Import all your games from PC and consoles, build and organize them into one master collection.
Keep track of all your achievements, hours played and games owned, combined across platforms.
Install and launch any PC game you own, no matter the platform.
Sounds like dark magic.
Gamespot published a preview with a few screenshots of the client:
Signed up for the beta. Hope I get in!
I’m intrigued by console games being included in your collection. That’s a problem even Playnite wasn’t trying to solve. But it’s definitely relevant to me. Oh hey Oxenfree is for sale. Wait, isn’t that one of the games I already own through Games With Gold, or maybe through Game Pass or PS+?
So yeah, I’m all on board for this as an idea. I hope the implementation is good.
I wonder where all the data is stored, I hope locally. Playnite is pretty good in this respect.
Looks like the data is stored on their servers.
" How can I delete my data from GOG GALAXY 2.0?
Once you have disconnected a platform from GOG GALAXY 2.0, we will remove all your imported data from our servers."
Worth a try. Getting hard to track what is and isn’t in the collection.
Hey good of GOG to find a new edge on the market, because the old one was disappearing fast.
I guess you’re just going to input all your passwords for all your accounts and GOG will log in for you as necessary with a different UI? Can’t their competitors like Steam shomehow detect and prevent that?
Good questions.
Personally I wouldn’t trust any company with all my games store passwords. When they get inevitably hacked I really don’t want to have to deal with all that hassle.
Also great point that those partner sites are not going to think much of GOG paggybacking on their library authentication/ account management. This was one thing Epic did which Valve rightly took exception to if I recall?
There are ways to prevent it, though there’s always some risk of a bug that throws all precautions away.
Because it wasn’t done through the API, and it was gathered on the client without user consent. I have no idea what GOG does.
I read it as GOG establishing partner deals with the other platforms then using official APIs as Perky notes.
For instance, in the Gamespot preview I believe they mentioned that they already have a deal in place with Microsoft for the Xbox platform and hope to close deals with Sony and Nintendo soon.
They are also going to open everything up to open source user created extensions.
It will work the same way any site that lets you log in with Google/Facebook/whatever works - you get redirected to the service provider, and they pass a token back to the third party confirming your identity. GOG never sees your credentials. Steam and the rest could prevent that, but they want you to log in because they get the data on what you’re doing, and it’s another hook to keep you in their ecosystem.
Most of the way you hook Playnite to all the other launchers isn’t with entering your username passwords into Playnite directly, but to utilize other platform’s OAuth workflow to hook into each platform’s apis. This means Playnite never sees your username and password.
I’m sure GOG’s browser will work the exact same way.
Yeah, you’d have to be crazy to give up all your passwords like that.
This is a neat idea. I never installed the original GOG launcher, because why would I? But now, I will, and it’ll be one of the first spots I go for discovery. Very sharp.
Looking good. Still a gamble for them if others start shutting them out. Hopefully Beta won’t last too long.
Indeed. People who think this kind of feature involves giving all your passwords to GoG can be reassured that that’s not how OAuth tokens work. GoG will never see any of the passwords you enter. They will simply be told that you have been successfully authenticated by the other service.
I wonder if this step GOG is taking will end up killing off GOG Connect. It makes sense given the news of their profit margins. I think it is a fairly smart move and I’m glad GOG is continuing to pivot themselves in a such a way as to be different to the other stores.
It’s pretty good, actually, and a decent way to keep your games up-to-date automagically. Plus: cloud saves.
I specifically only buy games that don’t update frequently (if ever) on GOG, though.
Now, if it automagically installed bug and widescreen fixes…
A review of the beta: