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General discussionGOG 2022 update #2: our commitment to DRM-free gaming(543 posts)(543 posts)
(543 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 17, 2022
Thanks for all the feedback you gave us after the previous update. You’re awesome and it shows the GOG insights piques your interest. Today’s article is about a topic that we know is very important to you – our commitment to DRM-free gaming and what it exactly means.

GOG was built on trust, which is at the very core of our identity. It is evidenced by our 30-day refund policy or releasing games DRM-free, among other things. At the same time, we understand DRM-free might mean different things to different people, especially when modern games blend offline and online experiences.

When GOG first launched, the gaming market looked very different from what it is now – retail was the main place to buy games, and digital distribution was just taking baby steps. DRM, the copy protection software created to protect licenses against unauthorized disc copying, was a huge source of annoyance for gamers often restricting how they can access their content. From the beginning, part of GOG’s mission was to provide gamers with a simple way to access and play games, without the need to fiddle with files or deal with any DRM. Making sure you can play games purchased on GOG offline, make backup copies, and install them as many times as you need is even more relevant now, as things like game preservation become an important topic for the whole industry.

Today, while some of the most infamous DRMs of the past are thankfully long gone, it doesn’t mean the constraints are fully gone. They just have a different, more complex face.

Games are evolving and many titles offer features beyond single-player offline gameplay, like multiplayer, achievements, vanities, rewards. Many such games are already on GOG and will continue to join our catalog. But it also raises the question: is this a new frontier for DRM?

And this is the crux of the matter. Some think it is, some don’t. Some hate it, some don’t mind it. And to be fair, we didn’t comment on it ourselves for quite some time and feel this is the time to do so:

We believe you should have freedom of choice and the right to decide how you use, enjoy, and keep the games you bought. It manifests in three points:
1. The single-player mode has to be accessible offline.

2. Games you bought and downloaded can never be taken from you or altered against your will.

3. The GOG GALAXY client is and will remain optional for accessing single-player offline mode.


We fully commit to all those points. Aside from this, we reaffirm our continuous effort to make games compatible with future OSs and available for you for years to come.

As for multiplayer, achievements, and all that jazz – games with those features belong on GOG. Having said that, we believe that you have the right to make an informed choice about the content that you choose to enjoy and we won’t tell you how and where you can access or store your games. To make it easier to discover titles that include features like multiplayer, unlockable cosmetics, timed events, or user-generated content, we’re adding information about such functionalities on product pages. In short, you’ll always know.

We always took a lot of pride in the freedom we provide gamers. While we know DRM-free may have a different meaning to everyone, we believe you have the right to decide how you use, enjoy, and keep the titles you get on GOG. With games evolving towards adding more online features, we want you to understand our DRM-free approach and what it means to us. It is an important topic – let us know what you think.
Posted March 17, 2022
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Congrats on this well-crafted update. Update #3 should adress the lackluster text bids for game releases. The old style was brilliant, why have you changed it?
Posted March 18, 2022
I appreciate these posts. Keep 'em coming I say. It's a long ways away, but I hope some day GOG is seen as an arbiter of game preservation and restoration, the same way Criterion/Janus Films is for movies.

I understand that it cannot be done for every game that is released on GOG, nor should it, or else we'd be barred from accessing a number of more recent titles, but anything GOG is expressly involved in bringing back from the depths of the gaming abyss should have a noticeable measure of quality difference. By "quality difference," I'm referring to additional behind-the-scenes material, gathering interviews from the developers, soundtracks, etc. That would really go a long way I believe.
Posted March 18, 2022
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kev1711: Please support Linux and implement Proton to GOG Galaxy. It's a DRM free OS that ensures games are preserved and future proof.

Also, GOG Galaxy desperately needs universal controller support that's on par with Steam input, in terms of features and functionality, along with having your own Big Picture Mode for TV setups.
Why would they spend time on a dead OS that nobody cares about and doesn't have it's own games(using ghetto emulation for windows games). Also it has bad backward compatability so things wont work in the future quickly since it changes too much and often. That is the opposite of preservation and future proof.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Truth007
Posted March 18, 2022
high rated
I personally do not find this commitment to DRM-free very reassuring at all. The point about the single-player mode only required to be 'accessible' offline, nothing about the actual content or extent of it locked away/unavailable, seems to be the exact same justification as to why Hitman 2016 was considered perfectly acceptable in the state it was released here.

Having at least a warning on the product page, so it's not containing blatant false info, that would certainly be nice, but that would be a basic I would expect from any store/product.

