I think that may be stretching the paranoia a bit too far, though. I mean, sure the button's big. But they're definitely going to want to push the client and that makes sense for them. But look at what they did: they removed the Galaxy-laden installer idea completely. They no longer package them that way. Now there's only a 'classic' style installer, which is what Galaxy fetches and what's available for you to DL from your account. That doesn't look like a step towards mandatory Galaxy to me, at least.

deleted

You will get those by installing the games using the offline installers. galaxy will recognize the installed game when you start it (sometimes it might have to download a few MB before first use since Galaxy in this case sometimes shows "unknown version").

Took 'em a while, if you ask me. Wonder why.
I mean it's an improvement, don't take me wrong. Yet the main focus seems to be Galaxy. It's business after all.

If I understood this right there won't be much need to update the web installers unless a game is assigned a different id...

I think the new approach fits well enough with Galaxy users and offline installers folk. It's a way better system than we've had since the Galaxy-bundled installers debacle. Something like this should have been done in the first place, but ok, I guess a thank you is warranted :). Better late than never.

I would just like to say this, since it seems like GOG is trending towards GOG Galaxy and Web installation. If you ever decide to go entirely GOG Galaxy and make it hard to find or use the old classic installers, or decide to remove them, I will no longer be your customer. I will no longer buy your products. GOG Galaxy should always be considered a minor aspect of GOG. The focus should remain on GOGs core principles regarding DRM-Free and quality cheap digital products that still retain a focus on consumer rights. That being, my ability to download the products I buy and install or archive them however and whenever I see fit.

I go out of my way to use GOG because on a deeper level I currently TRUST GOG more than I do Steam or other digital game distribution services. I make repeat purchases on GOG all the time of games I already own on Steam because I prefer GOG's focus on DRM Free and meeting my expectations of basic consumer rights concerning the products I buy. I am proud of my GOG library of 800+ games. I am not equally proud of my 5000+ Steam game library, in fact, I wonder about its future. Don't forget your origins and focus. Don't get caught up on providing trendy social gaming services. GOG Galaxy is not the future I look forward to, continued quality service and respect for your original focus IS what I look forward to.

Yep, it did. As for why, your guess is as good as mine, although I can think of a couple things that may have contributed to it:

1) they were trying to decide exactly what they were going to do.
2) it may have taken some time to set up the implementation once they decided to do it this way.
Oh, make no mistake: the main focus is Galaxy. That's their baby. But at least with this change/improvement(?) it doesn't appear that they're thinking of making it mandatory.

Hope that's the case.

I haven't read the whole thread, how will this affect using GOGRepo to download, will I end up with over half a GB space taken up by 5hese? I suppose it won't be the worst problem, definitely better than the Galaxy installers were. I mean if you're using Galaxy you probably have an active web connection. Good job on this GOG.

I wonder how many folks using Galaxy will choose those installers over installing the game directly in the client.

Finally, download options are presented in a clear fashion. I like this.

A good update, thanks.

so basically that saves a few clicks for first time users who haven't installed Galaxy before. seems little gain for the efforts involved.
I would assume people who have Galaxy already installed won't waste their time to open their browser, log into GOG and download the installer just to queue the download instead of queuing the download via the Galaxy client directly.

meh, whatever I guess, at least it is easy to ignore unless the previous attempt *shrug*

It just seems weird because the offline installer points out that I can't use online features with it. Fair enough for some games, but not all of them. Is this the first sign of us losing control?