29 games are getting delisted from GOG

You know it's not GOG's fault for these delisted games, right?

This is right. Adult Swim belongs to Warner Brothers. They already delisted media on streaming portals, delisted the games of other developers without their consent but left some small indie games. Only until now as it seems.
The thing was and is complicated.
https://www.polygon.com/24093815/warner-bros-adult-swim-games-steam-delisting
https://www.polygon.com/24153665/warner-bros-adult-swim-games-delisting-steam-update

So, don't blame GOG. Burn down WB.

Fuck Warner Bros. Discovery and their CEO. That's all I gotta say about the Adult Swim part of this.

But in the end, Steam or GOG doesn't matter, it's just sad for us: the players.

This is the most obvious downside to going all-digital, and a big part of the reason console manufactures are pushing this for the future... All-digital means you don't "own" anything and can have your purchase taken away at any time.

Not GOG's fault either...

Rubbish.

When <insert title> is available as a Linux title from the same publisher with a competitor, GOG.com should be pushing back and demanding that the Linux version is also available on their store.

Yes, the publisher has the ultimate say; but the problem is so widespread (with Linux titles being available on Steam and not on GOG.com) that it suggests GOG.com is doing little - if anything - to combat this.

If it was isolated titles, I'd agree that GOG.com is not to blame... But we're talking dozens of titles here, which to me suggests that GOG.com is doing nothing to combat this choice.

GOG.com aren't solely to blame, of course (as you've pointed out, the developer and / or publisher are also to blame); but they are partially to blame.

This is the most obvious downside to going all-digital, and a big part of the reason console manufactures are pushing this for the future... All-digital means you don't "own" anything and can have your purchase taken away at any time.

Wrong. It's the most obvious downside of using DRM. All digital DRM-free allows you to make your own backups, and no one can take it away at any time then any more than physical media you store it on. So if anything, GOG is the example of why DRM-free is important to prevent that.


Last edited by Shmerl on 19 September 2024 at 1:27 am UTC

Maybe one day they start consider potential Linux customers first class customers and release the official client. Never bought anything from GOG during all these years because obviously they don't need our monys. And there is always Collection Chamber.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/release_gog_galaxy_20_for_linux

Or at least work with the Heroic Launcher team to integrate official multiplayer functionality and Linux versions of games which have one.

Before I asked and wished for official clients, but since I knew Heroic, can't stand those bloated monsters (which are reskinned chrome browsers and eat a lof of RAM and CPU) anymore.

This is the most obvious downside to going all-digital, and a big part of the reason console manufactures are pushing this for the future... All-digital means you don't "own" anything and can have your purchase taken away at any time.

Wrong. It's the most obvious downside of using DRM. All digital DRM-free allows you to make your own backups, and no one can take it away at any time then any more than physical media you store it on. So if anything, GOG is the example of why DRM-free is important to prevent that.

Technically you're correct - but GOG.com is a rare exception to the rule; in saying that, there have been occasional instances over the years where GOG.com has still wrapped games in DRM, as I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong).

Sadly, the overwhelming majority of GOG.com's catalog is either old and / or indie titles, or so-called "shovelware"; "AAA titles" are few and far between in the overall catalog.

Sadly, the overwhelming majority of GOG.com's catalog is either old and / or indie titles, or so-called "shovelware"; "AAA titles" are few and far between in the overall catalog.

Still, it just highlights the point. Even if GOG delists something in a way that removes the game from your account (which they don't usually even in the above case), if you take care to do backups, you'll still have it. So it's not really about all digital itself. That was my main point.

But yes, you are right that many games aren't available DRM-free. It is improving to some degree though? GOG has more newer games from big publishers than in the past these days.


Last edited by Shmerl on 19 September 2024 at 2:33 am UTC

Technically you're correct - but GOG.com is a rare exception to the rule; in saying that, there have been occasional instances over the years where GOG.com has still wrapped games in DRM, as I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong).

I remember people being angry about the Aliens vs Predator MP requiring the Galaxy client. But IIRC they had to completely rewrite that part of the software, so without that effort we would not have MP at all.
And the GOG version of Horizon Zero Dawn still has the horrible feature of scanning all your stuff and phoning home, but that is more the publisher's fault.
Have there been any other incidents?

