With more publishers branching out with their own digital storefronts, PC gamers have begun complaining more frequently about launcher fatigue. So it’s a good thing that at least one storefront has thought of a way to consolidate all your games in one place–including the games you might own on console.
That’s the headline feature of GOG Galaxy 2.0, an upcoming update to the launcher for CD Projekt Red’s DRM-free marketplace. After connecting GOG Galaxy 2.0 with other platforms, the developers claim that it will let you install and launch “any PC game you own, no matter the platform”, while also tracking your console games.
The update will track all hours played, games owned and achievements across platforms, and will supposedly have cross-chat with every platform–it’s intimated that this includes console users as well, although it’s not expressly mentioned. Another feature being touted is the ability to delete all imported friends and games data from GOG’s servers “with a single click”, which undoubtedly helps with Europe’s current GDPR regulations.
In follow-up forum posts and the official FAQ, GOG staffers explained that GOG Galaxy will launch Steam in the background if you want to play a game that’s part of your Steam library. That means you’ll still need all the requisite launchers on your PC–for Steam, Bethesda launcher, and so on–but it does mean you won’t lose the in-built functionality of other ecosystems, like Steam’s integrated controller support.
GOG Galaxy 2.0 will also ship with custom library views, tagging and sorting for better management, and the ability to “manually edit the metadata of every game in your master games collection”.
You can signup for the closed beta–provided you have an existing GOG account–over at the official site. There’s no set date for the closed beta, but the official FAQ notes that an announcement on that will go out via “all our channel soon”.
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