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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
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Zoidberg: Well, the whole point of such a client is to give advantages in the use of it, so not using it will present disadvantages (no auto updates, etc...).
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Erich_Zann: That assumes auto-updating is universally considered an advantage. It isn't.
I believe it's safe to assume that this will be configurable, so to each their own. I really like these new options and what I like the most is exactly that they are optional!

Nice going, GOG!
Posted June 06, 2014
I've been thinking that GOG may need to invest in the infrastructure and/or software to expand into the multiplayer arena considering the current gaming landscape.

I'm not much of a multiplayer gamer, but I think this is a good move for GOG, and it can scale up and open up other things other than just multiplayer.
Posted June 06, 2014
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Zoidberg: Well, the whole point of such a client is to give advantages in the use of it, so not using it will present disadvantages (no auto updates, etc...).
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Erich_Zann: That assumes auto-updating is a universal, proven advantage over manual patching. It isn't.
Well as long as updates are just adding new features and removing bugs, auto updates ARE an advantages.

Also by auto updates I mean "on the fly" updates, which are 1000 times better than launch your browser go get the "latest" update for your game and install it.

Although that if there were a possibility to get a game on certain milestone versions, it could be nice.

Honestly gog has just to add such an (optional) client and they'll have nothing else to enhance compared to the steam client, as long as they stay true to their "roots" (and all of them, grrr).
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Zoidberg
Posted June 06, 2014
Well, even the biggest mega-publishers who made their own client, all of them had rough launches with bugs and problems. I just hope GOG has a good web programmer team for this, some clients like Desura are still shitty ans buggy and they've been out for ages.
Posted June 06, 2014
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Smannesman: I don't really know why people get upset when other people express their opinion.
Like I already said, I'm not upset. It just doesn't do anything for me at all.

Well I disagree about 'constantly', but also it should be GOGs responsibility to add more games.
Instead they use resources on things like this. And why do you have to be such a spoilsport?
I just expressed my opinion, that's what forums are for.
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nuuttiT: Sensitive people are sensitive people. Dont' worry, people nowadays just get so few "negative" feeback so that a small '-1' seems shocking to them. For the record I must say that I understand your point(s) very well.

I'm just interested to see where this all leads.
lol I wasn't being sensitive. It was just a genuine question :P
Posted June 06, 2014
If Galaxy won't allow to just download and check integrity of installers, patches and extras for backup (without actually installing games or updates), please keep the GOG Downloader around for that .
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Kismet
Posted June 06, 2014
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P1na: If I buy a game DRM-free, I would expect to be able to play with a friend I already know without needing to go through unreliable third party servers. Will this be possible?
That would depend on how those game developers chose to implement online play; many recent games don't support having players connect directly to each other.

GOG already sells a few games that ran all online features through GameSpy or the like.
Posted June 06, 2014
Seeing the way the industry develops, I'm always extremely distrustful towards new exciting platforms. Usually they are much more exciting for the provider - collecting more personal data, enforcing more control. I left Steam a few years ago for the way they had been pseudo-up-grading their engine.

Having said that, if there's one single approach that can help me lose that natural distrust, it's, "Here's something new. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. But it's here. It may be used. It can be used. Just in case. So that you know."

Most probably, I won't be using Galaxy, I'm a very 20th century person. But still I applaud GOG for getting this one right.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Wottie
Posted June 06, 2014
Is Galaxy going to be localized into languages other than English?
Posted June 06, 2014
I think it's great news, way to go GOG!
Posted June 06, 2014
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Erich_Zann: That assumes auto-updating is a universal, proven advantage over manual patching. It isn't.
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Zoidberg: Well as long as updates are just adding new features and removing bugs, auto updates ARE an advantages.

Also by auto updates I mean "on the fly" updates, which are 1000 times better than launch your browser go get the "latest" update for your game and install it.
"1000 times better" ? Wow, impressive. The all caps on "are" also go a long way to convince me. Not.
To each his own. I am patient, and wait for games to be as complete as possible before playing them - cases in point Xenonauts & Sir You're Being Hunted, which I am both very happy are finally finished - and once I start, I don't want a patch landing mid-game, breaking saves and changing stuff. Hence my preference for manual patching.
Not to mention mod compatibility and such.
Posted June 06, 2014
This is nice!

Will be client be able to track how many hours I've been playing a game?
Posted June 06, 2014
high rated
Uhhh... WTF? This makes me slightly uneasy. The fact that you emphasise how we'll still be able to play in single player DRM-free implies that multiplayer games will require it. I'm sort of ok with that, but after the regional pricing debacle it's a bit worrying.

On the plus side, it's good for you to remain competetive. The cross play thing is very clever, but I wonder if you had to make a pact with the devil in order to achieve this.
Posted June 06, 2014
While I don't personally care for the features of GOG Galaxy, I do think this is a good business move.

If you could snag Tiberian Sun from EA's clutches, then I'd be more inclined to use the multiplayer feature :)
Posted June 06, 2014
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GOG.com: But what if you want to play with your friends?
That's what pen & paper RPG's are for :)

The only good thing about this is that it's optional. As it shoul be, otherwise it would be bye-bye GOG for me. Even just reading about "achevements" and "staying in touch with your pals" made me cringe.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)