GOG, CD Projekt’s DRM-free digital distribution service, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. In the past decade, the store has become one of the biggest Steam alternatives on PC, but there’s at least one area where Valve’s store is ahead – mod support. But it sounds like something akin to a GOG Workshop is on the way.
Built-in mod support, in theory, would allow players to directly download fanmade content through a centralized delivery mechanism, likely through the GOG Galaxy client. Integrated mod downloads tend to be a bit less versatile than manual installations, but it’s tough to beat the convenience.
Managing director Piotr Karwowski tells Eurogamer that new GOG features are typically driven by developer requests. “If they say ‘guys we need the ability to upload patches ourselves’, we deliver it. If we have a game where the dev says ‘guys we’d like to sign the release but this is an important feature for us’, then this automatically boosts the priority of it.”
Mod support will happen, according to Karwowski – “it’s just matter of how soon.”
“There is plenty of stuff we have planned right now. The thing is, we love to announce those things when we’re ready to show them! Not before. Even with mod support, which I know will come at some point, it’s probably something I shouldn’t have said, but (now) it’s out there and it doesn’t matter.”
Asked if a partnership with a site like Nexus Mods is possible, head of global communications Łukasz Kukawski responds with an affirmative. “We are working very closely with Nexus Mods. We are in touch with them, we do some things with them, we highlight some of the mods we feel are useful.”
GOG’s got a major release on the way with the Thronebreaker RPG, which spins Gwent into a single-player adventure with a full, extensive narrative. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get convenient tools to expand it even further.