GOG to go through some reorganization after suffering losses

Seems to me like it is exceedingly difficult for any PC game store to be profitable unless they sell Steam keys (or they are a big publisher profitable in other areas), such is the nature of Valve's stranglehold on PC gaming. I know so many linux users don't like a bad word said about Valve but their market power should concern everyone

I mean as a Linux user as far as I'm concerned Steam is the nearly only one that even exists because they're the one of only two (the other is Itch) that I can think of/have ever heard of with an official Linux client or that provide any Linux support. I mean why would I go out of my way to give money to people whose software I can't even run?

I don't consider that a stranglehold at all. It's more like a single loving embrace to turn to in a cold and hateful world.

Even on the Windows side, Valve simply provides more to customers. Steam is just that good. No one has released a compelling competitor to Steam. They seem to think they can break Valve's back without doing that. Why would anyone want to pay the same money somewhere else only to receive less for it? Compared to Steam some of these operations look like spyware distributors or scammers.

Things may change, if Valve loses their monopoly on owning the games you buy. It could be really hard for them to actually prove that they are a streaming service while selling games, not a stream possibility. After that change (if that ever happens), there would be no "shops" that owns your's already bought game, so the buyer may migrate between Epic Games, Steam or GOG or whatever else.

It's ridiculous, for example, when you buy a game at Steam and may not for some reasons buy DLC for the same game at GOG or any other platform.

The main reason I buy games on Steam instead GOG is the easy way to make them run. I have plenty of games on GOG, but I wasn't able to make some of them run on Linux and usually I spend more time tinkering with GOG games than playing. It's not true for every game, but with the old Windows titles it sometimes problem to make them run even with Proton, which is not really easy to use outside Steam if you are not technically savvy.

And the other reason is multiplayer, I usually don't expect the multiplayer to run on GOG. So if I want to buy a multiplayer game I always go to Steam.

The main reason to buy games on GOG for me, is the DRM-free copies of the game. Which is a big bonus for me. The DRM doesn't solve much and it's just adding another thing that will sooner or later stop working. Also I think the games would be cheaper if there will be no DRM involved (no money spent on development of DRM).
Only thing I'm missing in case of DRM free games is the ability to sell old games from your library, like it was common with physical copies. :-(

Seems to me like it is exceedingly difficult for any PC game store to be profitable unless they sell Steam keys (or they are a big publisher profitable in other areas), such is the nature of Valve's stranglehold on PC gaming. I know so many linux users don't like a bad word said about Valve but their market power should concern everyone

I think the root cause in this case is more on the side of Epic. Their aggressive war against Steam, in my opinion, hit GOG hard. Until then, GOG was the main competitor for Steam and was slowly building positions. Then came Epic, it got low prices, and publishers jumped on it because it didn't have that "annoying" DRM-free policy. And on top of that, Epic bribed them to exclusivity.

CD Projekt has not been lucky recently with the premieres of its productions. Following the launch of the flagship Cyberpunk 2077 last December, the stock lost more than half of its value in the next few weeks. Today the light of day saw a much less important production, which is the mobile game Witcher: Monster Slayer. However, seeing the light of day is too much to say, because the application from the very beginning ... does not work, and the time of completion of the technical work has already been postponed several times...

More - https://www.fxmag.pl/artykul/cd-projekt-ma-za-soba-kolejny-falstart-premiera-mobilnego-wiedzmina-zaliczyla-falstart

I'd like a competitor to Steam. Currently publishers go with "their own" platforms for saving the cut steam takes, but for me that's no option. I do not want a dozen tools, so I do not buy games which are not on Steam.

If another platform with a proper Linux client existed which provides games from all publishers we could talk about me installing a second client. But as a buyer, there would need to be incentive to do so - meaning lower prices on the other store, why else would I switch?

And making it "the other one exclusive" is pretty much the same as with their own launchers, they will cut their profits by that by quite a good margin, since a lot of people see Steam as their "gaming platform".

From what we know / hear, Valve seems not to be very flexible on the cut they take, and the 30 percent (which I think are pretty much a fact by now) seems a lot, especially for smaller developers.

It's a cash cow.

In my case, I only buy from Steam because of the regional pricing. Without Steam's regional pricing, the cost of gaming is too expensive for me so my only choice is either to stop gaming or pirate the game (which almost impossible in Linux).

If GOG start using regional pricing then I might start buying from them. Until then, I'll keep on using Steam.

Valve isn't publicly traded as far as I can tell, so they don't have to chase profits and forecasts at any cost like a lot of the "evil" companies do. That's not to say they won't become evil at some point, people in power and business practices change.

A monopoly is _never_ good, so it's always worth it to have some competition to turn to. Their dominance/monopoly in the Linux space is unfortunately insignificant, though I find it very hard these days to give money to GOG what with their Linux support being the afterthought that it is.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped Linux support entirely now they're "restructuring".

I've love to use and advocate for GOG, but they don't offer a Linux client.

I'd love to use and advocate for Itch, but their client still can't even tell me what games I own, so I've largely given up on it.

Origin and uPlay can both get in the sea as attempts by publishers to control their own catalogues. Fair enough, but since it comes at the expense of their customers... not interested.

Epic can get in the sea for two reasons - exclusives and a lack of a Linux client. Nope.

So, yeah, that leaves Valve and the Steam client.

I'd like a competitor to Steam.

The problem with that is that any potential competitors should have done that a long loooooong time ago. But Valve was left alone. Any competing stores jumped into a niche and didn't directly challenge Steam. Epic is the first to really try, but with Steam's 15 year head start even their free games won't get them close. I don't think there is a reasonable option left for a proper competitor unless some forced library sharing option between stores becomes a thing.

