GOG Takes On Steam’s Early Access With New 'Games In Development' Section

[heirdeux]

GOG's new Games in Development section allows for early access titles on the company's marketplace. However, it will hand-pick the games that show the most promise for completion.

GOG Takes On Steam’s Early Access With New 'Games In Development' Section : Read more

 

[Gam3r01]

"Most promising"
Starbound and Project Zomboid have been around for at least a year now. Starbound for longer.
These games, while listed as in development, really arent anymore. They should be considered full titles receiving updates. Too many titles use this as an excuse for poor updates, poor reception, or lack of interest *cough* rust *cough*

 

[dstarr3]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Oldbutstillatit]

Dean Hall recommended Project Zomboid or whatever it's called. For that alone I'll NEVER play the game or allow it to be played on my or any of my families computers.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

GoG >>>>>>>>>>>> Steam

 

[dstarr3]

I think what makes Early Access "convenient" on Steam is because it's so easy to stay up to date. Just leave Steam open all day, if the devs push an update, it's automatically done, probably without you even realizing. Awesome. That's great if the devs are pushing out an update something like once a week.

GOG doesn't really have this convenience yet, really. The Galaxy client isn't really up to snuff yet, which means having to get these updates is manual and pretty tedious. And considering the whole Early Access concept is really a pretty terrible idea, I'd just rather not.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I see it as an intrusion rather than a convenience... as the subject article notes, updates go wrong and you can be screwed. Steam is to gaming what Win 10 is to OSs. The fact that it provides this "convenience" is the very reason many people choose GoG.

Witcher 3 Steam users got their saved games borked when patch came out.
GoG users, except for the early adopters, were able to avoid that bad patch and wait the 2-3 days it took to get a patch to the patch.

Like w/ Windows Updates, I always wait a few days after an update is available and check the usual sites for any repercussions before applying. The 3 advantages I see are:

1. Updates occur only when I say so.
2. As in the last storm when we lost internet service, GoG users can still play w/o internet connection.
3. No DRM issues.

Regarding 3, FC turned out to be too much for my son's lappie so he installed on my machine where he is a user.... had so many problems he got a refund. I later purchased it from GoG, and played myself, no problems.

 

[alidan]

"Most promising"
Starbound and Project Zomboid have been around for at least a year now. Starbound for longer.
These games, while listed as in development, really arent anymore. They should be considered full titles receiving updates. Too many titles use this as an excuse for poor updates, poor reception, or lack of interest *cough* rust *cough*

i cant speed for project zomboid as i own it however, i don't like survival enough to play it constantly so i don't know how much it changes from build to build.

starbound, has completely changed 4 times so far, to the point its like i played 4 different games with the same base artstyle. that game is clearly not ready.

I think what makes Early Access "convenient" on Steam is because it's so easy to stay up to date. Just leave Steam open all day, if the devs push an update, it's automatically done, probably without you even realizing. Awesome. That's great if the devs are pushing out an update something like once a week.

GOG doesn't really have this convenience yet, really. The Galaxy client isn't really up to snuff yet, which means having to get these updates is manual and pretty tedious. And considering the whole Early Access concept is really a pretty terrible idea, I'd just rather not.

personally i would rather be able to selectively update games, there are so many i would willingly chose to have an older patch than a newer one, like in the case of starbound, i dont like the most recent changes they made to how the game is played, i would have rather stayed on an older build.

but no, i cant launch a game unless its 100% up to date or else.

 

[dstarr3]

personally i would rather be able to selectively update games, there are so many i would willingly chose to have an older patch than a newer one, like in the case of starbound, i dont like the most recent changes they made to how the game is played, i would have rather stayed on an older build.

but no, i cant launch a game unless its 100% up to date or else.

Can you not turn off automatic updates for Early Access games? And what happens if you start a game when Steam is in offline mode?

 

[cats_Paw]

Ha Ha Ha,no.

 

[pmarceau]

Wow never expected to be rooting for GOG, but steam, well it does what steam does, blows.
As long as they do not come out with an application or anything called MAGOG.
Steam has automated everything to the extent, I have not seen with my own eyes, but have been told by adding certain files Steam acts as if you bought the game. And since all computer automated they never catch it.
All they care about it making money.

My Solution, Whenever you can Go with GOG, even if it costs you 5 more dollars. I wouldn't go much further.
Unless they come out with anything called MAGOG, hehe

 

[DrakeFS]

1. Updates occur only when I say so.
2. As in the last storm when we lost internet service, GoG users can still play w/o internet connection.
3. No DRM issues.

Unlike my OS, games are fine to be updated automatically. If I can't play a game, oh well. If I can't use my PC, we have an issue.

You do not need an internet connection to play games from steam unless the game is an online game (in which case you would still need an internet connection with GoG)

Does GoG have the same DRM free policy with current gen games?

 

[cryoburner]

My initial thoughts upon seeing the headline were that GOG was going to turn their storefront into a dumping ground for half-finished student projects like Steam has done over the last couple years, but it looks like they're possibly being more selective about the process, at least for now. Greenlight and Early Access could have worked a lot better if Steam restricted it to games that were already in a mostly completed state, and that they themselves thought were good, rather than anything that a developer can get pushed through Greenlight by giving away free keys and promising trading cards.

Witcher 3 Steam users got their saved games borked when patch came out.
GoG users, except for the early adopters, were able to avoid that bad patch and wait the 2-3 days it took to get a patch to the patch.

You can't really blame Steam for an inadequately-tested patch from the Witcher developers though, especially when those developers have close ties with GOG. One might even argue that they did that on purpose to make their own platform look good.

As in the last storm when we lost internet service, GoG users can still play w/o internet connection.

So can Steam users. If your Internet connection is out, Steam will start in offline mode. Running Steam in offline mode can also allow you to limit when updates are performed. And Steam's integrated DRM is actually quite mild compared to much of the stuff that was commonly in use before Steam became the standard, where third-party DRM could mess with system drivers and cause actual problems. Of course, some game publishers might still choose to integrate their own DRM in addition to what Steam offers, but I'm sure those publishers won't be selling the games DRM-free on GOG either.

Steam may have its issues, but so do all the other digital distribution services. There are things I wouldn't mind seeing them improve, but overall the system works reasonably well.