Game store GOG has a new blog post up detailing how they're doing, and it seems like things are starting to go a bit better for them. Back in 2021, I reported on how in the CD PROJEKT financials, it showed that GOG was losing money, so it seems they may be starting to turn things around a little bit.
In their new post, they showed that for 2022 they have seen an 11% increase in active users across all of GOG services with an 18% increase in their overall user base. However, GOG Galaxy only "remained consistent", so it seems they aren't seeing much growth for their launcher. They're also reporting a net profit of $1.2M USD, noting they're losing around 4% due to suspending operations in Russia and Belarus.
Nothing close to how they were doing in 2020 though, which they attribute the spike that year to Cyberpunk 2077 and COVID-19 increasing sales due to people being at home more.
As for their market split they're seeing 53% from Europe, 37% from North America, 4% Asia, 4% Australia and New Zealand and 2% elsewhere.
The amount of games releasing on GOG has been increasing every year too, although it's nothing close to what Steam has, since GOG do a little more curation on what they accept (which is at times a little weird on what they deny). From 296 releases in 2018 up to 684 in 2022.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I like GOG and being Polish I’d like to support them, but their Linux support is laughable and now that the Steam Deck is my main gaming device if something’s not on Steam it doesn’t get played. I haven’t bought anything from them in a few years now and I don’t think that’ll change.
I do wish them luck and am glad they’re turning things around and most of all I appreciate them publishing info like that.
Last edited by damarrin on 5 May 2023 at 12:29 pm UTC
I do wish them luck and am glad they’re turning things around and most of all I appreciate them publishing info like that.
Last edited by damarrin on 5 May 2023 at 12:29 pm UTC
20 Likes, Who?
I really would love to through more money towards them. But not with that attitude towards Linux...
13 Likes, Who?
I still buy games from GOG, but they have to fit a certain mold:
- Generally must be Linux native because I'd rather not deal with the Wine setup
- Must be single-player or LAN multiplayer
Sadly, there are times I see a game on Steam has Linux support only to find that the GOG release does not. I've also seen Steam games get major updates 1-2 months before GOG does. Both cases are probably the developer's choice I imagine, but still sucks for me!
To be clear, I do still check GOG often when my criteria lines up, because I take comfort in DRM-free games that I can download and own forever. It's just a bummer that the Linux game and patch distribution systems are really minimal... so my purchases are thus minimal.
- Generally must be Linux native because I'd rather not deal with the Wine setup
- Must be single-player or LAN multiplayer
Sadly, there are times I see a game on Steam has Linux support only to find that the GOG release does not. I've also seen Steam games get major updates 1-2 months before GOG does. Both cases are probably the developer's choice I imagine, but still sucks for me!
To be clear, I do still check GOG often when my criteria lines up, because I take comfort in DRM-free games that I can download and own forever. It's just a bummer that the Linux game and patch distribution systems are really minimal... so my purchases are thus minimal.
7 Likes, Who?
legluondunet May 5, 2023
Valve strongly supports Linux, I support Valve and buy my games first from their store.
If the game is not available on Steam, I will buy it on GOG.
And Epic Games is never a choice for me:
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/964284402741149698
Money is the power of consummer.
Last edited by legluondunet on 5 May 2023 at 2:46 pm UTC
If the game is not available on Steam, I will buy it on GOG.
And Epic Games is never a choice for me:
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/964284402741149698
Money is the power of consummer.
Last edited by legluondunet on 5 May 2023 at 2:46 pm UTC
11 Likes, Who?
I made my own script framework for launching GOG games (both Wine and native), so they are pretty easy to use most of the time, once some commonly necessary things like dxvk and vkd3d-prton are provided. lgogdownloader helps with incremental updates for them using Galaxy protocol.
More active official Linux support from them would be good of course, but they are consistently the biggest DRM-free gaming store, so I don't mind buying games from them and handling set up on Linux myself.
Last edited by Shmerl on 5 May 2023 at 5:10 pm UTC
More active official Linux support from them would be good of course, but they are consistently the biggest DRM-free gaming store, so I don't mind buying games from them and handling set up on Linux myself.
Last edited by Shmerl on 5 May 2023 at 5:10 pm UTC
6 Likes, Who?
I used to buy from GOG because the no DRM feature. But they lack of support for GNU/Linux made me draw back, I still had +50 games on it, buy that is like the 5% of my steam library. I really like the Steam support to make games run on Linux, and obviously this improve greatly after deck release. But since the launch of Steam Os the support become greater and greater without stop. GOG isn't even close. Recently thanks to 3rd party apps, like heroic store app and lutris, gog gets something viable. But i don't think they deserve much credit for that...
2 Likes, Who?
chickenb00 May 5, 2023
I make an effort to buy at least a few games every year from GOG to support their mission, usually during their seasonal sales. Proton makes it easy to run their games via Heroic or Steam, and everything plays nicely on Steam Deck. Like everyone else I wish they'd devote some resources to making Galaxy more friendly on Linux devices, even if it meant simply making it easier to run via Proton. But with a profit of just $1M, I can see why they don't want to invest time and money into that.
