Wondering the same as well. I'm just gonna copy paste these questions from the GOG forum:

1.
On the GOG store page for this game it says that it requires the GOG Galaxy client. Any reason for forcing the Galaxy client instead of providing a Steam key? Just wondering since the Galaxy client itself is still in "early access" and still buggy, incomplete and far from done. So... if I run into problems I won't even know if it's the alpha of the game or the alpha of the client that's causing the problems!?


2.
How is multiplayer between Steam and Galaxy being handled? What if I want to join my buddy in a game and he owns the game on Steam and I own it on Galaxy?


3.
There are quite a lot of games that are getting different updates and are actually running on different versions on Steam and GOG. Latest example should be familiar to you, it's Sins of a Solar Empire. This is not only breaking the multiplayer, but also the mod community. Do you have any plans to stop this from happening with this game?

Ouch, that is a hell of a risk splitting the multiplayer community like that. That should be on the GOG purchase page if it isn't already. Multiplayer needs to hit a critical mass in numbers if it is going to survive. I don't have all the numbers but man I hope you weighted the pros and cons to it. You could end up with some upset customers if they don't think things through as well as the guys in this thread have and wonder why no one is online.

Edit: Can the people who buy it on gog then take the key, convert it and then use it on Steam should they wish to? That would at least give them the option to move over if they wish.

You could not sell it on GOG, at least until you have worked out a system where by Steam and GOG play nice for multiplayer. There are a lot of places you can get the game already. The more I think about it...unless you put it on the GOG page you are going to potentially get some major kick back from this, and either way I think it is going to hurt the multiplayer side of things. Anyway, I'll leave it there.

The platforms provide the networking services these days.  GOG has theirs. Steam has their own.  Unless we wanted to build out an entire networking infrastructure for this, we can't do it.  Eventually we hope to actually do that but no time soon.

The short answer, unless Valve/GOG  create some sort of shared MP platform, that's the way it is.   

Creating a lobby is easy.  Creating a worldwide internet connection infrastructure is a different thing. Same thing happens on XBOX vs. PS4 games regularly too.

Frogboy why would you(the developers) risk splitting the community on what would appears to be a heavily multiplayer game, would it be more advisable to lose some sales by not allowing the game on gog but keeping the game alive longer by having a stronger SINGLE core online community? I as a gamer can not see how this is a good decision for the game and the community at a whole. At the very least it appears like a quick money grab. 

All in all, how does this benefit Ashes of the Singularity? As i can see no real benefit to splitting the multiplayer communities even if it means selling more total games. 

Edit: A possible and simple solution if you do pull support for gog is to offer everyone who wants to switch over a Steam key after they become aware of the multiplayer community issue. That way if they chose to stay its their own decision. 

~football13tb

GoG is going to be pretty dead multiplayer wise regardless if there's no cross contamination between them.  A small fraction of the player base will actually play multiplayer, a small fraction of that will play it regularly, and of that small fraction, a small fraction of those would have the GoG version in the first place.

Once word spreads that they wont be able to play hardly anyone, that number will shrink drastically going forward.

I'd like to know this too. GOG Galaxy is advertised as being Crossplay, meaning it allows GOG players to play with Steam players. It's strange to hear that that's not the case with Ashes. Is there anything preventing this from happening? Does it require extra programming on Stardock's side? I kind of assumed if a game was built into the Galaxy framework that it would automatically work with crossplay.

Another game that confirmed uses crossplay between gog and Steam is Grand Ages medieval.

From the GOG FAQ:

Crossplay-enabled games offer online play between GOG and Steam. Because where you buy your games shouldn't prevent you from playing with friends.

So I'm not entirely sure how you need to do extensive research into multiplayer infrastructure or why Valve/GOG need to create a shared platform - since GOG is already offering crossplay. Do you mean to say that all the crossplay-enabled games on GOG are not using networking services by Valve and GOG, but are all running on their own worldwide multiplayer infrastructure?

I personally have no idea.  Obviously if it can be done reasonably easily we'll do it.   We've just gotten the SDK on the GOG stuff recently. 

I don't understand why both games above have it working and Ashes, that is supposed to be enhancing with new features and to keep a centralized community, can't have cross play.

Did you even tested it to check if it is possible or not, how it will behave on Ashes?

It doesn't make sense to wait Galaxy be more mature when we are talking about a game that just left alpha, right?

Not native speaker, sorry if I did sound mean, it was not my purpose.

Thanks for the awesome game!

My perception is that people who buy games on GOG are not especially interested in MP anyway, so no big loss as far as interconnectivity? Am I wrong? Are GOG purchasers going to be interested in ranked MP automatch for Ashes?