Is this seriously a joke?! So, because I purchased a game somewhere else GoG won't let me buy the DLC from them. Uninstalling because I really don't like to be forced into purchases, in complete contradiction to your DRM policies I feel this is just as bad.

It would be a shame if you gave GOG monies...

lol, the fuck? There's some logic to this complaint, but it's just such a bizarre expectation that I don't know how anyone could take it seriously.

I can only imagine the number of complaints if you would be able to buy DLC without the base game. There would be several pages of topics of people complaining they bought a DLC thinking it was a full game because so many just don't read what the descriptions say.

Is it that bizarre?

Back in the day, it was normal to buy a game. And then a year or three later get lucky and find the expansion for it at the bottom of some sale basket in some random supermarket.

The only explanation I can think of is that GOG doesn't want to give tech support for expansions against a base game that isn't a GOG release. And without tech support, their refund policy falls apart...

What's bizarre is that you can't even buy a fucking soundtrack unless you own the base game here.

It's very likely that DLCs from GOG wouldn't work with game versions from other stores.

Well, yeah, that was normal back in the day. Not after the shift to digital, or the last 12 years where DLC has become the norm. We're waaaaaay past the point where that's a plausible expectation.

Agreed on the point about the soundtrack, though. That is a little strange.

Just out of curiosity, can you buy a DLC without the base on Steam, and if so, how would it work?
You need the Steam installer to install anything from them but it base or expansion.

Can you even do that with GOG? If I bought the base somewhere else and the DLC on here, would I even be able to add it?


In other words, what InkPanther said. :P

This is the most likely reason. Many games have platform-specific stuff in them, so trying to install a DLC without those things would probably end up not working. You can, but you can't download or install it for obvious reasons.

GOG's DLCs aren't guaranteed to work with every version bought on other stores, maybe due to the packaging, maybe due to other things, so this restriction is probably in place not only to prevent that you buy a DLC thinking it is a full game, but also to prevent that you buy the DLC expecting it to work with your Steam/other store version only to find out they're not compatible. So it kind of makes sense.

That being said, it would be a valid question to ask: Why are (some?) GOG DLCs only compatible with the GOG version when the game appears to be the same executable everywhere? And if it's just due to the packaging, is that really a good enough reason to make them GOG "exclusive"?

Indeed, it's not uncommon for "DLC" to be no such thing; you downloaded the content when you downloaded the base game. Sometimes what you're actually getting is a key that tells the game you should have access to the DLC that you already have. It's specific to GOG and there's usually no way to make GOG DLC work with other versions of the game. See attachment for the Dead Cells "DLC"...those two little files are the entire contents of the download; good luck trying to get those to work with the Steam version or whatever.

So no, OP, it's not a joke, it's the way things are. It's often easier for developers if they can just package everything together, so your outrage is misplaced.

You're not getting steam key (I believe this might be issue here).

As others said, GOG likely does it to prevent problems occurring with some buying DLC without knowing they need the main game for it and then contacting support to complain/etc, as well as other concerns which likely make GOG not offer DLC without the main game.

Same as every other storefront you know
Edit: ...or maybe not. I'm tired and don't really care. :P