CD Projekt announced GOG Galaxy 2.0 last month as a cross-platform game library where you will be able to add all your games from multiple storefronts and keep them conveniently organized. This is a project that aims to turn a crisis into an opportunity, as the neverending expansion of digital distribution clients has been going strong for a few years now. PC gamers have always preferred keeping our game collections in a single platform, and also being able to play older games conveniently. Although we are not opposed to multiple storefronts, a single unified client to organize all our games is a very attractive idea. There have been some sketches of that idea with Discord's Universal Library, but GOG Galaxy 2.0 seems the most serious effort, especially now that Microsoft has been announced as a partner.

According to a report on GameStar, Managing Director at GOG.com Piotr Karwowski has confirmed that Microsoft will be a partner of CD Projekt in their new venture. Below is a Google Translate version of the announcement along with the original in German.

Uns gegenüber bestätigte Karwoski bereits Microsoft als Partner: »Wir haben Phil Spencer unsere App gezeigt und er war sofort begeistert, weil dieses Zusammenführen von Plattformen ja genau das ist, was Microsoft ebenfalls vorantreiben möchte.« So könne man unter anderem Game-Pass-Spiele in Galaxy 2.0 integrieren. Man sei aber auch mit fast allen anderen Plattform-Anbietern im Gespräch und bekomme bis dato sehr positive Signale. Karwoski already confirmed to us as a Microsoft partner: "We showed Phil Spencer our app and he was immediately enthusiastic, because this merge of platforms is exactly what Microsoft also wants to promote." So you could, among other game-pass games integrate in Galaxy 2.0. One is however also with nearly all other platform offerers in the conversation and get to date very positive signals.

This seems in line with Phil Spencer's announcement before E3 2019, where PC gamers are at the center of Microsoft's new approach to the PC gaming ecosystem. This includes bringing the Xbox Game Pass to PC, bringing Xbox Game Studios to Steam, and allowing the Microsoft Store to support games using the Win32 API. The support for a universal client where PC gamers are able to organize their libraries and operate on multiple storefronts would be another great step toward that goal.

What are your thoughts on CD Projekt's partnership with Microsoft? Will GOG Galaxy 2.0 gain traction as a universal game library? Let us know in the comments below!