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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 18, 2022
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GOG.com: 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.
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BartsBlue: I have very rarely voiced out opinion here in the forums, but I will this time, as it is really important for me.

I have hundreds of games bought on GOG, it should be easy to verify. I do not use GOG Galaxy. I have tried it twice and removed it both times. I didn't see any added benefit for my particular case. Since 2011 I have been downloading and storing offline installers. Happy with it, since I mostly download them initially and only upgrade in some cases.

Now, coming to GOG statement. Point 1 is easy, all the games I bought on GOG have single-player mode and I don't care for multiplayer at all, with the exception of a few cases where I've actually played them in local multiplayer (Wacky Wheels!). Point 3 is slightly disingenuous, as many others have pointed out, but I'll let them do the explaining since I have next to no experience with GOG Galaxy. Finding out in this thread that there are disparities between available offline installers downloaded directly from webpage and via Galaxy have shaken my faith in GOG quite a bit, though. For me, however, the most important point is the point 2, put in bold above.

I am fairly annoyed by the fact that I cannot download older versions of offline installers via webpage (not sure if it can be done via Galaxy). Some others have mentioned patches that are game-breaking. I will also add that I don't really like the current trend of everything constantly changing and some game updates are not to my liking. Examples:

* someone mentioned Chuchel, I understand why the changes were made and don't really care, but not being able to access the original version to compare bothers me (disclaimer: I do not own Chuchel on GOG);

* my beloved Darkest Dungeon has evolved a lot over the years, but I have preferred one of the earlier versions. I fortunately had it backed up, but if I hadn't had, I would have been very angry about not being able to redownload it after updates;

* World of Horror - an excellent retro-game, being able to see how it grew over time from one version to another is very educational. However, I can't access earlier builds from before I bought it and it annoys me quite a bit.

As it is now, I don't think that the point 2 is fully realised by GOG. Yes, if one had downloaded offline installer of version X, they can access it. But if they hadn't or if they lost it (my case, too), there is no way of going back to the favourite build / version.

Sorry for the long rant. I certainly hope someone from GOG will read the above and - hopefully - it will be heard. I understand I may be a niche client in what essentially is a niche shop and therefore my "wants" will never be realised. I would also be very grateful if someone could inform me that I am wrong and these older versions can indeed be accessed in some way I have missed - I'll be very glad to admit that I was wrong. However, whilst I generally agree with and support the principles listed by GOG, I feel they are not realised in 100% as of now.
Rollback an update is a galaxy only feature. I have long gone on about this, and changelogs. Too busy adding sorting options to main page unfortunately:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/provide_a_full_and_complete_changelogged_download_system
Posted March 18, 2022
Let me chime in here with a longer message to address, and hopefully clarify, some of your comments I see repeating in this thread.

I’ve seen an avid discussion about what DRM and DRM-free really stands for and, as we’ve mentioned in the article, it may have a different meaning to everyone. Some spoke up that it may not entirely fit into what we emphasised ourselves. We understand and respect your right to have your own opinion on the matter or that you may not agree with our definition, but we do stand by it. Games with features like multiplayer, achievements, vanities, rewards, timed events, etc. belong on GOG.

That being said, we’re adding notices about such functionalities on product pages so you can make an informed choice whether to purchase such a title or not. To answer one of your inquiries on the matter - these will show up in the form of boxed notices, such as this one.

As for offline / GOG GALAXY installers having different versions - there are additional beta builds in the client in a separate in-development branch, which is available only for those titles that developers decide to share unstable builds with users (more info here). As they are not release candidate builds, as such they are not the Stable Version (version checked by the developer and our QA and Product Teams with their confirmation everything works as intended). The discrepancies in build versions refer to separate beta branches only. Any other cases are most likely due to human error or our automation system failing to generate the notice and deliver it to our Team - like it was with the mentioned Afterparty. I’ve already informed our Technical Support Team in that regard (they are on it!). I do want to highlight that it’s not by any means our ill intent that, occasionally, build versions differ, but by unfortunate omission.

