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GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

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Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#51

Post by super256 »

I bought from GOG once, and downloaded their launcher. Then, I started the game, played for maybe an hour, put my PC to sleep and went to bed. Then, the next next day, I resumed my PC from sleep, closed the game, and because I didn't like it, decided a few days later to request a refund.

The game had 26 hours or so logged, because Galaxy has a poor way to log hours. Apparently the interval between game start and game end is the time you played the game.

The support declined my refund request, I tried to explain that I didn't even get the achievements of after the tutorial and that I could impossibly have played that many hours because I was simply not on my PC.

The gist is: If you buy a game from GOG which you might won't like: NEVER download galaxy, only the offline installers! I didn't do that because it was too convenient to download their launcher, as the offline installer of the game I played (Baldurs Gate 3) was split into many, many files, which I would have to download one by one and install them all by hand.

Still sour to this day that I have not gotten my 50€ back. Steam never had such issues for me, and even if you can at least ask their support to escalate the ticket so someone from L2/L3 or even engineering looks at your ticket.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#52

Post by apetresc »

Ekaros wrote: post #28
eterm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the opposite takeaway. Companies with strong financial performance don't tend to use words like "encouraging". That is the language you get from companies that are in trouble and hoping for recovery. Talking about people's enthusiasm for their mission is just straight up dodging the question itself.

If I read their income statement from Q3 correctly it is comparatively not doing great. 01.01.2025 to 30.09.2025 net profit 910 thousand PLN I think. 01.01.2024 to 30.09.2024 net profit 32 thousand PLN. With "from 1 January to 30 September 2025: 4.2365 PLN/EUR and from 1 January to 30 September 2024:4.3022 PLN/EUR." It is not that much. So splitting it off probably make sense for the CD Projekt.

I'm not sure I understand your figures. What is "32 thousand PLN", surely their entire annual profit for all of 2024 was not literally 32K PLN (approx. 9K USD)? Is this measured in millions? And whatever they're measured in, surely 32K to 910K in the span of a year is considered excellent progress?

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#53

Post by GaryBluto »

aeyes wrote: post #26
brachkow wrote: post #9

It is great because game preservation isn't what game industry shareholders usually interested. CD Project makes great games, but gaming industry is all-or-nothing. They already had colossal flop at their previous release. If another flop happens shutting down GOG is clearly would be on a table as a cost cutting measure.

What game was a colossal flop? Cyberpunk was released too early but they kept on delivering patches and then the players game. It's their highest earning title.

IIRC they fixed various bugs but they didn't fix the broken promises. The biggest problems with Cyberpunk were architectural, things that would basically require redesigning the game to match what was promised.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#54

Post by 101008 »

First time I heard about GOG. Is like Steam but you download the .exe installer (or wahtever format it is) from the game you purchase? Like Kazaa/Ares but paid? I love it to be honest, and I think that's how it should be, but how do creators (and GOG) fight piracy? What's preventing me from buying, getting the offline installer and then sharing it later?

If I am wrong and GOG is something completely different, then let's build something like this together! (a marketplace of offline installers!)

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#55

Post by pjmlp »

Fiveplus wrote: post #23

> Can I still download offline installers? Yes. This is the only line I was looking for. I stopped buying on Steam sometime ago because I realized I was just renting licenses. GOG is the only major storefront where I feel like I actually own the product. As long as offline installers remain a core tenet, I don't care who owns the company. That said, it helps that it's someone returning to their roots rather than a pr…

I also refuse to install their shop, Web powered "native" apps only the unavoidable ones.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#56

Post by Semaphor »

embedding-shape wrote: post #43
Semaphor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to Steam directly, yeah, sometimes a bit more expensive. But as soon as you go to sites selling steam keys (proper ones, not resellers), it's "almost always, a lot", as steam itself rarely has good prices. Now that might still be worth it, but it's relevant

> But as soon as you go to sites selling steam keys (proper ones, not resellers), What is a company/individual if not a reseller if they're selling Steam keys? You cannot sell Steam keys without being Steam or the developer itself, and not be called a "reseller". Or what sites are you referring to here, stuff like Humble Bundle where you get Steam keys with the bundles?

Resellers sell something they bought. Or that's the idea. The sites are marketplaces, sometimes having people sell keys from different countries, sometimes stolen credit card keys. There are several game devs saying they'd prefer people pirating over using those sites.

Real stores sell steam keys because they are selling directly from the developers. Steam is actually nice (or preempting monopoly talk, depending on your view) in that it allows that (I think there are limits, but IIRC rather generous)

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#57

Post by kgwxd »

I bought a lot of stuff from GOG a long time ago, but the only thing I've use them for in the past 5 years is claiming Prime Gaming rewards on Twitch. I don't think I've even downloaded a single one of them. I'm curious if that agreement with Amazon might have hurt GOG. Did it cost them some money when people like me to claim all those games without ever converting to a paying customer?

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#58

Post by sevensor »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #33

I've spent hundreds of hours on the GOG version of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Every community recommends the GOG version over the Steam HD one. I didn't think how important GOG was to me, but now I'm going to find that patron program they're talking about. It would be great if in 30 years I can still play Master of Magic and that won't happen by itself.

> Master of Magic

I picked up a bargain bin CD ROM of this game in 1996 and it works under dosbox as well as it ever did. Which is to say mostly ok but sometimes hilariously crashy. I think what needs to happen for us to spend another 30 years crafting overpowered plate mail is for there to continue being good emulators for the mid 90s DOS environment.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#59

Post by Semaphor »

dangus wrote: post #38
Semaphor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to Steam directly, yeah, sometimes a bit more expensive. But as soon as you go to sites selling steam keys (proper ones, not resellers), it's "almost always, a lot", as steam itself rarely has good prices. Now that might still be worth it, but it's relevant

I’m just going to go ahead and plug is there any deal dot com. You can sync up your Steam wishlist (it’s a little weird to setup but once you figured it out it works). I almost never buy games directly from steam anymore, there’s almost always someone else with a discount on steam keys. And sometimes GOG has the best deal!

I love ITAD! If you use a search engine like kagi or duck duck go supporting bangs, you can use !itad to search there.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#60

Post by candiddevmike »

paxys wrote: post #45
mariusor wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is the same as what can happen to GOG if you don't have the files backed up. And if you do happen to have them backed up, is there such a large difference between having the installer vs the full game installation stored?

Yes there is a difference. Steam sells you a license that can be revoked at any time. The games have DRM, and rely on cloud servers to authenticate you. If you turn your internet off they will all stop working after a certain period, even if fully downloaded. And if Steam or the DRM owner goes out of business you will end up with nothing. If you buy and download something from GOG, it is yours. You can still play it…

Not all steam games have DRM
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