8 Likes, Who?
on_en_a_gros May 5, 2023
so I don't mind buying games from them and handling set up on Linux myself.
My biggest problem with gog are the saves, I lost my progress in wasteland 3, art of rally and hellpoint because the copy and paste for save files is not working.
I didn't buy or play any gog games after losing my wasteland late game save, Despite my preference for store / only gaming focus experience they offer.
2 Likes, Who?
My biggest problem with gog are the saves, I lost my progress in wasteland 3, art of rally and hellpoint because the copy and paste for save files is not working.
I didn't buy or play any gog games after losing my wasteland late game save, Despite my preference for store / only gaming focus experience they offer.
Yeah, I back up my saves myself as well.
1 Likes, Who?
But with a profit of just $1M, I can see why they don't want to invest time and money into that.
This, for all comparing Gog with Steam, with that little profit the linux market is still to small to invest in.
3 Likes, Who?
I made my own script framework for launching GOG games (both Wine and native), so they are pretty easy to use most of the time, once some commonly necessary things like dxvk and vkd3d-prton are provided. lgogdownloader helps with incremental updates for them using Galaxy protocol.
More active official Linux support from them would be good of course, but they are consistently the biggest DRM-free gaming store, so I don't mind buying games from them and handling set up on Linux myself.
And while I do enjoy the ease of Steam, if we are being fair, it's never been easier to play a game on Linux, even if there is some setup required for a GOG game. It's still practically click and play!
5 Likes, Who?
And while I do enjoy the ease of Steam, if we are being fair, it's never been easier to play a game on Linux, even if there is some setup required for a GOG game. It's still practically click and play!
I agree! In the past Wine required a lot of fiddling to make games playable. Now very rarely anything is needed bedsides enabling dxvk/vkd3d-proton in the prefix.
The only other major feature that's useful is esync / fsync. I build Wine + esync patches from Wine staging for that. It helps performance of CP2077 and some other games quite a lot. Hopefully winesync solution will be upstreamed to avoid extra steps.
Last edited by Shmerl on 5 May 2023 at 9:04 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
I prefer buying on gog over steam since you own the games. Steam is drm and you dont own those games, you rent them. I feel gog fits the same philosophy as linux in terms of freedom. gog does support linux, there might be cases where there isnt a version but most of the time they sell them.
5 Likes, Who?
...
GOG isn't even close. Recently thanks to 3rd party apps, like heroic store app and lutris, gog gets something viable. But i don't think they deserve much credit for that...
Maybe so, but the credit they do deserve is for not standing in the way of such launchers.
For all the support that valve gives to linux, one still must download and install valve's shop just to be able to play the games you purchase on steam.
Last edited by emphy on 6 May 2023 at 4:25 am UTC
2 Likes, Who?
"…to suspending operations in Russia and Belarus."
Abolishing, you mean. There is no way in hell GOG returns to Russia. They'd better forget it.
Last edited by Alm888 on 6 May 2023 at 5:18 am UTC
Abolishing, you mean. There is no way in hell GOG returns to Russia. They'd better forget it.
Last edited by Alm888 on 6 May 2023 at 5:18 am UTC
0 Likes
There is no way in hell GOG returns to Russia. They'd better forget it.At the same time, CDPR recently resumed sales of Cyberpunk 2077 in Russia and Belarus.
Oh, this capitalism.. 
If you want to eat, you will be bow-legged even worse.
0 Likes
I have mixed feelings about GoG. They provide games without DRM and games for GNU/Linux and i love this but on the other hand they have no native GNU/Linux client and the website is not in Spanish... c'mon, not Spanish really? Maybe for an old game could be ok buying though GOG but even the DRM i prefer Steam. Native GNU/Linux client, translated to Spanish and every payment is supporting Proton.
2 Likes, Who?
I prefer buying on gog over steam since you own the games. Steam is drm and you dont own those games, you rent them. I feel gog fits the same philosophy as linux in terms of freedom. gog does support linux, there might be cases where there isnt a version but most of the time they sell them.
Well, about all of this is wrong. Wherever you get software from a store, you get a licence. Steam, Gog, ... MS, ... even GPLed software - that's what the "L" is all about! So you neither own nor rent it. Some games of Steam are DRMed, some are not. Gog's "support" for Linux is so big, they aren't even making a client. (I understand why they don't, but it's still not great support.)
2 Likes, Who?
I believe you are wrong on this one. Don't believe everything that is being written on the Internet. It is better to check.There is no way in hell GOG returns to Russia. They'd better forget it.At the same time, CDPR recently resumed sales of Cyberpunk 2077 in Russia and Belarus.
"Cyborgs & Punks 20/77" is still unlisted in RU region of Steam: !Steam
And obviously (as anything else) is unavailable for purchase on GOG: !GOG
So rest assured, CDProjekt stays firm with their believes!
!Galvanizing
Last edited by Alm888 on 6 May 2023 at 9:00 am UTC
0 Likes
I believe you are wrong on this one. Don't believe everything that is being written on the Internet. So rest assured, CDProjekt stays firm with their believes!Why should I read something on the Internet if I live in Russia myself and see everything from the inside?
You know that you can sell games for Steam and GOG on different platforms, right?
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