I set aside around 250$ specifically for this sale. And I'm not planning on spending a dime on the GOG store come 2021. I doubt it'll make a dent in their overall margins tbh. And I don't know nor care how many others will do the same; it might be that I'm the only one. It's still the right thing to do.

Xi Jinping can go slide on a pole arse first until it comes out his Winnie the Pooh.. GOG should sell Devotion on their store.

The thing is that I think it's misdirected, yes it's very concerning the power that China possess even outside of their frontier, and seeing multiple companies among the biggest and most powerful bend the knee before them (and I am not even talking about Gog here) because they are afraid they might lose business opportunities is also very concerning.

But to go back to the Devotion issue, the PC gaming market in China is ridiculously big, some peoples even say it's the biggest worldwide in term of revenue, so it's pretty obvious that all major online game store want a part of it, that's true for Steam, that's true for Epic and that's of course also true for Gog. (and apparently CDPR is very popular over there)

Also, at least for now, China doesn't seem to enforce very diligently it's own restrictions that said that only licensed games should be available over and most online shops are easily available. As a result it is not in any of the online store to attract any unwanted attention or start any controversy. Again it's not only Gog, I am pretty sure that's the main reason why Devotion never reappeared on Steam, or was sold on Epic or any other platform.

When Devotion was announced I was happy but I also was surprised, why ? because I honestly never thought Gog would touch this game for the reason I mentioned earlier, because yes, no matter how "nice" companies pretend to be they are still at the end of the day... companies; and for any companies risking killing a 600+ million customers potential market for a single game is not worth it. I expected Gog to just pretend that Devotion never existed like all the other shops are doing and nobody would have know any better.

So yes, from a ethical point of view, it's pretty disheartening what happen to Devotion and I would really love the game to be available for purchase again, but I don't think that boycotting Gog for something that all the other stores are most likely also doing because they cannot afford to be in bad term with China, is misguided.

If anything I would say the biggest crime that Gog has done in this whole fiasco is not refusing to sell Devotion, but getting caught. Something the others were smart enough to avoid doing.

I respect your opinions, but I would like to make a couple of points:

Firstly, regarding Steam, Epic, etc. I am not a customer of those other stores, so I don't particularly care what goes on there. I am boycotting them already because they sell DRMed games, so I can't exactly boycott them further. But, I am (or have been) a customer of GOG and I do care very much about what ethical principles GOG does or does not adopt. So, to me, those points regarding other stores are somewhat irrelevant.

Secondly, regarding the size of the Chinese market: I frankly don't care and it isn't my problem. If GOG having access to the Chinese market requires them to participate in imposing Chinese censorship on me and other customers outside of China, then they will have to choose: they can have the Chinese market or my business, but not both. I know that sounds silly and of course they will choose China over one customer. However, I believe the combined effect of action by a large number of people can make a difference. Plus, I would rather be counted among the group that is trying to make a stand and push for change, than part of the other group that is turning a blind eye or fishing around for excuses.

So, again, to me, the points about the size of the Chinese market are totally irrelevant.

Seems GOG staff have time to threaten people on the forum for not supporting a genocidal regime but not enough time to respond to my refund request placed a week and a half ago. Really have their priorities straight. Bye bye GOG.

To be honest, I'm shocked that GOG has not responded at all yet. Been with this store for years. Never expected this from them. The silence is appalling.
I used to recommend this store to everyone for being so good. Not anymore, sadly.

I am like, 6 days past being shocked lol... I am in disbelief.

You do realize that forum mods and support team are not the same peoples ?

You do realize major amount of mod work is being offloaded to support if mods have doubts or if thread needs to be locked or user banned? (I know this from talks with a mod)

Your statement literally changes nothing.

There is considerable overlap. See https://www.gog.com/forum/general/forum_regulations and https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/213056325?product=gog

100% everything you just said in this post.

Also, the size of the Chinese market does not equal the combined size of every other market on the goddamn planet, and there is no ethically acceptable answer for throwing everyone else under the bus for them.

At this point GOG stops looking like a reputable official distribution marketplace and more like an underground black market merchant that goes where money lies.
Seriously, no kidding.
How I see it is they currently are ready to otherthrow
estabilished international userbase with guaranteed low-to-mid income
for
new uncharted (by them anyway) market that has very unstable chance for higher income.

I mean, it's their decision, but it will not be a free transaction.
They will burry their international reputation, consumer trust, and consumer relations with that.
And btw - GOG - one false move on CH market and you are OUT - think about it before you blatanlty throw your international customers into garbage and embrace CH only market (that's a possibility most of GOG customers would never dream of GOG doing but with every day it's getting closer as evident, it's a very real threat right now, it's pretty horrendous BS frankly, but at this point GOG has burned my trust, so at least for me this is the end for this platform, I already planned pulling out from here after discovering whole EGS ordeal, but THIS has completely stepped up the BS).

I'm actually moving to Taiwan in less than a month so hopefully I can get my copy there. Really looking forward to playing - and never giving another penny to GOG.

May this 2021 bring Devotion or an official Twitter post (reply) from GOG?

This is 2021 - year of the GOG China Edition which will replace the old edition on Chinese new years day