I would like to bring to your attention a problem of GOG that I don't think has already been addressed, but that I still think is important.

From the very beginning, one of the strengths that GOG advertised the most was the fact that the games they sold had a lot of extras, such as manuals, artbooks, wallpapers, soundtracks, avatars, etc. You just have to watch this old promotional video of theirs to see how they were focusing a lot on it.

Now unfortunately things seem to have changed, and for the worse. While it's true that many of the older games actually have a lot of extras, the newer releases now contain almost nothing besides the game itself. And what's worse is that the competition has started to do better.

It's become normal for soundtracks and artbooks to be sold separately, but this content on GOG is often completely missing. HUNTDOWN's soundtrack, Stubbs the Zombie's OST and artbook are just two examples that immediately come to mind, but there are hundreds of similar examples.

When I ask a developer if they can also put these contents up for sale on GOG, do you know what the first thing they tell me most often is? That on Steam the soundtrack doesn't require the base game and I can buy it there. The second thing they tell me most often is that they don't want to bother releasing it on GOG because it would sell very little.

GOG also lacks completely free content that is present in the competitor's version. By now finding game manuals on GOG is a rarity, but on the contrary on Steam they are more and more common, offered for free and freely downloadable. This list can give you an idea of the many manuals that are missing on GOG and that paradoxically you can download from Steam.

Without counting other special extras that once again, for unknown reasons, are missing on GOG but are offered by competitors: the comic book of "Terminator: Resistance", the artbook of "Where The Water Tastes Like Wine" and dozens of other examples.

I've talked to a lot of developers and convincing them to release these extras on GOG is almost impossible, so I ask GOG to act to change things, maybe offering financial incentives, asking for a smaller cut on the sale of extras, anything that could encourage a developer to sell all the extras of a game on GOG.

Because as if missing updates, DLCs and achievements weren't enough, another feature of GOG that could lead to buy a game here instead of elsewhere is disappearing, or rather has already disappeared. Having DRM-free games is a very important feature, but I guarantee it's not enough.

GOG needs permission to host such for each game, and sometimes the people who own the rights to the games don't own the rights to the extras(sometimes even the manuals)....so in some cases their(GOG/IP owners) hands are tied.

Btw, a bit of trivia on early GOG releases re extras: In a number of cases they would ask users(or staffers) for any extras they might have, so they could add them to the games they put up for sale....and in some cases they didn't have the rights to do so.....that's why some extras got removed from people's libraries for some older games over the years.

On manuals: some older GOG games actually DO have manuals, albeit not always as an extra......some are hidden away in the game folder after install.

Yes, it’s been like this for a while. It’s just part of the declining value of shopping on GOG. Yooka-laylee you have to buy dlc to get the manual.

As far as soundtracks are concerned I suspect it's often the composer/artist's call if it gets put up for sale on GoG as well, nothing GoG can do about that (besides inquiring again and again, if the composer/artist has changed their mind), unfortunately.
Disco Elysium or Overload come to mind in this regard.

I guess some composers/artists still can't warm up to the idea of selling their music on a DRM-free platform. Which, in case of Disco Elysium would be quite the contradiction, since British Sea Power are selling the soundtrack through bandcamp (a DRM-free music distribution platform) as well.

Yes, and in these cases I understand, but when I see these extras on Steam I find it hard to think that GOG can't get the same contracts, if only they put a little effort into it. I think the fear of DRM-free doesn't make much sense for a soundtrack, which is very easily pirated, and as you say is often already offered on other DRM-free platfroms.

No, these extras aren't on GOG because the artists don't see an actual profit in them. With my solution of de-taxing the extras GOG would catch up with the competition. It would still have no profit on extras, but it would gain all the customers who want the full package of a game.

Well Steam has more money to throw at extras owners(in the case of extras owned by those other than the game IP owners).....also perhaps some of the extras holders are against DRM free and/or GOG specifically for some reason?Well games are also easily pirated....and movies too...yet both are often DRMd to hell and back.

I totally agree with the OP - this seems to be another area where GOG have really been dropping the ball in recent years. I find this attitude to be extremely disappointing and rather perplexing. I mean, what is it that the developers are actually being asked to do in this situation? Provide a couple of fricking files! At the same time as they are providing the files for the game anyway! The level of laziness on show here is quite astonishing. They literally can't be bothered to dig out some files and add them to an e-mail. The word pathetic springs to mind ...

then just put them into the base game :P

Yes, as stated by Swedrami, it's up to the artist and composer's call to publish it for sale. If they absolutely refuse to, can't really change their minds on it without the industry changing to allow the gamedev full rights over their work. Bandcamp takes a 10-15% cut on music. Obligatory GOG takes a 30% cut and runs on a net profit margin of 6% last year. So in order to incentivize < 24% GOG cut, they'll either have to grow its customer base significantly to make volume sales or cut costs.

I'm on the other side of the fence here for games bundled with goodies. If I can save $3-12 CAD (~10-20%) on artwork and/or soundtrack on each game, I would with some exceptions. The ratio is like 1 game for every ~6 extra DLCs as it is now, which isn't insignificant to me. The most egregious example would be Trine 2's artwork and OST being 46% of game price.

If everything was bundled together, I suspect we'd all be paying a 5-15% premium for its inclusion. Collectors wanting me to help subsidize everyone else's optional goodies is unfair and likewise it'd be unfair to force others to do so if I wanted goodies for myself that others don't have any use for. This practice removes the freedom from buyers who do change their minds and want the goodies afterwards and it also removes gamedevs from exploiting another possible revenue stream from hardcore fans who want to support them.

Sure, but the OP isn't just talking about soundtracks, but also things like manuals, avatars, wallpapers, which are often bundled with a game for free. Imo, if those are included with the Steam version of a game for the same price, there is no reason for those not to be included with the GOG version.

Zoom-platform still includes manuals for games, mostly direct scans of them. If they aren't there, it's a fully built one from assets. There's also ringtones, sound clips, avatars etc if you're super into extras

I agree GOG has much to answer for for their various actions over the years, but you seem to be stretching to find anything you can blame on them at this point.

As I said above, it's not always up to GOG or the game IP holders if they can distribute some extras or not.

Manual art and text can be copyrighted(and owned by other parties)....same with avatars and wallpapers.

Yes, Zoom Platform are working to fill in the gaps themselves, in some cases. They announced on their Discord that they made a manual of their own for XIII recently. I bought the game and it looks like they did a very professional job.

Sorry, but in this case, you seem to have completely misinterpreted me:

If you re-read my post, you will see that I was aiming that criticism more at the developers in those cases, for being too lazy to simply provide some files to GOG, along with the game files they are already providing.

Please read my post again:

I said in my last post GOG or the IP holders...which can include devs and pubs. In some cases they don't own the rights to said extras.

In such cases they aren't being lazy, but likely trying to avoid not having to deal with a lawsuit if they go against someone's copyright.

Or should they put it up anyways and battle it out in court with the extra's rights holders all so some of us can have some more extras?

As for stuff that's on steam/etc: steam likely has the money/userbase size to easily "convince" the rights holders of some extras to add such things to their games.