Comment on GOG’s new preservation program intends to keep classic games playable ‘forever’
knokelmaat@beehaw.org 3 days agoI can understand that their priorities lie with Windows initially. I also prefer Steam for their amazing linux support, but for preservation Steam is also a mess: delisting of games / the fact that the games are not DRM free. A copy you buy on GOG is yours forever, a copy on Steam is less certain. Also know that GOG operates at a fraction of the budget that Steam has, so they don’t necessarily have the money to put someone on linux support too. But hopefully in the future this will change!
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 3 days ago
Yes, the DRM free games is a huge win for preservation. I’m not discounting the value of GOG. But that’s something we had already. My critique was about the focus on Windows only, which is not the best idea if games should be preserved “forever”. Because Windows 11 will be the only supported one soon.
But any efforts trying to make games work forever is always good. At least they didn’t rule out other OS in the future. While my initial reaction was a bit negative in the nature, because I was very disappointment, I’m still happy they do something about it. It’s even more bitter because they supported Linux in the past… But let’s see how this is going. I don’t want to end this in a negative note. I mean it can only get better with such a goal.
Petter1@lemm.ee 2 days ago
I think, if they are preserved for windows DRM and anti-cheat free, it should be no problem launching them using wine / proton. In the other hand, a native Linux game will not run as smooth on WSL as a comparison.
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 days ago
I’m not suggesting to preserve a Linux version only. If anything, I meant to test and make sure the Windows build works with Proton on Linux, in addition to making sure it works on Windows. Some games have Linux versions, they just do not care about them either. And maybe make a Linux version of the GOG launcher as well.