A little more than a year ago, GOG launched its Galaxy client, another step towards a head-to-head competition with the ever-popular Steam platform, with the promise of DRM-free games for players to buy and play. Earlier this year, the company took another stab at Steam by offering a Games in Development program, similar to Valve’s Early Access initiative.
Now, GOG is taking its plans one step further with GOG Connect, which allows you to connect your Steam account and add eligible games from your existing Steam library to your GOG account, thereby making each game a DRM-free title.
To start the process, you will need to connect your Steam account to your GOG account. The system will then look through your Steam library to find specific games and add them to your library on GOG. At the moment, there are 22 titles that are eligible to import to your GOG library. The company said that it’s doing its best to get more games added to the list.
Bit.Trip RunnerBraidBreach & ClearBeach & Clear: DeadlineBroken Sword: Director’s CutFTL: Advanced EditionGalactic Civilizations IIIMount & BladeProject ZomboidSaints Row 2Shadowrun ReturnsSherlock: Secret of the Silver EarringThe Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final CutThe Witcher: Enhanced EditionThe WitnessTo the MoonTrine: Enchanted EditionTwo WorldsUnreal GoldUnreal Tournament: Game of the Year EditionVVVVVVXenonauts
However, there is a catch. These games are available to import only for a limited time. If you own any of the games on the list above, you have five days to import them to GOG. For the most part, your save files will still work with the game regardless of whether you’re using Steam or GOG. If you rely on Steam cloud saves, it should be noted that those saves aren’t automatically transferred to the GOG version of the game, so you’ll need to backup those files if you want to continue where you left off.
It will take some time to see if GOG’s strategy pays off, but at the moment, it solves two big issues: buying the same game on multiple platforms and getting a DRM-free version of a game you already own. GOG is already known for its DRM-free titles, and with its new Connect feature, you don’t have to buy the same game on a different client. Instead, it’s just transferred from Steam to your DRM-free library.
Granted, there are few titles currently available for import, but if GOG manages to lure popular publishers and developers to the idea, it could make Connect a popular feature.
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