function in the client?
...
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Rinu: Well said. +1
As I said earlier, I think there will be settings that will allow you to customize Galaxy to your liking :)
Posted June 06, 2014
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Lodium: The European court highly disagree with you.
IF it didnt, then on the games there woud have been no case here valve had to meet in court.
Of course they are trying to sneak past the rulig since they changed their ula, in the end though steam isnt a renting service but a store where you or me buy products digital or not.

In July 2012 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that users have the right to re-sell downloaded content and a publisher can’t stop that via EULA.
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Pheace: Ow that case? Valve won that one. Your info is out of date.

“German consumer watchdog group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband argued that if copyright law, through the doctrine of exhaustion, allowed the resale of used computer game DVDs, then a clause in a standard contract restricting the transfer of the online account necessary to play the game was at odds with the basic principles of statutory law and therefore unreasonable, abusive and, ultimately, unenforceable,”

“So is the Regional Court of Berlin going against Court of Justice of the European Union case law? Not quite. The judges’ comments at the oral hearing held a few days before the verdict transpired do indicate that they do not consider the doctrine of exhaustion to be applicable to digitally distributed computer games at all.”
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Pheace:
Yea i know valve won the second case
Nothing says there wont be more cases, thats my point.
Cuz the question is when else can i use the ruling that i have the rigth to re-sell downloaded content?
The games on Steam are Downloaded content or not?
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Lodium
Posted June 06, 2014
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JudasIscariot: Your best bet would be to sign up for the beta and give feedback while testing the Galaxy client :) Would you like me to post a link to the beta? I have posted it in this thread a couple of times but I can post it again if you'd like it :)
I'm a bit confused - the link clearly states:
Sign-up for a chance to participate in
The Witcher Adventure Game closed multiplayer beta:
What we users of the GOG Downloader are more interested in is testing the downloader features of the GOG Galaxy.
Will there be a beta just for this part of the client? Given that the GOG Downloader will be pulled, do we get a chance to make our voices heard?

Unless I'm missing something, the main purpose of this closed beta is to get feedback in relation to the multiplayer/ gaming features.
And please don't get me wrong, but as it is right now, it feels like input regarding the client will be taken only from those fully embracing GOG Galaxy.
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Community
General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)