this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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Linux Gaming

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[–] Artopal@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 hour ago

Because it doesn't make business sense to them. The author of the article makes just two arguments and assumes those are the only relevant arguments. There's a lot more involved in the decision to port GOG Galaxy to Linux. Like support, for example.

Personally, since proton got so good and heroic can just use any version of proton installed, I've began to buy GOG games again and run them through heroic. 99% of the time they just run OK. But of course I do my due diligence and check protondb before making a purchase.

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

GOG doesn't really do much to maintain the Galaxy app unfortunately. The idea of being able to put your entire library into one launcher is appealing but half of the plugins don't even work. Even the steam one is broken out of the box these days (there is a newer version on GitHub, but I don't think it's official). So them not porting to Linux is unsurprising.

[–] TemplaerDude@lemm.ee 1 points 48 minutes ago

Galaxy came out hot, promised to offer something I'd wanted for a long time with a super clean UX, but from day 1 it just felt half-assed, like it was a project with two guys working on it in their spare time. A collosal disappointment.

[–] TheChickenOfDoom@lemm.ee 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I use GOG to get away from downloading things in the context of a store and have a nice little archive of installers to use whenever I want it. I am trying to get as many Steam games to just be that way so when I run the binary it just works without Steam being involved at all. Laughably few will do it on their own but there are some ways around others...

Yeah, quite happy without some bloated launcher, thanks.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 hours ago

IIRC galaxy could download installers. Maybe I'm confusing it with the older gog client

[–] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think the bigger complaint is that, when Galaxy was released, GOG said (back in 2015)

A Linux version of our client is planned eventually ... Stay tuned for future announcements

Ten years is plenty of time to implement a launcher, or at least give a planned timeline

Sure, third parties have done it with Heroic, etc. but promising support and not delivering leaves a really bad taste to me

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 18 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

CDProjekt/GOG said the same thing about Cyberpunk 2077, their biggest product ever, and in the year 2025 I'm still running the Windows version of that through Proton because they give no fucks.

[–] Zeron@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

To be fair, you probably don't want a native version anyways. Most native games i've played just required me to switch to proton because they had their own share of issues that the proton versions didn't have.

At this point it's better for devs to make proton support a goal(i.e steam deck compatibility) rather than native linux builds. Linux just has too much diversity for native linux support to not be a massive pain in the ass in my opinion.

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

True. I've had plenty of games where the native version didn't work, but the Proton version worked flawlessly. Small devs can get more value for their time by aiming for Proton compatibility

[–] sanpo@sopuli.xyz 11 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Ten years is plenty of time to implement a launcher, or at least give a planned timeline

Or to give literally any kind of update, like admitting it was never seriously planned.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 1 points 14 hours ago

I thought they said they're not doing it now?

[–] shortrounddev@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (5 children)

Because Linux still makes up a small % of PC Gamers, so CDPR hasn't prioritized it. Plus they'd need to have some kind of proton-like middleware (or just proton) for the majority of their games (which are mostly 15-20+ years old) to be playable. It seems like a large engineering challenge for a company which isn't nearly as wealthy as valve

[–] Polderviking@feddit.nl 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Cyberpunk (and Witcher 3) already runs, and honestly way better then I expected, on my steam deck. They even have a specific graphics setting to accommodate for it's obviously limited hardware, so CDPR are also aware people play their games on the steam deck as evidenced by this graphics setting.

Steamdeck is linux. Obviously this proton translation layer that is being leveraged is very capable.

For all intents and purposeses, CDPR is already where they need to be for half-decent Linux support and honestly I don't understand why they didn't already draw that last sprint that would be required to fully support this.

[–] patatahooligan@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Well it's not going to be the same engineering challenge as it was for Valve, because they only need to integrate proton, not develop it. If proton works on Lutris (via umu), an open source project with no corporate backing as far as I'm aware, surely CDPR can at least attempt it. This is probably the best time to do it, too. SteamOS has been well received and is likely to end up on even more handhelds, and Windows 10 is nearing its EoL. If GoG is one of the first storefronts to allow its users to play outside of windows it might generate a lot of positive sentiment in the community, just like they did with their anti-DRM stance.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"This river doesn't need a bridge because almost nobody ever crosses it."

Also is there a reason they can't just distribute proton? It's open under BSD, so they'd be free to do it.

[–] shortrounddev@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Gog is not in the bridge building business though

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 hours ago

This is a valid rebuttal, as I was talking completely literally. I apologise, I thought they were a civil engineering and construction firm.

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Then maybe they shouldn't have publicly said they were planning to build this bridge ten years ago.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Anyone who knows how software companies work knows the pattern. One dude wants to do something and pushes hard for it and things get done. Then they leave the company / get promoted / move to a different part of the company and there is no more will to do said thing. The people in the company have forgotten about linux support 200 times already, and saying something 10 years ago won't change that. Make linux be something regular gamers want to run, get a double digit adoption rate, maybe they'll revisit it

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Then they should have kept it internal until they were ready to commit. People spent money with them as a result of that commitment, and it may not have been a large part of their customer base, but it is exactly the people they courted with the public statement. They wanted to make the announcement to reap the PR benefits, so now they need to follow through and deliver.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

Or else what happens? The reality is nobody cares.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, they are unreliable. The fact that this is typical of software companies doesn't excuse the behaviour or make it a sound business strategy.

You're not actually arguing with what's being said, you're just normalising it.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

What do you think this is? It's a random post, not a debate. I'm not here to argue a point. No amount of "discussion" will reach them

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 hours ago

Proton is open source, they could just use that. Valve would hardly complain as it helps more games run on steamdeck.

I want to use GoG more but they seem to increasingly not care about Linux. So I use Steam.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 17 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (5 children)

Heroic did it. Why couldn't GOG?

[–] Dremor@lemmy.world 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Because of the power of friendship... And open-source.

And caring about Linux...

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I've been with linux for 20 years now and at one point GOG was the place to go, because DRM was one of the biggest problems with wine.

I downloaded all my games stopped using it after they came up with their own electronic store, which I thought was a horrible shit and very clunky on wine.

Steam and proton were rising at the same time and more and more games were working without the usual fuss of installing .dll files, obscure media codecs, .net and etc, so it was bye bye GOG.

[–] squid_slime@lemm.ee 86 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Heroic Games Launcher, supports gog cloud saves, full wine/proton integration and even store front.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 2 points 10 hours ago

Also, it has controller support (slightly dodgy though)

[–] Wolfwood1@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

It's also a nice way to use a single launcher to replace 2 / 3 (Epic Games, GOG Galaxy and Amazon gaming).

On Linux I only use Steam and Heroic.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And that's amazing work they've done, but really it's surprising that it's not already supported natively.

[–] daddy32@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago

I think there is some ... cooperation? Or at least acknowledgement towards heroic from GOGs side.

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[–] stargazingpenguin@lemmy.zip 125 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I used to purchase everything I could from GOG until I switched to Linux full time. I still like the company and buy some from them, but until they become more Linux friendly or Steam gets worse I'll still prioritize Steam now. And it's not only the (very odd) resistance to making a Linux version of Galaxy, I've also seen them not offer Linux versions of games even when the developers have released it on other platforms.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 points 9 hours ago

And Linux versions taking over a week longer to update than the steam ones. I refunded a game over that before and got it on steam instead.

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