Game launchers are getting ridiculous. Navigate through Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic Game Store, GOG, or any number of individual launchers, is tedious and cumbersome. It is tiring just remembering which games are where, and I gave up on trying to manually add links to my Steam library a long time ago.
Fortunately, those days seem to be behind me. After finally being green-lit to access the GOG Galaxy 2.0 beta, it is the only launcher I have needed to use. When loading up GOG Galaxy 2.0, it collates all games purchased on GOG, Xbox Live, Epic Games Store, Origin, Playstation Network, Uplay and Steam. This sounds like a small quality of life improvement, but gamers with more than a few dozen games will recognise how much more convenient using one launcher is.
Navigating through GOG Galaxy 2.0 feels much the same as navigating through any other launcher – it has its quirks, as do the other launchers – but having every game I own at my fingers tips at all times is a game (launcher) changer.
It is easy on the eyes, too. It’s clean and simple. Steam stole the headlines following their library layout update, but GOG Galaxy 2.0 looks and feels just as modern.
GOG Galaxy 2.0 currently tracks all achievements and hours played for all games across compatible platforms. You can use filtering, sorting and tagging to create your own custom library view, and there’s even the option to add your own game covers and backgrounds to make it look exactly as you’d like. Game discovery is on the way, which will allow following upcoming releases, not dissimilar to wishlisting games on Steam.
Not content with just being a hub to launch games, GOG Galaxy 2.0 also has an activity feed which lets you see what all of your friends across all platforms have been playing. There are leaderboards to allow for some friendly competition. Two huge future updates are one friends list and cross-platform chat, which could put some real pressure on Discord and TeamSpeak moving forward.
Quite why Valve hasn’t introduced these features to Steam escapes me. As the number one PC game store and launcher, they could have introduced the facility to unify the launchers and removed any and all requirements to ever click on their competitor’s launchers. Seeing CD Projekt steal a march on them not only shows ambition, but also shows that they listen to their target market’s needs and wants. When GOG Galaxy 2.0 fully launches, Steam could find itself in a difficult position.
The original GOG Galaxy was okay, but it was just another launcher to maintain. With GOG Galaxy 2.0, CD Projekt have created the only launcher you’ll need to use. It is genuinely THE Game Launcher 2.0. If you haven’t signed up to the beta yet, head over to the official website. It can take quite a while to be invited, but when that invitation comes through, you won’t look back.
