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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

#301

Post by fc417fc802 »

Tarball10 wrote: post #244
afiori wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but if a pirate would have not paid the full price why care? It is by definition not a lost sale, the most likely outcome is just an increase by one the player count

Not paying full price is not a "lost sale". People unwilling to pay full price wait for a discount or price reduction. Look at how popular the seasonal Steam sales are. Pirating the game very likely means they never purchase it at any price, which _is_ a lost sale.

It's only a lost sale if that person would otherwise have purchased it. At least in my personal experience that was _never_ the case.

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

#302

Post by fc417fc802 »

Tarball10 wrote: post #239
afiori wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't that exactly what companies use as justification for DMCA and DRM protection? Without those, you'd have sites full of pirated game downloads easily found through search engines. DMCA takedowns force those sites into shady corners of the internet, making them harder to find and riskier for the average user. And (effective) DRM makes users have to wait for a crack which may take weeks or months. The result is tha…

The point is that legal threats keep any centralized platforms that might do vetting small. That probably accounts for the vast majority of the effect. Beyond that the old fashioned "DRM" of a CD key is generally going to be more than sufficient to prevent "acts of convenience".

I'm sure there are exceptions but the usual claims take the observation about a minor speed bump and add a bunch of made up BS to justify consumer hostile practices.

Notice that there's nothing stopping a centralized darknet platform that vettes torrents from popping up. But as far as I know no one feels like bothering. That should give you some idea just how low the bar is here.

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

#303

Post by Brian_K_White »

its-summertime wrote: post #120
GaryBluto wrote: post #50

I wish there was a general software equivalent of GOG that provided much older software with removed DRM.

What old software are you thinking about?

They already told you exactly what software they are thinking about.

Whatever software you have ever used, or that anyone has ever used, that's what they are thinking about.

That's what "general software" means.

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

#304

Post by NoahZuniga »

bcye wrote: post #94
Ekaros wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe they are just heavily reinvesting?

Reinvested money isn't a cost, so the amount of reinvesting doesn't impact the profit number in their report.

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

#305

Post by chii »

CDRdude wrote: post #187
cogogo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up playing pirated games on the Apple II 35 years ago. The fact that many people pirate is not an opinion.

“Many people pirate” is a different statement than “too many people pirate games to make that a viable business”.

It's because the poster assume that each pirated copy ought to have been paid for - which if they had been, then a previously failing game would've been viable.

But this doesn't make the statement true - because the assumption that each pirated copy would've been paid for had there been no piracy. This is the same incorrect logic that music/movie copyright holders use to count pirated works' financial "damages".

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

#306

Post by RoyalHenOil »

fooqux wrote: post #220
tracerbulletx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's perfectly realistic to think there is a substantial risk of losing library content you've bought on Valve in the next 20 years. Don't know what the odds are, but they're greater than zero.

I personally think that, between the two, gog is far more likely to disappear than steam. I'm happy both exist. I've nothing against gog (except maybe for their broken promises around Linux support, but I do understand changing market forces) and like I said, I hope they succeed. They've got a good mission.

GOG might disappear, but your games won't.

If Steam disappears, your games will become inaccessible.

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

#307

Post by rasz »

araes wrote: post #276
Ekaros wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cost of Sales is eating them alive. 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, 202…

Does Cost of sales include game developers cut? because that 143/103 fits their 30-70 split.

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

#308

Post by tymscar »

prmoustache wrote: post #177
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same but I strangely miss the social aspect of achievements on Steam. I prefer GOG but wish the achievements synced.

You are the first person I hear that seems to care about that.

Its one of the main reasons why I buy on steam. Makes games much more engaging, especially for me because I prefer hard action games with little to no story.

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

#309

Post by chii »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #278
TulliusCicero wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 30% cut is standard, and was so at retail even before Steam existed IIRC.

And the cut can't be lower? 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?

> And the cut can't be lower?

why should it be lower (or higher)?

steam's cut should be whatever they set, and the market responds. The natural equilibrium would get reached. The value steam provides, imho, certainly justifies their cut imho. There's plenty of other platforms to release games on - including free ones (such as itch.io, or your own website).

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

#310

Post by chii »

eviks wrote: post #221
SirMaster wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>GOG is the only major storefront where I feel like I actually own the product. How do we re-sell our GOG games to someone else? If I own it I should be able to sell it again, right? Like I used to sell old console game disks after I was done with them.

The same way you sell your disks: find a buyer, send them the game files, they send you the money

> find a buyer

this buyer would rather buy off GOG than you, unless you give a significant discount (and even then, the trust is hard to establish).

Therefore, even if you might have a legal right to re-sell (which you really don't unfortunately), the actual sale won't happen.

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