What’s new?

So long, beta! The first stable version of Gog Galaxy - 1.2 has officially been launched. The new features of the client include cloud saves, in-game overlay tab, screenshots, friends list, chat and smarter CPU resource management while Gaming and in idle.

Universal Cloud Saves will allow game progress to be carried over between multiple PCs (useful if you play on a secondary gaming laptop or Windows tablet). It is worth noting that not every game will support cloud saves at launch, with a list of compatible games published on GOG’s website.

The new overlay will introduce a handy FPS counter (who needs FRAPS?), desktop notifications and chat. Overlay enabled games will now allow easy capture of in-game screenshots with the F12 key. There is no indication yet if a web browser will be included in the overlay, or whether that has been benched for future development.

GOG have placed a large emphasis on customisation by pointing out that users can pick and choose which features to activate on their personal client, and reiterating that Galaxy will always be a non-essential option for GOG gamers.

Making strides in the PC gaming market

GOG Galaxy is the desktop client for all games purchased from gog.com (previously Good Old Games, owned by CD Projekt).

For many, the fact that no client is required by default to play DRM free games (DRM = Digital Rights Management) on GOG is the main motivation to invest in this platform rather than Valve or Microsoft. Despite this, in 2015 GOG decided to introduce a completely optional client named Galaxy which was designed to appeal to the type of gamer who wants to access an integrated library from the comfort of a polished user interface.

That target audience will be delighted by the news this week that GOG Galaxy has finally matured enough to leave the beta stage and mix it with the big boys.

GOG are clearly keen to move into the territory currently occupied by major players such as Steam, UPlay and Origin. This is evident from an increased focus on social features, achievements/ trophies, seasonal sales and daily deals.

There are other (more blatant) incentives such as ‘GOG Connect’ which for a limited period allows selected games from your Steam library to be copied over to your GOG collection, free of charge.

The new client is available immediately for those who opted in to test pre-release versions and will be rolled out for everybody to try in April.