With Linux gaming clearly showing it’s becoming more popular, and with GOG under new ownership, there’s hope yet that GOG will improve their Linux support.
GOG does currently support Linux — well, kind of. They publish Native Linux packages for various games, which depends on the developer (just like Steam does without Proton) but they have a very limited support of distributions, which can cause problems installing Linux games from GOG due to dependency mess. That, and GOG Galaxy does not support Linux.
There’s easier ways to install games from GOG on Linux / SteamOS though, which you can check out in our GamingOnLinux Guide. You can even do it directly in Steam if you want to.
It would be great if they contributed to open source projects like the Heroic Launcher, Lutris and even Wine and DXVK.
IMHO yet another store-exclusive (even worse if closed-source) sales + launcher application for Linux wouldn’t really be a step forward for Linux.
I expect that anybody who doesn’t have a fanboy relationship towards Steam already does or will if they just think a little bit, see that an open-source store-independent universal games launcher is way more free and open (and hence aligned with the Linux ethos and immune to enshittification) than any store-exclusive sales + launcher app.
As it so happens, given that freedom in gaming is GOGs unique value proposition, business-wise it’s IMHO more advantageous for them to (very loudly and very visibly) support open source universal launchers (and maybe even some kind of open games store front protocol and open source implementation) and windows gaming adaptor layers (like Wine) serving a community with a higher awareness of the need for Software Freedom, than pushing yet another proprietary (even if open source) launcher that only works with their store - a seamless universal launcher is far more likely to pull people away from the Steam App than a GOG App.
Under such a strategy some soft marketing of in their store website promoting Linux Gaming Distros for Windows users and of promoting those universal launchers for Linux users, might help pull more people away from the closed-source store-specific application of their biggest competitor.
Been hearing this for years.
That said, with Linux market share growing, it makes more sense than ever before.
I really hope they aren’t fibbing this time.
The more the merrier. Heroics launcher allows GOG to function but it currently feels pretty janky compared to Steam. I might actually use GOG if they create a better UI/UX than they currently have.
Ehhhhh.
I actually think the current model is what more stores should be doing. Have a solid web store/client with the ability to just download games without anything else. Provide hooks so that third parties (e.g. Heroic) can manage games for people.
Rather than assuming every single store needs to dedicate resources towards building out library management tools. Especially since EGS has shown that people will then just want social media on top of that.
They don’t “provide hooks” though, Heroic’s Galaxy integration is reverse-engineered and could break at any point that GOG update how they do things. Providing a downloadable installer is nice for some people I’m sure, but most people just want to download the game quickly and easily with features like cloud saves available.
Yep, and even for me while I prefer to download the game directly usually, when I need to bother with manually getting it to work, I much prefer steam and its proton integration. It’s nice that most games at least just work by running them in a random proton prefix with protontricks, but shipping them with an install script that just gives you a shortcut and installs any dependencies would be huge (actually a step up from steam). And then if galaxy runs on linux it could use that same process.
Yeah, I wish there was a good way for third party clients to detect game updates, though.
Heroic seems to detect updates to GOG games just fine.
It’s against their interest to offer this as they have everything to gain by making you install their proprietary application and capturing you inside their ecosystem where they don’t have to compete fairly. Would Steam be in the position it’s in if you didn’t have to install it to download your games?
Honestly yes it likely would. GameSpy sucked.
Steam hate it or love it from its early days still was basically the best and most stable and reliable option for the endless number of services that gamers needed out side of downloading and buying games.
Seriously steam could have no store front at all and it would still have been a majorly successful application and service for the entirety of its early life.
GOG sells only DRM-free games and has usually taken a pro-open source stance (I don’t have a source for this sorry)
And… I don’t give a fuck about a corporation’s best interests (at least, not one I don’t own significant stock in).
But also: Epic have the financial backing of god, hollywood, and fortnite behind them. Valve make more revenue off their cut of everyone else’s games than many small nations have in annual GDP.
GoG is a recently spun off loss leader for a large regional publisher. And you don’t add these kinds of capabilities without a LOT of corporate investment… or management who decides “AI Can Do It”
I’ve heard that one before…
At this point I have absolutely zero expectations for GOG until they actually deliver on any of their Linux promises.
Exactly.
I’m not interested in any company announcing what they ‘plan’ to do, I’m interested when they actually do it.
Isn’t proton open source?
They could make a Linux client that uses Proton just like Steam does?
Maybe even their own forks of Proton that are more suited to the kinds of games they have on the platform (like the Glorious Eggrolls spin offs).
They could, but Heroic already does pretty much everything an official client would do, I don’t think it makes sense to create a new client.
I don’t think it really makes sense to create Proton forks for specific games outside very specific cases (like hacky fixes that break other games). Might as well just upstream whatever changes you make.
I’m always leery of new ownership.
In this case it’s old ownership. And it sounds like he wants to focus on their core values without being beholden to shareholders.
Wasn’t it one of the original founders who bought gog from CD Projekt? So really it’s new, old, ownership.
Easiest way to install gog games would be heroic games launcher imo
edit: And so says their guideHeroic can be hit or miss in my experience. I found that using the offline installers in Bottles would get those broken games working, which is interesting since I think Bottles still defaults to a fork of wine 9.
I default to Lutris for my offline installers and for games that isn’t one click installs when trying them in heroic games launcher.
For most games that one click install in heroic has been working fine fthough.
I’d honestly rather them not release their own Linux launcher. Heroic is fantastic, I’d much rather them contribute to that, either via development time or by sponsoring them. Some sort of official partnership with them would be cool.
Heroic get a referral link if you buy games from GOG via their launcher, which I always make sure to do. The fact that Heroic has ‘first class’ integration with Glorious Eggroll, and in fact updates GE for Steam for you as well, means that it’s damn good for Linux gaming. If you don’t need Steam’s workshop or social factors for a game, there’s no reason not to buy through it.
If GOG could collaborate with Heroic on their API integration, then that would be perfection - could retire Galaxy in that case.
Legit, I think and hope that this happens. I found out recently that they helped launch fallout london which was nice to hear. although I dont know the extent of their contributions for that specific case, I think that collaboration isn’t off the table.
I hope they also improve offline installers. Some games have really whack setups where there are so many patches you have to apply. Order matters, some patches seem optional.
GOG Galaxy needs more polish, it still feels like alpha quality software
The irony being a Polish company.
I used Heroic to install FO4 and FOLON, all I care about using GOG for ATM, just to keep Steam from forcing me to update. It works just fine, thank you very much.
Heroic is fine enough for me except that I would want it to have background downloads on Steam Deck and better achievements integration.
If we get this, I don’t need anything official from GOG even if more official Linux support is always welcome😇
They stopped giving away free games. I don’t know why but they haven’t been giving away games over 6 months. If I’m mistaking correct me please.
They don’t give away games regularly, but often enough. Plus with Amazon Prime (you can sign up for a free month) you get plenty of GOG keys.
