GOG aren't having the best of times recently, with details about their financial troubles painting a bleak picture, although it seems they have something of a plan. Later they announced some changes, including a tweak to what they mean by DRM free.
Now? They're attempting to go back to their roots, at least little, to woo customers back to their store with a small revival of "Good Old Games", what they were originally known as. The start of this is the addition of a Good Old Games tag, which GOG say will "showcase over 500 games that our Team has deemed iconic classics".
This is one reason I liked GOG originally, their commitment to bringing back and supporting old games, but they lost their way somewhat when trying to become just another store. Hopefully they will be doing more as time goes on to revive old games. Plenty of older games nowadays can run on Linux just fine through all sorts of open source game engines, and having an easy and legal place to get them for the data files is great.
To go along with this announcement, today they released the classic FPS, The Wheel of Time. GOG say this was done in cooperation with Nightdive Studios and that the "efforts and in-house expertise of GOG’s Tech Team the game received modern OS compatibility and hi-resolution support". Although, by modern OS, they only mean Windows specifically.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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If they wanted to stay relevant with the Linux crowd. Which they don't.
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According to Lutris, I own 64 games on GOG. According to my GOG account status, that amounts to £10.82 in revenue, since 2013. Every else is either Steam Connect titles (back when that was a thing), or Humble Bundles / Prime Gaming.
But of course, GOG don't care about Linux, so I don't care about GOG.
Incidentally, £7 of that revenue was a single game - Descent, so that I could play it on the fully Linux compatible DXX-Rebirth engine. I've never understood how GOG could have this wonderful back catalogue of old games and not see the opportunity afforded by such projects, and Linux itself. Hey ho.
But of course, GOG don't care about Linux, so I don't care about GOG.
Incidentally, £7 of that revenue was a single game - Descent, so that I could play it on the fully Linux compatible DXX-Rebirth engine. I've never understood how GOG could have this wonderful back catalogue of old games and not see the opportunity afforded by such projects, and Linux itself. Hey ho.
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Quoting: damarrinWhen I click on "The Wheel of Time" link FF warns me of a potential security threat listing a adtraction domain. Not cool.Sounds like a plugin doing that? Get no issues here.
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PublicNuisance Apr 6, 2022
I will always give GOG business over other stores when they have a game I want. I don't like using clients and actually prefer being able to download just the installers from their website. I know i'm in the minority on that one. Compared to Itch.io I like how when a game is updated that I own I get a notification on the GOG site, with Itch.io it is up to the developers to notify the users when the game has been updated unless you're using the client. In any case I just so happen to like how GOG does things so it works for me.
I will concede this but I do have to add that I have had games on Steam before that also require this. A big difference is many of the titles that need this on GOG state this on the store page while on Steam I had to see the game wouldn't launch; run it in temrinal to find out why; and see that a library was missing and download it. Obviously not all Steam games do this but to be fair not all games from GOG do either.
Quoting: fagnerlnLinux ports needing the installation of libraries even on supported distro
I will concede this but I do have to add that I have had games on Steam before that also require this. A big difference is many of the titles that need this on GOG state this on the store page while on Steam I had to see the game wouldn't launch; run it in temrinal to find out why; and see that a library was missing and download it. Obviously not all Steam games do this but to be fair not all games from GOG do either.
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Quoting: Liam DaweAdtraction is on the default filter lists of common adblockers like uBlock Origin.Quoting: damarrinWhen I click on "The Wheel of Time" link FF warns me of a potential security threat listing a adtraction domain. Not cool.Sounds like a plugin doing that? Get no issues here.
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Quoting: tuubiYeah, that's why I suggested it.Quoting: Liam DaweAdtraction is on the default filter lists of common adblockers like uBlock Origin.Quoting: damarrinWhen I click on "The Wheel of Time" link FF warns me of a potential security threat listing a adtraction domain. Not cool.Sounds like a plugin doing that? Get no issues here.
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Sputnik_tr_02 Apr 6, 2022
Quoting: GuestQuoting: damarrinIf they wanted to stay relevant with the Linux crowd. Which they don't.
Focusing on old games, as the name "good old games" suggests, you're absolutely correct. There's really no point: relatively few of those older games having native versions, with wine or dosbox taking care of the bulk of the titles. With software such as Lutris, there's really no reason for GOG to actually bother with GNU/Linux: the market share is too small, and everything needed for GNU/Linux users is basically already taken care of. For older games, of course (and I daresay for most newer titles too).
Ironically, I suspect it's easier to get the older games running on GNU/Linux thanks to wine and dosbox, than it is to provide interface libraries and have the games run on Windows.
Why bother with all of those?
Steam provides tools for both. Steam Linux Runtime for native and Proton for others. An they have first class Linux support, Regional pricing, alternative payment options and countless other features via their Native Linux Client. So there is no reason for me to bother with gog.
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Sputnik_tr_02 Apr 6, 2022
Quoting: GuestQuoting: Sputnik_tr_02Quoting: GuestQuoting: damarrinIf they wanted to stay relevant with the Linux crowd. Which they don't.