I also do not like the false dichotomy presented between "single-player offline gameplay" and "features beyond [it] achievements, vanities, rewards" - these can all happen in an offline single player game? I've played many such games that have in-game achievements, cosmetic or reward items etc as a regular part of a single-player offline game. It's completely normal, not something 'beyond' it.

If the intent is to re-release Hitman in the exact same state as before, only with an added note to the store page, I will not be purchasing it again.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by emme
Posted March 18, 2022
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Pyromancer138: You should also say something about your commitment to keeping gog games up to date.
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SarahGabriella: Thats not on them but on the game devs...
Not completely true. The devs need to provide those updates but GOG could do much more to make them keep their games up to date. Right now the community is doing GOGs work by contacting them on discord, twitter, facebook and such. These things could be done by GOG as well. Then there are those devs who don't know about the Galaxy API or how to use it to push the updates by themselves - that's something GOG could fix as well.

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RadonGOG: Congrats on this well-crafted update. Update #3 should adress the lackluster text bids for game releases. The old style was brilliant, why have you changed it?
Imo it is quite obvious. Right now GOG is trying to save money where they can. This is probably one possibility to save money, the unwanted "suppot"bot is another.
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emme: If the intent is to re-release Hitman in the exact same state as before, only with an added note to the store page, I will not be purchasing it again.
If they really do it begs the question how far they might go with this "get out of jail" card and I am sure many would leave GOG for good. So let's hope that they don't.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by MarkoH01
Posted March 18, 2022
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SmollestLight: The in-game items received in Cyberpunk 2077 are purely cosmetic and in no way affect the single player experience of the game. However, we’re adding information about such functionalities on product pages. Therefore, you will always know in case a game includes them.
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mrkgnao: The game page for Stars in Shadow seems to miss important information about requiring Galaxy. You might want to add something like:
"Single-player notice: GOG Galaxy is required to obtain the latest version of the game. The version available via GOG Galaxy is 38803 (12/13/20). The version available via the offline installers is 38774 (08/09/20)."
Here's one, which isn't in the beta branch:

Afterparty

Offline Installer = 1.4.9, Windows & Mac
Galaxy = 1.4.26f2, Windows | 1.4.26, Mac

This update adds localizations in French, Italian, German, Russian and Spanish to the game and was uploaded to Galaxy on January 31!
Posted March 18, 2022
high rated
This post feels like lots of words but almost nothing new. Even the "new" part, being able to know if the game has unlockables and all that, is not specific on where or how its going to be.

And if its like its on the Dying Light page, well, placing it in the middle of the page (where's harder to find) and not being specific on the what's and hows... its not really helpful.

Everything else feels like repeating stuff already said and leaving a lot of room to do whatever you want. And I'm saying this with Hitman (2016) in mind, because it fits all your requirements, but it was crystal clear it didn't fit the community's: It does not specify what is "the single player mode has to be accessible offline" and to what degree, what does comprise a "reward" that you say it should be online.

It's just... well, another disappointment. It tries to define something, but in the end it says nothing and even opens the door to repeat the Hitman debacle. I was already wary (and weary) that to purchase a "DRM Free" game here in GoG I need to do first a lot of research (And in some cases, get lucky), and this post is just confirming that things are not going to change.

And not a word on the games that are abandoned/outdated. Not cool. Not cool at all.
Posted March 18, 2022
low rated
It's at least cool that you guys are making a statement and trying to be better listeners. However, I agree with a lot of the folks here about the cosmetic items in Cyberpunk 2077. Even if you claim they are only cosmetic, so what? It's still DRM, and if you want it, you have to login and use Galaxy. That's not equitable treatment for the folks that paid the same amount of money, but don't want to be bothered with Galaxy...plain and simple.

Another concern of mine is this statement: 2. Games you bought and downloaded can never be taken from you or altered against your will. I know how jargon works with companies. That only applies to games that meet 2 criteria....bought and downloaded. Of course you cannot change or take something away that I downloaded. It's impossible unless you are trying to get into my hard drive. This brings me to my point. What about removing access from our libraries that are online? I'm not trying to be contrary or make some kind of statement, but many people fear this could happen. With the way things are today, who knows if a customer says or does something that GOG doesn't approve of here and gets kicked to the curb. I would like a concrete statement about removing library access.

Also, lets see some parity between the game builds that are available via Galaxy and the offline installers. It's really bothersome to be forced to use Galaxy to get a current build.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by JoaoPauloZA
Posted March 18, 2022
I didn't realize Galaxy had different versions, that is concerning.

Here's a non-standard use-case though:
I do use Galaxy.
However, I do not install or download anything through it.

