Looks like GOG Galaxy won't come to Linux any time soon, as it's "not a priority"

I don't mind directly downloading and installing the executables for use and archival purposes.

If Galaxy was free software, then cool. Since its not, there's no big loss for me in not having it.

No Galaxy sadly means that GOG will stay a tertiary game store (at best) for me. I might use it to get some data files for certain games that have engine replacements on Linux but it's highly unlikely I will buy anything else from there. I have a fairly sizable games library and I just will not re-download dozens of games to get my patches, not to mention having to track when these games actually do receive updates. It's a shame really, I appreciate the whole DRM-free idea but I am not willing to sacrifice that much convenience for an issue that ultimately doesn't end up affecting me a whole lot.

Oh, and not to mention the quite vast difference between how much GOG and Valve support our platform. Haven't heard of GOG hiring people to work on Mesa for example.

I recently covered Aztez whose developer stated that they outright rejected the game from being on the store.

LOL! If the developers are not lying then the reasoning is:

Yeah, GOG said their audience is too narrative-driven, they declined the game awhile ago.

Considering they are not accepting visual novels for being too narrative. :D Apparently it is very hard to fit in GOG's "Procrustean Bed" of gaming. :P

Much of the problem with this is not the client itself, but the way games are depending on it. If GOG at least provides devs with stub Api's, part of the problem would be solved and Linux users could at least play Single player mode.


Another thing that it's very important to mention is that game Devs don't even bother (or try) to take their Steam versions and make them DRM-Free. It is not an impossible task, For the record: When the dev for Crypt of the Necrodancer didn't release a Linux version on GOG because there was no Galaxy, seeing as many people were angry about it, a couple of days later he released the Linux version on GOG without multiplayer, so what's stopping game devs from doing the same?

Personally I don't give a damn about the client, automatic updates, achievements and cloud saves. All I want is to play the game.

Maybe paradox would build an marketplace open for other developers. I think you can break these things down to some apis that can be used by any developer to link to their customers. Decentralised as the internet used to be and should be.
Who needs centralized services that break sooner or later (thinking in decades not years). What will be left of steam, battle.net or origin in 10 to 20 years. Solutions like email, nfs, etc are here to stay, everything closed ist not.

Well, let's be more impersonal. We all already knew GOG is utilizing zero cost policy towards Linux: no in-house ports, no attempts to persuade developers. Now, we have just another one added to this list: no additional expenses for Galaxy. And given GOG is the only one besides Steam to support regional pricing, it is still reasonable to get games there and not on Humble Store. Of course if Humble has Linux exclusives (DRM-free), then I will get them on Humble.

Kinda ironic "CD PROJECT S.A." is aiming to directly compete with Valve:

GOG.com business objectives
To create a catalogue of brand-new AAA releases fully supported by GOG Galaxy; to turn GOG Galaxy into a technological foundation upon which gamers can access videogames produced by CD PROJEKT RED and interact with one another.

while being cheapsakes. :P

But with all honesty… We asked to "bring existing Linux versions of games" and we got just that. There were no deal on GOG actually spending money on Linux-related development. No, if only there were no Galaxy binding in those recent multiplayer games…

Some of their SNK/Neo Geo games have Linux versions on HB but not on GOG.

Maybe paradox would build an marketplace open for other developers. I think you can break these things down to some apis that can be used by any developer to link to their customers. Decentralised as the internet used to be and should be.
Who needs centralized services that break sooner or later (thinking in decades not years). What will be left of steam, battle.net or origin in 10 to 20 years. Solutions like email, nfs, etc are here to stay, everything closed ist not.

How do you ensure your paying customers have access for ever, also after the store die, but prevent access from people who didn't buy the game?

The best thing I can come up with at the moment is a solution where the games are publicly available in encrypted form and paying customers get access to the key, but I don't see how you can do that in a way that is both userfriendly and secure enough for the game developers/owners to accept the solution. It would be very easy for a single customer to leak the key. I also doubt random people/companies would be willing to mirror the encrypted files.

I bought a few games for linux directly from developer. Some of those web sites are not available any more, so I have to start taking backup of the installation files if I want to be sure I can play it again in the future. I prefer fewer centralized stores over that, because they are less likely to shut down. Well, desura did shut down.


