Today, GOG officially announced Galaxy 2.0 and their aim seems to be to pull everyone together under one roof.
There are two things that matter to all of us gamers: the games we play and the friends we play them with. But as more titles come with dedicated launchers and clients, our games and gaming buddies become scattered in between them. With GOG GALAXY 2.0, you’ll be able to combine multiple libraries into one and connect with your friends across all gaming platforms!
It's like a much fancier version of Steam's own ability to add games installed from other sources, as Galaxy 2.0 will also support cross-launcher friends lists and chat making it sound pretty darn handy. They do also state you can "Connect more platforms and add new features with open-source integrations.". Those hoping that is some kind of olive branch being extended for Linux will likely be disappointed though, going by their FAQ on the newer dedicated Galaxy site it sounds more like it's simply for adding other services into the client itself for those GOG haven't yet done.
This would have been the perfect time to finally announce the ridiculously long-overdue Linux support for GOG Galaxy (especially with the Epic Store also not supporting Linux), sadly GOG are continuing to leave Linux out. In response to a user question on Twitter about Linux, the GOG team simply said "GOG GALAXY 2.0 will be available for Windows and Mac.". While an honest answer, it's also pretty blunt. No mention of it coming, just a whole lot of nothing.
It's worth noting the wishlist entry "Release the GOG Galaxy client for linux" on GOG's own website with over 21K votes, has been listed as "in progress" for a long time now (at least as far back as 2015 going by the Wayback Machine). You would think by now we would have had some sort of sign.
Considering even itch.io, a tiny little outfit has managed to support Linux really well with their open source client you would think after multiple years GOG would.
I've reached out to GOG, to see if they would like a chat about it. I will update if/when they reply.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
[email protected] May 22, 2019
Last edited by [email protected] on 22 May 2019 at 7:49 pm UTC
Quoting: DerpFoxWich is not quite the same thing.Sorry, it's not their fault when you interpret more into an answer than there is. If they'd planned/wanted to announce, that it comes to Linux, then they'd say it comes (later) to Linux.
Quoting: GuestGoG is just proving that "DRM-free" is just a marketing pitch for them and they don't really care about DRM or users's freedom. Steam on linux gives more freedom than windows/mac with gog games.
Quiz: Guess the company/platform
Company/Platform A: Publicly reimburses customers on multiple occasions after the sold product does not deliver content which is available from a different vendor.
Company/Platform B: Does nothing on multiple occasions after the sold product removes "content" which makes usage of the product impossible.
I understand gamers who say they don't need a client but installing and keeping up to date a game with 5 to 10 DLC and frequent updates is a nightmare! It is even worse considering most Linux games don't release patches but require a full download for every update. For example, "The Long Dark" is updated frequently, which is very nice! But every time it is a 5GB download ... On Steam i have more than 200 games installed and updating is a piece of cake. On GOG i have only 30 installed but it is a nightmare to update. And there is no cloud saves!!!
GOG as a DRM-Free store is nice, that's the reason i still buy games there but i'm sick of their "We care about each customer" because is so obviously false! If only they could be honest and say they're just interested in money instead of claiming they are the "customer centric" store, as least it would be showing us some respect.
The truth is simple: the only ways for a store to compete with Steam is either to have a massive financial and commercial power like the Evil Store or to be on a niche. Itch's purpose is "everyone can publish on Itch" which is wonderful for game jams and experimental game development. And GOG's one is DRM-Free. Actually i think GOG is stuck: if they would stop being DRM-Free they would be vaporized by Steam and the Evil Store but at the same time being DRM-Free is keeping them out of the mainstream market.
I do think people behind Itch have values and believe in what they do. Actually i think it is also the case for Valve. Of course it's a big company with all that comes with it. But Valve does a really good job in offering value to gamers and they do an even better job at improving gaming on Linux. But GOG, the more i look at them the more i see a store pretending having values they don't have.
Mohandevir May 22, 2019
That's what we call a missed opportunity.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 22 May 2019 at 8:37 pm UTC
Quoting: poiuzQuoting: DerpFoxWich is not quite the same thing.Sorry, it's not their fault when you interpret more into an answer than there is. If they'd planned/wanted to announce, that it comes to Linux, then they'd say it comes (later) to Linux
I'm not interpreting anything, in french their sentence have clear sense and its not subject to interpretation. I just say there is a problem in their communication nothing else. I've asked for clarification but I doubt I'll have an answer.
I really like CDPR for their great Witcher Games (no Microtransactions and no other shit).
On the other hand, they manage to disappoint me so much, that they will not see a single € out of my wallet.
I'm also pretty sure, they will make a Linux Release for Cyberpunk for Stadia - but it will not be seen for any Linuxgamer to buy it. Hopefully I am wrong, but I don't think so.
I am sure, we can be lucky, if we get Cyberpunk via Proton (Streaming is not that interesting for me). But it may also only be sold on EGS, GOG, Stadia.
Over the time I suspect, that these "we are DRM free", "we value customers", "we like freedom for gamers" and other blahblah is not honest. They just know, that it's the only niche, that gives them marketshare.
Last edited by einherjar on 22 May 2019 at 9:10 pm UTC
Kimyrielle May 22, 2019
Pathetic.
On the plus side, I got Steam and Lutris, and another game management app is the last thing I need. *shrug*
Quoting: DerpFoxI had two different answers from @GOGcom and @GOGcomFR. The French twitter account for GoG say "GOG GALAXY sera disponible à la béta sur Windows et Mac ! =)" (GOG GALAXY 2.0 will be available on Windows and Mac for the beta) where as the english one answer "GOG GALAXY 2.0 will be available on Windows and Mac.". Wich is not quite the same thing.You are probably putting too much thought into this French response. The Russian answer basically mimics the English one.
I think, after recent layoffs due to some stray comments on Twitter/forum all GOG stuff are instructed to give only approved information. If you look closely, no GOG employee ever used the "Linux" word anywhere. It is almost as if the name have become "The Not To Be Spoken Name". :(
Quoting: Mountain ManGoG doesn't support Linux, so I don't support GoG. See how that works?Excuse me, but I don't see how this works. Like it or not, but GOG is the prominent player on the DRM-free market, and the only one with regional pricing. Sadly, the "itch.io" is nowhere near and Humble basically went defunct, turning into Steam key re-seller. You can dislike GOG, but the game developers are not to be blamed for it.
Quoting: TheBardWhy saying "comming(sic) soon" and then "in progress" for 5 years???A distraction, most probably. If you read the comments on the Whishlist, I'll see some new customers are genuinely expecting "Galaxy for Linux" to be released soon (in the direct sense).
Quoting: einherjarI really don't know, why a Linuxgamer should buy games on GOG.Mmm… DRM-free? It is a valid aspect, isn't it?
Quoting: KimyrielleGOG isn't some kind of garage operation with next to no budget. Seriously, if they hired some contract devs to port the thing for them, how long would it even take, and would they notice the costs? It's not that Galaxy would be one of the most complex pieces of software in the world...
Pathetic.
It could be if you start the development without multiplatform in mind... which is a stupid move if you call yourself a multiplatform store.
And regarding how "optional" is the client, everyone should notice that having the exact same software on one platform and another makes more simpler the migration from one place to another. Linux users loves to make marketing of our platform (and sometimes we get way too exited in regards of "how better our OS is"), but not having the same software is a big handicap in the end. So, eventhough of much we can like GoG policies, they definitely aren't very friendly with us and doesn't help at all in order to increase the market share of our platform, if not the contrary.
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