I use it as a game purchase tracker.
It's most important benefit, for me, is letting me keep track of all my games across all my other platforms. I can now simply check if the game shows up in my Galaxy install before I purchase a game.

Several times I've re-purchased games I've already had, or had unused Humble keys for.
That's Galaxy's benefit for me.

I don't trust it for downloading or installing GOG games though, as the installer that's downloaded (last time I tried it) wasn't the same as the website. Plus it's already very buggy from the start, so I don't trust it (as a software developer myself) to actually properly install or uninstall games.
Posted March 18, 2022
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GOG.com: To make it easier to discover titles that include features like multiplayer, unlockable cosmetics, timed events, or user-generated content, we’re adding information about such functionalities on product pages. In short, you’ll always know.
That statement is literally a promise not to commit to DRM-free gaming, but instead to commit to DRM-infested gaming, whilst being given under the false pretense of committing to DRM-free gaming.

And it's also a lame excuse to keep the DRM in Cyberpunk 2077 and double-down on it being a permanently DRM-infested game, and also to double-down on future games which will have similar DRM, yet be allowed on GOG anyway, as per that "commitment" that I just quoted. I.e. the No Man's Sky DRM which existed on GOG for a long time but was eventually removed (or so I'm told); that statement makes it sound like future games in that situation won't have their DRM removed on GOG any more, but rather GOG is giving those devs its seal of approval for keeping that type of DRM!

GOG labeling games that have DRM does not make it somehow "not" be DRM any more. Although the statement from GOG also makes it sound like GOG will fudge those labels too, by not labeling the DRM'ed content directly & explicitly as DRM, by not outright calling it DRM, on the GOG store pages, even though it is DRM.

This "commitment" is a farce and it isn't good enough. DRM-free means DRM-free. It doesn't mean fudging the definition of what DRM-free means after a having a meeting at GOG and then crafting a carefully-worded PR-speak fudge, which is exactly what the original post of this thread is.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted March 18, 2022
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kev1711: Please support Linux and implement Proton to GOG Galaxy. It's a DRM free OS that ensures games are preserved and future proof.

Also, GOG Galaxy desperately needs universal controller support that's on par with Steam input, in terms of features and functionality, along with having your own Big Picture Mode for TV setups.
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Truth007: Why would they spend time on a dead OS that nobody cares about and doesn't have it's own games(using ghetto emulation for windows games). Also it has bad backward compatability so things wont work in the future quickly since it changes too much and often. That is the opposite of preservation and future proof.
You definitely don't know what you are talking about.

Maybe up to windows xp, there was relatively good backward compatibility.
But long ago it was lost.

Linux is by any means 'dead', even Microsoft invest much money in it, because it's what huge amount of developers love, so all this WSL, etc.

And Linux got really great backward compatiblity, it very rarely breaks userspace (other side is hardware and drivers compatibility. It doesn't provide stable API - it's at source level and kind of)

But If all all your external libs needed are glibc, SDL, etc . it's pretty easy to run very old software on modern Linux.

And while there's much less native games, you cannot deny their existence. Quake 3 Arena is flagship exmaple, that works beatifuly on modern distro, like it wad working over decade ago. and I'm talking about official binaries, not improved source ports.
There are many other examples of good(SDL-based) ports that works on recent distros.

There are also bunch of poor ports, that used proprietary libs(like faudio) or some poor DirectX translators that worked only on non-standard-compliant nvidia drivers(but it's true, there was no other choice two decades ago).

GNU/Linux and Windows are different beasts, but for me it's easier to run legacy linux apps on modern linux, than legacy windows software on windows.
running apps from terminal and watching output is usually enough to find what libraries are missing. 'ldd' and few other commands are also very helpful.

And You shouldn't call WINE/Proton 'ghetto emulation', because win32 API is also no native to modern Windows(starting from Windows XP, it's 'NT API' and 'win32 API' is win9x[95/98/ME] legacy).
More fun fact is that GNU/Linux with WINE is more compatible with over-decade-old Windows software, than current Windows 8/10/11.
Often you can also get better performance under Linux\WINE, than on Windows running bare-metal. It varies from software to software (same as compatiblity).

But GOG/Steam/Itch.io (Humble Bundle recently stopped) provides Linux native games from years(and you can filter to buy only them.
Most John Carmark games, like Wolfenstein, Quake and Doom were linux 1st-class natives. Unreal series, Codemaster games (F1 2015, F1 2017, Dirt Rally, Dirt 2), these a few examples

I will show you GOG stats:
Windows - 4187 games
Mac - 1358 games
Linux - 1145 games
Posted March 18, 2022
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SmollestLight: The in-game items received in Cyberpunk 2077 are purely cosmetic and in no way affect the single player experience of the game. However, we’re adding information about such functionalities on product pages. Therefore, you will always know in case a game includes them.
That statement is not true.

