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.
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.
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.
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.
IIRC galaxy could download installers. Maybe I’m confusing it with the older gog client
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
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.
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.
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
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.
I thought they said they’re not doing it now?
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
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.
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.
“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.
Gog is not in the bridge building business though
This is a valid rebuttal, as I was talking completely literally. I apologise, I thought they were a civil engineering and construction firm.
Then maybe they shouldn’t have publicly said they were planning to build this bridge ten years ago.
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
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.
Or else what happens? The reality is nobody cares.
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.
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
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.
Heroic did it. Why couldn’t GOG?
Because of the power of friendship… And open-source.
And caring about Linux…
CD Projekt is a public company, which would likely be cautious in relying on complex third-party tools like Wine.
Yep, no public company would ever use Apache, nginx, AWS. Those are all 3rd party tools.
Most businesses rely on third party tools and software libraries. Particularly open source ones.
Valve isn’t public, but they seem to be making plenty off of WINE. In fact, companies of all types love building on other projects, because it reduces how much work they need to do.
They just don’t seem to care. They could literally hire someone who works on Heroic to make an official Galaxy port reusing most of Heroic’s functionality. Yet they don’t.
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.
Heroic Games Launcher, supports gog cloud saves, full wine/proton integration and even store front.
Also, it has controller support (slightly dodgy though)
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.
And that’s amazing work they’ve done, but really it’s surprising that it’s not already supported natively.
I think there is some … cooperation? Or at least acknowledgement towards heroic from GOGs side.
What do you mean by natively?
Supported by GOG
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.
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.
I tried to push for GOG purchases too and then I just ended up with games that would receive updates late. I’d miss out on discounts and bundles that make future purchases cheaper, at some point it was cheaper to just rebuy stuff with DLCs on Steam than continue building up the library on GOG.
I also gave their galaxy client a try since it promised a united library for all platforms and then they did a horrible job managing the plugins for other stores - they constantly kept breaking or logging me out while even Playnite worked perfectly out of the box.
In the end I just stopped wasting energy on GOG, life is too short and complicated enough. If they have a good deal on old games I might grab it, otherwise I prefer anything else.
Same here. I had nearly all the XCOM2 DLC purchased from GOG, and then Steam ran a sale on the bundle that was cheaper than buying the last piece to complete the collection! Since then I think GOG have run similarly cheap sales, but it wasn’t the last time I saw that happen.
I know launchers like Heroic are available, and I use it for some of my games from them, but I actually liked the Galaxy launcher on Windows. I wasn’t linking it to anything else though, so I didn’t run into the issues you mention.
It’s sad, because I think they could do well in the Linux community. Hopefully they eventually start supporting it, but until then I’ll be buying most of my games from the company that’s actively contributing and improving things for the community.
I’ve noticed that GOG usually runs their sales after Steam’s sales (or maybe before? Either way, they’re not in sync) and that it’s usually all the same stuff on sale. I don’t buy GOG anymore because Linux but back when I was still on Windows I would wait a week and buy from GOG where applicable.
Yeah, they promised Linux support years ago with Galaxy 2.0.
It’s basically the reason why I always prefer Steam for my games.I agree, it was something I would have thought would happened a long, long time ago. Then a few years ago I thought for sure when steam and linux were really picking up.
It is one of the reasons I dont use gog that much.
Marginal support happens a lot on Linux. See AMD drivers without Adrenaline. “You may use Linux if you must… at your own risk… we do the bare minimum to keep you runnig… our past stuff is in the open but we can pull the rug on future releases any time.” You can install gog games and maybe some dude made galaxy work in wine, corporate has decided that is good enough.
IIRC GOG is actually partnered with HeroicLauncher… so… it’s semi official to use that… and better UX.
Affiliate links are not business partnerships. Does Heroic have anything more than that with GOG?
EDIT: The answer is no, GOG is not partnered with Heroic Games Launcher.
Gog funds Heroic.I actually think it’s a fairly decent compromise (although I prefer Lutris), since Gog is clearly not interested in paying to maintain a Linux port.
EDIT: Wrong(ish)! See below.
Gog funds Heroic.
By some other means than affiliate link payouts? I’m not aware of any such arrangement, but if one exists, can you link some details about it?
I read it somewhere awhile ago. You’re killing me asking for a source, goddamn.
EDIT: somewhat ironically, here’s a Reddit thread where a developer says they are a part of the affiliate program, so, I don’t know much funding that brings in. It sounds like a less formal arrangement than I was imagining:
Yes, that’s what I thought: It’s just affiliate linking (aka marketing) that any app can use, not a partnership between Heroic and GOG. Thanks for following up and confirming it.
Quoting /u/imLinguin in the post you linked:
Heroic dev here. We are just part of the affiliate program since we help people access GOG on Linux easier. There is nothing more, so there is no need for official announcements from the GOG side.
I’m glad you called me out on that. It’s easy to misremember when we are just constantly bombarded w information.
Anyways, it would be a good compromise, imo.
Curious what Gog’s actual hang up is, since the Steamdeck’s picking up so much momentum.
Better UX until you have to download or update a game… there is an open bug report where it just doesn’t progress but keeps starting new processes until you‘re OOM. Still no fix in months, I’ve had to boot into Windows for every single update. Really not that good of an UX.
Are you updating Linux games from Windows??
How does your Windows install open the ext4/btrfs file system your Linux games are stored on?
Bad engineering
heroic has no download throttling, very annoying for shared/shitty networks and large games
If you’re on Linux, you have a lot more options to affect the system. You could try running Heroic Launcher through
trickle: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/34116/how-can-i-limit-the-bandwidth-used-by-a-processIdeally this would be implemented on the client side, i.e. Heroic Launcher, but there seems to some challenges in making that happen: https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/issues/597
bit late to this, but trickle doesn’t work because heroic spawns new downloader processes unaffected by trickle’s limits
Hm, if it spawns some external process, would it be possible to wrap that in a shell script of the same name (and have its dir earlier in PATH), which in turn calls the other one, but through trickle?
I’d put that as a feature request honestly, they’ll probably add that in at some point
I wouldn’t call HGL a better UX. It straight up doesn’t work for me. When it did, I couldn’t get games to install or update and had to DL manually in browser, install into some other Wine prefix, and then manually move the files to an HGL-generated prefix. The UI looks nicer but it’s not nearly as straightforward as Galaxy’s. It’s more like Lutris in its complexity, though I imagine there’s no easy way around that.
Better UX is a big word, as any unofficial launcher it kinda sucks because it doesn’t have a specific feature set. Besides, first party support is always better
That’s neat to learn
This is what keeps me on Steam, along with Steam Input and Big Picture
It is UI for GOG? We have a Heroic Game Launcher. It can work with GOG.
I get into this on the post, but AFAIK community-built solutions such as Heroic and Lutris aren’t exactly the same, with a lot of Galaxy’s selling points being the cloud features such as save data sync and a friends list system for online play.
Different people may or may not find uses for these features, but it’s still worth discussing IMO.
Imho, if they decide to put effort into Linux, I’d rather see them put dev resources into heroic to add these features than to make just another client. They are late to the market, that would make the most of it.
Removed by mod
Because GOG doesn’t want to support it. They’d rather the community do it.