To add even more context here - The process of publishing the offline installers is automated for the most part, but not yet for all titles. We do plan to fully automate the offline installers publishing for the games that do not support this option currently in the nearest future, which should significantly improve the process.
That is why our Product Team may sometimes miss that a certain title's offline installers are not up to date - it's something we're continuously working on improving so it doesn't happen in the future. If you ever notice something similar, I would suggest reaching out to our Support so they can adjust it. As always, any such feedback is much appreciated!

Apart from the core definition of DRM-free, many of you mention the additional cosmetics for Cyberpunk 2077, accessible after one-time login to GOG GALAXY client (or the REDlauncher for those that purchased the title on other storefronts). We’ve mentioned before in this thread but let me repeat that for good measure - we believe each developer has the right to decide whether they want to give additional incentives, like cosmetics, that do not impact the single-player gameplay. The fact CDPR and GOG are a part of the same group does not change the fact they are the creators of the game, and we are a digital storefront.

In regards to your comments around Hitman and if it comes back to GOG – the game won’t be released as a DRM-free title in the same form as offered back in September 2021. As mentioned in the post, we see that games are evolving, and this led us to write this article about our stance on DRM-free gaming. We didn’t comment on those changes and what kind of influence they may have on GOG’s DRM-free approach.

We understand DRM-free might mean different things to different people, and even this thread shows how many different opinions are there. Some comments we see here, state that the article doesn’t bring anything new – and that was our intention. We don’t want to introduce new policies, we want to reaffirm our commitment to DRM-free games and want you to understand what it means for us.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by chandra
Posted March 18, 2022
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kparal: I'd love to see more DRM-related details present on game product pages. Specifically, I think you should clearly say whether:
1. Multiplayer requires Galaxy or not
2. Multiplayer requires a third-party account or not
3. Multiplayer works across different launchers (e.g. Steam) and which ones, or not, and specify requirements if any
4. Singleplayer is impacted in offline play or not. This doesn't mean achievements, rewards or vanities, but means impact on important gameplay features, like the ability to unlock and carry weapons from one mission to the next (yes, the Hitman 2016 fiasco).

I don't require all games on GOG to be 100% DRM-free, often that's impossible due to multiplayer aspects. The baseline you described is a good one. But I need to be fully informed, so that I can make a good purchase decision. Thank you!
Please do elaborate on point 3, what exactly constitutes impact on single player gameplay, is it a level, a tune, some pictures, a costume? The fact that you call them vanities indicates you don’t care what your playable characters look like (must admit I don’t either) however others really do. And where does it stop? NFTs are fine we’re they, just an optional extra? The whole game being online apart from an empty landscape you can walk around then MMOs are ok. The point is in the definition.

Just thought of an example, what would you think if playing as a female was online only? That’s just cosmetic and doesn’t affect the game, is that ok with your definitions?
Post edited March 18, 2022 by nightcraw1er.488
Posted March 18, 2022
Thank you for what you do.

I know you guys are a business performing a difficult balancing act:

- A not-insignificant portion of your customer base are people like me: those who hate DRM and surveillance capitalism so much that we are one hop away from diving into FOSS games and RetroArch for the rest of our lives.

- You have to appease your publishers, who, given the opportunity, would want you to become Steam, Epic, and perhaps beyond in an effort to monetize every bit of data on their end users.

My suggestion would be to create a sub-brand (still linked to the main storefront infrastructure) focused on marketing to people like me, with an enhanced ruleset for appearing on the sub-brand's store:

1. Not only single-player offline required, but IP-based multiplayer with no account (if multiplayer is available).
2. Linux support required.
3. DLC available from the storefront without requiring publisher account.

