Digital games client and Steam competitor GOG Galaxy is now available in beta.
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GOG, the online games store that offers DRM-free titles and a large library of classics, announced Galaxy last year. It has been in alpha, and is now available in beta form to the general public. GOG is owned by The Witcher developer CD Projekt.
"With GOG Galaxy, we can start bringing new, big games to GOG.com," says Piotr Karwowski, VP of online technologies. "The first major release will be The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which will offer automatic updates, achievements and stats. We're getting ready to release and fully support even more AAA titles in the future."
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GOG focused on releasing classic titles on modern PC hardware in the past, and still do have a great retro library, but are moving more directly into releasing new games as well. Galaxy is maintaining GOG's values in its client: all games are DRM-free and can be backed up separately, and everything is optional. Automatic updates can be turned on or off, and you can roll back to a previous version of a game if an update is not to your liking.
"For us, quality trumps quantity. We meticulously think about every feature and how can we make it better." says Karwowski. "We also know that people want to have freedom of choice, so GOG Galaxy and its features are not forced on you. Making it optional is the best motivation for us to make it better; we want it to be so good that you'll actually want to use it."
Galaxy offers one-click installation and currently includes more than 1,000 titles in its store. Much like Steam, there is a built-in friends list, chat, game progress tracking, and achievements. Perhaps most interestingly, Galaxy can function as a multiplayer and matchmaking solution for select titles, even including cross-play between computer platforms. GOG is pitching Galaxy is the gamer-friendly client, so download for yourself at no cost and see if its services are for you.