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Recently, GOG added the Windows version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to their store and since it has a Linux version on Steam, I reached out to the porter to see about their plans for the Linux version.

We've seen a lot of speculation in the past, with people wondering if Feral Interactive will ever get their Linux ports onto a store other than Steam. Here's their official stance, which they sent me this morning:

We don't have any plans to distribute our games through GoG. If this changes, we'll make announcements through our usual channels. 

We can speculate all we like as to why they're not doing it, even if the decision does strike me as a little odd. Hopefully they will reevaluate this stance in future, considering it's not exactly a new game and the Linux port from 2014 isn't exactly new either.

A shame for everyone who prefers their games on GOG.

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221 comments
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Beamboom Jun 18, 2018
Would be interesting to read an explanation as to why. For all we know there might be good reasons. Yo Feral guy who hangs here, care to elaborate? :)

(not that it matters one bit for me personally, I want all my games in Steam anyways)
bgh251f2 Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.
Liam Dawe Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.
You may very well be right on that one. I would be surprised though, if GOG didn't have some way of tracking it
Jahimself Jun 18, 2018
From most of the devs I have tried to reach through steam forums, some answer that they simply don't pull games on gog because it's more complicated to do so.
So I guess it has a cost to do it. No matter how good feral ports are, it is still a little structure working on a niche market, for now we'll have to wait and see, hoping that the linux gaming commmunity keeps growing.

I'm quite confident they would like to distribute the game on gog, but maybe they would also like to be able to do it in their own store, obviously it seems complicated to do so.


Last edited by Jahimself on 18 June 2018 at 10:21 am UTC
Adamfx990 Jun 18, 2018
Steam & DRM in general are BS. Its a shame publishers favour it despite GOG being the far-more consumer-friendly platform.
Arehandoro Jun 18, 2018
As a consumer, I don't see a very logical reason for this. A bit of a shame, really.
Liam Dawe Jun 18, 2018
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/8axa70/rise_of_the_tomb_raider_coming_to_linux_this_month/dx49t3m/
I am aware of what they've said before. This was before their choice of ports were available on GOG, now one is, so it's more relevant.
Pikolo Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.
Nonsense. GOG keeps track of downloads, and whether you downloaded an .exe or a .sh is not hard to count(GOG installers come as .sh, I think they're AppImages)
Liam Dawe Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.
Nonsense. GOG keeps track of downloads, and whether you downloaded an .exe or a .sh is not hard to count(GOG installers come as .sh, I think they're AppImages)
GOG installers are MojoSetup.
ruskie Jun 18, 2018
As someone who prefers his games on GOG this is somewhat disapointing - but I can understand it for technical reasons.

A friend of mine was doing some digging around at one point - I believe for everspace - and it seems like GOG has a bit of a technical limitation atm in their backend that doesn't allow to set other OS versions of a game as "beta" and such. So requires a lot more testing and finalizing to get it to the same "quality".
Pikolo Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.
Nonsense. GOG keeps track of downloads, and whether you downloaded an .exe or a .sh is not hard to count(GOG installers come as .sh, I think they're AppImages)
GOG installers are MojoSetup.
Thanks for the information, I didn't know about it!
Shmerl Jun 18, 2018
As expected. It makes their pro-DRM attitude quite clear, since in this case it was totally Feral's decision given that 2K have no objections to the DRM-free release.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 11:10 am UTC
Shmerl Jun 18, 2018
I would believe that's because there's no clear way to know if a game bought on GOG is being played on Linux, so it would be hard to make the division of profits. The fact that there's no client can't be helping either.

GOG don't need to track playing, but simply downloads to attribute platforms, it's not really any different in practice. How hard is it to run some queries on their logs? If that's a detriment to them releasing some games, GOG could provide such feature relatively easily. So I doubt it has anything to do with GOG's statistics.

Also, if you think GOG sales split isn't working for Feral, what stops them from making the game DRM-free on their own site? That wouldn't have any of the above problems, right?

Feral's dodgy answer where they don't explain the reason, most likely points to their interest in DRM.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 11:19 am UTC
Shmerl Jun 18, 2018
Not being on GOG does not equate to being pro-DRM.

Not always, but in this case it is. There were several sources already which quoted Feral's own words about their stance on this. Even something like "incompatible differences" in their views. Also, all this has an elephant in the room. If Feral have a problem with GOG in particular but no problem with DRM-free in general, why is the game not DRM-free on their own site?

And I have hard time buying the argument that company which specializes in porting can't make a standalone version which doesn't depend on Steam.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 11:43 am UTC
skinnyraf Jun 18, 2018
Do Feral ports use Steam DRM? Or do they use Steam only as a distribution platform and perhaps the runtime? Is it possible to run a game from Feral directly, without the Steam client running in the background?

I'm asking, as I play all of their games on a Steam Machine without a keyboard attached, so don't have too many options for investigating...
Jarno Jun 18, 2018
Do Feral ports use Steam DRM?
According to warez scene groups, they use mainly steam drm but also custom and ferals own.
Avehicle7887 Jun 18, 2018
Kinda expected this but greatly disappointed in their decisions. Their response is a flat out no, it doesn't say much.

Would be interested to have some more elaborate details.
Shmerl Jun 18, 2018
I've not seen _anything_ to support your statements.

Private people's e-mails from Feral that were referenced in the GOG thread. I think there is enough information to conclude that Feral are pro-DRM, or at the very least don't care to make an effort to release DRM-free, which in practical terms doesn't make any difference to DRM-free users, they still can't buy Feral's games without DRM.

Self hosting entire game store backends I don't think is cheap. Steam takes care of all of those distribution concerns.

There are other options like itch.io which take care of hosting costs. What stops Feral from releasing only their versions there?

Not to mention a hefty amount of multiplayer interaction.

Windows version of Xcom on GOG has no multiplayer, so this isn't the blocker here.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 12:06 pm UTC
Shmerl Jun 18, 2018
Does xcom on windows run without steam, if bought via steam? I guess from your words that the gog version had something removed to be able to be on gog. That is a blocker here.

I'm not familiar with differences between versions, or whether the game has multiplayer to begin with. I only saw someone saying that there is no multiplayer in the GOG release, so lack of Galaxy isn't the issue here (it is sometimes an issue with other games). Plus, Feral aren't some amateurs, that they can't make multiplayer optional.

Anyway, you can think DRM isn't the reason, but it doesn't make any difference in practice, as I said, Feral games aren't available DRM-free and Feral clearly don't want to do anything about it. And dodgy attitude is the usual PR tactic to avoid discussing a thorny topic.

For related GOG discussion, see here.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 June 2018 at 12:26 pm UTC
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