RALLLLYYYYYYY!

RALLLYYYYYY! RALLY TO GABEEEEENN! RALLYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

You've got that backwards -- The whole point of Galaxy is, to make it easier for Steam, Origin, Uplay etc. gamers to start using GOG. I guess many younger PC gamers simply don't know how to do anything without an automated client software. Or they just prefer the convenience and extra features. Either way, they are the primary audience for Galaxy.

Aside from this, there's the issue that people seem to misunderstand what the problem with Steam is. They see Steam, associate it with DRM and launch into a tirade, hating anything that resembles it. I fear they miss the point. The problem is not the idea of a standardised service - it's the coercion to use it, and how your ability to play your purchased games is contingent on your access to that service.

I can take any GOG game and download a standalone installer of it. That installer is guaranteed to install on any supported system ad infinitum at the cost of the very minor inconvenience of a manual install. I can also install it manually and have it recognised automatically in GOG Galaxy. Or I can install the game directly from the Galaxy client.

The most important thing is that I am not tied to that client or service. There are benefits to having a standardised online service with a standardised front end. But with GOG, that service does not come at the expense of my rights as a game buyer. Unlike with Steam, I have reliable assurance that the games will continue to work on their designated hardware when GOG Galaxy does not.

People shouldn't underestimate the importance of this. It's not just a matter of as and when Steam will go offline. It's a matter of the Steam client being tied to regular updates and those updates only functioning on supported hardware. There are games that only work on Windows XP, games that only work on Windows 7, that aren't supported by and don't work on Windows 8 or Windows 10. Eventually Valve will phase out WinXP and Win7 support, and there are plenty of WinXP/Win7-only games which are dependent on Steam DRM, and yet Steam will refuse to launch on unsupported OSs.

That too. I guess the TL;DR version is: It's nice to have optional features such as the Galaxy client, but only if they remain truly optional.

I hope GOG keep that in mind as well, and don't get any funny thoughts... It's fair enough if some developers need such clients to make multiplayer game development easier. But if the day comes when we need to start up Galaxy just to play a single player game, we might as well start up Steam instead.

Exactly.

You can't compete with Steam, they're like the Chaos Gods, you more energy and passion you put into fighting them, the stronger they grow. The best you can do is try to carve out your own niche like GOG does.