Gaming GoG Galaxy - Steam Competitor

[flame1234]

This is not a paid promotion or anything.
It's GoG.com's (digital game retailer) platform to compete with Steam.
It has a lot of the stuff Steam has. I think everything including broadcasting, actually. They don't have the more niche features of Steam like trading cards and community market.

Quick Pro-Con:
Pro:

• GoG lets you keep your games - no DRM.

Con:

• GoG's restrictive policy re: DRM means some games, where the publisher requires DRM, will not be available on GoG.
• Steam is bigger. Your friends are more likely to use Steam, just because it's bigger.

N/A:

• Pricing is generally the same between Steam and GoG.
• They both give the same amount of revenue generally to developers.
• Humble Bundle, and many other retailers, don't sell GoG keys. That used to be important, but Humble is no longer relevant.
• Less stories about anti-gamer movements from GoG relative to Steam. This is probably because of the size of the services. Steam has more customers, so they probably screw over many more customers (take away their access to their accounts) than GoG, just because they have more customers.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

GOG.com is nice. However, I prefer Steam not only because it's big, but because the community is a lot nicer (in my opinion). Also, like you said, my friends use that, and are likely to continue using it. As for DRM, I really don't mind. Steam's DRM isn't that obstructive. I know other people have different opinions since no service is perfect and there are plenty of anomalies and horror stories related to DRM services, but it's worked fine for me so far, and I haven't really seen a reason to change.

At the end of the day, what matters is that I can play the game I purchased. Both GOG and Steam allow me to do that just fine.

Someone should start a poll to see who uses what: GOG, Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc.
I'm pretty sure no one uses Origin or Uplay voluntarily, except maybe if there's a sale or something going on. Those two platforms are prime examples of poorly done DRM.

 

[TecXero]

I generally go with Humble Store anymore, but GOG is nice. I don't have a need for an application to launch my games, though, my shortcuts work fine.

 

[Hells Malice]

GOG galaxy competes with Steam the same way local mom & pop stores compete with walmart.
AKA they don't and simply try to herd a couple people over to survive.

All GOG galaxy really did was help me pirate games easier. I seem to recall pirating a few games and then GOG galaxy was like " oh hey let me update that for ya!"

The whole DRM free thing is a cute gimmick to trick idiots but it has never been a real selling point. Especially for DRM as minor as steam, where 9 times out of 10 you can just go to the game folder and launch the exe to play it without Steams "DRM". There's really 0 reason to use GOG Galaxy and I have no idea why sites bother to try offer services like it.

 

[DarkFlare69]

There's no way it can compete with steam. Don't bother.

 

[jonthedit]

GoG Galaxy?
What's this about GOG Evolve2 Beta I am being invited to? Is this the next version of Galaxy?

 

[Taleweaver]

I like GoG, but have to admit not using galaxy. To me, it's actually a plus of GoG that you can just log into your account on their site, buy stuff you want and download it from there. There is no need for an external client that every so often needs to download a couple hundreds of megabyte containing nothing but ads/discounts for other games.

Humble Bundle, and many other retailers, don't sell GoG keys. That used to be important, but Humble is no longer relevant.

Erm...you want to tell that to the (tens of) thousands of sales humble bundle does, even on bundles with not-so-known games?

There's no way it can compete with steam. Don't bother.

It's not because steam is better at what it does that it's a bad service. Rather the contrary: they do what I, as a customer, expect of them. Steam is more expansive and known, but as for extra features I don't think they'll have much crucial extra's (I don't care about what my friends play, achievements and stuff like that).

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

The whole DRM free thing is a cute gimmick to trick idiots but it has never been a real selling point.

Yeah, I agree with this. DRM-free means easier pirating. Steam has prevented a lot of piracy so far, and like you said, their DRM is pretty non-intrusive. Especially considering you only have to do an online verification once per machine, then you can play offline with it forever.