Oxenfree was itch.io, not GOG.

My point was that these (granted, only) two data points are showing a weird trend of games getting delisted from online stores that presumably don't cost them anything for existing on, and I was wondering if there was some bigger thing happening.

The issue with GOG with respect to Linux and publisher support is mostly down to:

• No galaxy support for Linux, i.e. no cloud saves, no online features. This means two versions or extra code to handle it, which in turn requires validation and what not. Steam at least is consistent in their support of platforms and available features.


• The upload/packaging process for Windows/MacOS and Linux games is/was different and was specially cumbersome


• Linux as a platform is not unified (see https://docs.gog.com/linux-guidelines/ for gog's guidelines), the safest bet is to pack everything as a static library (which again is a pain). Steam bypasses some of these with their Steam Runtime


• GOG in general is a small store (10% of PC sales of cyberpunk was from GOG)


• Linux for gaming is still a niche

As for the delisting of games. Happens all the time, I have the original Fallout's on my account (slug id 1) which were delisted, I can download the games any time. Eventually the games got back on GOG and the original ones were renamed to Classic.


Last edited by alka.setzer on 19 September 2024 at 1:41 pm UTC

What does delisting mean in this case. If you own any of these games will they dissapear from your account? Or does it simply mean that you won't be able to see them in the search/store and buy them after they're delisted?

When a game gets delisted, they're not available to purchase anymore at the store and when searching for the delisted game. As for owning the delisted game, as long as you've purchased it before it was removed, you should still be able to access it from your library on GOG (and Steam).

This is the most obvious downside to going all-digital, and a big part of the reason console manufactures are pushing this for the future... All-digital means you don't "own" anything and can have your purchase taken away at any time.

Wrong. It's the most obvious downside of using DRM. All digital DRM-free allows you to make your own backups, and no one can take it away at any time then any more than physical media you store it on. So if anything, GOG is the example of why DRM-free is important to prevent that.

Yup, even if you have physical media, if it has DRM on it, there's potential for an OS update that'll ban that DRM (safedisc anyone?) so all those physical disks are now useless (well, unless you know where NoCD cracks are).

Yup, even if you have physical media, if it has DRM on it, there's potential for an OS update that'll ban that DRM (safedisc anyone?) so all those physical disks are now useless (well, unless you know where NoCD cracks are).

Yeah, but it's super-easy to make "backup" copies of physical media - heck, I just got my hands on the very last title in the MCU today, and I'm "ripping" the entire collection to my home theater as I type this; or, if you want to keep it on-point, it's relatively easy to extra a game from a disc and / or find a so-called "no CD crack".


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 19 September 2024 at 3:58 pm UTC

Yup, even if you have physical media, if it has DRM on it, there's potential for an OS update that'll ban that DRM (safedisc anyone?) so all those physical disks are now useless (well, unless you know where NoCD cracks are).

Yeah, but it's super-easy to make "backup" copies of physical media - heck, I just got my hands on the very last title in the MCU today, and I'm "ripping" the entire collection to my home theater as I type this; or, if you want to keep it on-point, it's relatively easy to extra a game from a disc and / or find a so-called "no CD crack".

Easy for us; less so for your average person.

The issue with GOG with respect to Linux and publisher support is mostly down to:

• No galaxy support for Linux, i.e. no cloud saves, no online features. This means two versions or extra code to handle it, which in turn requires validation and what not. Steam at least is consistent in their support of platforms and available features.


• The upload/packaging process for Windows/MacOS and Linux games is/was different and was specially cumbersome


• Linux as a platform is not unified (see https://docs.gog.com/linux-guidelines/ for gog's guidelines), the safest bet is to pack everything as a static library (which again is a pain). Steam bypasses some of these with their Steam Runtime


• GOG in general is a small store (10% of PC sales of cyberpunk was from GOG)


• Linux for gaming is still a niche

As for the delisting of games. Happens all the time, I have the original Fallout's on my account (slug id 1) which were delisted, I can download the games any time. Eventually the games got back on GOG and the original ones were renamed to Classic.

this can make me gone with Steam Versions of GOG games, as former can be more playable in Linux than latter's versions(of latter uses GOG galaxy instead offline)