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General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)
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Posted June 06, 2014
Freedom of choice. Optional client. Cross-play. Coming soon to all gamers!

Earlier today (or was it yesterday for you?), during the [url=http://www.gog.com/news/cd_projekt_red_gogcom_summer_conference]CD Projekt RED and GOG.com’s Summer Conference we dropped the news about our next big step forward! GOG.com has always been home to more and more of the the best games in history (for Windows and Mac), both classic and new. Differing in shapes, flavors, and sizes they had one thing in common: they were mostly single-player, and our focus was mainly on the experience of a singular gamer. If that's your thing, nothing really will change. You can always enjoy your favorite games 100% DRM-free on GOG.com, with no need to activate your game online or remain connected to play your single-player title. Just like GOG.com has always been about.. But what if you want to play with your friends?

Today we are excited to announce GOG Galaxy, a truly gamer-friendly, 100% DRM-free online gaming platform that will finally provide the GOG.com community with the easy option to play together online. GOG Galaxy will allow you to share your achievements, stay in touch with your pals and get the updates for your games automatically. We've developed this technology to improve your GOG.com experience. We think GOG Galaxy really deserves your attention and we hope many of you will give it a try! But, here's the great thing: it is totally optional, so it's all up to you! If you do not want to play online, or use our optional client to access these features, then no worries, you will always be able to play the single-player mode 100% DRM-free, and download manually the latest updated version of your favorite title from our website. Now, for one more feature we call cross-play. We always believed in an open world for gamers, with no obligation to be tied to a specific platform or client; and this is why GOG Galaxy will allow gamers to play with their buddies who use Steam, without any need to use any 3rd party client or account, nothing, nada. We’re taking care of connecting GOG.com and Steam players, so just sit back, relax and give it a try.

See the outtake from the CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Summer Conference

Talking of which, we are proud to announce the soon-to-come launch of the beta phase for The Witcher Adventure Game, a faithful adaptation of the board game of the same title. It allows up to 4 players to play together, whether they use Steam or GOG.com. Cross-play at its finest! If you wanna get the chance to try it out, please visit and sign up to get in the queue for your beta access key. You can also simply take advantage of our amazing [url=http://www.gog.com/tw3]pre-order offer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which includes 2 beta access keys for he Witcher Aventure Game, delivered to you as soon as we start handing them out to public.

We believe GOG Galaxy has the power to provide the best of both worlds. Playing the single player mode of your favorite game, 100% DRM-free, while still having the OPTION to use our soon-to-come client for an enhanced experience (auto-patching, achievements, and much more) or play online with other GOG.com (and Steam) players if you so wish.

There will be more GOG Galaxy titles coming up this year, so stay tuned for more news and get the word around!
Post edited June 06, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted June 07, 2014
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DrearierSpider: Honestly, that's a fair point, I didn't think of that.
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LiquidOxygen80: But at the same time, plenty of developers refuse to consider GOG because of the lack of direct distribution tools, auto-patching, modding, etc, etc, etc. So on one hand, you DO have a point, but on the other, it could lead to more properties coming here, now that their main gripe is going to be addressed.
In order to make progress, sacrifices must be made and risks must be taken. And your right, it will mean more options, which may very well mean many games, old or new.

On that note, what about games that are allegedly built around Steamworks and work only on Steam, with no offline or non-steam functionality possible? I've read that Torchlight 2 was built like that, but I don't know as I don't use Steam nor have I played Torchlight 2. I do know that Elder Scrolls Skyrim was later patched to need to use Steam, even though it worked fine without it before. And I think Stardock's titles, from Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, to the up and coming Galactic Civilizations 3, could very well be integrated with Steam.

Since Galaxy is meant to be cross-play with the ability to multiplay with anyone on a game on both Steam and Galaxy, should I assume that many Steam only games could easily be implemented for Galaxy? Obviously games here already that are also on Steam will integrate, but I'm speaking more for the games that more or less have sworn Steam because it was designed for Steam.
Posted June 07, 2014
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LiquidOxygen80: But at the same time, plenty of developers refuse to consider GOG because of the lack of direct distribution tools, auto-patching, modding, etc, etc, etc. So on one hand, you DO have a point, but on the other, it could lead to more properties coming here, now that their main gripe is going to be addressed.
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JinseiNGC224: In order to make progress, sacrifices must be made and risks must be taken. And your right, it will mean more options, which may very well mean many games, old or new.