Last edited by Ketil on 19 August 2017 at 1:43 pm UTC

...
How do you ensure your paying customers have access for ever, also after the store die, but prevent access from people who didn't buy the game?
...

Well, ensuring ist difficult, but when the developer closes down he usually sells the software to someone else, that guy could provide the services, if no one takes over the games could become open source or at least free to use.

For people going on about Steam client being proprietary closed source... well the GOG Galaxy client for Windows is the same. Also what is your issue with Game Clients being Closed Source, when the Games themselves which you want to install and play are closed source. I'm directing this at Shmerl's position. Surely if you need to run open source everywhere, then that should also include the Game code itself?

This is exactly what I was thinking and going to post. Some people will only use an open source graphics driver to run their closed source game? Logic implosion! Someone please explain that one.

I'd love the world to be open source and it's something to strive for certainly. I detest hypocrisy too.


Last edited by fabertawe on 19 August 2017 at 2:44 pm UTC

For people going on about Steam client being proprietary closed source... well the GOG Galaxy client for Windows is the same. Also what is your issue with Game Clients being Closed Source, when the Games themselves which you want to install and play are closed source. I'm directing this at Shmerl's position. Surely if you need to run open source everywhere, then that should also include the Game code itself?

This is exactly what I was thinking and going to post. Some people will only use an open source graphics driver to run their closed source game? Logic implosion! Someone please explain that one.

I'd love the world to be open source and it's something to strive for certainly. I detest hypocrisy too.

Needing proprietary software to use your hardware is different to choosing. It's the choice that people want, even if it's not an exclusive choice.

Fair enough. It's the people who are vehemently opposed to closed source who don't apply it to everything they use who are hypocritical.

Edit: Perhaps I should have said "who don't apply it to everything they use - where that possibility does exist and they actually have that choice".


Last edited by fabertawe on 19 August 2017 at 3:11 pm UTC

This and the answer that twitch gave me earlier about their launcher on Linux only makes me sadder.

Which was?

https://twitter.com/TwitchDesktop/status/898591549860098049

This and the answer that twitch gave me earlier about their launcher on Linux only makes me sadder.

Which was?

https://twitter.com/TwitchDesktop/status/898591549860098049

Thanks.

At least it's still planned.

... I guess that sounds rather comical when said in the context of this thread though, doesn't it?

It has been pretty obvious for quite a while that CDProjectRed/GOG has no interest in Linux, the Linux client is one of the most requested features for years upon years and nothing has been done. In return I haven't spent a penny on GOG games in years and more than happy to support Value instead who contribute a lot to Linux gaming and Vulkan.

Sorry but they're layers. They promised Linux version on Galaxy's website and now there will be nothing for us.

So yes, GoG is a fucking bastard

If you can't control your feelings enough to comment, then don't comment. That screams immaturity.

Many posts here have made some superb attempts at explaining GOG rationale behind their decision, and we should respect that.

I love GOG, they've been the only store I've purchased from for a loooong time just because of their professionalism, great support, and enforcing a standard installer on all games for Linux.

If the jobs didn't require moving to Poland, I'd be applying for the junior C++ dev role (Galaxy client work, requires Linux experience)

More and more games will not be on GoG for Linux because Galaxy is unavailable...

So yes, if they can't to create and release Galaxy Linux, why they said it was be possible to have it 3 years ago ?

GOG Galaxy not releasing for Linux - OK for me.
I did never buy any single game from them or any other store - but Steam/Valve.

Why? This is an easy answer.
No other company (beside Feral, some others) really cares/pushes linux gaming. Selling "only" games means nothing.
Also putting DOSBox infront of "old but great" DOS games does not count for me - I can do this myself.

I also don't care if a game is DRMfree or not - this is not important.

Important for me is that I give my money to people that deserve it... to people that really care about Linux, to people that believe in Linux, to people that spend their money to improve Linux, to people who hire other linux people... to people like VALVE.

We should be thankfull and happy that Gabe Newell took this risky step to push linux gaming, convinced and motivated so much other people to put their affords into linux and don't be sad because GOG galaxy does not come to linux.
We all owe so much to this guy and his team.

