Never met it, never used it, so I can't say that I would miss something that I never seen.

Yes. It does. I know there are other downloaders available, but this decision by GOG shows again what they want: they want everyone to use Galaxy. This is another step towards steamification.

Right now GOG lost it's only advantage over their DRM-free competitors. (zoom-platform, itch.io, fireflowergames, gamejolt). You can download games via browser or via free downloader there as well. The GOG-downloader was a tool that made downloading GOG-games more convenient. They remove that convenience in favour of their client.

However, I won't use that client ever. If I ever should concede to use a client, it will sure as hell not be Galaxy. Because if I ever should be at that point, I might as well use Steam.

So right now I get my games from the other DRM-free sources. I might buy something here if GOG is the only DRM-free source for a game I want. But only as long as the DRM-free offline installers exist. But the days of 'I get all my games at GOG' are done. GOG saw to that.

sooooo..... as this is the only advantage of gOg, I guess you can buy Diablo on itch.io insted then...

but yes, as I have always said, it is silly to prefer stores. the games are what is important - where you get them is not

Has anyone in this topic even said that "GOG pulled the plug without warning"?? It would be more accurate from a user perspective to say GOG pulled the plug on Downloader, "for no good reason." The common customer is not part of the software development world so a company telling me "old=bad" needs to substantiate that instead of just proclaiming it from on high as if it were a universal truth. Especially considering this is a site that was once dedicated to older games and where many users to this day are on older unsupported (eek!) operating systems.

By the way, vote here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/keep_the_gog_downloader_and_keep_it_up_to_date

Not that GOG will pay attention to that wish. But it would be interesting how few we actually are. How many users actually want to keep the Downloader?

Just not true.
In what way is it limping?

I have been using it for almost 3 years and even used it last night to grab the latest free Prologue game.

It works fine, and as a software developer myself, I know that not every program needs to be continually updated. It is a fairly simple program and does a fairly simple job, so not much about it to keep updating. In fact the only real issue, might be something OS related. A good coder though, can avoid issues due to things Microsoft might change.

GOG really haven't offered us a good reason for phasing it out ... just a comment about their vision or something, which you can take as double talk for pushing Galaxy ... if not something worse.

I love GOG, and I hate being forced to criticize them, but I have to question their integrity in doing this. To me and all those who wish to continue using the GOG Downloader, they are saying - we don't care about you ... you don't matter.

We have continued to support them, now they need to support us.

My point is that the time to complain was 5 years ago. People are acting like the end of the downloader was only just announced. Stopping using an old piece of software built on an old API that does the same job as a currently maintained piece of software is a pretty good reason.

Does Galaxy miss any of the functionality of the GOG Downloader?
You're kidding, right? Not only was the Downloader buggy even while it was supported, but since they stopped supporting it there have been all kinds of problems with downloader links not working for new games. Sure, GOG have stuck plasters on here and there when people pointed it out, but it's been virtually abandoned for years. We're a long way past the cracks starting to show.

The good reason you're looking for is the fact that it's been superceded by something that does its exact job. There's a reason Microsoft isn't making updates for Office 95 any more.

You know how there used to be two ways to download GOG installers? The downloader and browser downloads.

Well we still have that. Galaxy can download installers just fine and we still have browser downloads. I'm really not seeing the "Steamification" here when we still have the same options we always did. The GOG Downloader was just a very feature limited and buggy client written in Adobe AIR.

Which features of GOG Downloader do you feel are missing from Galaxy?

Sure, because occasionally firing up Galaxy to download a standalone installer is indistinguishable from firing up Steam every time you want to play.

I wasn't here 5 years ago for starters, but no longer updating is not the same as saying getting rid of, and you can be sure, that if they had said that, there would have been far more complaints about Galaxy than there have been.

Until recently, I never complained about Galaxy. Never had a problem with it existing for those who want to use it. But that was because GOG Downloader existed as a good alternative.

The impact or sense of old software and old API, can be quite subjective.

Most software that is continually updated and been around for years, is still old ... it has just been tweaked, not rewritten.

Galaxy is in no way shape or form the same as GOG Downloader. Sure it does one thing somewhat the same, but otherwise it is a very different beast ... a beast many of us don't like.

Yes, the most important things of all, simplicity and less resources.

I'm not kidding. Where are these bugs and problems you talk of? Which version was that?
Have a look at how many games I have. If these issues you speak of are true, then why haven't I experienced them?

Abandoned, because it worked and they wanted to focus on their Mess-to-piece Galaxy.

It hasn't really been superseded ... that is just in the mind of some.

To my mind Galaxy does a poorer job of the same thing, and I am not alone in thinking that.

In many ways you cannot really compare it to the situation with Office 95, as later versions of Office are essentially the same beast, just more additions and tweaks ... streamlining etc.

GOG Downloader and GOG Galaxy are vastly different beasts.

I would be happy if GOG gave us a true replacement to the GOG Downloader, both in spirit and form.

Instead, they have focused just on Galaxy and a one-size-fits-all mentality ... and we all know what those beasts are like ... crap ... doer of everything, master of nothing.

That's a pretty bad excuse. What you're saying is that you started using the downloader after it had been deprecated...


It's fairly obvious that it's been a bit of a pain for them to keep supporting for years. My guess is that they've been monitoring use of the downloader and they've killed it fully now because the percentage of customers using it has dropped below some threshold. It could well be that the people complaining represent the nearly entirety of the GOG Downloader userbase. :P



It's not uncommon for software to be completely rewritten on major version updates, e.g. 1.9.4 to 2.0.0. Galaxy 1 was basically that.

Because it has some extra features you don't need? Or because 'client' is a dirty word?

You're partially right here, the old Downloader did use more resources.

I'm not even joking, I found it to be prone to memory leaks and Adobe AIR is slow as treacle in general.
I could not say, but I'd guess it might be because we have different computers. It used to crash for me and suffer from weird memory leaks when left runnig for while (which is part of the job description of a downloader).

Wow, it's almost as if that was my point!

I mean... not really? You can completely ignore all the bells and whistles and use Galaxy to download offline installers, same as the downloader.

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to them doing a "Galaxy light" fork or something that uses the installer downloading code from Galaxy but it hardly seems worth it.

Except it's just as good at downloading (if not better) than the GOG downloader was. So either you think that the GOG downloader was not very good at its one job, or you accept that Galaxy is at least perfectly good at downloading even if you don't think it's good at anything else it does.

What?? Your (sirprimalform) claim was that the time to complain was 5 years ago. People not being here at the time isn't an "excuse" it's a simple reality. Yes, people started using the Downloader even though it was not officially supported, because it worked and provided a functionality that is no now longer available in the same form. I'm not sure why that is supposed to be some shocking revelation. Downloader filled a need that Galaxy does not and in its current form cannot fill...

Galaxy is a package deal. You don't get the Galaxy without the unwanted bloat. You even go on to admit in your post that they could do a "Galaxy light" so surely you're aware such a thing does not currently exist.

Exactly this, if given the choice between one thing you want, or the thing you want plus twenty unwanted things why would anyone choose the latter? The whole point of GOG was to get games without having to deal with all the other stuff. It's not like this little downloader takes endless resources to maintain.

Then they should have taken the hint that it was not supported.... if you use a piece of software which is not supported, then you have no one to blame but yourself.