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General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
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
To me this is a fantastic idea. I have all my GOG games on an external hard drive and it's quite a hefty amount of games. I find myself constantly downloading updates and checking for newer versions manually. This will save me so much hassle. Letting a client do the work for me is very welcome. I don't really spend much time on multiplayer games, but the functionality of a friend list might change that.
This might just be the thing that will make me leave Steam altogether. Seeing as it's starting to become the iTunes store of the digital games industry. GOG actually seem to have quality control.
Posted June 07, 2014
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Swonker: -Galaxy is optional
-It replaces the GOG Downloader
These two contradict themselves for me. I need the GOG Downloader for games bigger than 1 GB as my connection can't handle those as a direct download.
I will require Galaxy in order to get my larger GOG games.

Still looking forward to Galaxy. Just saying.
Well the downloader is optional now, yet not optional for you apparently, so it's exactly the same situation.
Posted June 07, 2014
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Pheace: How is that supposed to be a counterpoint? Regional pricing is still happening despite the uproar ...
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real.geizterfahr: I know that GOG's still working on regional prices for the whole store. But after the uproar they added a "We'll pay the difference out of our own pockets"-insurance, which essentially guarantees that we'll get fair regional prices. GOG is not going to pay us for buying games (which they would have to do if they would allow $1 = €1)!
It hardly guarantees fair regional pricing if I *have* to spend $20 more to be able to get the same game someone else can get for $20 less. If a game costs $60 US and two people have $60 but one is in the US and the other in the EU the EU won't be able to buy it because he'll have to pay more than $60 for the same game. Even if he does have that extra money to spend, currently that means he 'gets' to spend that extra money he would otherwise have saved, on full priced games in the store (eventually sales should be possible with the wallet).

Despite the name GOG uses, it's "Fairer" pricing (compared to no compensation), but certainly not fair pricing as they used to have it.

I commend GOG for even offering the compensation, even though it's still a good plan they didn't have to do it. It's not like they're losing out on it at the moment. The non-profit cost GOG pays for the games you can get with the codes is pretty much covered by the extra profit GOG makes from the regional pricing. And in return GOG gets to sell the regionally priced game which otherwise may not have been available on GOG to procure more customers as well as profits from any non-regional sales the games get.
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 07, 2014
Now we really need to get Blood Bowl on GOG so that the GOG Blood Bowl League can function without Steam when GOG Galaxy is ready. :-D
Posted June 07, 2014
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JudasIscariot: We have some ideas on the older games but we're still working on getting everything sorted :) I personally hope we can have Galaxy facilitate the multiplayer options on older games so that you can just click and play them just like in the old days :)
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Diversion: Sounds contradictory. Let me give an example to avoid misunderstandings. Xwing Alliance and Age of Empires were games that allowed the now defunct MSN Gaming Zone to handle matchmaking. However if you so wished you could totally bypass MSN Gaming Zone and simply host a game and give your friends your IP to connect to wether on the net or on a LAN.

Are you saying that if similar games are in your catalog you will alter the game in such a way that this possibility is removed and that you must use Galaxy in order to play multiplayer?

I'm sorry that does not sound good. You are then making my game dependant on external software that may or may not be accessible in the future. That is DRM no matter how you slice it.

I am not opposed to Galaxy in itself but if the ability to host a game without using additional software was in the original game then it should remain.
"Are you saying that if similar games are in your catalog you will alter the game in such a way that this possibility is removed and that you must use Galaxy in order to play multiplayer?"

No he is not saying that at all. He is saying the he hopes they can use Galaxy to re-enable multiplayer on some old games that were dependent on various services that have since gone down and/or that Galaxy could make multiplayer easier to set up for some of those games.
Posted June 07, 2014
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StingingVelvet: Well the downloader is optional now, yet not optional for you apparently, so it's exactly the same situation.
True enough. Just ranting.
Posted June 07, 2014
Not sure if anybody has asked before, but no way I'm going through 22 pages: if there's a feature we want the client to have, should we add it to the site's wishlist as well? Because when I go play with a friend, it would be useful to be able to see a list of games owned by both players. Maybe a filter "games also owned by FRIEND_NAME". It makes those "I'm bored, let's play something" days a lot more interesting than checking each of your 600 games one by one.
Posted June 07, 2014
This is certainly interesting. I really want to know how it works. Can games on Galaxy be backup for offline reinstall. Will there be cloud saves. Also what about socializing.

The potential is huge if this is handled right. The idea of this replacing Steam is far and distant but not impossible. It's certainly a positive future for gaming to say the least.

Hey GOG maybe one day you guys can make a Linux OS for all your games *wink wink*
Posted June 07, 2014
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halldojo: (gog might not make it a requirement but the devs probably will)
(again devs might see this as a good idea even if gog does not)
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real.geizterfahr: 1. I don't get what you're trying to say... Devs/Publishers already see DRM as a good thing (since a veeeeery long time now). They already asked GOG to sell their games with 3rd party DRM. GOG said "No, thanks." Why should this change?

