271–280 of 574 posts
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If someone pirates 100 60$ games it does not mean that had piracy been impossible they would have spent 6000$ on those games
They might spend $600 on 10 of those games, though. It's not all-or-nothing.
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They can. Do they? Statistically?
If I am a person interested in this specific thing (backing up my games) I would for sure check. Wouldn't you?
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>because it's more convenient Yes, now imagine if we just removed the barrier to piracy completely. An easy to use client just like Steam, except all the games are free cracked copies. There is no way thats not going to drop sales.
What has been proven many times is that people overwhelmingly choose the least effort/risk option. A free Steam full of certified pirates games with official games updates would obviously drop sales but this is moot as it will never exist.
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Heroic works perfectly, in a manner identical to Lutris (from a user perspective). I tested both several years ago and have been a happy Heroic user since. However, neither support 2 key features of GOG Galaxy: 1. cloud saves 2. achievements These are 2 of the most significant features of competitors like Steam, IMO, so missing them for GOG on Linux is unfortunate.
That's simply not true at all, Heroic Launcher supports both cloud saves and achievements. I've been using them for a long time on Deck now. Please don't lie :/
As for achievements, I wouldn't say it's had support for "a long time"; they were added in August 2024 (v2.15.1).
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I grew up playing pirated games on the Apple II 35 years ago. The fact that many people pirate is not an opinion.
People pirate Steam Games anyway. Stating that people pirate too much to make it viable is purely opinion and not based on numbers. Sure, for AAA games you get 2 to 3 months without a cracked version, but this stops afterward. For non-AAA games, the steam version is usually crackable from day-1.
Yes, that obviously only works for offline games, but yeah, cracking Steaam games is as easy as cracking any other game, maybe even easier
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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?
No it was actually just circa 9 thousand Euros from GOG.COM. And it seems there was period of having potential loss of million PLN as well in Q3 of 2024 I think. So it looks quite variable based on which products release. See: https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-content/uploads-en/2025/11/c... Starting from page 28.
They lose ~72% of every PLN/EUR/USD they bring in. Their financial statement is Really confusingly laid out. However, pg 36 has comparison. GOG is actually not THAT tiny of a segment (percentage-wise, absolute EUR / PLN numbers are still small). 49k PLN / 300k PLN for the CD PROJEKT Red and 350k total.
Compared to CD PROJEKT RED, insanely horrible cost of sales ratio.
July 1st, 2025 to Sept. 30th, 2025 (Numbers are in PLN, directly from document)
CD PROJEKT RED GOG.COM
Sales revenue 303,133 48,982
Cost of sales 23,310 35,151
CD PROJEKT RED GOG.COM
Sales revenue 658,575 143,285
Cost of sales 61,307 103,075
For comparison to the 72% ratio, their main video game creation business spends 7-8% on cost of sales.
From page 8 "Selling expenses represents costs of marketing activities relating to the GOG.COM platform and the work on the development and processing of sales executed through that platform."
From some of the rest of the document, it seems like "maybe" some of that is prepayments and costs related to providing the software.
Personal view, while it may be beneficial to not have to deal with GOG from an operational perspective, a significant percentage of sales are on the platform for their own software, and CD PROJEKT's title releases heavily influence sales figures on GOG, so it may end up limiting themselves from an otherwise beneficial distribution channel. Probably provides better negotiating position also if you're trying to barter with Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Valve, ect... However, if the partnership continues with the next owners, may not be an issue.
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People only pirate games because the publishers make it too painful to play games legally. I have pirated games that I own simply because it's easier to play. This pattern has been shown time and time again. When people pirate, it's usually due to a problem with the experience. People pay for convenience. Now a days a lot of people are pirating games because the quality of games has gone down the drain. Publishers ar…
No, paying nothing is very compelling for a lot of consumers, you can see this in many other areas of content as well.
When a product is providing value, and it's easier and more convenient to buy than pirating it, then people will buy it.
Netflix killed piracy until the platform fragmented and now you need half a dozen subs to watch everything. Expectedly, free streaming sites are now better than ever.
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Steam uses outsized market power to take an enormous %30 cut so it also does major damage to the games industry.
The 30% cut is standard, and was so at retail even before Steam existed IIRC.
The rush to defend Valve's monopoly is so weird since HN usually hates fat cat billionaires. Valve is raking in so much money as a middleman that Gabe Newell has ~$1 billion worth of yachts alone, in addition to the rest of his wealth, yet gamers want Valve to keep on bleeding them and game studios?
DRM libraries, whether DMCA or copyright law protects it, is an anomaly to include the part about the Projekt.
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People only pirate games because the publishers make it too painful to play games legally. I have pirated games that I own simply because it's easier to play. This pattern has been shown time and time again. When people pirate, it's usually due to a problem with the experience. People pay for convenience. Now a days a lot of people are pirating games because the quality of games has gone down the drain. Publishers ar…
>> I have pirated games that I own simply because it's easier to play. Can you share some examples of instances where the legal route is too difficult? I haven't felt this way in a long time. What are the changes necessary for you to purchase?