On that note, what about games that are allegedly built around Steamworks and work only on Steam, with no offline or non-steam functionality possible? I've read that Torchlight 2 was built like that, but I don't know as I don't use Steam nor have I played Torchlight 2. I do know that Elder Scrolls Skyrim was later patched to need to use Steam, even though it worked fine without it before. And I think Stardock's titles, from Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, to the up and coming Galactic Civilizations 3, could very well be integrated with Steam.

Since Galaxy is meant to be cross-play with the ability to multiplay with anyone on a game on both Steam and Galaxy, should I assume that many Steam only games could easily be implemented for Galaxy? Obviously games here already that are also on Steam will integrate, but I'm speaking more for the games that more or less have sworn Steam because it was designed for Steam.
With regards to games that are only available on Steam it is because the game developer has chosen to utilize the Steamworks APIs exclusively for their game rather than having to write various things from scratch on their own. It's a value proposition that Valve has to offer with their Steamworks APIs that is very attractive to many development studios and can cut down on development costs of implementing things from scratch versus using existing solutions. There are good reasons for them doing this from their own business perspectives, and I've heard a number of developers interviewed that stated their game would have been significantly delayed or even canceled if they had to implement everything they were relying on Steam for from scratch. Having said that though, Galaxy very well could give them some or all of the very same options as well, and we may end up seeing games come out that have support for Steam and Galaxy in the future, both APIs saving the developer time and effort. Even nicer if some of the games that are currently Steam exclusive were to re-engineer to also support Galaxy in the future, but that likely would depend on the popularity of their game and whether they perceive the sales they might get from GOG to be worth the development costs to do the work too.

It also depends on whether Galaxy will offer all of the very same types of APIs that the game already requires from Steam. That is likely to vary from game to game of course.
Post edited June 07, 2014 by skeletonbow
Posted June 07, 2014
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halldojo: What I am saying is that devs might make the client required ONLY if you play multiplayer
Ah, okay, didn't sound like that in your original post:
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halldojo: eventually this will become mandatory for multiplayer (...) and then mandatory to play
If you mean it'll only become mandatory to play the multiplayer of some games... Yeah, that's quite possible. Lots of games already focus on one single multiplayer method. If Galaxy is a new choice on the market and one of those "I'll only implement one option"-devs/publishers goes for Galaxy... Yeah, than it'll be required. But GOG would be stupid to say "LAN or GTFO!" ;)

Someone wants Galaxy for multiplayer? Great!
This someone doesn't want to implement any other possibility to enter multiplayer? Uhm... You sure about that? Okay... Your game, your choice...
Post edited June 07, 2014 by real.geizterfahr
Posted June 07, 2014
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halldojo: What I am saying is that devs might make the client required ONLY if you play multiplayer
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real.geizterfahr: Ah, okay, didn't sound like that in your original post:
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halldojo: eventually this will become mandatory for multiplayer (...) and then mandatory to play
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real.geizterfahr: If you mean it'll only become mandatory to play the multiplayer of some games... Yeah, that's quite possible. Lots of games already focus on one single multiplayer method. If Galaxy is a new choice on the market and one of those "I'll only implement one option"-devs/publishers goes for Galaxy... Yeah, than it'll be required. But GOG would be stupid to say "LAN or GTFO!" ;)

Someone wants Galaxy for multiplayer? Great!
This someone doesn't want to implement any other possibility to enter multiplayer? Uhm... You sure about that? Okay... Your game, your choice...
Well that is my fear, when developers are offered a easy way to do something they will go for it, so by offering a easy way to handle multiplayer (via galaxy) gog.com are prehaps unwillingly but pretty much directing future game releases to require the galaxay client and thus DRM (for mutiplayer to start with, but imo once down that road it won´t stop, and that is why I say that I see just another steam client in the future).
Posted June 07, 2014
An important point here will be, what is the Dev/Publisher's incentive to use Galaxy over Steamworks, Etc? The system can be nice for consumers, but if few devs participate it won't go anywhere.

I wonder if GOG will also offer game hosting and CD-keys a'la Steam. Steam hosting the game and managing patching is a massive boon to developers who then only have to maintain their Steam client, and for selling on any other portal all they have to do is grab a bunch of the free Steam keys they get for their game and hand them over to other sellers.

On top of that, in essence the 'Freedom of choice' to use DRM or not for Developers is open in Steam, whereas participation in GOG Galaxy will force devs to have a DRM-free client for their singleplayer.
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 07, 2014
Just went through the bluetext comments in this thread, and the more I read about Galaxy, the more I'm intrigued.

