GOG Galaxy DRM-Free Gaming Service

CD Projekt announces DRM-Free Steam Competitor GOG Galaxy

Conventional features such as automatic game updates and friends lists are present, but what sets GOG Galaxy apart from its competitors is that being online is "completely optional," according to the trailer. "It is up to the player to decide which features they want to use."

Interestingly, GOG Galaxy will also include a cross-play feature, allowing gamers to play with friends who have purchased games through other online services, such as Steam.

Normally I'd ignore having to make a new account for another site to collect games from, but the fact that this sucker is emphasizing the "play offline and don't worry about DRM!" part, this is starting to look pretty attractive!

Though in a pragmatic sense, I'm probably gonna end up staying loyal to Steam in the long term, especially since I have such a massive library with them. But who knows? maybe the improve competition will finally get those "I DONT WANT DRM IN MY MACHINES PERIOD!!!!11" nuts to finally invest in PC gaming again, or more hopefully get Origin and the more restrictive online game retailers to loosen up their security standards a bit.

I will still use Steam but I already have a GOG account.

I do like that they offer a lot of free games throughout the year. I also like that the GOG Galaxy will be able to have crossplay between Steam, U Play, Origin, Games For Windows Live, and GOG members.

How is this meaningfully different from just downloading games from the GOG website?

You have a launcher platform that does it, has social network built into it, and handles auto updates just like steam.

Plus the GOG site itself frequently has specials similar to Steam, so if you are inclined you can hop between the two to see who has the better deal, buy it, and not still get the startup OS of your choice (ex you chose Steam despite buying it from GOG due to you Steam friends list being bigger than on Origin's).