Finally, as we have been asking for years: Please release Galaxy for Linux. Show you care about supporting people like me as much as Valve cares about turning Steam into a Chrome-style walled garden that happens to execute on Linux.
Posted March 18, 2022
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GOG.com: 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.
Sorry, but this definition is weak and completely insufficient. For a game to be single-player DRM-free, the entirety of the single-player experience needs to be available offline and not be locked. That means 100% of the single-player game, including cosmetics and pre-order bonuses.
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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 is not an acceptable stance to me, for a store that purports to be 'DRM-free'. Cosmetics rewards in single-player are obviously single-player content, plain and simple. For them to be locked required the presence of a technical means for that content to be restricted, therefore, by definition it requires the presence of DRM in what is supposed to be a single-player game.

DRM is a mechanism, it is not a form of content.

For even a single piece of cosmetic armour that comprises 0.001% of a game to be restricted requires the exact same DRM mechanism that would be needed to lock 30% of the SP content.

As a suggestion: cosmetic pre-order bonuses could (and should) be implemented in a way similar to DLCs, where they are contained in a separate file that can be downloaded and installed as an add-on to the game, without the need for any offensive DRM at all. GOG is missing a good opportunity here to be a leader in providing such optional extras in a way that is also compatible with the stated goals of DRM-free.

GOG needs to have a serious re-think about the nature of its convictions over DRM and come back and talk to us when you are ready to do better. This is not good enough. Period.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Time4Tea
Posted March 18, 2022
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TheGrimLord: I'm just going to say that I remember the days when GOG's policy actually stated that a user didn't just own the game but that they could put it on a disc and give it to friends. I don't believe I'm mis-remembering, but we are obviously leagues away from that now. "If you buy it, it's yours."
Someone has already clarified this but let me reply as an official statement as well.

Any products purchased on GOG.COM are for personal use only, meaning only you (the owner of the GOG account said product is in the library of) can use it. You can download the offline installers and play it on any device you own or put it on a pendrive or something, but it should be you that uses it. Due to the DRM-free nature of our products we cannot, of course, control what you do once you download the offline installers, but our relationship with our community is build on trust, so we can only hope you make the right decision and keep the games to yourself :)
Posted March 18, 2022
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kparal: I'd love to see more DRM-related details present on game product pages. Specifically, I think you should clearly say whether:
1. Multiplayer requires Galaxy or not
2. Multiplayer requires a third-party account or not
3. Multiplayer works across different launchers (e.g. Steam) and which ones, or not, and specify requirements if any
4. Singleplayer is impacted in offline play or not. This doesn't mean achievements, rewards or vanities, but means impact on important gameplay features, like the ability to unlock and carry weapons from one mission to the next (yes, the Hitman 2016 fiasco).

I don't require all games on GOG to be 100% DRM-free, often that's impossible due to multiplayer aspects. The baseline you described is a good one. But I need to be fully informed, so that I can make a good purchase decision. Thank you!
I mostly agree with you.

When it comes to multiplayer I would prefer games to offer LAN and user-operated servers, but since most games are not design with this in mind it is unreasonable to expect the developers to change that aspect only for GOG users. The best we can ask from GOG is to improve information on the game page.

However I disagree with your last point. GOG should never allow games locking in-game offline content (both cosmetic items and gameplay features) to be released in their store, even with proper information. But since they apparently won't change their mind on this, they can be sure I won't spend my money on any of those games.

As for achievements, they are not in-game content, so I don't mind if they are missing but it would be better to have them for those who cares.
Posted March 18, 2022
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TheGrimLord: I'm just going to say that I remember the days when GOG's policy actually stated that a user didn't just own the game but that they could put it on a disc and give it to friends. I don't believe I'm mis-remembering, but we are obviously leagues away from that now. "If you buy it, it's yours."
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chandra: Someone has already clarified this but let me reply as an official statement as well.

