It appears things aren't going overly well for game store GOG at the moment, under increasing competition they're starting to feel the heat.
First of all, in a report on Kotaku, GOG recently confirmed that they let go a bunch of staff. They claimed it was only "around a dozen of positions" while also bringing in new staff in other positions. Fair enough, that all sounds quite normal in the business world.
However, Kotaku spoke to an ex-staff member who basically said GOG haven't been doing so well financially. That seems to now be somewhat backed up a little, as GOG just announced today that they're ending their Fair Price Package program. This was the system that users could get wallet funds back on purchases, if the price of the game was more expensive in their country compared with North America.
What's also interesting in this announcement from GOG, is that they said they were able to cover the extra cost from it in the past and still turn a "small profit" which is no longer the case. As they say "With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller.", so it sounds like they will at some point reduce their cut from developers (sound familiar?).
Their current plan for the Fair Price Package program is to continue it until 31st of March, so you have until then if you made use of it. Any funds you're given, will remain with you for 12 months so they won't vanish right away.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: vectorAnd I saw far more trolling and backlash on Steam than GOG with regard to Mizehna of Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear being a trans character.The way they handled that was such a damn trainwreck that I decided not to touch the expansion with a 10-foot pole. They kept blaming the outcry on bigots and gamergate even though there were several actual trans people complaining about how shallow and tokenized that "character" was. Seriously insulting.
Quoting: Salvatos...people complaining about how shallow and tokenized that "character" was. Seriously insulting.Some argued that from the beginning, but most of the comments I saw at the time were of the 'stop ramming SJW crap down my throat' variety, not the 'this character rings hollow' variety. I don't like feeling like the target of proselytization, harangue, or outright demonization any more than the next person, but there are civil, mature ways people can disagree, and then there is immature reactionaryism. E.g. When Metro Exodus became a one-year Epic Store exclusive (a move which I completely disagreed with), a lot of the responses on Steam were not thoughtful or compelling, just vitriolic. I say this as someone who feels the "toxic" tag is a convenient bludgeon used way too much by some social commentators to dismiss earnest and valid qualms or criticism.
Last edited by vector on 4 March 2019 at 12:39 pm UTC
Quoting: HamishQuoting: PangaeaI hated when they removed Baldur's Gate and the like and replaced them with the inferior money-grab editions and doubled the price, but thankfully I had bought the 'real' versions years prior.A bit of a funny thing to post on a Linux gaming website, considering that your "inferior money-grab editions" include among many other things full Linux support.
Beamdog have been consistently great in this regard.
They've also grabbed up one of the biggest contributors to GemRB (which now only has one dev working on it constantly). I'd say that's a greater loss when you consider the binaries for Beamdog's Enhanced Editions are probably not going to be trivial to get running in a decade or so under GNU/Linux and GemRB could really have used the extra help.
Quoting: Desumthe binaries for Beamdog's Enhanced Editions are probably not going to be trivial to get running in a decade or so under GNU/LinuxWhy would you think so?
Quoting: TheSHEEEPQuoting: Desumthe binaries for Beamdog's Enhanced Editions are probably not going to be trivial to get running in a decade or so under GNU/LinuxWhy would you think so?
How many times has glibc alone broken compatibility this past decade? Sure, it's still possible to get even the old Loki ports up and running, but it's not what most PC gamer's would call a trivial endeavor.
Quoting: DesumIn fairness it's not just glibc. Windows breaks compatibility too over long stretches of time. The reality is it's pretty hard to maintain perfect backwards compatibility.Quoting: TheSHEEEPQuoting: Desumthe binaries for Beamdog's Enhanced Editions are probably not going to be trivial to get running in a decade or so under GNU/LinuxWhy would you think so?
How many times has glibc alone broken compatibility this past decade? Sure, it's still possible to get even the old Loki ports up and running, but it's not what most PC gamer's would call a trivial endeavor.
Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: DesumIn fairness it's not just glibc. Windows breaks compatibility too over long stretches of time. The reality is it's pretty hard to maintain perfect backwards compatibility.Quoting: TheSHEEEPQuoting: Desumthe binaries for Beamdog's Enhanced Editions are probably not going to be trivial to get running in a decade or so under GNU/LinuxWhy would you think so?
How many times has glibc alone broken compatibility this past decade? Sure, it's still possible to get even the old Loki ports up and running, but it's not what most PC gamer's would call a trivial endeavor.
This is true. However, it's much less of a hassle to get games from, say, the Windows Xp era running on Windows 10 most of the time (of course there are games that just wont work, but surprisingly few) than to get decade old binaries running on modern GNU+Kernel. And the exact amount of time isn't even that important to my main concern; the point is that GemRB is a better long-term investment for people who love these games than Beamdog's binaries.
That's why, from a game preservation angle, GemRB losing a major contributor is a very bad thing.
Last edited by Desum on 7 March 2019 at 12:08 pm UTC
Quoting: Desumthe point is that GemRB is a better long-term investment for people who love these games than Beamdog's binaries.
May be Beamdog can open source their Infinity engine remaster. It's something they should be asked about.
Last edited by Shmerl on 7 March 2019 at 3:08 pm UTC
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