Here we go again, G2A vs developers/publishers: https://www.pcgamer.com/developers-tell-people-to-pirate-their-games-instead-of-using-g2a/ which interestingly at the beginning there's a link related to an old tinybuild article from 2017: https://www.pcgamer.com/g2a-and-tinybuild-butt-heads-at-gdc/

I won't derail the discussion by jumping to G2A but maybe this gets us a bit into the publisher's mind and their behaviour. I'm sorry that they lose profits from such a shady websites but releasing half done games here to prevent loss of profits from pirates is not the way to go and GOG users don't have to pay the price for it. Either they support GOG fully or leave and take their unfinished games with them.

Information hidden from the public is brought to light by an insider who has risked everything: this is a tinyGate!

I'm pretty sure tinyGate involved tinyE's donkeys in some way.

Which actually is not even the case. It prevents exactly nada because the Steam games are already available to get for free. It only destroys tinyBuilds reputation, destroys trust from their GOG customers and makes GOG look bad. That's EVERYTHING this bevavior will do. Not one single pirtated copy will be prevented by giving outdated versions to GOG customers.

TinyGate is good name for a sim game about managing the merchant influx into a medieval town

If anything, that'll get the DRM'd versions pirated even faster.
I don't even know why I'm still surprised when people associate "DRM free" with "piracy".

Agreed!

I mean, if piracy is your main concern, why have a DRM-free release at all?

well, i did hint about that incident a couple of pages before... though i thank you sincerely to stat it clear and loud as a reminder...

because when you put this old article side by side with the tinybuild employee's conversation from OP, it is just hilarious how fat and dripping it is of blatant hyppocrisy

it seems GOG (legit and PAYING) customers are viewed as more dangerous a threat and filthier than, in order of offense against those jerks, G2A shady market money laundering thieves, and then pirates.

i really think gog should try to include in their contracts a term regarding providing updates at an acceptable pace... but lets be more devious: lets make this term OPTIONAL (publishers can still be allowed to go and scam gog customers by refusing this term in the deal), however, put a hige flashy colorful banner on each storepage that would state that game's publisher refused to join the "gog's loyalty to customer program" or whatever name, and their refusal of this optional term is a clear official statement of theirs that they do not really intend to patch, fix or support the product here any further than the quick milking cashgrabbing scam

and THEN, disclose some stats and numbers about sales here of some games/publishers who agreed on this term and those who didnt.
perhaps people (customers and devs alike) will finally discover some insights about how the customer base here really work (we, however, may be surprised, though maybe in a bitter and depressing way.. who knows)

Let them be scammers but force them to officially take the stand and force them to confess they are planning to scam, dont deny them the right to try anyway but INFORM the customer about what they are really buying or not

Wow! It went up on 3 different subreddits:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/comments/c886gd/lets_talk_about_tinybuild_and_gog/ (by Emperor Snolus)

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/c8aorj/tinybuild_withholds_patches_dlcs_and_bonus/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/c8m720/tinybuild_withholding_patches_and_dlc_from_gog/

Meh. Seems their track record speaks for itself. Not holding my breath :)

Anyway I used the opportunity and told them about every single game here on GOG that is missing anything (meaning every game on the list published by them). If they want to prove us wrong they are so very welcome in my book ;)

Words are just words - but I would love them to act if this all was just a big misunderstanding.

ah ah ah good pr speech

the answer is to be read this way instead:

"we at tinybuild never gave a damn about annoying and ridiculously niche "DRM free customers" but we were glad to scam them for some extra milking and cashgrabbing, hoping they would be lazy and apathic enough to ever notice. We never intended to bother ourselves into maintaining or fixing broken DRM free builds of our games for this platform as it is not worth the fuss... But now we checked that our internal policy leaked out on the internet and begins to be spread into social networks, and are surprised that our favored customers (steam ones) seem to give a damn about what happens to other second class customers elsewhere, we are seeing the shitstorm incoming and will try to make some quick damage control and pr, roudn our back and brace for impact, just long enough so you bunch of dumb sheeps forget about the whole story, so that we can resume our not-giving-a-damn again"

Certainly, fixing the problem would be welcome. However, seems more than oversight and just business as usual.

Anywho...thanks for taking time out of your day to do something about it. ;-)