Developers who abandon their games on GOG should be held accountable.

I imagine this topic has been covered - If not, it should (yes, that dirty word) have. I've encountered a number of titles available on multiple platforms - but the GOG version isn't updated.

I don't know what GOG's agreement (for developers) is like, but I would imagine it has to hold them accountable for this. It boggles my mind that a developer would shoot themselves in the foot like this (because that's exactly what they're doing).

As an associated tangent, I've also seen developers whose releases on GOG, while more-or-less updated, are handicapped in some way compared to the same title on another platform (e.g., Steam). Same sentiment as above applies. An example of this is Caves of Qud. Warning: The developers and community for this title have regrettably been reported as being aggresively toxic.

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As a recent example, I came across a game called "Good Company" that intrigued me. I happened to look it up - and am glad I did so. The GOG version hadn't been updated in months. I posted two message in the game's forum and neither one received replies. The dev seems to have abandoned the game, as nothing has been done for months. The Steam version has had 8 updates since the most recent GOG update, which itself came some time after the Steam update. I feel for the people who bought it. They should have the opportunity to get a refund from the developers. There's no excuse. Again, it's really self-sabotage on the developer's part and says something about their team. Do they have no interest in their own games?

I've heard and thought of ways people rationalize this behavior. I've yet to hear one that holds water (even the ones that sound plausible). I can't imagine doing this to my own project. It makes no sense.

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Please, no apologists should respond to this post. Apologists are one of my least favorite type of people (well, an unhealthy and annoying behavior). I happen to be a developer. I know many developers and people who work at development houses. I also have a mind (although it does get misplaced) and sometimes use it.

Edit: I hope this message makes sense and I was able to effectively communicate my thoughts.

It is never a good idea to buy games that aren't formally out.

They have no reason to complete the game, their customers have already prepaid. So the profit motive is to just give up on it. Thanks capitalism for giving us incomplete games. Why would GOG or Valve hold them accountable? For rep with the customers? People will still buy from them. It's the devs who are the true customers, GOG and Steam are just venues for said customers.

Even if they complete the game, it could be a real stinker, and then you're stuck. Furthermore if you wait awhile with any game you can not only get the benefit of reviews but start seeing the game on sale too.

Furthermore prepurchasers act as a sort of free beta testers for the companies.

The games from good companies that give a crap about their customers typically don't even offer prepurchases, I think.

Although early access titles fall under the umbrella of this topic, this thread isn't about early access.

As an aside, there are many games that are updated for years after reaching v1 (the meaning and weight of which has eroded in modern times). Examples include Terraria and basically every Paradox title (which many would argue are all in an "early access" for years). There are many good companies that offer both presales and release titles in a state/development process known as early access. There's more to be said, but this thread wasn't intended as a discussion about early access, as interesting as that could be. I do appreciate your replying.

The topic at hand has been covered for years.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_that_treat_gog_customers_as_second_class_citizens_v2 (yes, there was a first version of the thread as well).

Unfortunately, things continue to be bad and there is no indication that this situation will improve. Reasons have been many and varied, with GOG's small customer base and/or GOG's patching process being not as ideal as Steam's, cited as the most prominent ones. This has led to some extreme cases, such as Nuclear Throne not receiving a single update for 4 years, until it was made available as a temporarily-free game on the Epic Store.

It has been one of the reasons why I am very wary about buying anything new here; it will likely cost more and may even be out-of-date/missing features.

I think at the very least devs should be able to allow updates over GOG galaxy. It's supposed to do auto updates. I don't know how hard it would be for them to make a dedicated software updater. I can't imagine it would be that resource intensive.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is any real protective measures in cases where devs fail to update their games on GOG. GOG is a tiny market in comparison to Steam, so it's easier for devs to get away with ignoring us without hurting their bottom line.

Due to the risk of getting an outdated version of a game, I usually wait for a "final version", before I commit to a purchase.

Yes there are exceptions I'm sure. Most likely in online games that has micoro-transactions like Don't Starve Together (not sure if they had repurchase or not) but not just those. Still, there is a incentive to abandon software earlier if customers have already bought your product, and thus it is more likely. And then there's products like Fallout 76, the online game that was just terrible, even with it being online and depending on monthly fees.

So again, yeah, don't prepurchase anything unless a dev has a good long history of being trustworthy and hasn't had any large structure changes during this time, like being bought up for example. But even then, I'll just wait to see reviews and get it on sale.

Even then I can be disappointed. Terraria is a good example of that, it does not save your location. Which is a fatal flaw for me for wanting to buy. (unless this has been fixed/improved?)

I think in some cases there is a vicious circle. The game doesn't sell well here for whatever reasons, and the dev can't be bothered to keep it updated here for just a couple of people (some dev even stated something like that). The game gets outdated, even less people are inclined to buy it.

It's of course pretty short-sighted by the dev. Even if those handful of buyers don't seem worth the effort now, by the time the next game of the same dev arrives, they'll have a reputation of treating GOG customers as second class. Maybe they don't bother to release their next game here anyway, but - who knows? - it could have been successful, and there are quite a few people here who won't buy from Steam under any circumstances.

I really think GOG needs to automate their processes more/better. Some dev stated it's actually pretty easy to push updates for Galaxy, some other stated it's PITA to get access to the API in the first place. And then - afaik - some poor GOG guy has to manually build an updated offline installer (which is why there are delays) and test it (how unreliable can this process be?), which is why there are so many delays in that process.

Of course the main blame lies with the devs who are too lazy and disinterested in GOG to keep their games up-to-date. But some blame also lies with GOG, who have to make the workflow as easy and smooth as possible for the devs.

Like the OP I'm also a dev myself, and broken or needlessly complicated/convulted toolsets and processes tend to piss me off big time. I want to get actual work done, deployment should be done with a few simple commands.

It's pretty simple, GOG should make all devs/publishers on this platform who release games here sign a legal contract that says "The GOG version must receive the same patches as other platforms within reasonable timeframes". And if they do, GOG can take them to court.

and as a result, even less publisher would like to use gOg with a threat like this hanging over them. Being aggressive and alienating publishers is not a good buinsess decision

Here you go, vote this ancient feature wishlist of mine, for what is worth:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/no_more_outdated_or_abandoned_games

agrssive contract threating developers with court is aggresive contract. no one likes aggresive contracts, no matter what it is about. gOg already have a little bit of reputation of being difficult to work with, they do not need more. gOg still depends on the goodwill of publisheres to survive, so a clause like this will never happen

If GOG is good enough to accept our money, then it is good enough to receive all updates as well. No excuses.

And then more people will leave GOG for Steam because GOG cannot even guarantee them that the games they buy will be updated....