GOG Galaxy goes beta, looks rather neat

GOG have announced that their GOG Galaxy client is now available to the public in shiny new beta form.

GOG Galaxy is GOG’s own client, based around the company’s mantra of being DRM free and putting gamers first. As such, it’s entirely optional but has a few neat little features that might convince you to give it a shot.

So, the basics: you’ve got one-click installation of your GOG games, automatic updates, and the ability to download a stand-alone backup copy of the game. You’ve also got a friends list and real-time chat. And, yes, there are achievements.

In the “oh, that’s actually kind of great” camp, there’s also crossplay between GOG and Steam for selected titles that pop up on both platforms, a rollback feature, and the ability to disable basically anything you don’t like. If a patch comes out and it breaks something, or you don’t like the changes it makes, you can rollback to an earlier version of the game. Don’t want chat or auto-updates? Turn them off. Up to you.

But! It’s entirely optional, so if you don’t want to download another client onto your computer, you don’t have to. If you do want to give it a shot, then you can head over to GOG now to sign up, and you’ll be emailed a beta key at some point in the near future.

As this is a beta, a few of the features aren’t in yet; you can’t, for instance, rollback versions right now. The first major game to support GOG Galaxy will be The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but GOG reckons that this client will pave the way for more AAA releases on GOG in the future. We’ll see if they’re right.