Starward Rogue was turned down causing the developer to be paranoid about submitting AI War II.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/starward_rogue
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/ai_war_ii

Someone asked on Steam: "Will this game be released in the 'in development' category of GoG? I very much enjoy the games you guys put out. But I was wondering if you will release this on GoG. Would like to support the game now, so the chances of a good outcome are increased, but I try to minimize my support for steam. I bet I'm not the only one. Anyhow, good luck on your project!"

The developer Chris Park answered: "Thank you for the kind words! The honest answer is 'I don't know, but I hope so.' The slightly longer answer:

1. They have not agreed to carry it yet. They have a copy of it to check out, but they got it very late from us because of my paranoia in wanting to get them a very polished build. So there has not been time for a proper response from them. They have been very interested in it, though; I think they emailed me almost every month of the last two years about this game, and I kept saying 'not yet, not yet' each time. They turned down our title Starward Rogue previously, so I was very paranoid about this because I really wanted to work with GOG again.

2. I also have some personal concerns about what this will do to my workflow while this is under such heavy development. Right now, thanks to the backend that Steam has, it only takes me about 20 minutes to go from 'code is finished' to 'everyone has the new build.' I am concerned that if that increases to 60 minutes by adding in a GOG pipeline, that I won't be able to maintain a good pace of updates like we've had thus far.

I also don't want to have a situation where the GOG customers get updates later than the Steam ones do, or something like that. I'm not sure what the review processes are for each build during their 'in development' category. If they have any review process at all, GOG customers would be getting their copies of each build late.

With all that in mind, my hope is that we can get into a review-less process with the GOG Galaxy client, and that I can do uploads to that with very little added time on top of what I spend getting the game out to Steam. It will obviously take some extra time, but that's worth it. It just can't take 5x the time.

Anyway... that's where things are right now!"

https://steamcommunity.com/app/573410/discussions/0/3397295779083010005/

The developers thoughts about Galaxy, the pipeline and the delay in patches is very telling. How many other developers have these concerns?

Regions Of Ruin
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/regions_of_ruin

Sheepify asked on the 9th of February: "GOG release potential? To keep things simple, do you have any relatively immediate plans/means of releasing this on GOG? I prefer to own as many games as I can there rather than have them shackled to Steam. Thank you, and congratulations on the release."

Developer Stephen Lucerne answered: "thank you! we've looked into it, and will likely do so in the near future. :)"

Sheepify asked again on the 12th of April: "Just curious if there is any new information on potential GOG release. Especially seeing the delicious sale going on right now. I'd still rather get it there, but if it's not something immediate might as well grab it now ;)"

Developer Alex Poysky answered: "GOG turned us down, sorry!"

Sheepify followed up with: "It's not the first indie dev I heard this from. GOG apparently is very... very picky. In a way I can understand the want not to turn into Steam store. On the other hand, they frequently fall into the 'we won't feature the game because it won't sell because we won't feature it' circlejerk. By the time they sign on a title, most people already got it elsewhere, reinforcing the 'it won't sell anyway' impression."

Developer Alex Poysky responded: "Pretty much as Sheepify said. Sad but true!"

https://steamcommunity.com/app/680360/discussions/0/1700542332325828528/

SunAge: Battle For Elysium
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sunage

Dray2k: "Will SunAge also be released on GOG.com? Might be the perfect fit since this game has an oldschool heart-and-soul."

Developer v4corg: "Yes, i thought about that as well. Cannot hurt, i guess. :)"

Antiga: "I would highly recommend this move. Many gamers highly prefer any alternative to steam they can get. GoG is the perfect platform for this game too, as the OP pointed out. DRM free gaming is still the way to go, as well."

Developer v4corg: "Good to know, thanx - yeah, i will definitly get to that after things settled a bit and i got bit room to breath again."

Syphon: "I got disk version and one from your site, but would love to have GOG version too."

