By Nelson Schneider - 06/07/14 at 03:25 PM CT
Our friends in Poland are gearing up to shake the foundations of Lord GabeN’s Steampowered throne with the upcoming release of their very own game client. While GOG has been around for a while, their DRM-free philosophy prevented them from shackling their (old and Indie) games with any kind of mandatory client. The entirely-optional GOG Downloader was the closest thing they had.
That will all be changing with the announcement of GOG Galaxy, which will finally bring CD Projekt’s e-shop up to par with the likes of Steam, Desura, Origin, and Uplay… at least as far as features go. Galaxy will support all of the good things provided by game clients, like automatic updates, friend lists, friend chat, and achievements. What it will not support, unlike the other three, is DRM.
This is incredibly exciting news, as I have purchased certain Indie games on Steam instead of GOG just for the sake of having access to Steam’s auto-updates. With Galaxy promising such feature parity and no DRM whatsoever, it could stand above every other game client… except for the fact that GOG’s library is still limited to 20-year-old DOS games and Indie titles. Of course, the no-DRM bonus isn’t entirely an improvement, as many Indie games are sold on Steam sans the Steamworks DRM framework.
Galaxy will surely be a powerful blow against Desura, which is so Indie it was Indie before Indie was cool. But it is difficult to say whether or not it will have any impact on a platform that is as entrenched as Steam. Of course, Valve has been making numerous questionable decisions lately with regard to Steam. Between the Early Access debacle, Greenlight allowing Internet Trolls and rogue publishers to push through large quantities of Desura-grade crap just for the lulz, the Community Market making the company rich (one penny at a time) via imaginary trading cards and hats, and the recently announced delay of the Steam Machines and Steam Controller until 2015, perhaps a perfectly-executed power play by GOG could have an impact. Of course, the easiest way for GOG to pull users away from Steam would be to give away “backup” copies of ALL shared Steam/GOG games, allowing users to migrate their Indie libraries at no cost. Considering CD Projekt (who owns GOG) does this with their ‘Witcher’ franchise, I can’t see any reason (outside of BS IP laws) not to be as generous with other titles.
Comments
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/14/14 at 06:07 PM CT
Switching to GOG from Steam for Indie games wouldn't be much of a cash sink either, considering how cheap they are.
Unfortunately for you, Chris, GOG won't have your beloved "AAA" games for decades, so you'd better convert to Buddhism and start practicing your patience.
Chris Kavan - wrote on 06/08/14 at 05:53 PM CT
Ugh - don't get me started on Steam. You and I are not the only ones who have noticed the decided quality control issues this year. Through the first five months the Steam has released more games then they did all of last year - and some, like Earth: 2066, have already been removed, yet others like the (joke?) "game" Air Control continue to get through. And let's not forget the constant stream of adapted IOS/Android games, re-release of ancient edutainment games (Freddi Fish? Putt-Putt? Spy Fox?) and the scourge of Early Access that may or may not get finished. It's a nightmare right now, and true indie gems are getting buried by the mountain of crap piled upon it. I love Steam, but if GoG Galaxy takes off (especially if they allow game migration), it wouldn't take much for me to make a switch.