The DRM'ed content of Cyberpunk 2077 certainly does affect the singleplayer experience of the game, by denying players the pleasure that they would have received from being able to experience that content which they have paid for, but which they cannot use if they choose not to indulge with Galaxy acting as a DRM-gate for that content.

In that quoted post, GOG is trying to defend the indefensible, and fish for lame excuses to keep DRM in GOG games, and pretend like that's a fine & dandy thing to do. No, it isn't!

GOG needs to reverse course on this matter, apologize for having left DRM in Cyberpunk 2077 for so long, and remove the DRM from Cyberpunk 2077.

Likewise, GOG also needs to apologize for having defended such DRM (like the quoted post is literally doing, as have other similar posts from GOG staff in the past), and promise never again to allow such DRM-infestations into GOG games, and also promise never again to defend such DRM being present on GOG.

That would be what a real commitment to DRM-free would look like.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted March 18, 2022
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: That would be what a real commitment to DRM-free would look like.
I know we often' don't agree, ARD [e.g., Achievements], but I know you're usually in the right place. Thinks for chiming in here as well.
Posted March 18, 2022
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GOG.com: 2. Games you bought and downloaded can never be taken from you or altered against your will.
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Kerebron: This point directly implies that user should be able to download all previous versions of offline installers, not the latest ones only (with some odd patches here and there).
This is a very excellent point.

I have been wanting to download a non-broken version of Divinity: Original Sin 1 from GOG since I bought it in 2017.

Yet I cannot, because GOG only offers its customers the ability to download the broken versions that were broken in newer patches.

The devs have been aware of this problem since at least 2017, when I emailed them and they confirmed the problem to me and that it's caused by a bug...which now in 2022, it's evident that they are probably never going to fix.

Thus, GOG customers will be left with a broken version of that game forever, unless GOG finally starts allowing customers to choose which patched version of the game that they want to download.

Also, what about games like Chuchel, which have been diabolically censored and ruined, and most if not all owners of that game do not agree with that censorship...yet GOG only offers the censored version, not the original uncensored version that the customers originally paid for if they bought the game before it was censored.

Both of those types of things prove that GOG's quoted promise at the top of this post is also empty, meaningless words, so long as GOG continues to refuse to allow customers to choose for themselves which patched version of their game(s) that they want to download.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted March 18, 2022
high rated
I'm glad to see this communication about what exactly in each game is DRM-free and accessible offline.
Ideally, I'd prefer as much as possible is functional offline (even achievements, cosmetic items, different game modes, etc), but I understand this isn't easy for a third party like GOG to try to force developers to do, and that it costs time and money for developers to do it (if they didn't design it that way in the first place).

As long as the biggest, central "core" experience of the game (90% of it, e.g., in the form of the singleplayer campaign, maybe minus some cosmetic items or one side-quest) is accessible offline and DRM-free, then that is valuable to me as a gamer and believer in game preservation. Ideally, it would be 100%, and I think GOG should continue to really push for that as much as possible, but I also know the world is messy and complicated and we can't always achieve everything we want.
For example, I was quite disappointed that EYE: Divine Cybermancy was only released as the "Singleplayer Edition", but was glad that this fact was made absolutely clear on the store page, and especially that the community found a workaround to play over LAN.

In particular, I would really like GOG to push for the inclusion of "preservation-friendly multiplayer", by which I mean multiplayer that does not rely on servers controlled by other companies (be it GOG Galaxy, or the developer's own proprietary servers).
While I mostly play singleplayer, also love coop with friends over LAN or direct online connection. I think the majority of multiplayer games on GOG (as a DRM-free platform) should work with one or more of the following: LAN, direct IP connection, player-hosted servers, and/or similar systems that make them much more DRM-free and easier to preserve over time.
I would also very much like this specified on the games' store pages. Currently it only says "Multiplayer" as a feature. I think we really need separate feature tags to distinguish things like:
- Hot-seat multiplayer
- Shared-screen / splitscreen multiplayer
- LAN multiplayer
- Local/personal server hosted online multiplayer (This being where players can host their own servers to play over the internet)
- Cloud / third-party server hosted online multiplayer (This being the "DRM" version of multiplayer that is not friendly to game preservation)
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Community
General discussionGOG 2022 update #2: our commitment to DRM-free gaming(543 posts)(543 posts)
(543 posts)