Focusing on old games, as the name "good old games" suggests, you're absolutely correct. There's really no point: relatively few of those older games having native versions, with wine or dosbox taking care of the bulk of the titles. With software such as Lutris, there's really no reason for GOG to actually bother with GNU/Linux: the market share is too small, and everything needed for GNU/Linux users is basically already taken care of. For older games, of course (and I daresay for most newer titles too).
Ironically, I suspect it's easier to get the older games running on GNU/Linux thanks to wine and dosbox, than it is to provide interface libraries and have the games run on Windows.
Why bother with all of those?
Steam provides tools for both. Steam Linux Runtime for native and Proton for others. An they have first class Linux support, Regional pricing, alternative payment options and countless other features via their Native Linux Client. So there is no reason for me to bother with gog.
Turns out that my distro provides all of those tools for free, outside of a proprietary games management client, and integrated with the distro itself.
Yea G.O.G Good old gatekeeping.
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: damarrinIf they wanted to stay relevant with the Linux crowd. Which they don't.
Focusing on old games, as the name "good old games" suggests, you're absolutely correct. There's really no point: relatively few of those older games having native versions, with wine or dosbox taking care of the bulk of the titles. With software such as Lutris, there's really no reason for GOG to actually bother with GNU/Linux: the market share is too small, and everything needed for GNU/Linux users is basically already taken care of. For older games, of course (and I daresay for most newer titles too).
Ironically, I suspect it's easier to get the older games running on GNU/Linux thanks to wine and dosbox, than it is to provide interface libraries and have the games run on Windows.
That's not true, Galaxy is still needed for online functionality even if the games otherwise install and run fine on Linux. For example Gwent, their online card game, is absolutely playable on Linux; except it needs Galaxy running in the background which is a pain in the a$$.
If they really were the nice, pro DRM-free guys they're purporting to be (as opposed to the Linux-hating Windows shills they actually are; their new deal with Epic just about proves it in my eyes) they would at least have released a galaxy.so library for Linux users to use as they see fit. But nope. So **** them. And I say that as the owner of some 300 GoG games.
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ObsidianBlk Apr 6, 2022
I'm going to throw my hat into the ring here (for no good reason)...
I gravitated towards GOG due to both the DRM-Free attitude at the onset, as well as the initial focus on older games... games that were very difficult to obtain legally through other means. I have hundreds of titles from them, and, over all, I've feel generally content with my purchases (yes, I have purchased some new-ish indies along with the older games).
I am whole heartedly disappointed with GOG's outward, at best, indifference towards Linux. I'm very well aware that Linux is still a pretty damn niche OS for gamming and "isn't financially worth the effort to support", so, I'm usually not surprised when there exists no Linux support and am fine with having to tinker my purchases to life on my own (I'm a strange duck in that I kinda like the tinkering). GOG, however, does feel like they do have a sort of resentment towards Linux, especially given their original market was retro games that, I dare say, often work better and are easier to setup in Linux than in Windows.
I'm not against purchasing GOG titles, even now, but I do tend to stick with the really old games when I do purchase from them.
Honestly... if GOG is in financial straits, then right now might be the best time for them to start embracing Linux. If they were to get Galaxy to actually RUN on Linux, released it as a Flatpak, then they'd be on Steam Deck and they might even see an uptick in game sales! Hell, Steam's footing the bill for the hardware, all they need to do is a comparatively tiny bit of elbow grease on their software, and they'd be available for a bunch (hundreds of thousands, I'd wager) of users that'd be happy to buy games from them to use on the Deck. Hell... even if it cost them a million to get Galaxy running and installable on Steam, I'd be totally flabbergasted if they didn't make that up in sales.
I gravitated towards GOG due to both the DRM-Free attitude at the onset, as well as the initial focus on older games... games that were very difficult to obtain legally through other means. I have hundreds of titles from them, and, over all, I've feel generally content with my purchases (yes, I have purchased some new-ish indies along with the older games).
I am whole heartedly disappointed with GOG's outward, at best, indifference towards Linux. I'm very well aware that Linux is still a pretty damn niche OS for gamming and "isn't financially worth the effort to support", so, I'm usually not surprised when there exists no Linux support and am fine with having to tinker my purchases to life on my own (I'm a strange duck in that I kinda like the tinkering). GOG, however, does feel like they do have a sort of resentment towards Linux, especially given their original market was retro games that, I dare say, often work better and are easier to setup in Linux than in Windows.
I'm not against purchasing GOG titles, even now, but I do tend to stick with the really old games when I do purchase from them.
Honestly... if GOG is in financial straits, then right now might be the best time for them to start embracing Linux. If they were to get Galaxy to actually RUN on Linux, released it as a Flatpak, then they'd be on Steam Deck and they might even see an uptick in game sales! Hell, Steam's footing the bill for the hardware, all they need to do is a comparatively tiny bit of elbow grease on their software, and they'd be available for a bunch (hundreds of thousands, I'd wager) of users that'd be happy to buy games from them to use on the Deck. Hell... even if it cost them a million to get Galaxy running and installable on Steam, I'd be totally flabbergasted if they didn't make that up in sales.
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