For years, Linux gamers have occupied a peculiar position in the PC gaming ecosystem — technically capable of running thousands of titles through compatibility layers and workarounds, yet largely ignored by the storefronts that sell them. That dynamic shifted meaningfully this week when GOG, the DRM-free digital game retailer owned by CD Projekt, announced it would begin offering native Linux support for its platform and storefront.
The announcement, which arrived with little fanfare but enormous implications, signals a recognition by one of the industry’s most prominent digital retailers that Linux gaming has graduated from a niche curiosity to a commercially viable market segment. The move comes amid surging Linux adoption driven largely by Valve’s Steam Deck handheld console, which runs a Linux-based operating system, and growing dissatisfaction among certain PC gaming communities with the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows platform.
A Long-Overdue Acknowledgment of Linux’s Growing User Base
As reported by The Verge, GOG is rolling out native Linux support for its GOG Galaxy client, a development that Linux users have been requesting for the better part of a decade. The platform has long sold games that were compatible with Linux, but the actual GOG Galaxy application — the launcher and library management tool that ties the experience together — has never been available as a native Linux application. Users were forced to rely on community-built workarounds, running the Windows version of Galaxy through Wine or Lutris, or simply downloading games manually through GOG’s web interface without the benefits of the full client experience.
The gap between selling Linux-compatible games and actually supporting Linux as a platform has been a persistent source of frustration for the community. GOG’s store pages would list Linux versions of games, but the infrastructure to deliver and manage those games seamlessly on Linux was conspicuously absent. This created an awkward contradiction: a retailer philosophically aligned with user freedom through its DRM-free stance, yet functionally excluding an operating system built on the very principles of openness and user control that GOG claimed to champion.
The Steam Deck Effect and Valve’s Linux Groundwork
The timing of GOG’s decision is hardly coincidental. Valve’s Steam Deck, which launched in February 2022 and has sold millions of units worldwide, fundamentally altered the calculus for Linux gaming support. The handheld PC runs SteamOS, a custom Linux distribution built on Arch Linux, and its commercial success demonstrated that consumers would embrace Linux-based gaming hardware if the experience was sufficiently polished. Valve invested heavily in Proton, its compatibility layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux with minimal friction, and the results have been transformative. According to ProtonDB, a community-maintained database tracking game compatibility, thousands of Windows titles now run flawlessly on Linux through Proton.
Steam’s own hardware survey data has shown Linux market share among Steam users climbing steadily since the Deck’s launch, hovering in the range of 2% — a figure that may sound modest but represents millions of active users on the world’s largest PC gaming platform. For GOG, which operates at a significantly smaller scale than Steam, even capturing a fraction of that audience represents meaningful growth potential. The DRM-free retailer has historically differentiated itself through consumer-friendly policies and a curated catalog of classic games, but it has struggled to compete with Steam’s sheer scale and feature set. Native Linux support removes one barrier that may have pushed Linux-inclined gamers exclusively toward Valve’s platform.
What Native Support Actually Means for Users
The distinction between “selling games that work on Linux” and “natively supporting Linux” is more than semantic. A native GOG Galaxy client on Linux means automatic game updates, cloud save synchronization, achievement tracking, friends list integration, and the unified library management that Windows and macOS users have enjoyed for years. Previously, Linux users who purchased games on GOG had to manage installations manually, check for updates themselves, and forgo the social and organizational features baked into the Galaxy client.
This friction mattered. In practical terms, it meant that a Linux user deciding where to purchase a game that was available on both Steam and GOG faced a clear usability gap. Steam offered a fully native Linux client with Proton integration, automatic updates, Steam Workshop mod support, and seamless controller configuration — the full suite. GOG offered a DRM-free installer and a philosophical commitment to ownership. For many users, principle alone wasn’t enough to overcome the day-to-day convenience gap, and GOG likely lost sales as a result.
CD Projekt’s Strategic Calculus and the Broader Market
CD Projekt, GOG’s parent company and the studio behind The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, has been working to stabilize and grow GOG’s business after years of financial pressure. The storefront has operated at thin margins and occasionally reported losses, struggling to find sustainable growth in a market dominated by Steam, with additional competition from the Epic Games Store, Microsoft’s Xbox app, and various publisher-specific launchers. Every strategic decision GOG makes must be weighed against its resource constraints — it simply cannot match the spending power of its larger competitors.
In that context, native Linux support represents a relatively efficient investment. The Linux gaming community, while smaller than its Windows counterpart, is disproportionately engaged, technically sophisticated, and loyal to platforms that treat it well. Linux users have demonstrated a willingness to spend money on games and support retailers that support them. GOG’s DRM-free philosophy already resonates strongly with the open-source ethos prevalent in Linux communities, creating a natural alignment that GOG has failed to fully capitalize on until now.
The Competitive Dynamics of Platform Support
GOG’s move also reflects a broader shift in how digital game retailers think about platform support. For years, the conventional wisdom in the industry held that Linux’s tiny market share didn’t justify the engineering investment required to support it. Valve challenged that assumption first by releasing Steam for Linux in 2013, then by doubling down with SteamOS and the Steam Deck. The results have validated the investment: Linux users on Steam are active, they spend money, and they serve as evangelists for the platform.
Epic Games, by contrast, has shown little interest in Linux. The Epic Games Store has no native Linux client, and while some games purchased through Epic can be run on Linux through community tools, the company has not prioritized the platform. This creates an opening for GOG. By offering native Linux support alongside its DRM-free model, GOG can position itself as the clear alternative to Steam for Linux gamers — a second-choice storefront that respects both their platform preference and their views on digital ownership. In a market where differentiation is increasingly difficult, this combination could prove potent.
Technical Challenges and the Road Ahead
Of course, announcing Linux support and executing it well are two different things. GOG will need to ensure that the Linux version of Galaxy is stable, performant, and feature-complete relative to its Windows counterpart. Linux distributions vary significantly — Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Manjaro, and dozens of others each present their own packaging and dependency challenges. GOG will need to decide which distributions to officially support, how to handle package distribution (Flatpak, Snap, native packages, or AppImage), and how to manage the inevitable edge cases that arise from Linux’s fragmented ecosystem.
There’s also the question of game compatibility. While GOG sells many games with native Linux builds, a significant portion of its catalog is Windows-only. GOG will need to decide whether to integrate a Proton-like compatibility layer into Galaxy for Linux, allowing users to run Windows games seamlessly, or whether to limit the Linux experience to games with native Linux builds. Valve’s Proton has set expectations high — Linux gamers now expect to be able to play virtually any game, not just those with native ports. How GOG navigates this challenge will determine whether its Linux support feels complete or half-hearted.
A Milestone for Digital Ownership and Open Platforms
Beyond the competitive and technical dimensions, GOG’s embrace of Linux carries symbolic weight. GOG has built its brand on the principle that buyers should truly own their games — no DRM, no always-online requirements, no risk that a shuttered server will render a purchase inaccessible. Linux, as an open-source operating system, embodies a parallel philosophy: users should control their computing environment, not be subject to the whims of a single corporation. The marriage of these two philosophies feels overdue but natural.
For the millions of gamers who have chosen Linux — whether through the Steam Deck, a custom desktop build, or a philosophical commitment to open-source software — GOG’s announcement represents validation. It says that the market has grown large enough and loud enough that even resource-constrained competitors can no longer afford to ignore it. Whether GOG can translate that goodwill into meaningful market share gains will depend on execution, but the intent alone marks a significant moment in the maturation of Linux as a gaming platform. The DRM-free retailer has finally decided to meet its most philosophically aligned audience where they live — and that decision could pay dividends for years to come.