[karajorma]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/06/gog-looks-to-out-steam-steam-with-optional-drm-free-galaxy-platform/

Good Old Games (GOG), the online outfit best known for offering downloadable, DRM-free versions of hundreds of classic PC titles, seems set to take on Valve and its Steam platform more directly with today's announcement of GOG Galaxy, an optional platform that aims to provide all the benefits of a centralized game launcher without many of the headaches of current platform options.

As teased in a somewhat vague "vision" trailer for the upcoming service, GOG Galaxy promises to offer convenient features like a centralized launcher, automated game updates, and chat between players without the more onerous requirements of services like Steam, UPlay, Origin, etc. That means games using Galaxy will be DRM-free, with no need for online activation or an Internet connection to play single-player. "Your game will always launch," as the trailer puts it. You supposedly don't even have to create a GOG Galaxy account to use the service unless you want to share your in-game achievements with friends. GOG goes so far as to call it "the optional client."

The trailer also sells Galaxy as a way to avoid being locked in to a certain provider for online game functions. "We strongly believe that you should be free to play together with all your friends without any third-party client apps or accounts required." That's a fine idea, but it's a bit hard to envision it working without the cooperation of other publishers and PC platform makers, who often seem quite content to lock players into their own walled garden servers for online gameplay.

Still, it's nice to see GOG trying to provide the benefits of a somewhat centralized PC game platform while avoiding the problem that you "might not feel you actually own the games you buy," as the trailer puts it. We're eager to hear more details about the effort going forward, but for now we're content to sign up to try it out through an upcoming beta for The Witcher Adventure Game.

Given that I've already pre-ordered Witcher III. I'm definitely going to be trying this one out.

[Luis Dias]

Open always wins.

[Rodo]

In a fight against big companies, it all comes down to a war of attrition. I hope they can endure it, specially because I like their lax ideals.

[Colonol Dekker]

<3 GOG ABOVE ALL ELSE.

[AdmiralRalwood]

If GOG manages to provide the same advantages of Steam without the DRM, the only reason to use Steam at that point will be because a game isn't on GOG.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Good on them though I wont be using it. I'm happy that it's optional. That's how all these clients should be. Customer choice, customer empowerment, not forcing customers to subscribe to something they don't want.

[Mongoose]

I figured their news would be something like this based on the teasers they were giving out in the past week or two.  It'll be interesting to see how well the client actually operates.

[Grizzly]

GOG to do all the things Steam does better 

You'd be surprised how easy that actually is, considering that it took Valve years untill Steam could properly launch whilst you were unexpectedly disconnected from the internet.

[NGTM-1R]

Heh. Maybe when they get off my credit card's watchlist.

[Mongoose]

Heh. Maybe when they get off my credit card's watchlist.

You too?  I honestly haven't bothered to call and get them off there, since it's a good way to keep myself from even more impulse buys.

[Akalabeth Angel]

I mean I've heard that Origin gives a full refund on games (under certain restrictions I'm sure), and they've been doing so since fall 2013 so I wouldn't be surprised if Steam is falling a bit behind the competitors.

That and the apparent lack of any quality control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhbvDhPU7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnzN-3N_0xw

[Mongoose]

Steam actually removed your first example from the Early Access section, essentially for false advertising.  It wouldn't surprise me if the second winds up meeting the same fate.

[NGTM-1R]

That and the apparent lack of any quality control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhbvDhPU7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnzN-3N_0xw

It would immensely help your argument if the first one hadn't actually been quality-controlled.

You too?  I honestly haven't bothered to call and get them off there, since it's a good way to keep myself from even more impulse buys.

The thing is I actually work for Navy Federal, who issue my card, so I've been able to ask about it. Apparently they share a name or something with an arcade company.

[Mongoose]

I think mine is generally because they're a small online company based in eastern Europe, so when that charge suddenly shows up on my card, it activates a general "woahboy" security flag.

[Nakura]

I like GOG and glad they're making this optional. It still won't be able to compete with Steam though.

[Dragon]

Yeah. Say what you will about GOG, but it and Steam have vastly different focus. GOG has a lot of old games and a few new ones, Steam the other way around. Also, Steam has a much wider userbase (partly because of this).

[Kobrar44]

It does not always need to be this way. It is a good first step. Best they can make now IMHO.

[jr2]

You too?  I honestly haven't bothered to call and get them off there, since it's a good way to keep myself from even more impulse buys.

The thing is I actually work for Navy Federal, who issue my card,

So who was to blame for the whole "poor image quality" auto-reject of check deposits when using the NFCU app a while back? That was highly annoying, lol. Also, I haven't had a problem using GOG with NFCU, was it only certain accounts? Or maybe I used PayPal, which is then hooked to NFCU, that could be it.

[NGTM-1R]

So who was to blame for the whole "poor image quality" auto-reject of check deposits when using the NFCU app a while back?

Best guess? The company we contracted.

[Akalabeth Angel]

It would immensely help your argument if the first one hadn't actually been quality-controlled.

Do you know what quality control is? It's people testing something BEFORE its sold.
Just because its video games and steam doesn't mean that the definition has suddenly changed to be something else.


Not only that, but despite putting a product on their shelves which has false advertising, etcetera, steam chose not to automatically refund the purchases. Instead they required people to ask for a refund and they put a time limit of only two weeks in which to do it. So undoubtedly, despite selling a piece of **** they still made money on the game by taking advantage of people's ignorance/complacency/inaction because not everyone asked for a refund I'm sure. I didn't find any data on the percentage of people that ask for returns, but if you compare it to say mail in rebates, the percentage of people who take advantage of mail in rebates has sometimes been estimated to be as low as 2%.

Fact is they're putting **** on their storefront and they know it. And they only respond when people ***** and complain and even then their offer of recompense is limited and they continue to put other pieces of **** on the store. And they're also mixing up early access and other games with new, full games as well on the storefront making it hard for people to find what they want.

Just another greedy corporation.

I'm glad that both Origin and GOG are getting into their space because customers need choice and people are going to start choosing to go somewhere else if they haven't already.