Any products purchased on GOG.COM are for personal use only, meaning only you (the owner of the GOG account said product is in the library of) can use it. You can download the offline installers and play it on any device you own or put it on a pendrive or something, but it should be you that uses it. Due to the DRM-free nature of our products we cannot, of course, control what you do once you download the offline installers, but our relationship with our community is build on trust, so we can only hope you make the right decision and keep the games to yourself :)
I do :> sometimes I'll just buy a friend a game if I think they'll like it, but I've never been into sharing.
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kparal: I'd love to see more DRM-related details present on game product pages. Specifically, I think you should clearly say whether:
1. Multiplayer requires Galaxy or not
2. Multiplayer requires a third-party account or not
3. Multiplayer works across different launchers (e.g. Steam) and which ones, or not, and specify requirements if any
4. Singleplayer is impacted in offline play or not. This doesn't mean achievements, rewards or vanities, but means impact on important gameplay features, like the ability to unlock and carry weapons from one mission to the next (yes, the Hitman 2016 fiasco).

I don't require all games on GOG to be 100% DRM-free, often that's impossible due to multiplayer aspects. The baseline you described is a good one. But I need to be fully informed, so that I can make a good purchase decision. Thank you!
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Lhun Duum: I mostly agree with you.

When it comes to multiplayer I would prefer games to offer LAN and user-operated servers, but since most games are not design with this in mind it is unreasonable to expect the developers to change that aspect only for GOG users. The best we can ask from GOG is to improve information on the game page.

However I disagree with your last point. GOG should never allow games locking in-game offline content (both cosmetic items and gameplay features) to be released in their store, even with proper information. But since they apparently won't change their mind on this, they can be sure I won't spend my money on any of those games.

As for achievements, they are not in-game content, so I don't mind if they are missing but it would be better to have them for those who cares.
As long as we don't get another Hitman situation we're all good. I'm also perfectly fine if games remove the multiplayer component completely in order to be sold here. Look at you Doom 2016/Eternal.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Magmarock
Posted March 18, 2022
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chandra: Someone has already clarified this but let me reply as an official statement as well.

Any products purchased on GOG.COM are for personal use only, meaning only you (the owner of the GOG account said product is in the library of) can use it. You can download the offline installers and play it on any device you own or put it on a pendrive or something, but it should be you that uses it. Due to the DRM-free nature of our products we cannot, of course, control what you do once you download the offline installers, but our relationship with our community is build on trust, so we can only hope you make the right decision and keep the games to yourself :)
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Magmarock: I do :> sometimes I'll just buy a friend a game if I think they'll like it, but I've never been into sharing.
I truly apperciate it <3 Sharing is caring but not in this particular case :D

And who doesn't like a game as a gift!
Posted March 18, 2022
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chandra: Any other cases are most likely due to human error or our automation system failing to generate the notice and deliver it to our Team - like it was with the mentioned Afterparty. I’ve already informed our Technical Support Team in that regard (they are on it!).
Thank you very much! That was exactly my intention when i wrote my post. I'll explain that below.

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chandra: I do want to highlight that it’s not by any means our ill intent that, occasionally, build versions differ, but by unfortunate omission.
That is something I know, so don't worry.

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chandra: If you ever notice something similar, I would suggest reaching out to our Support so they can adjust it. As always, any such feedback is much appreciated!
Here's the problem. I've created support tickets which weren't answered in months and are still pending. That's why I mentioned Afterparty in this thread. If there is no chance to notify you about such issues, what else can I do to make you aware?

I also created a support ticket for a lot of games where the activity feed isn't working, but didn't get any answer. I even wrote some PMs to SmollestLight about this, but again - no answer. So please tell me, what should I do? I really want to help but you don't let me do it.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Hustlefan
Posted March 18, 2022
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joppo: Gog is trying to communicate at least.

One thing I wanna point out however is that actions speak louder than words. If they want to make that message of commitment to DRM-free undeniably clear they could release the Cyberpunk2077 "My Rewards" items DRM-free in a free DLC not bound to Galaxy.

