Maybe they want their games being sold to be fully functional? Original War has multiplayer too, I think. I assume the multiplayer works on Steam, but I don't know.

Edit: Scratch that thought after reading this post.

Here's the problem.
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/dont_implement_an_early_access_functionality

Oh, and e.g. here.
http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/04/dont-expect-that-early-access-game-to-get-finished-says-steams-quietly-updated-faq/

We're drifting into an age where games are sold in alpha and are falling into oblivion in beta. Valve doesn't even use the terms "alpha" or "beta" any more, particularly not in their Early Access FAQ. They now put the verb finished in quotation marks because that's somehow an undefined term for them. Development now is something perpetual without a middle and an end. Valve is defining the alpha state of a game as the experience for which you happily pay money, and they have to, because they sure as hell won't guarantee that games get completed. I don't see anything that ISN'T problematic about that.

And Valve dares to add that "this is the way games should be made today".

Customer rights? Just forget about it. And this IS the only way a program such as Early Access could ever work out: as a customer abusing developer service. If GOG does Early Access, it costs them money and their reputation, because it simply can't be done in a customer friendly or responsible way.

Don't put your money in Early Access. If you want to support developers up front, do it on Kickstarter, where devs have to do their math and actually define how much money they need to finish their game. KS games can fail hilariously as well, but at least these devs have and define a legal obligation towards their backers (see: Asylum playing cards Kickstarter). The Early Access developers bear no such responsibility. They can always say "My unfinished game didn't sell enough to continue development", and they're liable for absolutely nothing. Nothing at all.

That's not a service, it's a disgrace.

I hope I can turn the achievements off. First thing I'll do.

Good, an client and achievements, I can see some people on this forum burning crosses somewhere after this announcement to smoke out the evil.

This was the most needed step for Early Access to come to GOG as well, as well as expand on newer games without the patching inconvenience overrunning the service or it's customers.

Looking good so far. Wonder if there's any requirement at all for running a game through Galaxy.

This is the way I see the client working: open client, designate folder(s) where you want to install games to/backup installers and extras to, client reads the folders you directed it to and the client will then have shortcuts added through its "browser" where you can very conveniently look through your games using different sorting methods and browse your bonus content. To save space, there will be an option to have the bonus content stored away as. zip with the bonus content being unzipped into another "active folder" that you designate (this would be where you're installed games would also reside). Of course, after logging into the client, you will have the option to: install all games, install certain games, or install/download nothing. Each game will have "Properties" that will allow you to decide which games will be automatically updated among other things.

To help simplify how people use and navigate through all these choices, the GOG.com Galaxy client will let you lead through (an awesome 90s-style installer that will have awesome music, SFX, and look really cool) a setup program that will make clear all different choices open to the user allowing people to cater their experience to one another. Of course just like those old 90s installers, there will be preset options to make setup faster. For those people who just want everything automated and preset like Steam, all they have to do is select "Let us take care of it :)".

tl;dr - There should be lots of choice and all options up front during installation :)

Since they specified multiple times in the announcement video how optional it is optionally to optionally use it and have no requirement to ever have to use it except optionally, then there probably is not going to be any mandatory requirement to use it.

So excited about GOG Galaxy... finally a way to keep all my games organized in a DRM free way. Only thing I need to know now is when it will launch? To those complaining... why? You can't get any better than optional... don't like it, you don't have to use it.

To any GOG staff that may see this... will Galaxy automatically work with current downloaded games or will all of our games need to be re-downloaded through the client to be used with the client? I would assume that since it is optional I would assume the client was designed to work with GOG games how the currently are but want to be sure.

I can only support it. I have experinece with Beta games and while i cannot say it was BAD for several game developement just stopped at some moment
Devs just said "we made all we was able (not all we wanted) and we kinda tired already". Several games was just abandoned.
BUT, its still not 100 scam, i can say. Its quite interesting to see and even somewhat partipaciate with game developement. just dont pay for ANY game, choose good developers.

10/10. You guys rock!

The GOG game card for Original War states "Multiplayer issue: multiplayer mode originally built into Original War game is no longer available. For details see: Support", so presumably it used Gamespy and that's probably why it's getting removed also.

Hopefully all of these Bohemia games get GOG Galaxy support later on and get re-added back to the catalogue.

Right. So why quote me on that? I didn't mention anything about it being mandatory?

"required" and "mandatory" are pretty much synonyms. :)

so what was the conference about?
I was at the movies.

Location, location, location. How in the world did you put that word in a completely different sentence to get to the argument you made?

My point with that sentence was, is there a requirement for GOG Galaxy to read a game, an exe and have it display in Galaxy that you're A) playing that game, B) get achievements. Will it have to be linked to a profile or something. Or ... can you simply load up any game/exe (Steam, Uplay, Origin, DRM-free etc) and would it recognize the game and be eligible for achievements etc. Or can you add Exe's and say what game it is (very open to abuse). Etc etc.

That sentence had no thing to do with the client being 'required', despite how synonymous that word can be with 'mandatory'...