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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

#211

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

dangus wrote: post #49
paxys wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, for the duration of whenever Steam decides to say "fuck you".

Which is basically never. They have no incentive to do that except for extreme circumstances, and they have all the leverage in the world over game publishers. Delisted games tend to stay in your library for redownload. I never understood the cynicism for digital media, it’s been multiple decades now and the model clearly works. Obviously I prefer zero DRM but it’s also not a hard line requirement for me personally.

There have been several earlier generation game consoles that have had their online stores closed already.

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

#212

Post by bayindirh »

transcriptase wrote: post #205
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…

People said the same thing when Steam launched, yet my profile sits there with a badge saying 20+ years and I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher. At this point the games I “own” on physical media like CDs have theoretically started to degrade before the threat of Valve revoking my ability to install or play has come to pass.

This is because of Gabe and Valve itself, and it's not a universal constant. I have quite a few licensed software where I have the license, but installing the software is impossible.

This is why I still keep a copy of the software I bought, and religiously backup that trove. Because someday that S3 bucket or SendOwl link or company server will go down.

Sometimes, a company will raise prices, so the publisher will have to kill the old links. C64Audio had to switch to BandCamp and invalidate SendOwl links because of that price hike.

I'm still bitter about not being able to reset my Test Drive Unlimited install count online just because I have updated my computer and transferred the whole Windows installation to the new system back in the day.

There are not many ways to battle the entropy of the universe.

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

#214

Post by rvba »

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.

Is this taken from some LLM?

The first two numbers perhaps make sense, the 4,3022 looks like EUR/ PLN exghange rate..

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

#215

Post by pfisch »

stavros wrote: post #161
andoando wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't. I am tired of this feel good nonsense. I pirated games because it was free and I did not want to pay $60. Just make your games a donation model if you really believe this. Or lets put up a version of Steam where all the games are free cracked copies of the game and see how it affects sales. People pay precisely because they dont want to deal with the hassle pf pirating

I can pirate games easily, but I buy them on Steam because it's more convenient. If it's too expensive for me, I just never play it (or wait for a deal). I can't be bothered dealing with the installers and the potential viruses and the hassle.

You really can't though, not if the games have an online component or you want the game to be patched/updated as frequently as it would be on steam.

Almost all games these days are basically like a work in progress, so if you pirate them then the game doesn't stay up to date.

Pirating games is just really inconvenient compared to tv/movies/music.

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

#216

Post by eviks »

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #129
jamespo wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, paying nothing is very compelling for a lot of consumers, you can see this in many other areas of content as well.

Research from the University of Amsterdam’s IViR “Global Online Piracy Study” (survey of nearly 35,000 respondents across 13 countries) found that for each content type and country, 95% or more of pirates also consume content legally, and their median legal consumption is typically twice that of non‑pirating legal users.

Why do you think this contradicts anything? Heavy users hit a budget limit and continue consuming more via pirating.

You really need something way better than some shoddy survey to counter the obvious fact that price matters

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

#217

Post by delaminator »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #201
sallveburrpi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is GOG a viable business if everything gets pirated?

Many games on GOG are at the tail end of their sales cycle (i.e. were released on Steam long ago) trying to eke out a few more sales, are from small indies for whom any attention at all is good attention, or are very old^H^H^Hclassic games that garner purchases for nostalgia's sake by older gamers that can afford more discretionary spending.

And many aren’t.

I bought Factorio early access on Gog, and Timberborn, and Loop-Hero.

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

#218

Post by fooqux »

sanskritical wrote: post #101
Gormo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of Linux games distributed on GOG, and not having to use a proprietary client is one of its great advantages. Not to downplay Valve's contributions (and I may well get a Steam Frame when they come out), but they mostly amount to porting their mandatory DRM-laden client to Linux, and maintaining a fork of Wine that integrates with that client. Ownership, control, and privacy are among the main reasons I…

Official Linux releases are almost never maintained. I have the same game on Steam and GOG, but the GOG version no longer works. Neither does the Steam version, except if I switch to the Windows version with Proton. Then it works flawlessly (usually faster and better than the Linux version ever did.)

Sadly I've had the same experience. I've had to rebuy a couple games on steam because the older gog version wasn't version compatible with my friend's clients. That really burned my bottom.

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

#219

Post by danielbln »

nh23423fefe wrote: post #165
andoando wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't. I am tired of this feel good nonsense. I pirated games because it was free and I did not want to pay $60. Just make your games a donation model if you really believe this. Or lets put up a version of Steam where all the games are free cracked copies of the game and see how it affects sales. People pay precisely because they dont want to deal with the hassle pf pirating

thieves lie to protect their self-image. i pirated because free games let me spend my money on stuff i couldn't steal like food at the mall. i don't pirate anymore because i have a job now.

Copyright infringement is not stealing, and it's not a given that a sale would have happened at all - even if the llicit copy was unavailable.

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

#220

Post by fooqux »

tracerbulletx wrote: post #92
fooqux wrote: post #47

I used to love gog. I purchased a bunch of stuff back when they were talking a big game around supporting Linux with their Galaxy client. But while gog was talking, Valve was actually doing . Building an actual Linux client. Making multiplayer actually work. Not to mention all the work they've done with Proton and upstreamimg graphics drivers. I hope gog succeeds. I just value Linux gaming support over not having DRM…

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.

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