Developer v4corg: "It will happen :)"

aguswings: "any news on this? it's been 7 months so I wonder if this plan is dead? :("

Developer v4corg: "No, GOG turned SunAge down for being to niche."

https://steamcommunity.com/app/318650/discussions/0/626329186930588980/

I Can't Escape: Darkness
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/i_cant_escape_darkness
Developer David Maletz: "Yeah, GoG turned me down, but if we get enough votes on the community wishlist, they might reconsider it."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346090/discussions/0/523898291499236443/

Tracks: The Train Set Game
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/tracks_the_train_set_game
From the developer: "I am afraid that GOG have turned down Tracks for GOG release (shortly before we released on Steam) as we were informed that their audience might not be interested in the game. If you'd like to see Tracks appear in GOG, do let them know, they may reconsider. :)"
https://steamcommunity.com/app/657240/discussions/0/1699416432409554129/

Empire Architect
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/empire_architect
Question: "Hi, Empire Architect is a only Steam game or you have plan for a DRM free release? (GoG / HumbleBundle)"
Batholith Entertainment: "GoG turned me down. If they had accepted, then I would have put one out. But I dont see that happening without GoG selling the game as well. Humble bundle will just use steam keys."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/593490/discussions/0/1484358860958163009/

The developer also made Hydraulic Empire and Zavix Tower.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/hydraulic_empire
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/zavix_tower

For crying out loud GOG. Gah.

Lucius 2

Source: Twitter

"They were not interested. They are being very picky atm with the games they take in."

http://twitter.com/shivergames/statuses/607931238435954688



Bertram Fiddle

Source: Twitter

"We approached GOG before but they said no.. Hope they might change their minds"

http://twitter.com/BertramFiddle/status/543778949382549504

Has GOG straight up rejected JRPG games because while I love GOG they have quite few of these.

edit: Wait, wait. GOG rejected Shikigami no Shiro?! Are you KIDDING me?! GOG, seriously?! You don't have enough SHMUP's GOG.

[Warning: Rant.]



I'm going to be honest, I have looked though the thread and read of many of the games that were turned down.

And I'm going to be blunt: I haven't heard nary of a one of them. Maybe I'm a sheltered gamer. but I've also browsed though the entire volume of games on Humble Bundle's store. People aren't asking for things like Cave Story, Contraption Maker, Zen Bound, Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass or Knytt Underground.

They are asking for underground obscure games that I'm fairly certain Pixelmusement's Super Mindsweeper has sold more copies of. More people have heard of Peasant's Quest than these requested games. The metaphors could go on.

And I don't mean that as a way to insult or otherwise put them down, but if you're going to bellyache, at least go for aches rather than pinches, itches or slightly odd feelings!

Willy-Nilly Knight
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/willynilly_knight
Double Dice Games: "Right now GOG platform declined our publishing request, but you can vote for our game in GOG"
https://steamcommunity.com/app/610500/discussions/0/1483235412204275443/

Aztez
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/aztez
From the dev: "We would launch on GOG if they would take us! GOG said their audience is too narrative-driven, they declined the game awhile ago."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/244750/discussions/0/1470840994979801371/

A House Of Many Doors
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/a_house_of_many_doors

Question: "I don't see anything about DRM-Free/GoG release, so I'm asking if there are plans to release it on GoG (knowing that Sunless Sea/Failbetter is very much liked by them I suspect they would accept it there). Anyway, good luck!"

Developer Pixel Trickery: "There won't be a GoG release, but the game will be released DRM-free on itch.io!"

Aleccia Rosewater: "GOG is very picky about what they add based off of I-dunno-what-standard. They have been known to decline to publish a game from a developer after accepting said dev's previous works."

Developer Pixel Trickery: "Yep, this is basically what happened. I like itch.io a lot - it's a great platform for indies - so I do encourage you to try it out, if you're looking for a DRM-free version."

https://steamcommunity.com/app/437250/discussions/0/133256080239388457/

Sword Of Asumi
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sword_of_asumi
Dharker Studio on the 29th of November 2014: "This game was originally submitted to GoG early in its development, it was declined, then, however the game has changed a lot since then and so voting could easily help them to say yes to releasing it. I was hoping to resubmit it in January when the game is on its release version, so if we get the votes by then you never know what could happen."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/326950/discussions/0/624076027585736845/