PSA: If you use GOG for PC gaming, you need to read this warning

What you need to know

• GOG, CD Projekt's DRM-free PC gaming distribution service, is implementing a new cloud storage policy after August 31, 2024.

• The new policy will add a hard 200 MB per game cloud save storage limit, with CD Projekt planning to delete cloud saves (in order from oldest to newest) that exceed this limit until the remaining files fit within it.

• Players can manage cloud saves on the GOG website after logging in; additionally, within the GOG Galaxy software, users can also back up their cloud saves and save them locally on their PC.

• By backing their cloud saves up to local storage, players can keep over 200 MB of saves after the new policy goes into effect.

CD Projekt's digital game distribution platform GOG is one of the best PC gaming services available, and is generally considered to be an excellent DRM-free alternative to other popular platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store. If you use it, though, you should be aware of a policy change regarding its online cloud saves — these give you a fallback if local saves get corrupted or you're planning to play on a PC other than your main rig — that's slated to go into effect later this year.

While GOG currently allows you to keep over 200 MB of cloud saves per game stored on its service, that will no longer be the case after August 31, 2024. In a recent blog post, CD Projekt announced its intent to automatically delete any cloud saves that exceed GOG's default 200MB allocation limit after this date, with the company explaining that this hard limit is being implemented to reduce storage costs while still giving players plenty of save storage per game.

"As the size and number of games increase, so does the demand for Cloud Storage. These limits ensure that all players have access to sufficient and manageable space for their game progress, and that we keep the associated costs under control," reads the publisher's post. "By optimizing our storage allocation, we aim to continue providing a reliable and user-friendly platform for everyone."

Notably, CD Projekt says that the first files it deletes from game save storage that exceeds 200 MB will be "unnecessary files," or files that managed to get saved in these folders despite not being related to your actual game saves. If a game's cloud storage is still over 200 MB after this, game saves will then be deleted in order from oldest to newest until the remaining files fit within the storage limit.

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You can review and manage your cloud saves on the GOG website here if you'd like to get the save storage for each of the games you play under 200 MB before August 31. If you want to back up your cloud saves locally to your PC, you can do so within the GOG Galaxy launcher software by selecting a game, selecting "Extras," and then clicking the download arrow in the "Cloud Saves Backup" section (GOG has an official guide for this). Note that backed up cloud saves saved locally won't be affected by GOG's auto-deletion, so if you have over 200 MB of saves for a game you want to keep, make sure you do this.

In order to ensure that GOG users aren't caught by surprise when the new policy goes into effect after August 31, CD Projekt says it will regularly notify any players with game save folders over 200 MB about the hard cap "until all your Cloud Save files are within the allocated limits." Keep an eye out for these notifications, as even if you don't have any cloud save folders that exceed 200 MB now, you might push one beyond that between now and the end of August while playing the best PC games you're into right now.

While it's unfortunate that you won't be able to keep more than 200 MB of cloud saves per game on GOG's storage service after August, CD Projekt's position here is very reasonable, and it's nice that it's given players a lengthy three-month warning. That said, it's still bad news for PC gamers with tons of cloud saves, but limited amounts of local storage available.

If that sounds like you, I'd look into getting one of the best external solid-state drives or one of the best SSDs to expand your storage. Hard drives aren't exactly the cheapest things in the world, but they're more affordable than they used to be, and with games continuing to get larger and larger, giving yourself more file space is never a bad thing. You could even use a flash drive like the excellent SK hynix Tube 31, currently 20% off.