Days Gone and Sunset Overdrive comes to mind too, but at least Sunset Overdrive did change it up a bit, stylistically.
whoa

That's something I wish more DRM-free store (GOG, Zoom-Plat, Fire Flower, etc). users would do. I'm pretty sure in an interview a GOG staff member slightly encouraged people to do this too (though this was probably years ago, and maybe market dynamics have changed since then, like if this interview was pre-EGS).

I've tried to make topics with suggestions before and they've generally been poo-poo'd.

----

Anyway, I believe last year we got most of the major releases in the summer and fall, from (primarily I believe) SEGA, Bethesda, and WB. So keep your eyes peeled around that period of time, especially since this anniversary (Aug or Sept?) is GOG's 15th.

"Nagging" and/or "being aggressive" with devs and publishers is certainly not what I'm advocating for.

Is it likely that GOG is, currently, and also for its entire history up until now, performing their "asks" for games in the most ideal, most pristine, most perfect way possible that any human could ever do it?

The likelihood that they are is very slim.

Let's assume that GOG makes an ask for every single high quality PC game that ever gets published anywhere. If that be so, then GOG's success rate at acquiring high quality games is abysmal. What would it be, a 2% or 3% success rate at most, or maybe even less?

GOG would never achieve at a 100% success rate at acquiring all high quality games; but, could they increase their success rate quite a bit higher than it is, and than it ever has been? Maybe to about a 10% or 15% success rate? Most probably, yes they could, if they improved their asking methods.

But if they keep doing their "asks" in the same way as they always have been, then the same old status quo of GOG having a very low success rate at acquiring high quality games is going continue forever, for so long as GOG exists.

In contrast, if GOG consulted with their community about this matter, then they would be sure to get tons of useful advice to help them improve their asking methods. And if they get bad advice like "nag the developers/publishers more," then they could always simply disregard that bad advice, whilst at the same time accepting and implementing the good advice.

Just like how GOG made a thread before asking the community how they should write their newsletters better...that same principle is also equally applicable to GOG ought to ask the community about how they could ask for games better.

GOG have been around quite a while now, and I bet they have tried all sorts of things to get more games. I doubt any of us could come up with something reasonable that they haven't tried.

GOG don't really have that much to bargain with, and they also have to push their tough stance on DRM-Free.

Unless a developer or publisher believes in the viability of DRM-Free and want to support it, it all boils down to cost and profit. Some are no doubt desperate to make a few more sales via GOG, and others do make a good number of sales, though still minuscule compared to their sales at Steam etc.

Who knows what some deals have truly cost GOG, as they try every trick in the book to get great games here. Cost being more than just financial.

I can only speculate on how tough it is, and what compromises they might make at times. Multiplayer DRM was probably an early compromise for many games.

The best way for GOG to help their cause, is to get more customers interested in DRM-Free. The bigger their customer base, the more attractive they will be to game providers.

I've said this previously but it might be best if we don't expect AAA titles and are instead happily surprised when they do show up occasionally. (I do think we'll see some later this year, and perhaps something extra special for GOG's 15th anniversary sale.) Granted most of the games I want to buy here (while it's not a long list) are AAA or perhaps AAA-"adjacent" so GOG will continue to not get much money from me personally, but I'm just one person and it is what it is.

The GOG cycle
1. GOG releases a bunch of AAA games.
2. Customers get excited. "Finally! I never expected games from company A, so we'll definitely get games from company B now!"
3. Months pass. Further AAA games nowhere to be found.
4. "Is GOG dead?! Where are all the games from company B?! I surely thought we had them this time!"
5. More months pass. The GOG cycle repeats anew.

Hear, hear.
Same for day 1 releases.

The forum cat has spoken and it is indeed like that. Another good analogy would be the natural rain cycle :p Cheers

If people spent more money then we could have more of those games.

Man.... "where are the old games" is a dead horse topic that is never allowed to rest.

Most of the AAA publishers do not have much interest in GOG. EA and Ubisoft, who published most of the games the OP listed, are no exception. We lucked out with the few that make to GOG, more likely only because revenue from other sources have ran dry.

Unfortunately, some indies are not any better. Their ilk only want to cater to the largest platforms so they can make the most money with the least amount of effort. It's no suprised that some of the more successful indies abandon GOG, while others willing to put the effort into squeezing what little sales they can get.

If you have issues w/ Sacred - try a DirectX wrapper or emulator.

You'll likely need a DX Wrapper or Emulator to run older DirectX games that used older DirectX versions (i.e. DX1-9) on modern Windows that use NEWER DX calls (DX10-11). Need it to translate the calls from newer into older DX's, basically.

So, try something like say DGVoodoo2 or DXWnd.

Ya think?

dgVoodoo solves most graphc related problems for games of that era, that's right.

But just my 5 cents: DX9 games should run without wrapper. The redist version of DX from MS includes versions from 9 to 12, so do all graphic drivers. It's usually DirectDraw (up to Direct3D7) and a few DX8 games, that can cause trouble.
In fact there's still plenty of new games that get released with DX9.
A problem source can be hardcoded resolutions that are not available anymore or certaom hardware that has been restricted.

Yeah, my statement was mostly general stuff - that sometimes, the best bet can be DirectX emulators and/or wrappers like DGVoodoo2, DXWnd, etc etc.

It can help up-rez and MSAA a lot of aliasing away & can be useful for properly up-rezzing UI so it don't look blurry and ugly when native lower-res on a higher-rez monitor.

For Sacred in particular, there's also an HD Mod which can help out w/ Sacred 1 also, for 1080p+.
See this -> https://www.gog.com/forum/sacred_series/german_language_hd_patch_without_rebalancing_here_are_the_links

I should go back in and check it out. Sacred's underrated.