But I am pleasantly surprised by this, so much that I will temporarily suspend my boycotting position.
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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's DRM for DLC. Information is nice, but 100% DRM free is nicer. For both games and their DLC.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by Magmarock
Posted March 18, 2022
Reads a little bit like a justification for limited DRM to me. Here are three lines we'll try not to cross. Don't pay attention to what we didn't say.

Multiplayer requiring Galaxy is not something I will ever be happy about. I'm not big on multiplayer but don't understand why you would try to throw down the possibility of not supporting multiplayer for non-Galaxy users in the future.

DRM free done right => no-one debating "what DRM is" because the question is irrelevant.

The fact that there have been thousands (tens of thousands?) of posts on this exact topic shows that DRM has existed and does exist on GOG.
Posted March 18, 2022
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TheGrimLord: I'm just going to say that I remember the days when GOG's policy actually stated that a user didn't just own the game but that they could put it on a disc and give it to friends. I don't believe I'm mis-remembering, but we are obviously leagues away from that now. "If you buy it, it's yours."
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chandra: Someone has already clarified this but let me reply as an official statement as well.

Any products purchased on GOG.COM are for personal use only, meaning only you (the owner of the GOG account said product is in the library of) can use it. You can download the offline installers and play it on any device you own or put it on a pendrive or something, but it should be you that uses it. Due to the DRM-free nature of our products we cannot, of course, control what you do once you download the offline installers, but our relationship with our community is build on trust, so we can only hope you make the right decision and keep the games to yourself :)
so basically, if i were to install my gog game on my 3 computers at home and propose to play some lan mp game to a coiuple of friends who would spend some holidays at my place, what would be the official stance ?

i mean, it would not be "just me" playing it, but it would be played within my household and on my own hardware... i miss the small lan parties of my youth...

also the way galaxy and gog drm work, makes that a very small number of games would provide an inferior experience than, lets say, fullhy drm-ified platform like xbox console: example with Dragon's Dogma, which gog version prevents me from doing something i could do on both xbox and switch (aka play multi account and create full team of handcrafted pawns...) , though i cannot think yet of any other similiar example, but this one sort of cold showered me after the initial joy of seeing the game coming to gog catalog...
When gog game provides more restrictive single player experience than the version on a drm-locked platform, it is a bit concerning...
Posted March 18, 2022
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chandra: We’ve mentioned before in this thread but let me repeat that for good measure - we believe each developer has the right to decide whether they want to give additional incentives, like cosmetics, that do not impact the single-player gameplay.
It's so very sad to see you repeatedly affirming that GOG's happy with any amount of DRM so long as the publisher winks and nods and says "it's cosmetic". Disgusting doubleplusungood doublespeek. These are not incentives. They're PUNISHMENTS against for anyone who wants a DRM-free experience.

While at the same time your very affirmation says that Absolver does not belong on GOG because its online-gated content is not in any way merely cosmetic.

You're trying to be very transparent. And you are: being very transparent that GOG doesn't care about the DRM-free gaming cause anymore, and will mangle words to rationalize it.
Posted March 18, 2022
Thank you for this post about DRM-free.
But, please, keep improving the site and service, because there are still a lot of problems.

Some examples:
- restore the customer support's capability to pre-CP2077.
- enforce version & feature parity with other stores (Steam).
- keep standalones as up-to-date as Galaxy installers.
- enable mandatory changelogs for updates.
- start supporting Linux properly (and please don't abandon Win7 yet *cough*)
- permit manual vs automatic updating for Galaxy.
- allow offline achievements for Galaxy.
- fix the overlay compatibility with popular software (OBS).
- add a global tag manager for the library.
Post edited March 18, 2022 by phaolo
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGOG 2022 update #2: our commitment to DRM-free gaming(543 posts)(543 posts)
(543 posts)