Well, they even acknowledge it in a forum thread that they know that, like in Capitalism, no product can apply to 100% of the customers...
Which still doesn't mean I don't find it stupid. But it looks like there are enough people who put up with it to make this worthwhile.

I was going to buy this a long time ago. I bought Capitalism 1 and 2 because I love the idea behind them, they seem so much fun, but I haven't had the time to play them yet. I thought "I'd buy Capitalism Lab and just play that instead!", and then I find out it's an always on internet connection.

My internet has been going in and out for the past week. I keep losing my connection. If I was playing this game, I guess I'd have a hard time at it.

They lost a sale from me a long time ago, I won't buy it if I need to be online. Cause you know what, sometimes I ain't online.

*Gasps!* I know that last line was a shocker.

I'm sorry to hear the new Capitalism has DRM, I would have bought it otherwise. I loved Cap 2.

I too would buy it. Just putting it out there. Hope Trevor comes around sometime and gets it on GOG. It's so ridiculous reducing your potential customers like that. "You don't love DRM? I guess my product isn't for you, LOL. I'll just sell to my 10 other customers"

Is there any chance Cap Lab being released on GOG?

I know this is an old post, but it bears being said: many many people who play Capitalism games are teachers, who use it to teach students. These teachers probably have an old CD copy of the game that they are throwing up on their webspace as just another class material. Adding DRM to a supposedly "improved and more realistic" simulation means no more teacher and 50+ students per year sharing a single copy of the game.

It doesn't work for me because I abhor DRM and especially always-online games, but in this case I absolutely understand why they do it this way.

Count me among those who want Capitalism Lab to come onto GOG.

Well, the biggest surprise for me was how easy Cap Lab is. In Cap II you really had to struggle to get and keep your company profitable when chosing 100% difficulty. In Cap Lab you need easily 200% or 300% for a challenge. Well, maybe it gets harder later on, but in the beginning they throw money in big sacks at you.

(false alarm)

Same. Been giving Capitalism 2 serious runs atm and zero regrets.

I would love to see the Capitalism game grow. That's a shame to hear it was made too easy despite a lot of features added. It's a wonderful teaching tool and when the first 3 games (org Cap, Cap Plus, and Cap II) are all 'difficult' (but you can easily just give yourself a ton of money and turn off the market or use cheats in a learning setting.

I feel it's a really strong tool for what a 'game' can be that teaches you implicitly the calculus of how businesses work. Just the basic laws of supply, demand, utilisation, etc. All of these equations that are quite complex are shown rather simply. In a basic educational setting you can change the variables of these equations (such as adding R&D, adding another factory) and watching how the company's revenues/profits/sales/products move in and out. It's really cool.

I never explored the lab stuff--I would if it's on GOG absolutely, but it seems a bit muddied in trying to do 50 other things than teach the economics it does so well.