Good Old Games set to take on Steam with DRM-free Galaxy desktop client

PC gamers are about to get another desktop client for keeping their games up to date and checking in with friends. Good Old Games has announced GOG Galaxy, a free desktop application for downloading games from your GOG library, installing updates automatically, communicating with other players and playing multiplayer games – with both GOG Galaxy friends and users on other platforms.

GOG Galaxy will follow the existing Good Old Games model, in that it will provide every game completely free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions and the platform itself will be entirely optional. Unlike Valve’s Steam or EA’s Origin clients, you won’t have to install Galaxy in order to play games from your GOG library. You’ll still be able to download games directly from the GOG website too.

If you want to track achievements or communicate with other players you’ll have to create a profile, and will need to be connected in order to play online with friends, but Good Old Games has said these are optional, rather than mandatory features.

This is in stark contrast to both Steam and Origin, which force users to install and run the desktop client in order to play any game purchased from their respective online stores. However, this is partly down to the selection of games on each service; whereas Steam and Origin deliver brand new releases, Good Old Games primarily deals with older titles and indie games. It still has a huge library of games available to buy though, and having a desktop client to quickly download your purchases is almost guaranteed to please retro gamers.

There’s currently no confirmed release date, but Good Old Games has promised to reveal more details on the official GOG Galaxy website in the coming months.