GOG Galaxy 2.0 aims to bring games from all PC and console platforms under
one roof
https://tinyurl.com/y4q7rvcu
GOG Galaxy is a Steam-like client for GOG's digital storefront that's really
quite good and offers the added bonus of being completely optional: You can
conduct all your GOG-related business through it, or you can ignore it
completely and continue downloading your games directly from the site and
running them through Windows Explorer—or a DOS prompt, if you're a truly
dedicated retro-type.
Galaxy 2.0, announced today, sounds like a more ambitious undertaking, as it
promises to combine all of your games, online friends, and other data in one
place. The idea is that you'll connect the new client to your various online
accounts and platforms, including consoles—a list hasn't been confirmed yet,
but a rep said that the goal is "to have all major platforms officially
integrated in the app"—at which point it will import your libraries and
friends lists, essentially acting as a big-tent overlay for Steam, EGS,
Origin, and so forth. It will also track all of your achievements and hours
played across platforms, support cross-platform chat, and offer various
sorting, filtering, and collection comparison options.
User data will be stored online to enable simple syncing between devices, but
GOG made a point of emphasizing that privacy is paramount: It explicitly
states on the Galaxy website that "we're not spying on data from your
computer" and won't share it with third parties; you'll also be able to
remove your imported data from Galaxy servers "with a single click."
Details are light at this point: On how you'll actually add games, for
instance, an FAQ states, "In GOG Galaxy 2.0 you’re adding games through
official and community created integrations. By connecting platforms, the
data about the games you own is automatically imported to the application. On
top of that you will also be able to manually add single games that are not
connected to any platform."
And on those "community created integrations": "We want to offer integrations
with all possible gaming platforms. This is a challenging and time-consuming
process, not only because these are technically complex projects, but they
also require negotiations and agreements with partners. We want all our
official integrations to be supported by respective platform holders, so we
make sure they’re in-line with partners’ policies and that they’re safe."
"While we’re hard at work on adding more official integrations, we’ve
decided to give you—the community—an opportunity to work on your own open
source platform integrations. We’re currently polishing the documentation
that will be shared with you to help you build your own platform integrations
for GOG Galaxy 2.0."
Galaxy 2.0 has also been "rebuilt from the ground up" to offer better
performance than the current client, and like the original Galaxy the updated
version will remain entirely optional: If you just want to be left alone to
download your games and play them in quiet solitude as God and nature
intended, that will continue to be totally cool. If you want to fully embrace
the future, however, you'll need to keep the other clients installed on your
PC.
"We’ve been in contact with several partners already, as we aim to have
official integrations with all major platforms. We want all our official
integrations to be supported by respective platform holders, so we make sure
they’re in-line with partners’ policies and that they’re safe," a GOG rep
said. For now, however, it's not saying who those partners are.
It's pretty clear that GOG is taking direct aim at growing frustration with
the number of launchers that gamers have to deal with these days, as well as
possibly more disingenuous concerns about data privacy driven by the rise of
the Epic Games Store. That might be a little opportunistic, but even so the
big idea behind it is still a good one. Whether it will satisfy its intended
audience will depend largely on the success of its implementation, but if GOG
can pull it off it could turn Galaxy from a niche client that most of us
probably ignore into an essential gamer utility.
Signups for the "coming soon" Galaxy 2.0 beta test are now open at
gogalaxy.com.
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簡單一句話，GOG推出GOG Galaxy 2.0，目標是把所有PC和家機平台整合在一起。
想加入測試的人請至：https://www.gogalaxy.com/