Syphon72: It sounds more like personal complains than looking at the real issue.

Wirvington: Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I assume that another aspect of the issue might be that gog doesn't promote indies like Steam does. I'm talking in relative terms and not in absolutes, so it's a given that the outreach ins't even comparable, but maybe having something akin to the 'steam fest' events around here would help in that regard.

Swissy88: Not sure how you can be mad at EGS.
They are supporting indie developers.
A lot of games get a 1 year exclusive contract, cash infusion upfront.
This allows smaller developers to take their time and release a polished product and get paid a bulk sum for an early access release like Against the Storm.
Yet somehow a new storefront like EGS can handle dozens of absolutely massive free to play games that get updated constantly in parity with steam.

At some point you have to stop blaming the developers, especially the indie ones.
Meanwhile, games that release with denuvo that finally get released here years after the game is stale goes to #1 seller. No one here has any standards.

Gog's standards for DRM free are eroding and they will still never surpass EGS. Identity crisis.

toma85: The Epic Games Store happened. This is one of the results. You can read or hear that developers starting to have problems to deal with several versions they have to release with each store. Steam and EGS are two versions. With GOG they have three versions. This is already too much for smaller studios. You also have developers here which removed games on GOG because of low sales. In this case they don't want to do the extra work for a GOG version anymore, e.g. CHANGE: A Homeless Survival.

Alexim: It's very sad to see that EGS, which in words was hated by everyone, has managed to erode in a very short time the small space that GOG had carved out for itself in more than a decade. I can only hope that GOG can find a way to survive in the long run.

Alexim: In your opinion, what are the issues that lead even indies to abandon GOG at the first sign of success, and what could be done to convince the developers to stay on GOG?

tag+: Kind of agree until a point: Lazyness, bureaucracy, ineptitude

If patches/updates deployment is a real nightmare, then:
-By now, rash.io and other "small e-stores" would be extinct
-The smartphone e-stores boom would have killed the consoles &/or pc stores as well

Another perspective: V: Rings of Saturn (Early Access). Lots & steady updates on the 3 platforms (rash.io, spigot, ThePseudoDRM-free)
IF a self-published independent SOLO developer can do it: Why not the medium/big boys?

Alexim: We all know that GOG struggles to secure AAA titles from big publishers because of their stubbornness in implementing DRM and because of the vastly smaller user base than Steam.
But what I don't see mentioned often is that even indie titles released by mid-sized publishers seem to be starting to abandon GOG, or at least leave it as a last option to scrape together some extra money.

You can also see how indie developers who have been lucky enough to be successful have almost immediately ditched GOG and stopped releasing their games on this platform, which then lacks a lot of sequels to successful indie games. Here are a few examples:

Spelunky: released on day 1 on GOG in 2013 by Mossmouth.
Spelunky 2: released only on Steam in 2020 also by Mossmouth.

Risk of Rain: released 3 months late on GOG in 2014 by Hopoo Games.
Risk of Rain 2: released only on Steam and EGS in 2020 also by Hopoo Games, later acquired by Gearbox.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch: released on day 1 on GOG in 2014 by Young Horses.
Bugsnax: the developers' new game released on EGS in 2020 and Steam in 2022 and they said they were not interested in GOG.

Q.U.B.E. and Q.U.B.E. 2: released almost at day 1 on GOG in 2014 and 2018.
Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary: released only on Steam and EGS in 2022 and the developers said they were not interested in GOG.

Slime Rancher: released on GOG in 2016 by Monomi Park. They never released the DLCs of the game.
Slime Rancher 2: released only on Steam and EGS in 2022 and the developers said they were not interested in GOG.

Backbone: released on day 1 on GOG in 2021 by Raw Fury.
Tails: The Backbone Preludes: released only on Steam and EGS in 2023 and no sign of it coming to GOG.

Darkest Dungeon: released on day 1 on GOG in 2016 by Red Hook Studios.
Darkest Dungeon II: it has just been officially announced that the sequel will be released on Steam and EGS. No mention of GOG.

Supergiant Games used to release its games on GOG about a year late, Hades was released on Steam in 2020 after the exclusive deal with EGS.

Devolver Digital delayed the release of Return to Monkey Island on GOG specifically ignoring any request for explanation. It remains to be seen how they will act with their upcoming releases.

Humble Games used to release its games on GOG on day 1, now there has been Midnight Fight Express "coming soon" for ages, and SIGNALIS doesn't look like it will ever arrive.

GOG remains attractive to self-publishing indie starters and small publishers, who benefit from every bit of additional media exposure, as well as having a strong loyal group of quality publishers such as Akupara, Wadjet Eye Games, and THQ Nordic, not counting various publishers of adult games that found a home after experiencing Steam's instability.

Nonetheless, GOG is increasingly unable to secure the release of successful indie sequels, and the users are forced to buy the aforementioned on Steam or EGS, or wait years in the faint hope that they will finally arrive on GOG.

In your opinion, what are the issues that lead even indies to abandon GOG at the first sign of success, and what could be done to convince the developers to stay on GOG?

neumi5694: A plague tale? Not seen so far.