Bluddy: Valve is a fairly amicable company

tinyE:

Bluddy: So why was the decision made to do things this way?

Bluddy: I'd love to hear from the GOG devs on why they decided to create a new API for multiplayer (Galaxy) rather than just re-implement Steam's API on their own servers. Valve is a fairly amicable company and I doubt they would have objected to GOG doing this.

The result of the current state of affairs is that a company has to willingly invest in making their code work with Galaxy's API. Often the API is significantly different, and making a game cross-compatible is a big investment for the relatively small share of users GOG has compared to Steam. GOG's edge is in keeping old games working long after dev support is gone, but when the current generation of games that use Steam for multiplayer gets old, their multiplayer won't work on GOG. Had GOG's API been compatible with Steam's, on the other hand, games that use Steam multiplayer would work with GOG's multiplayer with minimal effort.

So why was the decision made to do things this way?

Ancient-Red-Dragon: If what OP is proposing were reality, then multiplayer on GOG would instantly transform so that it no longer sucks. That would be a major step in the right direction for causing GOG finally to become huge and a true competitor to Steam.

I'm not sure why so many people are knocking the idea.

What's the alternative? How else are GOG games ever going to stop having terrible and/or virtually non-existent multiplayer?

The strategy that's been used up until now, of doing nothing other than begging devs to implement good multiplayer and Crossplay with Steam obviously isn't working. The devs don't listen, and almost never actually implement Crossplay. So something needs to be done, that's for sure. There is no need to keep the current status quo, of GOG multiplayer sucking, forever.

If OP's idea is not the way, then what is?

tremere110: Because of this.

At least in the US it would be illegal to use Steam API names without their permission. GoG may be located in Poland but does a lot of business with customers from the US - where Steam is located, Steam could sue them in US court.

Steam isn't open to sharing. Steam keeps tight control over their software as evidenced by SteamVR. Games on GoG can use SteamVR. Anybody can install SteamVR. The problem is that SteamVR can only be distributed through the Steam client - so a lot of games that have SteamVR support don't have it on GoG because GoG can't guarantee access to SteamVR and thus can't guarantee to support it.

Given the control they maintain over SteamVR - I suspect they will behave similarly over their API.