Hi

Currently i get around 98% of my games via the steam platform, but due to steams internal policies around rate cards for smaller developers I am looking to move away from using steam.

One thing that has stopped me from jumping to something like GOG is I do read that there is a significant delay in GOG updating games, now i don't know if this is just a delay in the developers pushing their updates to the GOG platform or if it is GOG have a delay in publishing the update once released by the developers, or is there even a delay at all?

What is the thoughts of you guys here who are using the GOG platform?

Thanks

Seems to be the former, and therefor it depends on the developers whether that's an issue or not.

Check this thread.

From what I understood, there's also a delay due to gog being, unlike Steam, heavily support-oriented. So they double test internally the updates before releasing them.

Not a problem to me. I never feel any urge when it comes with games or update releases, it's just not a thing I check my watch about. Things arrive on gog when they arrive on gog, I don't stress out with platform comparisons.

Welcome Maxybo. ^_^


My experience has been that in the cases of an update running late for the GOG version an email to the game's developer usually resolves the matter pretty quickly.

Having a DRM-Free copy of a game that I can permanently backup offsets this inconvenience for me significantly.

The thread Leroux linked is a great resource for comparing the differences between the GOG and Steam editions of some games, always a good place to check before purchasing.

Worth noting is that some (Not all) games do require GOG's Galaxy client (Which is similar Like Steam's client) to play multiplayer. The big difference is that this client is 100% optional and I personally do not use it.


Also as Telika mentions the site staff support on GOG is pretty good versus Steam and I have yet to encounter a game that was completely broken yet somehow made it into the GOG catalogue.

If you do have a problem with a game you purchase from GOG I've found that their support usually gets back to you almost instantly where as on Steam I've found this unfortunately has not been the case. (Plus they've solved the few problems I've had, so that is great.)

That's not true if they're being pushed to Galaxy at least and I expect that to become the standard in the long term (They did say testing was still going to happen, most likely for the non-Galaxy release) This kind of thing mostly tends to be an issue with new games/new releases, not only due to the amount of patches coming out but also because sometimes some of them are considered quite necessary for QOL features or bugfixes. So if you just got your brand new game that was just released, you do tend to want to play there and then and will often want to be on top of the latest fixes, at least, if that's what you're used to. This would be exacerbated for games with online play of course.

As for the OP's issue, from what I can tell from following the forums there have been rare cases where patches never came at all or extremely late and even rarer cases where the GOG version got abandoned entirely, but I think in most cases they're either around the same time or slightly delayed (usually a weekend I think). So... it depends, but most of the time you'll probably be fine.

Thank you all for your replies, this info helps a lot thanks.

Additionally:

If you do decide to give GOG a try don't forget to try out GOG Connect ( https://www.gog.com/connect ) this feature allows you to add games you've purchased on Steam to your GOG account without making an additional purchase.

The games available via this feature change periodically so keep an eye on it if you have a larger library on Steam.


For example right now the following games are available via GOG Connect:
- I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
- Shadowrun Returns
- Shadowrun: Dragon Fall
- Shadowrun: Hong Kong
- Trine Enchanted Edition
- Age of Wonders 3
- Forgotton Anne


Also check out ( https://www.gog.com/reclaim ) GOG's "Reclaim Your Games" page where you can enter in CD-Keys from your physical boxed copies of games to add them to your GOG account with no additional purchase.

Right now the following games are available via this feature:
- Eador: Genesis
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat
- Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
- Mount & Blade: Warband
- Torchlight
- Torchlight II

If you're not aware yet, at least check in every sale or so to see if there are any games available on GOG Connect, that way you can potentially slowly transfer games from your Steam library to your GOG library.

Edit: Welp, Spellsword beat me to it xD

I was not aware, thank you very much for this.

Why not use both? A lot of people do.