GOG Galaxy 2.0

Apparently GOG is taking the 'Connect' feature one step further and will allow all games from other launchers (and platforms? didn't see details on which ones yet) to appear under one library in the Galaxy client. This also includes friends & chat and achievements (!).

It seems that cloud saves & auto updates will not be supported for non GOG games.

I've seen other software trying to do the same thing & unite all (or most) PC launchers under one roof but this seems like the most serious attempt to me.

https://www.gogalaxy.com/en/

WDYT?

Yeah, I expect the underdog storefronts to do this. Fragmentation is the way the marketplace is heading, but Steam remains the elephant in the room, and the undergod storefonts #1 goal haS to be driving recurring traffic to their own storefronts. This is a no-brainer.

Steam already allows you to add non-Steam games to the launcher. Nobody ever uses it because Steam's launcher is terrible, but it's there.

cube wrote:

Steam already allows you to add non-Steam games to the launcher. Nobody ever uses it because Steam's launcher is terrible, but it's there.

It's actually pretty useful in big picture mode, which is how I use Steam most of the time since my gaming PC is hooked up to my TV. Doesn't change the fact that adding programs to it is kind of a pain in the neck.

I was curious about GOG Galaxy 2.0, but I haven't seen a mention of an equivalent to big picture mode anywhere, and my interest vanished. (Or maybe it's already there and I just don't know it.)

I do the add a game to steam thing because it's the easiest way to stream things to the Steam Link.

I really like the idea of centralizing all the launchers and storefronts, but I make such heavy use of the Link that I'm not sure this will wind up being something I use much.

I use the non-steam game feature all the time, it's handy because if someone messages me I can use the overlay and I don't have to tab out to answer them.

In this case I don't think I would ever use the new GOG Galaxy features. It's more convenient and effective for me to simply purchase games on GOG and then add the steam overlay to them instead of the other way around. They get my money either way.

bobbywatson wrote:

I was curious about GOG Galaxy 2.0, but I haven't seen a mention of an equivalent to big picture mode anywhere, and my interest vanished. (Or maybe it's already there and I just don't know it.)

GOG Galaxy's UI isn't completely horrible by default, so it works fine on a TV without requiring a separate, bug-filled trash-mode.

imo

Very nice. If it can replace something like backloggery it could be interesting. Probably not going to bother spending the time to set it up in the end, unless it is super easy, but the idea is good.

People still use backloggery?

Some seems to be using it (or similar ones) in the Pile threads.
I gave up on them all because they seemed to take a lot of manual set up.

cube wrote:

Steam already allows you to add non-Steam games to the launcher. Nobody ever uses it because Steam's launcher is terrible, but it's there.

Used it for Mass Effect 2 or 3. Was great and kept all my screenshots on Steam.

sonny615 wrote:

People still use backloggery?

I haven't in many months but I never found something better. What has replaced it?

Stele wrote:
sonny615 wrote:

People still use backloggery?

I haven't in many months but I never found something better. What has replaced it?

I'm not familiar with anything better, I simply stopped using it at some point. Felt too manual for my taste.

Here is a nice video that summarizes the best multi-client game launchers available today:

I’m in the closed beta and installed the client last night.

It’s ...cool? It’s a launcher alright. It added my games from my PC and console platforms gracefully but friends not so much.

The console games list is what I expected: click on the install/play button and it tells you to fire up the console heh. Still... it was a clean way to see all the games I own licenses for on PSN and even provided a few surprises. Same with my Steam games where I puzzled over several games I had no idea I owned for whatever reason.

What is the future play for Galaxy 2.0? A CD Projekt Steambox-style home console? Mobile platforms support?

Maclintok wrote:

Still... it was a clean way to see all the games I own licenses for on PSN and even provided a few surprises. Same with my Steam games where I puzzled over several games I had no idea I owned for whatever reason.

That sounds amazing, actually. Unless things have changed (haven't booted up my PS4 in a couple of months), trying to navigate what I own on PSN feels like a chore.

So they put out an update video earlier this month.

Looks like it is still lacking a ton of features that would make me jump on board, but I don't think I have access anyways. Currently I am using Playnite, which is really only missing friends list / chat integration from what I'm looking for. It auto-imports from everything you might expect. Adding game from the Xbox Game Pass for PC app is still a manual process, but it has a specific menu option and is able to actually see the games in a list of installed apps, and launch them, which I don't think is possible in Steam. I've played more than 10 different Game Pass games through it now.

I guess the difference is Playnite focuses on PC so it doesn't really do console tracking. I don't think I'm missing anything not seeing my console games. Then again, I don't have a XB1 or PS4.

Surprised no one is talking about it... GOG Galaxy is now in open beta.

Personally, I love it.

I don't like multiple launchers and this one does the job of adding all the games you own seamlessly together.
It's still in beta so some features like achievements are not carried over from all the services yet (although they do from Steam) but the basics are there. See your games together, sort or group them the way you want (by rating, store, platform, genre, play time, etc.) and launch whatever game you want easily (GOG will launch the relevant launcher in the background and there's an option to close it automatically once you are done with the game). It's nice to see your online friends from different services appear together in one list.

Keep in mind that you can install plugins for additional launchers straight from the 'connect platforms' menu. There is a 'Search Github' window, where I easily added Battle.net (!) and Rockstar.

As someone who stuck with Steam for many years, many times even passed on games on other launchers, GOG really was one of the tipping points that made me care less where I buy my games and actually change my shopping habits. This is quite big because stores like Origin and Uplay couldn't do it for years.

