Meanwhile back in the real world, when the same question was asked back in February this year, the overwhelmingly most common response was "DRM-Free" or "offline installer" with the word "underdog" appearing not even once in the whole thread... Cheering on the underdog is also something people only do when the underdog stands for some value their competition doesn't. Eg, Google Play Store is the "go to" default but it's not the only option for Android apps. If one morning F-Droid (a niche app store dedicated to free & open source Android apps in a world of Freemium / adware) decided to embrace the same Freemium / adware closed source apps, it would make itself virtually irrelevant overnight...

Edit : Just saw Catventurer's Epic Games Store Holiday Giveaway roundup. Imagine if GOG had changed their business model to "embrace the choice" you're trying to sell here a couple of years back and you "chose" to spend €100 on DRM'd GOG versions of Death Stranding, Dishonored, Metro LL, Wolfenstein TNO, etc, only for Epic to give away the DRM-free versions for free at Xmas. Far from continuing to support a "plucky choice saturated underdog", this store would be toast for many when the only reason to 'double dip' many premium AAA's owned elsewhere here is the DRM-Free nature of it...

And with that, BreOI72 has taken the piss. They're not only defending DRM, but advocating that GOG should introduce it, as if that will do them any favors. The vast majority of posts I've seen here and on Reddit would argue that that would be a death knell to GOG. "But they're the vocal minority!" They're the ones who care, the ones who have advocated GOG to their friends and family as a DRM-free seller of games, the ones who have helped GOG grow. The ones who don't care will move on when GOG dries up as a business from not offering anything of value.

If you think a company with almost no marketing, no discernible features and no budget will compete or even survive without the gimmick of having the biggest selection of DRM-free games from top publishers, then there is nothing left to discuss. You've lost the perspective and your discussion becomes moot. I have zero reason to shop here if they drop DRM-free since Steam literally does everything better than GOG except one thing. Care to guess what that one thing is?

Thank you for the heads up that Epic purchased Bandcamp. I immediately download & backup FLACs of anything I purchase there. I use it to buy music from Adrian Belew, Stick Men and other King Crimson affiliated artists. From which artists have you purchased that were removed later?

For those that want Workshop like support, NexusMods has Vortex, a client program to automate the downloading & installation of mods.

While the survey isn't as bad as I was expecting there are nonetheless some questions with concerning implications (such as asking how important DRM is, some of the options about a possible loyalty program, asking about a possible subscription model etc). I recommend that everyone who cares about GOG fills it in and let them know what you think.

I recall many interviews with GOG's founders/other key staff members where it was often mentioned how difficult it was to convince publishers to release their games here DRM-free, and how many publishers tried to get them to accept "just a little" DRM, or have DRM'ed components, or launch with time-limited DRM or otherwise compromise on their anti-DRM position. It's only because GOG were so steadfast about it back then that they managed to secure many of the releases we have here today in a fully DRM-free form.

It happened to me too at Bandcamp.
They had a new release album by Alan Parsons, that must have only been available for something like two weeks, and now I cannot even gain access to that album to download what I bought, so lucky I did download when I bought and have backed up to multiple hard drives and a thumb drive.

I got that album for a great price, which makes it seem clear it was only on Bandcamp as a promotional thing. That kind of behavior makes me feel like I should watch Bandcamp like a hawk, but I've got better things to do with my life. So I will just have to pay extra to get things I miss in passing, elsewhere.

Or there's mod.io as well. GOG would only be wasting resources to reinvent wheels, and probably square ones while they're doing it.

I tried to link to Mod.io, but as you can plainly see, GOG's treatment of links rendered the post as worthless garbage.

Sadly Amazon Autorip is not available in every country but you can still buy DRM-free mp3s directly from Amazon.
I can't stand music streaming services either, never paid for them and never will. I buy all my music DRM-free.

On that note, I'd like to see GOG focus more on DRM-free music and soundtracks to be available outside of DLC only purchases.

People couldn't care less about who is the underdog or top dog when it comes to buying games. Price and DRM are the reasons. And DRM-freedom is GOG's main selling point, nothing else.

If this was true Steam would have fell flat, Price and convenience are king and the mainstream PC consumer has shown they have no with DRM if convenience trumps it, I have seen people people complain about DRM but still buy games on Steam, I'm betting these are the main reasons that Galaxy was created to bring that level of convenience to GOG to attract more consumers.

Fallacy detected: that convenience requires DRM. Or that DRM helps convenience. (Or even that it's not true that DRM is itself inconvenient and a hindrance.) GOG could make and propel Galaxy without resorting to DRM. And should be. (But the mere fact that they even wrote DRM into the core API when they wrote it says their plan all along was for Galaxy to become a DRM layer.)

Steam is where it is from network effect and "first to market" position, which create[ed/s] a monopsonic market. Which Valve constantly reinforces e.g., "Steam Workshop" (that was not created as a feature for people, but was created for lock-in to reinforce their position).

But more importantly: LusoGamer was referring to people who are here on GOG and shop here. If the person doesn't care about DRM, chances are the overwhelming majority of their purchases are Steam anyway. Not to the vast unwashed masses that you're talking about that made Steam the bandit king.

Never said Convenience requires DRM so please stop assuming things. My retort was that convenience has always prevailed over whether a product is DRM free. Steam has DRM yet is the PC leader in terms of stores, at one point having a stranglehold Monopoly on PC gaming due to the convenience it offered people,

Streaming and Subscription services have long been seen as DRM and anti consumer yet these are hugely successful due to the convenience they offer, the streaming market has grown to over saturation.

Count me out as well.