Probably the last one, executives/c-suite-level decision makers prone to holding a grudge for a looong time sounds about right resp. very likely.

Phantom Fury and other affected 3D Realms-associated titles might still show up at some point in the future, me personally, I can wait for as long as it takes.

Wouldn't be the first time some CEO got their panties into a twist over something petty and refuse to let bygones be bygones.

Sure, if anyone doesn't include people like me who consider Valve/Steam to be the mother of all client based DRM checks, especially if one refuses to play their games before they have made sure to have future-proofed them properly, because as soon as a client is introduced between a game and its online DRM servers, it no longer is mandatory to make a permanent fix to get that game to launch without getting an actual permission to do so from the DRM servers, as now there is the option to make a temporary client version specific hack that only fools the client to let that game to launch as long as the client is already set to offline mode and matches the version the hack is made for.

While that also makes it possible for someone to come up with a Steam emulator that should in theory be able to work with all client bound Steam games, any time a new game or a new patch to an older game requires a new version of that emulator, I would have to test that emulator on all of the games I would have allowed myself to become reliant with that emulator, whereas with permanent game specific cracks I would never face any issues with old games after installing a new game unless that new game requires a newer version of the GPU drivers or the OS.

TL;DR, For them having opened the door for temporary hacks instead of permanent fixes, I would rather fail in trying to outlive Valve/Steam than give them the satisfaction that I could not refuse playing their exclusives before there is no way left to buy them legally anymore.

and that's here I stopped rreading. I do not care, nor does it have any meaning, what you consider. I only care about what is factually true, and what is true here is that the game is DRM free. Wheter you want to use Steam or not, which is your prerogative and your choice, also do not change this.

You can consider the world to be flat as much as you want, it does not stop it being a globe.

Maybe it's because GOG brings in such a comparatively small amount of money compared to Steam, or an odd fear of having the game be openly/explicitly DRM-free?

Feelings don't care about your facts.

Ineed they dont :)

so what you feel about Steam have no impact on wheter the game is DRM free not, you are right

edit - sorry, had a little bit too much to drink, and did not see what you did there

The devs are active on Discord and it seems that GOG is a pain to work with when pushing updates which, in combination with catering to a smaller audience, prompted the decision to not releasing on GOG. It'll probably show up later but I'm skeptical about buying anything from them now.

Please tell me what part of my reply had anything that was not factually true, as I made no claims to this game's DRM state or even tried to argue Steam itself to be DRM, but simply pointed out that thanks to Steam making client based DRM widely tolerated by the masses, it is now possible for cracking groups to skip making a permanent future-proof crack and substitute it with a temporary client targeting lousy hack that stops working as soon as you need to install a new version of the client for any reason and how that could be considered as quite a valid reason for those who are committed to future-proofing their games properly before they start playing them to boycott Steam with no exceptions, even for any allegedly DRM-free games on that service.

It doesn't matter that some games are known to be unofficially DRM-free on Steam if one can't buy them from that service without seeing themselves as voting against those games getting released on officially DRM-free stores, so keep that in mind the next time you are about to claim that "anyone" can simply go and buy this or that game DRM-free from Steam.

it just made it completely irrelevant

(and thats where i stopped reading again)

And I never reply to anyone unless I read through not only what they wrote, but the entire thread too, if only everyone else would do the same...

no need to continue when the opening premise is wrong. what then follows is therefore baseless. why then bother?

If it was resentment why did they announce it for GOG in the first place?
That seems like a load of rubbish, considering updates DO NOT REQUIRE APPROVAL.

Because the initial announcement for Phantom Fury coming to GOG was made back when 3D Realms/Slipgate Ironworks was still a studio/publisher under the Embracer umbrella and the decision on which platforms their titles would be released and sold on was very likely up to 3D Realms/Slipgate Ironworks themselves.

Well, not anymore, apparently.

Funny how this coincides with 3D Realms/Slipgate Ironworks being sold off and integrated into Saber Interactive.

Once again, you keep dodging the unfortunate fact that without Steam having added a client between games and DRM, it would be impossible to create any temporary client targeting lousy hacks which force gamers who wish to future-proof their games properly before playing them to an endless cycle of having to download a new hack for each of their affected games every time one of them gets an update after a new version of the client was released or they wish to install a new game that is bound to that client.

Is it really that difficult to comprehend why that could be more than enough reason to make some of us to never even create a Steam account and not play its exclusives while it is around as we don't wish to gamble with our chances to always find updated hacks to our games whenever we would be forced to install a new version of the client?

Not that I hold any hope of you reading any of this, but others might and hopefully some of them are now far more disgusted with what an awful alternative to permanent cracks Valve/Steam made possible when they decided to make Half-Life 2 require online verification.