What Judas said so far basically means that not only will Galaxy let you play together with anybody who also has the game, whatever store he bought it from and whatever platform he uses to play it. They'll be also making that happen without having to strike a deal with any of those other providers. I have no idea how on earth this could be possible, if not through magic. Truly marvelous.

Besides that, this will also be a huge market advantage for GOG, as well as a tool of pressure in negotiations with the publishers. You want to hook up with your friends on several different platforms? At least one of you has to have a GOG version to get access to Galaxy. And if a game is not available on GOG/Galaxy at all, there won't be such an option. The public demand for GOG versions will increase drastically.

If all this works out how it's supposed to and the blue moon is shining, this could turn out to be the next big thing. Galaxy could become a hub for the scattered PC gaming market - but completly optional, not violating any of GOG's priciples. Stroke of genius, guys.
Posted June 07, 2014
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Bavarian: What Judas said so far basically means that not only will Galaxy let you play together with anybody who also has the game, whatever store he bought it from and whatever platform he uses to play it.
Is this really any different from previously buying a game that used GFWL or Gamespy Matchmaking for instance but one person bought from Gamersgate and another from Steam for instance? The concept doesn't sound very new to me, the DRM-free Single player part is one of the most interesting parts.
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 07, 2014
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JinseiNGC224: In order to make progress, sacrifices must be made and risks must be taken. And your right, it will mean more options, which may very well mean many games, old or new.

On that note, what about games that are allegedly built around Steamworks and work only on Steam, with no offline or non-steam functionality possible? I've read that Torchlight 2 was built like that, but I don't know as I don't use Steam nor have I played Torchlight 2. I do know that Elder Scrolls Skyrim was later patched to need to use Steam, even though it worked fine without it before. And I think Stardock's titles, from Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, to the up and coming Galactic Civilizations 3, could very well be integrated with Steam.

Since Galaxy is meant to be cross-play with the ability to multiplay with anyone on a game on both Steam and Galaxy, should I assume that many Steam only games could easily be implemented for Galaxy? Obviously games here already that are also on Steam will integrate, but I'm speaking more for the games that more or less have sworn Steam because it was designed for Steam.
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skeletonbow: With regards to games that are only available on Steam it is because the game developer has chosen to utilize the Steamworks APIs exclusively for their game rather than having to write various things from scratch on their own. It's a value proposition that Valve has to offer with their Steamworks APIs that is very attractive to many development studios and can cut down on development costs of implementing things from scratch versus using existing solutions. There are good reasons for them doing this from their own business perspectives, and I've heard a number of developers interviewed that stated their game would have been significantly delayed or even canceled if they had to implement everything they were relying on Steam for from scratch. Having said that though, Galaxy very well could give them some or all of the very same options as well, and we may end up seeing games come out that have support for Steam and Galaxy in the future, both APIs saving the developer time and effort. Even nicer if some of the games that are currently Steam exclusive were to re-engineer to also support Galaxy in the future, but that likely would depend on the popularity of their game and whether they perceive the sales they might get from GOG to be worth the development costs to do the work too.

It also depends on whether Galaxy will offer all of the very same types of APIs that the game already requires from Steam. That is likely to vary from game to game of course.
I'm kinda hoping that GOG will have options for developers in regards to open APIs in a similar fashion to Steamworks. I've lurked many a dev forum now where their big complaint was GOG has no Steamworks, which makes it harder to maintain their products if they DO release for GOG. (Whether that argument has any real merit is obviously a niggle for another thread.)

I understand the reasons, and I'm kinda hoping that GOG has taken notice of them as well, and Galaxy becomes their big answer TO that complaint.

To be frank, though, we're probably all going to be holding our breath until the final product is ready and those of us chosen for beta testing can actually download it and start messing around with it. I'm very optimistic though!
Posted June 07, 2014
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real.geizterfahr: Who says that the older catalog won't go $1 = €1 once the games have to be re-negotiated? Someone from the blues said they'll recommend the publishers to set fair Euro prices, but that it is the publishers choice. I'll have a look if I can find it...
The idea they had said in the Regional Pricing thread (not the letter from M.D. one) was that the prices would be converted to local currency, so $5.99 would become €4.49 and $9.99 would become €7.49, which was quite close to the actual rate. That would not be regional pricing (that is Witcher 2, Witcher 3, Age of Wonders 3, Divinity: Original Sin), it would be local currency.
True, while renegotiating prices may change, like they did with Fallouts when they went from $5.99 to $9.99. But so far there wasn't any indication by GOG that they were planning to use $1 = €1, and I think they even mentioned it specifically. Tell me if you want me to go looking for quotes.

