What Happens When the Galaxy Comes out of Beta?

Posted on 22 Mar 2017 by
Lee Braden

In the final update for Galaxy we have GoG giving us a plethora of new features, and a big one that I think is quite awesome.

Of course, they say “start with the small news” so everyone will wait until you get to the big one, but honestly, that is annoying, so here’s the big news up front; GoG Galaxy is getting cloud saves, on all games, oh and to make it better than Steam, you can download a copy at any time.

Piotr Karwowski the Director over at GoG has had that same frustration as we all did prior to cloud saves, when your HDD dies or your father formats it without asking and you lose all your hard earned game saves…its safe to say that I and many others are quite excited about the new feature.

Moving on, we have the new Galaxy client being more robust than currently, allowing for a better tailoring to what you want from it, as well as a new hibernate mode to help reduce CPU usage when the client is in the background. We also have download limiting and scheduling, an FPS counter, built-in screenshot system, an improved in-game overlay, achievement tracker and a more streamlined notification system with friend to friend chat.

For anyone who is opted in to test new features in the client you can download it today, for everyone else, we should see this within the month.

Authors note: I hear a lot of people singing Steam’s praises even when you have had to deal with no-so-helpful Support or some of the…issues with the games coming through Greenlight (see some Jim Sterling’s legal issues) however, it is never good when just one company dominates the market. Competition is good if handled correctly, and I do see GoG as being a good competitor, maybe Valve will start making better decisions about what gets onto Greenlight and how to fix some of the “problematic” games that we already have.


Official Press Release

 

Warsaw, March 22GOG Galaxy, the gamer-friendly client, is coming out of beta with a major new update. Designed for convenient purchasing, playing and updating games, as well as online play between gaming platforms, GOG Galaxy is also built with optionality in mind, and a belief that you should own the games you buy.

The highlight of GOG Galaxy Update 1.2 is Universal Cloud Saves. This new feature makes it possible to add cloud saving functionality not only to new games, but also to titles that never offered cloud saving before. Thanks to this, excellent titles like Planescape: Torment, Dragon Age Origins, Heroes of Might & Magic® III, Vampire®: the Masquerade Bloodlines will gain benefits of saves syncing and cloud backup for the first time ever. Additionally, because GOG.com is all about giving freedom of choice to users, cloud saves are not locked behind the gaming platform – at any moment users can download backup of their saves data and use it as they see fit.

Losing your save files can be really frustrating. And a big part of gaming legacy, including many of the greatest games, was missing cloud saves – until now.” explains Piotr Karwowski, Managing Director at GOG.com. “Thanks to the Universal Cloud Saves feature of GOG Galaxy, not only new games, but also the all-time classics and titles which development has been finished years ago, will be upgraded with saves syncing and cloud backup.”

GOG Galaxy Update 1.2 also introduces an option to customize the Client to users’ needs by selecting features they want to use, for a personalized experience and no feature-creep. In addition, the brand new hibernate mode cuts on Client CPU usage when playing a game, and saves resources and battery life when idling in the background. Update 1.2 also packs many of community’s most-desired requests, including bandwidth limiting and scheduling, FPS counter, screenshot capturing, in-game overlay, achievement rarity, desktop and in-game notifications system, new chat and more.

GOG Galaxy Update 1.2 is available today to users who opted to test upcoming updates, and will be rolling out to everyone in April. To download GOG Galaxy or see what’s new and improved visit GOG.com/Galaxy.

The GOG Galaxy game client is coming out of beta. Here are the highlights:

  • Upgrade available today for existing users. April for wide public release.
  • Biggest feature is Universal Cloud Saves, even adding functionality to older games.
  • User-functionality upgrades including screencaps, bandwidth limiting, chat improvements, overlays, and more (below).

For a quick recap, GOG Galaxy is a completely optional game client that puts players first with features like DRM-free backups, update rollbacks, and cross-platform play. Players never have to use Galaxy, and they get to choose the features they want.


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Comments (1)


Posts: 53
Stephen Haselden
Posted 23 Mar 2017, 08:47
Yesterday I was chatting away to a friend about X-com2 (he loves Xcom more than me!) when he said "but its on Steam!"
There are people for whom Steam DRM is still a contentious issue, he won't touch it no matter what games their selling.

..... So I start talking to him abut GoG Galaxy.

It's really good to have a choice, to not be locked out games because of the choices of one company.
Its good to have competition.
Edited on 23 Mar 2017, 08:47