To be honest... for me this news is positive. I hope some of you will now buy more games on Steam and support the people that deserve it.
This will raise selling numbers for Linux games on Steam and then we will get 5% market share much faster like when everybody buys here and there.
Only then we linux gamers will get the attention WE DESERVE.
And only then competition in selling linux games gets neccessary!!!

Think about it.


Last edited by johndoe on 19 August 2017 at 11:46 pm UTC

This and the answer that twitch gave me earlier about their launcher on Linux only makes me sadder.

Which was?

https://twitter.com/TwitchDesktop/status/898591549860098049

Thanks.

At least it's still planned.

... I guess that sounds rather comical when said in the context of this thread though, doesn't it?

Well this answer was after I asked about the one year of no information about the launcher. I think they are simply lying, because they already lied about the launcher before.

GOG Galaxy not releasing for Linux - OK for me.
I did never buy any single game from them or any other store - but Steam/Valve.

Why? This is an easy answer.
No other company (beside Feral, some others) really cares/pushes linux gaming. Selling "only" games means nothing.
Also putting DOSBox infront of "old but great" DOS games does not count for me - I can do this myself.

I also don't care if a game is DRMfree or not - this is not important.

Important for me is that I give my money to people that deserve it... to people that really care about Linux, to people that believe in Linux, to people that spend their money to improve Linux, to people who hire other linux people... to people like VALVE.

We should be thankfull and happy that Gabe Newell took this risky step to push linux gaming, convinced and motivated so much other people to put their affords into linux and don't be sad because GOG galaxy does not come to linux.
We all owe so much to this guy and his team.

To be honest... for me this news is positive. I hope some of you will now buy more games on Steam and support the people that deserve it.
This will raise selling numbers for Linux games on Steam and then we will get 5% market share much faster like when everybody buys here and there.
Only then we linux gamers will get the attention WE DESERVE.
And only then competition in selling linux games gets neccessary!!!

Think about it.

While some points are fair, some of them are also a bit way off.

To elaborate:

One can setup DosBox himself yes but keep in mind that not everyone has the same computer skills, using Linux doesn't automatically make a person a geek, I know a few of them locally in my area and their Linux knowledge is equal to the Windows one, being the very basics. Without having GOG do this for them, sales could be lost.

DRM-Free - you said that is not important for you. Again this is just you. Many people have been fighting for DRM-Free (not just in games) for quite a few years now. Much as I'd like to, I didn't buy most of the games ported by Aspyr and Feral exactly because of DRM presence, otherwise I would have already bought them especially the DiRt series.

You talk so highly about Valve did this, Gabe did that, I'll give credit where its due and yes I fully agree that without Valve Linux gaming wouldn't be the way it is now (although I cannot forget to mention that it was Humble Bundle which pushed Linux at first), but there's one thing you didn't mention - Valve has a much deeper pocket than GOG which means they can afford some ventures, whereas GOG might be a little more restricted.


With that said, I am in no way defending GOG, they're just as guilty the minute they said that Linux Galaxy isn't a priority. I used to believe and support them a lot, way before I switched to Linux. Nowadays however I have much less credibility, almost everything they stood for has been crumbled. The only thing that keeps me there is the DRM-Free, otherwise they would end up the same way Humble Bundle ended for me.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that not everyone can tolerate a DRM-Free only gaming life, especially with high profile (AAA) games not being available. So I fully understand those people that have no problem with using Steam. After all it's not different than someone using Windows, I've heard it many times from Windows users asking me "but is there GTA V, BF4/1 or Overwatch?" and they would stick to Windows the second I say no.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 20 August 2017 at 12:47 am UTC

Less market segmentation is good for the customer. Keep buying from existing places. It's not like GOG is full of GOG-exclusive titles.

Less competition is bad for the customer.

If you can't control your feelings enough to comment, then don't comment. That screams immaturity.

Many posts here have made some superb attempts at explaining GOG rationale behind their decision, and we should respect that.

I love GOG, they've been the only store I've purchased from for a loooong time just because of their professionalism, great support, and enforcing a standard installer on all games for Linux.

GNUmen to all of this!