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real.geizterfahr: to give him an idea on how (I think) the community will react when GOG releases a game that'll require Galaxy to run.
You could also look for the additional survey they had a year or so ago, asking about multiplayer focused games that required 3rd party accounts, using Planetary Annihilation as an example. From what I recall, more than half of those that answered said they'd welcome such a game, even though GOG did eventually turn PA down. Tell me if you want me to dig up the surveys.

P.S. You forgot Australia for the fair pricing, and not sure if you count the UK as part of Europe or not.


Edit: The pricing scheme was explained in the Letter from the M.D., in the original post of it.
Post edited June 07, 2014 by JMich
Posted June 07, 2014
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LiquidOxygen80: I'm kinda hoping that GOG will have options for developers in regards to open APIs in a similar fashion to Steamworks. I've lurked many a dev forum now where their big complaint was GOG has no Steamworks, which makes it harder to maintain their products if they DO release for GOG. (Whether that argument has any real merit is obviously a niggle for another thread.)

I understand the reasons, and I'm kinda hoping that GOG has taken notice of them as well, and Galaxy becomes their big answer TO that complaint.

To be frank, though, we're probably all going to be holding our breath until the final product is ready and those of us chosen for beta testing can actually download it and start messing around with it. I'm very optimistic though!
Indeed, and I believe that is one of the major motivations behind GOG creating Galaxy. I'm very much looking forward to being able to test Galaxy and provide professional beta test feedback to the devs. I've got shitwads of bandwidth available also and can redownload my entire collection to give it a good spin and help provide feedback to help get kinks worked out. Hell, I could do that now <hint hint>, and in both Windows 7 and in Linux as well. ;o)

My thoughts are that they'll pick people for the new Witcher game beta and those people will also be on the Galaxy beta, and that Galaxy and the Witcher adventure will launch simultaneously later this year. After that, other games might start showing up with Galaxy (multiplayer) support randomly but they'll probably be new-release type games rather than retrofits, although GOG might be able to retrofit some older titles as well if they have the sources and legal rights to do so. It'll be cool to see how it plays out.
Posted June 07, 2014
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LiquidOxygen80: those of us chosen for beta testing can actually download it and start messing around with it. I'm very optimistic though!
If you preordered Witcher 3 then I think they said you would get 2 beta keys to test it, so its not hard getting in on the beta if that is the case.

Or was it beta for the wticher adventure thingie stuff?
Might be both..
Post edited June 07, 2014 by halldojo
Posted June 07, 2014
high rated
Hey guys,

I’ve spent last few hours reading through your comments here and I’d like to thank you for all of them :). Some talented folks here in GOG worked really hard and in secrecy on this project, and they are thrilled to read all the positive and constructive feedback - it reminds me a lot of the time when we announced GOG itself :). I know that some of you have a lot of questions right now and I’m sorry if we cannot answer them all (yet) - even though many of our partners have received access to our SDK and we’re working on some great stuff, we’d still prefer to under-promise and then over-deliver that the other way around :).

By the way of comments, I’ve noticed that two things we’ve commented on, which maybe not have been communicated clearly enough, so I’d like to chime in an hopefully clear it up:
- the signups at GOG.com/Galaxy are currently for The Witcher: Adventure Game multiplayer beta only. While some parts of the Client-powering tech, like auto-updating, are actually embedded into the game launcher (which is there to make the beta testing process more convenient), access to the beta of the game does not include the fully fledged Galaxy Client. Once we’ll be closer to release of the Client, we’ll either do another beta signups phase or use the current ones.
- while we aim for the Client to support all the GOG games, cross-play feature will be for now available only with some multiplayer games that are Galaxy powered, not with every game that exists on GOG. In case of The Witcher Adventure Game, we have a GOG + Steam cross-play. At this point I cannot say when we’ll support more platforms, but I can promise that there are other games in our pipeline that we’re working on.

Last but not least - although we cannot address every question, rest assured we’re reading through all of them and discussing them internally. One of the reasons to release this Galaxy video (and to announce the beta phase) was actually to allow you to give us early feedback and thus to shape Galaxy together with us. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be releasing and announcing more features and games that will power and be powered with Galaxy and we’ll be inviting you to be the first gamers to check them out :)
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Destro
Posted June 07, 2014
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Destro: have received access to our SDK and we’re working on some great stuff, we’d still prefer to under-promise and then over-deliver that the other way around :).
First off, thanks for posting this mini-update to clarify a few things, any kind of feedback coming back to us is greatly appreciated, as little or as much as can be revealed, it's all good to hear. ;o) I agree with the premise of under-promise and over-deliver fullheartedly also. I presume GOG will not be shipping a hellgate cube any time soon? ;oP

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Destro: ...
- while we aim for the Client to support all the GOG games,
This is great to hear! Does this mean all GOG games with multiplayer will be updated to do matchmaking via Galaxy? That's more important to me than crossplay personally but both features are pretty cool.

