The Steam version of Galactic Civilizations III requires the use of EOS (Epic Online Services), which connects to Epic's servers as soon as you launch the game (even if you just want to play singleplayer), and the game refuses to launch if you get rid of the EOS sdk file.

Does the GOG version of Galactic Civilizations III also do this, or is it free of EOS? I'm assuming it does have it, but I'm vaguely hoping it might not.

I'd consider EOS a form of DRM, but apparently GOG feels differently, as I know they do allow some games on here with EOS.

Cheers.

I just checked my copy. The EOS SDK file is there and required, but in-game the Metaverse button says it's unavailable and I've never allowed the app through my firewall, i.e. it defaults to running completely offline and never connects. It may use it for multiplayer, but I've never tried (I run it modded anyway, which disables multiplayer, which is an important FYI, too, because that stinks). It's possible the file is just a stub DLL, there to make the base game happy but it does nothing in actuality (kind of like how a lot of games here have Steam API DLL files doing the same thing).