Other factors was the crazy launcher 'attack' in recent months: free Origin access, 3 months of XBOX pass for like a dollar and of course, Epic.
That same Epic which I considered to be trash and told myself would never be installed on my computer. I held my ground and first but then the free games from my wishlist week after week after week were too much. I think I broke down during Celeste week.
The exclusives and cheaper prices on Epic were too much to handle and this week I spent money in the store for the first time, buying RDR2 SE for $44, while the same version costs $35 more (!) on Steam, translated to my local currency.
Sadly, while it seems that other stores are fighting hard for my attention, Steam doesn't seem to care. No change to business models towards the publisher, nothing special towards consumers. Just higher prices (again, localized prices are an issue) and no exclusives.

Anyway, I'm totally drifting into another topic here.
Galaxy is good. Open Beta. Give it a go.
Here's a screenshot of 9 games I have installed from 6 different launchers
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/S6Yxj1i.png)

Installed the new GOG 2.0 launcher. I imported all my various game launcher and it's pretty awesome. I don't think it will completely replace my use of steam (using family share, voice channels, etc. with the kids) but definitely instead of uplay, origin, and epic.

ohhh, it auto added every game I've played on Game Pass PC, by looking at what games I've authorized on my account. Does not add installed but not yet played games since you don't authorize until you launch for the first time.

But it missed adding Darksiders III. Reporting it as a bug since you can't manually add Game Pass PC games.

Just need an import time played function

so uhhhh, since the open beta started and I finally installed the app, I was not able to get Galaxy to load my Twitch game library and I had to do a bit of Googling and ended up here. There was nothing in app so I had to download and place the extracted files in a folder. I was able to find Humble by doing the search github option. No luck for finding Twitch in app.

Did anyone else figure this out in-app?

Anyone able to get plugins to work, where the filename path is different from the default? I got every service working except Humble Bundle. It shows up but finds no games, which I think is because I don't have them installed on my C drive.

PS4 Remote Play took some fiddling with, but it eventually showed up correctly.

The client just updated a hour ago. Still does not find my installed and valid Darksiders 3 on Game Pass PC. So I'm basically still ignoring this in favor of Playnite, but checking in to see it do what I'm looking for, hopefully.

Wish I could help guys, but I don't think I have a Twitch game library.
Game Pass works fine for me... I play Forza 4 regularly from the GOG launcher. I keep some games on different drives and everything is found.
Didn't try adding Humble, will try tonight maybe.

In any case, here's a nice overview of the latest added features:

I really liked how the filters work. You can make them drill down to almost anything you want. I think it could use more predefined ones right out of the gate to make adjusting to the concept easier.

Whatever you do, don't change your GoG email address. The beta is locked to it for some inane reason.

I recently switched emails, updated my GoG.com account, tried to login to GoG 2.0 and... it won't let you.

GoG support helpfully suggested I go back to my previous email, since apparently there's absolutely no solution otherwise.

So Battle.net is now integrated in the Community Integration search.
Also, if you type * in the search GitHub field, you'll be able to see all available platforms to connect. Pretty cool.

I went through and linked all of my various accounts with GoG Galaxy 2 just to give this a fair shake, and... I kinda like it. It's really nice having a single place to look at for my complete library of available games, whether it's on Steam, GoG, Epic, Origin, Uplay, PS4, Xbox PC Game Pass, etc. And it's already saved me some money because I searched through it for everything on my Steam wishlist (one by one, manually), and found I already had a couple of them.

The UI is a bit clunky and will take some getting used to - mostly because it's new and unfamiliar. And I needed to take a deep breath when entering my login credentials for all of these other platforms into a GoG browser window, but that was otherwise a fairly painless process.

I'm finally able to login again under my new email!

I dig it. Steam's beta client looks so similar I initially got them confused.

One huge plus over Steam is that games added from other sources actually pull in metadata/screenshots/trailers/etc. Which seems like a big whiff on Steam's client. Is there a setting I don't know about to enable that type of functionality on Steam?

It can even display your Steam achievements, although it incorrectly lists completion as 0% even though it seems to be correctly listing achievements I've earned.

GoG's collections/lists/filters are also far superior. With Steam you have to create and name your collection before you even know what filters they offer. They don't have the genre you thought they would? Guess you'll be deleting the collection and trying again.

With GoG 2.0, you can view an all games list, then drill down to exactly what you want. Such as a collection that only contains installed Steam games. Or collections that separate out games from different sources (I had to manually create a collection and add each game added to the Steam client to it.) Or only Linux versions of GoG games in the Strategy genre that you've installed, assigned a rating of 4 (out of 5) and tagged as "Turn-Based".

The only reason I even bothered adding games manually to Steam was for the Steam Link. Curious to see if the Galaxy client can be jerry-rigged into Big Picture Mode.

I’ve been trying it out as well, it’s nice to see everything in one place.

Added Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic and Battle.net. Slightly annoying that it didn’t import all my Steam classifications as tags, but it didn’t take long to do those again. It’s also dropped everything from Steam once, but it all came back a few minutes later with tags intact.
Battle.net integration isn’t perfect, it thinks I have Overwatch - I checked but Battle.net wants me to buy it.

Overall really happy with it, now I just need to get on with playing some games instead of sorting them.

Redherring wrote:

Overall really happy with it, now I just need to get on with playing some games instead of sorting them.

HERESY. The meta meta game of organizing your library is the purest form of gamery..

I did mess with the steam collection thing for holiday quest badge. It had a nice auto thing, like I added the tag Lego and it put all my Lego Batman, Harry Potter, etc games and said it would automatically add new ones, like if I bought avengers.

I used to add origin games to steam just so I could use the screenshot feature back when it started.

Maybe I'll look into gog.