GOG to go through some reorganization after suffering losses

Quoting: 14$2M is about 10 developers for one year when you think about industry salaries, benefits, equipment, training, etc.

But surely not in Poland?

Quoting: 14Proton games are often click-to-play, whereas the GOG version requires me to fiddle with minigalaxy + Lutris so I can install the game easily and then actually run it

I finally gave in and run Galaxy under Wine. Installing and playing supported Windows games is just two clicks.

Though I wish I would not have to go through a launcher to play a game. So in a way I am glad they did not bring that atrocity to Linux. OTOH, with games getting larger and larger, downloading the whole thing for every update starts getting tiresome.

Anyway, reading all the comments so far, seems there's no insight as to what this will actually mean for the future of GOG. Guess time will tell.

Quoting: scaineBut I've bought two bundles on Itch, which amounts to several hundred games/tools, and while I page through, or search those titles on that same page, there's no way to see them in the client. You have to go to the game's web page and activate it somehow - I forget how now, but when I realised I'd have to do so for 59 pages of games, I gave up.

You have to attempt to download the game at least once. Download from a bundle page also works, no need to go to the game's page.

That was done so in order not to clutter the library with useless (for yourself) entries: some bundles are really big (like 1000+ entries from one of the charity bundles a year ago or so), but contain mostly game assets and prototypes, and most of the people got the bundle for just a couple of games.

Quoting: scaineBut as I say, my main gripe is that while I bought, say, Nuclear Throne, on Itch about 3 years ago, I can still buy it again, while logged in, with no warning at all that I already own it. Now extend that to 59 pages of bundles... yeech.

Yes, you can. And even may want to, if you really want to show support. I've bought a game I got from that bundle because I knew that was a charity and developers did not get any money that time around, but I liked the game.

Besides, itch.io warns you that you are in fact have the game already (at least on the game's page).


Last edited by Alm888 on 30 November 2021 at 4:41 pm UTC

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: VemodI'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.

That's not true, and you don't know my situation or needs.
There's no way for me to download my cloud save data without the official client.
Which means I'd have to install Windows just to get my save data, then copy it back and forth when I switch computer, which means putting it on a USB stick.
Compare that to Steam where I click Play and all my save files are there.

Quoting: mao_dze_dunGOG and by extension - GOG Galaxy, offers a better experience on Windows than Steam.

I disagree with this, my main issue with the client -- which I was highly looking forward to when the new one came out -- is how bad it is at handling large libraries if they're not GOG. It takes several minutes after starting the client, every time you start the client, before it's usable and not laggy from importing/updating games. It's only okay, (way) better then Epic but that's not saying much, if you stick to just GOG games. The client kind of feels made to just never be restarted, on an always-on computer.

I suspect it's an issue with community python integrations in general, but that's IMHO the main selling point of the otherwise "okay" client.


Last edited by dibz on 30 November 2021 at 7:27 pm UTC

I have a lot of games on GOG, but there are times where there's a native Linux version of a game on Steam (like Metro Exodus) but GOG is Windows only. Also scenarios where versions of Quake on Steam got a free update to the Enhanced Edition, but still absent on GOG.

I'd love to have a native GOG Galaxy client, but for now, I have to settle for Lutris.

Quoting: GuestSeems 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 gotta agree. I mean, it's not like Valve are doing anything bad--it's a company's job to make money and grab market share, what else are they supposed to do?
But there's a tendency for that to result in one or a couple of firms grabbing most of the market share, and the results of that are almost always bad. With the advantage of size and, usually, the ability to put up barriers to competition, firms that dominate their sector are then able to stifle innovation that might threaten them, jack up prices and lower the quality of their product and generally mess over their customers. We're seeing it all over the place right now--using the excuse of things like supply chain disruptions and the perception of inflation, many companies, like grocery store chains, have been jacking up prices far more than their expenses have actually gone up, and are making huge windfall profits as a result. They're not even monopolies, but there are few enough of them that they can easily agree among themselves to all hose us together and not rock the boat.
That's why things like antitrust law came into being: Companies following the intended approach of what companies are supposed to do often leads to monopoly or cartel situations and that is bad.

It happens that Valve have actually done very little if any of that bad stuff. Not yet, anyway. Valve is a fundamentally weird company. But they are nonetheless, depending on your definition, a monopoly or near-monopoly in their field. They have the market power to do abusive stuff, they just don't seem to have abused it yet. It bears watching.

I have a large steam library built up over the years like everyone else. I do not really buy games on steam anymore though, mainly for one reason. There are games I want to play, games my son wants to play and games my wife wants to play. Trying to navigate which of the three steam accounts to purchase games on is difficult without having to buy the same title more than once so that we aren't locked out of our steam account when sharing etc. Its a huge pain in the ass.

So now I really only buy and play stuff on GOG so I don't have to mess with steam and the hassle it brings. If GOG didnt offer DRM free copies of the games then I wouldn't buy from them at all.