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Destro: cross-play feature will be for now available only with some multiplayer games that are Galaxy powered, not with every game that exists on GOG. In case of The Witcher Adventure Game, we have a GOG + Steam cross-play. At this point I cannot say when we’ll support more platforms, but I can promise that there are other games in our pipeline that we’re working on.
It all sounds cool to me, no pressure. Whenever it comes, it is something new that none of us had before but which will benefit us so I for one have all the patience in the world.. er.. um galaxy. :)

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Destro: Last but not least - although we cannot address every question, rest assured we’re reading through all of them and discussing them internally. One of the reasons to release this Galaxy video (and to announce the beta phase) was actually to allow you to give us early feedback and thus to shape Galaxy together with us. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be releasing and announcing more features and games that will power and be powered with Galaxy and we’ll be inviting you to be the first gamers to check them out :)
Let me throw a question at you from left field to bounce off the developers then... Will GOG Galaxy have native support for IPv6? That is not a feature that is crucially important in June 2014 but it will become increasingly important over time in particular in some parts of the world more than others for multiplayer, and sadly most games currently do not support IPv6 at all for multiplayer. If GOG Galaxy can provide dualstack IPv6/IPv4 multiplayer in all games it can be retrofitted into, this would effectively extend the life of multiplayer in these games significantly and allow IPv6-only connected hosts to avoid having to use IPv4 tunnelling/transitioning mechanisms to keep old games multiplayer modes functioning.

Yes, I'm probably the only person on GOG.com forums who even cares, but someone has to ask sooner or later so why not me? ;o) Incidentally it would be nice if the GOG.com web properties were available over IPv6 like Desura is. GOG still has time to beat Steam to doing this if you guys hurry! ;o)
Posted June 07, 2014
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Destro: Hey guys,

I’ve spent last few hours reading through your comments here and I’d like to thank you for all of them :). Some talented folks here in GOG worked really hard and in secrecy on this project, and they are thrilled to read all the positive and constructive feedback - it reminds me a lot of the time when we announced GOG itself :). I know that some of you have a lot of questions right now and I’m sorry if we cannot answer them all (yet) - even though many of our partners have received access to our SDK and we’re working on some great stuff, we’d still prefer to under-promise and then over-deliver that the other way around :).

By the way of comments, I’ve noticed that two things we’ve commented on, which maybe not have been communicated clearly enough, so I’d like to chime in an hopefully clear it up:
- the signups at GOG.com/Galaxy are currently for The Witcher: Adventure Game multiplayer beta only. While some parts of the Client-powering tech, like auto-updating, are actually embedded into the game launcher (which is there to make the beta testing process more convenient), access to the beta of the game does not include the fully fledged Galaxy Client. Once we’ll be closer to release of the Client, we’ll either do another beta signups phase or use the current ones.
- while we aim for the Client to support all the GOG games, cross-play feature will be for now available only with some multiplayer games that are Galaxy powered, not with every game that exists on GOG. In case of The Witcher Adventure Game, we have a GOG + Steam cross-play. At this point I cannot say when we’ll support more platforms, but I can promise that there are other games in our pipeline that we’re working on.

Last but not least - although we cannot address every question, rest assured we’re reading through all of them and discussing them internally. One of the reasons to release this Galaxy video (and to announce the beta phase) was actually to allow you to give us early feedback and thus to shape Galaxy together with us. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be releasing and announcing more features and games that will power and be powered with Galaxy and we’ll be inviting you to be the first gamers to check them out :)
Don't worry, I think this project is brilliant as it is. I've been waiting for it since you came into Steam playground (i.e. recent games release). I'm sure I'm not alone, and I trust you to do things right. I can only say one more thing , like some famous dude said : "What are you waiting for ? Chrismas ?"
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Kamikave
Posted June 07, 2014
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skeletonbow: Yes, I'm probably the only person on GOG.com forums who even cares, but someone has to ask sooner or later so why not me? ;o) Incidentally it would be nice if the GOG.com web properties were available over IPv6 like Desura is. GOG still has time to beat Steam to doing this if you guys hurry! ;o)
While I care about IPv6, I don't really have much ground to stand on when my ISP has utterly refused to offer IPv6 despite many customers complaining about the lack for the last several years.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)