I mean as a Linux user as far as I'm concerned Steam is the nearly only one that even exists because they're the one of only two (the other is Itch) that I can think of/have ever heard of with an official Linux client or that provide any Linux support.

Take a look at Gamejolt: https://gamejolt.com/client
Not a high profile store, but not bad either.

I find it rather difficult to rack up such a loss from selling digital goods. The apparent need to "focus more on its core business activity" seems to indicate that a lot of effort went into things that are peripheral to the selling of same. This begs the questions what those other activities were, seeing that GOG is already pretty bare-bones as is.

Could this pertain to GOG Galaxy and the associated backend functionality for achievements, cloud-saves and such? Though even that doesn't look like something you could sink $2m and likely more, assuming the actual selling of games is profitable.

Personally, I hope that doesn't mean they'll end up including fewer games in their catalogue. I hardly buy anything outside GOG these days, and it's always a shame if a title I absolutely want to try does not make it to GOG, or only with much delay.

I used to very pro GoG, but their repeated fails on a games download client, and saying they will support other OS'es, but then years later they still didn't make any movement towards it.
Then they started accepting games that essentially has DRM, betraying one of their core precepts.

So I lost trust in them as I felt lied to.

Then there is all the stories of it being incredibly difficult to update a game or get a game approved for sale, that many small gamedevs only ever target Itch and Steam now.

They really had the mindshare early enough that if they executed well, they could easily have been a large store by now.

I'd love to use GOG more, I have lots of game there, even bought Cyberpunk 2077 from GOG.
Problem is that their GOG Galaxy client - with cloud saves and all that - simply don't work on Linux.
I've tried some third-party GOG clients but had nothing but issues, and none of them support cloud save anyways.
So I can't really use GOG, even if I want to.


Last edited by Vemod on 30 November 2021 at 1:22 pm UTC

I find it rather difficult to rack up such a loss from selling digital goods. The apparent need to "focus more on its core business activity" seems to indicate that a lot of effort went into things that are peripheral to the selling of same. This begs the questions what those other activities were, seeing that GOG is already pretty bare-bones as is.

Could this pertain to GOG Galaxy and the associated backend functionality for achievements, cloud-saves and such? Though even that doesn't look like something you could sink $2m and likely more, assuming the actual selling of games is profitable.

Personally, I hope that doesn't mean they'll end up including fewer games in their catalogue. I hardly buy anything outside GOG these days, and it's always a shame if a title I absolutely want to try does not make it to GOG, or only with much delay.

Galaxy promotion, "IO Interactive" bribery for "Hitman", excess expenses on providing 3rd party launcher compatibility, GWENT infrastructure expenses (is it still a thing?), "FCK DRM" and other useless PR moves.

GOG has made a lot of unnecessary moves recently, while spending exactly $0 on Linux support and infrastructure (remember: Linux "backup" offline updates, which are in fact, complete re-downloads because no patching mechanism has been implemented at all yet, are still being added manually), so Linux support nets GOG very little and costs a lot.

On top of that, the site is in shambles: main page design was made by clowns under supervision of monkeys (still no ability to filter out games without Linux support!), the forum is something out of horror movies: it really does not like… anything. From page scaling to message notification, has zero spam protection (they clean spam manually!) and a dysfunctional "reputation" system, often used for downvoting people via scripts.

So GOG managed to cast away core DRM-free fans, yet failed to recruit new customers from Steam or other stores. I presume, people just don't want to have any business with such a "store".


Last edited by Alm888 on 30 November 2021 at 2:27 pm UTC

The main reason I buy games on Steam instead GOG is the easy way to make them run. I have plenty of games on GOG, but I wasn't able to make some of them run on Linux and usually I spend more time tinkering with GOG games than playing. It's not true for every game, but with the old Windows titles it sometimes problem to make them run even with Proton, which is not really easy to use outside Steam if you are not technically savvy.

wine integrates into most most menus nicely and shows what's installed. Can I ask what you find difficult?
Unless you're referring specifically to DXVK in a wine prefix, in which case the setup script is simple to run. Or Lutris, which can do it all for you.

As for native games, oddly I've had far fewer problems through GOG with them, with the #1 problem for me being no pulseaudio on my system (apulse to the rescue).

It's more problematic in case of immutable OS and flatpaks (Lutris in flatpak doesn't support Proton at all). But as you saying this is true for the Windows only titles (I didn't get some of them working at all, but I keep them because of the nostalgia). Most Linux native titles are running out of the box.
So If there is a game with native Linux client, which doesn't have multiplayer, I'm usually buying it at GOG (depends on the price at the time).

I'm really glad that Minigalaxy project exists for GOG, it's making management of library much easier, even checking for any updates. :-)

Still the Steam is much better experience, when managing my library and playing under Linux.

On my end I can say that I only buy games from Valve.
They helped me actually not having to boot windows for gaming.
Don't need another reason really.

I'd love to use GOG more, I have lots of game there, even bought Cyberpunk 2077 from GOG.
Problem is that their GOG Galaxy client - with cloud saves and all that - simply don't work on Linux.
I've tried some third-party GOG clients but had nothing but issues, and none of them support cloud save anyways.
So I can't really use GOG, even if I want to.

You _can_ use GOG, you just don't want to.

Nothing stops you from copying save games and backing them up, etc. One of the whole points of GOG being DRM-free is that games don't rely on a third party client, and so nothing stops you from the running the game. So it is a choice: you don't want to use GOG, even if you can.

It depends if you want to spend time doing this by yourself or not.

On my end I can say that I only buy games from Valve.
They helped me actually not having to boot windows for gaming.
Don't need another reason really.

Main reason to dump the Windows dualboot for me as well. I could play games I wanted under Linux thanks to Steam.

I'd like a competitor to Steam.

What would be the benefit of that?