I don't know if they really are this evil or just the most efficient ones to do it.
Microsoft tried the same and of course also Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Rockstar each offer their own platform.

Remember GTA4? It was attached to Games4WindowsLive and had the RockStar Club integrated.

A total mess to say the least, and once G4WL was down they replaced it with Steam, the same happened to Batman Arkham City and a few other games.
And of course Rockstar didn't give up and tried that Club-thing again - this time being successful.

The best solution would have been if a Microsoft platform made the race, coming with every Windows PC not limited to one store only. But Valve was faster and more efficient. MS had to many management changes, some of them not believing in th PC as gaming platform. They could have been the leading network platform, but they tried to push that platform and the store at the same time which was ... unsuccessful. The Windows Store was a store without any network/community platform for games ... epic fail! Now with XBox Live they seem to get it right, but they have fallen years behind.

Supporting the Galaxy API will obviously involve additional work in terms of coding, testing and maintenance, and that additional cost will inevitably be factored in to their calculation of 'is it worth it'.

Possibly. But then, if the developer doesn't think supporting Galaxy is worth it, there are only two options: release the game on GOG without Galaxy support or don't release on GOG at all. Which choice would the GOG userbase prefer in those cases?

It seems like GOG users are demanding more indie games, but are also insisting on full Galaxy integration. Some indie devs may simply be saying 'no' to that proposition (which is their business decision to make).

It is interesting who "magically" appears again to continue where they left off. It is another opportunity to criticize or bash GOG and Galaxy after all.

Sorry about that. I admit my ignorance about A, AA, AAA, AAAA, indies, etc classification
And worse: I don't help myself investigating about it
To me a vgame is a vgame, and things like their quality, features, originallity,
surprising & fun factors don't come directly
from things like the size of its company, budget, portfolio or fame
Otherwise, the results since the conception would be very predictable

Glad to help and thanks again for the topic!

While I don't like Steam, it feels unfair to just put all the blame at them. It's not like they held developers hostage and forced them to be complicit. As in the old days, any developer / publisher today could choose to release their games via any number of alternative means, including directly via their own site.

It's just this same phenomenon everywhere, "winner take all." And it's not because the "winner" was so darn good, it's simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time to build enough critical mass to be convenient for all parties, and they don't want to give up that convenience. Developers want to be where "all" the gamers are, and gamers want to be where all the games are. Look elsewhere and you see similar patterns; some people just automatically shop on Amazon. Now that's killed off plenty of smaller businesses. Locally, people go to the biggest supermarkets (when the street corner grocery store down the block is not enough) because that's where they can conveniently find everything they want to bring home. And most open source developers seem to just host their code on GitHub; you're a weirdo if you're not there, and in any case your code gets mirrored there by someone sooner or later. So people who go for code go to GitHub by defult, even if the official repo is elsewhere.. Same in search, same in messaging applications, same in social media, so many things...

Heck even Microsoft. It's not like their operating systems were so darn good. Right place, right time, criticl mass, and now that's enough to sustain the status quo... Linux, meanwhile, is a monoculture of its own in its niche; it's not like you can't do a lot of the things people use Linux for using the BSDs or even less known alternatives, but they're slowly dying off and becoming a historical curiosity. And using them is an uphill fight when people increasingly only care about Linux and don't bother at all with portability.

It's unfair, and while there's plenty of reason to get angry at Microsoft, Amazon, Steam, Google, etcetra.. it doesn't feel right to blame them for everyone else's laziness and unwillingness to cater for niches.

This world has a sad tendancy towards monocultures.

Okay, we know this already. There are more factors, but you keep focusing on Galaxy. Even if Galaxy never existed, they would find reasons because GOG is not the big dog like Epic and steam.

Edit: You also forget some developers are not 100% comfortable releasing DRM-free games or don't think a small number of games sales at 30% cut is worth it.

Same thing with Rogue Legacy (2nd instalment is on Steam, but not GOG) and Tormentum (2nd instalment is also on Steam, but not GOG).

I can only presume that they either didn't sell many copies here or changed their stance on DRM. I could see the later happening with some devs (who are people too and subject to their own biases, especially with smaller devs where decisions other than pure profit motivates their decisions).

Tormentum II is still in development. The current status is unknown.

As far as I know, the Steam fests are periodical events in which upcoming games are heavily promoted with a website redesign or a dedicated landing page, demos, rankings, livestreams, talks, etc. I might be wrong on this, but I'm not aware of gog having done anything of that sort recently. Still, it probably isn't too far fetched to state that gog sales (which happen every week, give or take), don't provide the same level of community and consumer engagement (relative to its respective audiences) as those Steam events do.

Anyway, even though they've probably already contemplated this, it's better to not give gog any crazy ideas. Gog forbid (hoh) they try to change the website's font color and the whole thing ends up exploding :P

There was a huge "Find Your Indie Sale" with 1500 titles last year
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/pick_your_next_game_to_play_with_find_your_indie_sale_on_gog_fc5d6

Featured new games are also streamed by their Twitch stream team. There are also some interviews here and then.

I'm not 'forgetting' anything and I don't deny there are other factors involved. I mentioned Galaxy because it's an important factor that no-one had mentioned yet. Many of those other factors had already been mentioned.

We also know the other reason you brought it up. :)

Yeah. That Tea guy sure is suspicious because he likes to support more than one store. What a shady character. *eyeroll*

You know how many games GOG has missed out on because people insist on having achievements? How many people complain about games that require the use of Galaxy for rewards, items, and whatever else, but don't complain about it when they want achievements? Achievements might as well be DRM. "No achievements, no buy." Well, it sounds like they don't care about being able to play offline, then. Why do they want to buy DRM-free when achievements require Galaxy and know that it needs an internet connection? Steam already does what those people want.

It makes no sense to me.

Yes, the guy who created the boycott thread, discord mode of the one store, and constantly promoted that one store on GOG forums. Is not suspicious. *eyeroll* haha

I never once saw him call the other store out for their shenanigans.

I never understand the liking for Achievements. I remember people using that as why 360 was better console than PS3 back in the day. To me, it was the games that made the system better.