For most of its life, GOG has lived in a strange place within the PC gaming ecosystem. It’s respected, even beloved, but rarely treated as a major force. Steam dominates the landscape so completely that every other storefront feels like a footnote. Yet in recent conversations with GOG’s leadership, something has shifted. The company isn’t pretending it can topple Valve — in fact, it’s openly admitting it doesn’t want to. What it wants is far more interesting: to excel in the places where Steam won’t even bother competing.
GOG’s Realistic Strategy Shift
There’s a refreshing honesty in hearing GOG’s bosses say, essentially, “We’re not here to wrestle Goliath.” They know the size of the battlefield. They know the power imbalance. And they know that trying to beat Steam at its own game is a fool’s errand. Instead, they’re leaning into the identity that made GOG matter in the first place — a storefront built on ownership, preservation, and user freedom at a time when the rest of the industry is drifting toward walled gardens and DRM‑heavy ecosystems.
What makes this moment even more compelling is how blunt GOG has become about the state of PC gaming’s dominant operating system. When the owner of GOG calls Windows “such poor‑quality software,” it’s not just a spicy quote — it’s a declaration of intent. Windows has become increasingly bloated, increasingly restrictive, and increasingly unpredictable for gamers. Ads in the Start menu, forced updates, and a creeping sense that the OS is no longer designed for power users have pushed many enthusiasts to look elsewhere.
And “elsewhere” is exactly where GOG wants to be.
🐧 GOG’s Linux Pivot: A Quiet Revolution Brewing
Linux, once the punchline of PC gaming, is now a legitimate platform thanks to Valve’s Proton and the runaway success of the Steam Deck. What used to be a niche hobbyist environment has quietly become one of the most exciting spaces in gaming. GOG sees that momentum — and unlike most publishers, it actually understands the philosophical overlap. Linux users care about control. They care about openness. They care about not being locked into a single ecosystem. In other words, they care about the same things GOG has been fighting for since the “Good Old Games” days.
This isn’t a sudden pivot. It’s the culmination of a long, messy history. GOG began as a preservationist haven, a place where classic PC games were restored, patched, and made playable on modern systems. It built a loyal audience by refusing to compromise on DRM, even when the rest of the industry insisted it was necessary. But as the years went on, GOG tried to modernize. Galaxy launched. Features were added. The store expanded. And somewhere in that process, the company lost a bit of its identity. It tried to be Steam Lite — and it didn’t work.
Now, after years of recalibration, GOG seems to have rediscovered its purpose. It’s no longer chasing Steam’s feature set or Epic’s exclusivity deals. It’s doubling down on what makes it different: true ownership, offline installers, curated libraries, and a commitment to platforms that value freedom over convenience.
The timing couldn’t be better. Windows is stumbling. Linux is rising. Gamers are increasingly aware of how fragile digital ownership really is. And in that environment, GOG’s voice — once niche — suddenly feels essential.
What’s happening here isn’t a storefront trying to win a war. It’s a storefront trying to protect something worth fighting for. Steam will continue to dominate the market, and that’s fine. Valve has earned its place. But GOG is carving out a role that Steam can’t replicate: the guardian of DRM‑free gaming, the champion of platform independence, the company willing to say out loud what others won’t.
In a world where digital ecosystems are tightening their grip, GOG isn’t trying to defeat Goliath. It’s trying to make sure David still has a place to stand.
