Having the option for a streaming service is nice for people who want that, but I can't say I ever see myself using it. Of course, as long as we will forever have the ability to purchase games once to own them forever and download their DRM-free offline installers, then I think this is a good development in terms of GOG having more funding to pursue their mission statement.

Obviously buying games once to own forever is not a perpetual income stream, so if there is a large market of gamers who want to pay a subscription for streaming, and GOG can tap into that market as a separate thing to fund their own efforts to ensure more games are available to buy once and download offline installers, then I see that as a good thing for game preservation. GOG is a business, and if the market wants X and they can provide it, then that makes sense as a strategy to fund the separate efforts of game preservation.

I am curious as to exactly how all the details will work. For example, with many very old games, there are all kinds of weird little workarounds you have to do to get them running, or to get them working in widescreen or with custom keybindings, and in some cases you accept compromises where you can play the game in widescreen even though some of the subtitles are clipped in half, for example. So I don't know how that is going to work, but since I don't see myself ever using a streaming service, I guess it doesn't really matter to me.

What I really want to know, is when is the GOGdeck coming out?

As soon as Galaxy gets out of Beta :D

No, but really, I'd love to have a GoG handheld with Galaxy running on it!

Luna may be the answer to the question, let's wait and see.

You are wrong about at least one thing though. You said you all just told me that there are legal reasons why GoG does not have any obligation for implementing parental filters and so on, and that the site "is for adults only". Well, I don't know how things are in Germany, but GoG is indeed breaking Brazilian law by not filtering during log off nor providing filter options nor pointing out +18 product before advertising the product when said product is in the newsfeed in the frontpage, that is, the +18 warning should be there when people enter the site, not only before people enter the product page that has already been advertised in the mentioned front page. Steam et al are just smarter in this, such sites will never have such games on your front page unless you log in and explicitly authorize it. But not GoG... Just saying.

Things come and go, and things change - just as the laws in Texas vs Pornhub.

That being said, yep, Luna does have parental control and filter options - a simple and functional one. Let's wait and see.

EDIT, so no one misquotes me: What I mean is that if the site is "aimed at adults only", as claimed, then - at least here where I live - it is required by law that this information is clear to everyone before anyone is able to enter the site, especially those that don't have an account and are thus logged off when they do so (so they never had any contact with any "User's Agreement" document).

By advertising these games in the front page and claiming that the site is for "adults only" (that being the case) GoG is (if that's the case) asserting this as fact, and by not informing the internaut that might be just visiting the site - perhaps even for the first time - that the site is indeed for "adults only", by not requiring a log in to enter the site, nor requiring any identification (confirming age), nor offering any filters, and so on, GoG is infringing the law. No one should need to go to an obscure page where GoG has a document describing the User's Agreement to attain the knowledge that the site is "for adults only" - and it's only worse since "adults only" products keep being shown and being advertised to anyone entering the site - even those that do not have an account, and those may be children.

You're missing a few "r" s here.
It's "stReaming" - not "steaming".

Fixed. Thanks. I think autocorrect did me dirty here.

Thanks GOG!!!! I will try it!

Agreed. It's definitely a good thing!

I think people are a bit anxious, just as they were that Galaxy could lead to the replacement of Offline Installers.

Luna has quite a few features that are missing on the GoG store and system, I think they complement each other fine. Only thing that remains to be seen is if the partnership will endure. GoG Connect was such a fine project, and yet, it never realized its potential.

I'm excited about it!

I totally agree with this!
When Stadia was killed on my birthday, Google really made me a great gift, it was a happy day! But now I feel like this project by GoG and Amazon deserves some support, since it's DRM free. Streaming wasn't my problem but the way Google did it.

Exactly!!!

Streaming isn't perfect, but i can't take my laptop everywhere. I have an android game player that runs Luna and I can take that just about everywhere. Stadia would have cut us off from the right (contractual obligation) to be able to run software we purchased on our devices.

This is the opposite. This gives consumers more options. We get our executables and we get the ability to stream titles. It isn't significantly different from setting up a personal gaming server for those titles. If successful, we may get the entire GOG library on Amazon Luna.

Is it as cool as a GOGdeck? No, but it is more accessible to lower spec'ed machines. There are other alternatives to the Steamdeck for running those games locally.

This is good. This is a company acknowledging we want to keep our agreement to run our software on our machines and giving us the option to stream our games.

I was amongst those who thought the fear of Galaxy would be too much ... unfortunately the several games in GOG's catalogue that do need Galaxy to run as intended have proven me wrong. So maybe Galaxy did not replace offline installers but it also was not without any impact to them. This is also the reason why it's probably best to be careful trusting GOG wirh new things like this. I don't think that Luna will replace Galaxy or offline installers but I am absolutely not sure that it won't have any impact on them ... maybe some impact we can't even thoink of yet. It has been said already that support probably will beinfluenced and I do agree. Right now support times are already almost unacceptable (calling them 24/7 stellar support on their product page is the best PR joke I could imagine) and it'S absolutely possible that they will increase with this.

What potential did GOG connect have? I mean GOG did not get any money from it so the only "potential" were free games for the customer, right? Don't get me wrong, I do understand why it is a nice thing from the customer's POV not having to purchase things twice but I never saw it as more than goodwill when devs (it was not GOGs decision if a game was added to the few GOG connect games) decided to use it - because financially it did not help devs or GOG.

I don't have much to add in relation to Luna, maybe you are right and we'll be soon together chanting curses at GoG, brothers in arms, because it brought doom and destruction to the DRM-Free project. Right now I'm hopeful and what I envision is something that can be really good for a lot of people, me included - let's wait and see, fingers crossed for the best!

Regarding Connect, the way I see it GoG Connect could have brought revenue to GoG if games with a prospect for future DLCs had benefited from the feature.

For instance, Stellaris is a 2016 game that still releases DLCs regularly (Machine Age is just around the corner), and each DLC is the cost of an indie game. The game was just released here on the Store around... 2020? So people had the game + a bunch of DLCs already, buying everything here on GoG AGAIN was not much of an option to many people, and things only got worse as the time passed (now we have more than... 20 DLCs? Every year PDX releases some 3 DLCs to the game!). I know this because I am one of those crazy people that own the game here and there (although the GoG version is the one with the DLCs - bringing Mods to the GoG version is still a pain, but worth it :D ), and this is not a cheap game!

With Connect, people that own the game on Steam could in theory bring the base game here and then buy the DLCs here. It would be double plus if DLCs bought here could be installed there somehow (I remember learning how to make mods released on the Steam Workshop work on the GoG version - it wasn't an effortless endeavour!).

Another game I remember that could have benefited from Connect was Mutant Football League - I remember how sad I was when each DLC was released and I already had the game on Steam.

What ends up happening is that eventually I will buy the games here DRM-Free way later at an absurd discount. By then I will be paying for the complete game ("ultimate editions of sorts) way less than I would have payed for the DLCs while they were coming out.

I think that one thing that ended up contributing to Connect being killed was that many games that could bring something to GoG (through the release of future DLCs) rely on some kind of DRM and people didn't seem to bother, like Crusaders King III. I remember Paradox ending support here and offering free Steam copies for those that had bought the game here.

That's my take on GoG Connect. It could have been great, it just ended up not being.

doesn't work in Australia so no skin of my nose

Interesteing thoughts. Never thought about DLCs when it comes to GOG connect. Thank you.