Hey. I realize this thread will be downvoted like every one of mine, but i am fine with it.

I have seen people criticise GOG because they didn't release Devotion.

While i agree it's not very nice - what do you expect them to do, really?

They are (CD Projekt, to which GOG is a subsidiary) a company. A wholesome one, but a company. They need to make money to satisfy the investors. Every cent can be the difference between a satisfied investor and an enraged one.

Do you really want them to enrage China, which houses like every 7th person on the planet?

I am not paid by GOG to post it but i am just curious how would you have acted in this situation.

I hate how the world bows to China, but what can you do as a company? Release the game and enrage every 7th customer (potentially, because ofc GOG's userbase is mainly from Europe), thus risking to lose heaps of money?

I am not defending GOG, but i am finding it pretty silly how people are mixing them with dirt. Do you really want them to waive a huge part of their profit just so they can release 1 non-AAA game?

Did you really have to create your own thread about this topic? It's been discussed for weeks in other threads. If you were actually interested in it, you could have found some answers there.

Me personally, I don't expect anything, but what most people are probably looking for is:

- an official statement by GoG admitting to the fact that the "many gamers" excuse for backing out from releasing Devotion was... well, just a very poor excuse for them getting cold feet at the last minute, realizing that they might put the goodwill of the chinese portion of their audience in jeopardy
- the eventual release of Devotion on GoG

Both of which GoG obviously isn't comfortable/willing/able to do (at least for now), for various reasons.

So, if I publish a game with a black main character and there's a huge backlash because part of my user base are klansmen, I'd be justified to remove the game from my store?
Seems like sound reasoning.

Only those who cowardly hide behind a lie.

Nope. Only those who drop the game from their stores after announcing it and not being transparent about the real reasons.

I am not angry that GOG didn't release Devotion.
I am angry that GOG lied about it and instead of being honest about it "hey we did this because we didnt want to risk the chinese market blah blah" they tried to pass it off as "many gamers told us" which is complete and utter bullshit.

They were going to lose people anyways, and I wish people got this mad at Steam when they pulled the same shit.
but they didn't

I am not going to boycott gog though, just reduce my spending here for a time.

Ah, awsome, so how goes the war against China on steam? Are you winning?

And you? Are you fighting people who criticise chinese censorship on every forum out there? Are you winning?

I guess people expected it from Steam more because they are already considered not much pro-consumer with their policies to start with. Isn't GOG's whole schtick to be different and more pro-consumer alternative?
Also, I've read somewhere it's actually the developers that decide to retire the game from Steam?
The whole situation was a bit unclear and they probably did a good job to make the whole thing very quiet. Also, Steam doesn't have that much of a community, it's just people writing random stuff on message boards, unlike GOG here, that has a proper forum with a stronger sense of community.
You cannot really campaign against an abuse if you don't evrn realize it exists in first place, can you?
But once you are aware of it, is it wrong to complain with something you find disturbing?
Two wrongs don't make a right. If you shoot a guy it's not like I can't call you homicidal because there's plenty of other people shooting too.

Did Steam lie about it?

And hardly anyone expects to "win". There is more at stake than that.

I'm not fighting them on any forum, so I'm not winning, sorry :D

Block the game only for China. Simple as that. There are a lot of games blocked for other countries, like Germany. So, what's the excuse for do not the same for the "gamers"?

I don't know because I'm not at war with China. I don't recall having an army.
But I'm rather sure I'm entitled to have an opinion.
And you? How is it going not having one? Must feel liberating.