GOG Galaxy's biggest update marks the end of beta phase

Announced in mid-2014 and launched into open beta the following year, digital distributor GOG will shift its Galaxy "gamer-friendly" client from beta with its next major update.

Update 1.2's flagship feature is Universal Cloud Saves—whereby players can add cloud saving functionalities to games both old and new, including games which have never offered the option before.

"Thanks to this, excellent titles like Planescape: Torment, Dragon Age Origins, Heroes of Might & Magic III, Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines will gain benefits of saves syncing and cloud backup for the first time ever," says GOG.

The CD Projekt Red-owned distributor adds that because GOG is "all about giving freedom of choice to users", cloud saves can be backed up as players see fit and will never be locked behind the gaming platform.

GOG's managing director Piotr Karwowski explains why cloud saving is so important to GOG Galaxy:

"Losing your save files can be really frustrating. And a big part of gaming legacy, including many of the greatest games, was missing cloud saves - until now. Thanks to the Universal Cloud Saves feature of GOG Galaxy, not only new games, but also the all-time classics and titles which development has been finished years ago, will be upgraded with saves syncing and cloud backup."

As well as cloud saving, GOG Galaxy's update 1.2 brings with it a host of customisation options and a new togglable hibernation mode which lowers the client's in-game CPU usage which in turn saves resources and/or battery life depending on the device in use. Bandwidth limiting and scheduling, an FPS counter, screenshot capturing, in-game overlay, achievement rarity, a new chat system, and desktop notifications make up some of the update's other new additions.

If you opted in to test incoming updates, GOG Galaxy's update 1.2 is available now—but will be rolled out to everyone at some stage next month. More information can be found on GOG.com.