2. Remember regional pricing? Multiply this by the square root of Pi*Shut-Down-Stunt² and you'll have an idea of how the uproar will look like. GOG won't do this. If they do, they can look into becoming a Steam key reseller, just like any other useless store.
What I am saying is that devs might make the client required ONLY if you play multiplayer, because it would be easier to implement just 1 multiplayer type, i.e. the server part would not be available with the game or something like that.
Posted June 07, 2014
Listened to the Galaxy video again to see if I could figure out an answer to the question "Will multiplayer require the Galaxy Client" and it does sound like it will given this quote:
[sure, if you want to play online you need to be connected. And if you want to share the achievements you have unlocked you'll need a profile
Posted June 07, 2014
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zero_koop: Here is a logical reason to not like Galaxy: it takes company resources away from other areas of the business. Even if you don't like or use Galaxy, by buying games from GOG you in fact paying for Galaxy because your payments are funneled into the development of that project. Think outside the box. For the record, I love the idea of Galaxy and I can't wait to try it out. I'm just playing devil's advocate.
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DrearierSpider: Honestly, that's a fair point, I didn't think of that.
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.
Posted June 07, 2014
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P1na: Not sure if anybody has asked before, but no way I'm going through 22 pages: if there's a feature we want the client to have, should we add it to the site's wishlist as well? Because when I go play with a friend, it would be useful to be able to see a list of games owned by both players. Maybe a filter "games also owned by FRIEND_NAME". It makes those "I'm bored, let's play something" days a lot more interesting than checking each of your 600 games one by one.
They haven't mentioned that yet as far as I'm aware, but there are wishlist items for the ability to have social networking features of some sort and the ability to share your profile with friends/public/whoever including your game wishlist. They have now indicated (JudasIscariot) that the client will allow you to directly manage your game profile, and also that it will have social networking related features. I'm assuming that it will also have the ability to let you share your game list and wishlist etc. with your friends or the public as well, if not from the outset then probably eventually as it just seems like an obvious feature gamers want nowadays with Steam and other services providing such.

It's painful to know it is coming now and have to wait though isn't it? ;o) I'm dying to see what it can do. I've got two thoughts on my mind - what functionality the initial release will have, and more importantly what features it will evolve based on feedback and late night hacking sessions of their coders up until the moon is on fire. ;) (They'll know what I mean by that.)
Posted June 07, 2014
Color me cautiously optimistic.

I just hope "mission creep" won't result in the stand-alone installers disappearing as an option in the future.

Also, definitely agree with one of the previous posters who suggested making Galaxy open-source. Hell, just license it for non-commercial development and reap the same benefits of community work as mod-friendly games do.

Lastly, quick question:

Will Galaxy "game downloads" still have the form of movable stand-alone installers?
Post edited June 07, 2014 by Lukaszmik
Posted June 07, 2014
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JMich: You mean like they did with The Witcher 2, how they are doing with Age of Wonders 3 and The Witcher 3, and how they will be doing with Divinity: Original Sin?
Because for the older catalog, it wouldn't be $1 = €1
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...

Yup, found two links from TET talking about the classics. Not word by word what I remembered, but more or less the same:
We honestly don't know what's going to happen with our classic games (who knows what happens when lawyers get involved?) but we can say that it is in no way our intent to bump up these prices for different regions.
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/announcement_big_preorders_launch_day_releases_coming/post86
What happens if you cannot convince existing publishers to maintain the low prices you have outlined for 'classic' titles? Will you simply raise the prices if a publisher demands it? Or would those games be removed from the catalogue?
It hasn't come up yet, so we don't know.
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/letter_from_the_md_about_regional_pricing/post3531

But this doesn't really matter. I don't want to dig out the regional pricing drama. I just wanted to remember halldojo how the community reacted (and GOG answered with a damn bold "We'll pay the difference"-promise) to regional pricing, to give him an idea on how (I think) the community will react when GOG releases a game that'll require Galaxy to run. GOG remembers the uproar pretty well. They won't risk an even bigger one with something like "Good news! We have our first Galaxy-only title that requires you to run the outstanding service we're generously sharing with you in online mode all the time" o.O

So, yes, I still think the community's reaction to regional pricing is a pretty strong argument against any kind of Galaxy coercion.

ps.
Regarding "Fair Price Packages" of Witcher 2, 3, AoW and Original Sin: Yes, GOG is sacrifising lots of its profit there. But only on two games and only in Europe! The Witcher games are kind of in-house productions, so they just lose a bit here (and the Witcher 2 was a huge advertising campaign for GOG, which should have brought quite some new customers - we'll have to see how Witcher 3 will do). So we have two games that make good prift in the US and almost no profit in Europe. That's not optimal, but okay. If this happens to huge parts of the cataloge... That's another matter.
Posted June 07, 2014
Just FINALLY. : D
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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)