Quoting: GuestI know so many linux users don't like a bad word said about Valve but their market power should concern everyone

Nah. Most of the people, linux or not, share the same fears in the long run. What will happen to Valve if Gaben has a car accident? Will the new boss be still a gamer or a businessman first?
Nobody is happy if GOG struggles. Healthy alternatives are sorely needed. And their no drm model is added value to PC gaming, even if not necessarily linux and despite recent missteps. It's just that the only other -financially- credible competitor is already the worst there can possibly be. So it makes no sense to "detach" from Steam by fearing that in the future it turn in the very dystopian service that its direct competitor today already is.

Quoting: GuestFirst:
What is 'loses' for big company language / mindset etc?
IF in 2019 company earn 12.000.000 $
IF in 2020 company earn 10.000.000 $
then company 'loses' 2.000.000 $
when big company use word 'loses' they mean then earned less than they assumed

No. It means that they lost 2 million, because their income was lower than the money they spent.

I'd love a serious competitor to Steam like everyone else.

But the deal breaker is how much the hypotetical competitor wants/can/would/will pour into Linux gaming.

The day the competitor has an online store *AND* pushes Linux gaming as much as Valve is doing with Proton, I'll switch.

Not a second earlier, though.

I put my money where my mouth is. You don't support my OS, I won't support your monopoly-toppling effort. Simple as that.

Quoting: GuestSeems 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 am not in that camp i just realised that valve was walking away with this thing years ago so many people i know refuse to buy anything if it not on steam the reason its where the bulk of there games library is i have epic games account purely for the free shit every friday i have 40 games and never spent a penny there granted cant play most of them at the moment. I probably could if i could be arsed to run some lutris scripts. But the big thing is when it comes to valve and linux its hard to argue what would be linux gaming if not for them.
They fund and continue to find codeweavers they exclusively fund the dxvk team they have a team of linux programmers that work on getting big titles to almost parity with windows day and date for some titles like Rage 2 when it dropped they gave massive funding to Mesa team to develop driver support for graphics drivers in linux. Now all of this is of course self serving they want a platform that microsoft cant interfear with should relations sour and they have it now. They also have taken a culmination of all the work on proton and dxvk and poured into a handheld and amd apu that is going to sell out the moment it is avilable.

Heres the main question though what do you do and where do you go if you want to game but dont want steam what are your options gog do about what a 10th of the linux versions they used to, Feral are moving on to switch on mobile because of proton the demand for native has pretty much slowed to a trickle, Itch io bless them they try hard and there are some great games on there. That said there is also a lot well and dont want to insult anyones dream project here so i ll say games that i zero interest in.Epic dont want to support linux though randomly are trying to sell unreal engine and easy cheat to linux users and at the same time taking the weasel approach and making it optional.

So when it comes to gaming other that the real indie darlings like shovel knight type level game and most ofthe paradox games if you wanna game on linux it leaves you with wine (which is still partially valve) or steam of if you are one of those people that say triple a is dead and you love quirky sprite games i guess itch io is your go to but for most gaming on linux begins and ends with valve.

Does look like the shine is starting to come of cd project red and gog its selection of games is scattered very scattered and the excuse used for no linux version is normally we couldnt get permission for a linux version the fuck its not like your capable/willing to give technical support on it and to be honest on linux we re kind of used to that

Quoting: The_AquabatFAILED promises epic fail on Cyberpunk... sorry no steam fault but your own.

https://youtu.be/omyoJ7onNrg

Thing is this is off topic. CD PROJEKT is in general doing fine; the article says right there "they saw overall 38% more sales revenue". It's GOG specifically that's losing money, not the game studio side. So whether Cyberpunk sucks or not, it doesn't matter to this article.

I really like GOG for many years but when they created that launcher it was a really bad move, IMO. The lack of transparency regarding linux native titles of online features is just too much of a turn off for me. So my money is going towards itch.io and direct to devs.

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: STiATI'd like a competitor to Steam.

What would be the benefit of that?

Less costs for devs/publishers. I know AAAs usually csn easily afford that and still make millions, but indies often can't really afford it.

Quoting: STiAT

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: STiATI'd like a competitor to Steam.

What would be the benefit of that?

Less costs for devs/publishers. I know AAAs usually csn easily afford that and still make millions, but indies often can't really afford it.

And besides that?

Quoting: AcrophobicIn 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.

GOG indeed has regional pricing, but that depends on the publisher and the country.
Here in Argentina, some GOG games are more cheapest than in other countries.

In topic, GOG suffered a massive Cyberpunk 2077 refunds.

WELL if they release GOG Galaxy 2 for Linux and Mac they might get some bonus points from the community... just a thought.

Quoting: Guestit is exceedingly difficult for any PC game store to be profitable unless they sell Steam keys

I know I would be more inclined to purchase from GOG if it included a Steam key along with the DRM-free version, like Humble.

They had their "GOG Connect" program for building up your GOG library based on games you already had on Steam, which was nice, but this would be more the other direction.

Personally, I just find other game stores to be a hassle. And most of their feature parity with Steam is lacking, even if you're a Windows gamer.

The whole Steam package is what's keeping me on Steam. Steam Cloud, Steam Workshop, Steam Guide, Steam Community (I don't use it much, but posting cool/funny screenshots do give that dopamine hit), Steam Friends, Steam Chat, easy invite, Steam Play Together (I've used it play a fighting game with a friend - latency isn't great but it's just for fun so whatevs), Steam Overlay (with easy browser access)...