This. Gog should work a better update system with them and get them on track before considering dropping them.
PookaMustard: If tinyBuild is reading this, I would appreciate it if you read it to the end.
We unfortunately would never be able to support a deluxe edition or a soundtrack because the second 1 person purchases it, it is available to upload anywhere on the internet.
PookaMustard: Taken out of its original context, you would no platform is mentioned. It's because in a context where platforms aren't defined, the quoted part is right. The soundtrack is going to be uploaded whether it was available on Steam, GOG, Epic, Origin or iTunes or whatever.
The music industry may be deep into streaming and I doubt they will ever let go of making streaming be the ONLY way to listen to music, BUT, the music industry did indeed drop DRM from MP3s and never bothered to protect them again. I'd go out on a hunch and say, if the music industry dropped DRM, then there is simply no such thing as protecting soundtracks from piracy for any period of time.
Basically, it doesn't matter whether it's on Steam or on GOG, the soundtracks are getting uploaded, so do suit yourself for that possibility. Now for other deluxe edition material, it depends, but if they're stuff like PDFs and pictures and computer icons, short of using PDF DRM, I don't think you're in luck. And if you do use PDF DRM, that entails with it its own set of challenges, top of which being GOG users upset that their PDFs are DRM'd.
We can't upload content and just hope for the internet to not steal it. :/
PookaMustard: You DON'T HOPE for the internet to not "steal" it. You just don't. The internet is by nature, a medium where things spread quickly like fire. This message for instance will be distributed across the internet. Some people will screenshot it and repost it elsewhere, some people will link to it, the Wayback Machine could save a capture of this thread, etc. I can't stop any of this. And this is just an insignificant post on a forum, written for free, publicly viewed for free.
If you're thinking DRM may halt or stop this, well, let's play along. If you use Steam's regular DRM, this can be yanked out in minutes. The cracker needs the executable and an automated cracking tool to remove the DRM. That's it. It's this effortless. If not, Steam itself can be emulated, a program can pretend it is Steam and offer Steam's functionality but okays every verification check the game asks for. So right off the bat, your DRM is defeated.
Or you could use something like Denuvo. But in doing so, you will anger even more people as Denuvo isn't known to be "lightweight" or "unintrusive" or such other buzzwords. This becomes bad PR as people actively discourage other people from buying the game.
however we have to be smart in business and knowing that updated versions of games being stolen DRM free is not smart business
PookaMustard: That's not smart. Not at all.
Consider what I said above about DRM. It doesn't matter if you refuse to release the updates and DLC to GOG, you're still updating the Steam version. As far as I'm concerned, an update to the Steam version is cracked in the same way as described above and immediately uploaded. You can imagine the cracker being like "oh it's that game again."
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tinyBuild, ask yourself one question.
Is it worth giving GOG users the short end of the stick so that you could continue your losing war against pirates? You're not making any sense. You don't want music to be pirated, yet you distribute it, and you know that even the music industry itself no longer uses DRM on MP3s anymore. You don't want piracy of updates to happen, so you don't update the GOG versions, but your updated Steam versions are just as prone to piracy as the original builds.
You're a publisher in the games industry. You have many developers working under your name. You ought to know better than that.
Send this)or let someone send it) to their twitterfacebook/etc accounts and emails they use for business/customer input. Let them hear it loudly and wherever they go.
Good/well written post. +1111111
rgnrk: Yes, tinybuild are small enough and their catalog are indies and many of the users in this thread don't a care about them enough, so they're fine to use as a scapegoat to take the pitchfork's out for bad practices.
The irony is that what that employee says in private is what every ceo and representative of any large AAA videogames company say in public. But, sometimes, they release crumbs to us. And then we have every gog member clapping with the ears. And I don't see anyone asking GOG to finish their business with them or take their games out.
I call hypocrisy.
Good points....if a big/classic dev/ip holder did the same would people be so quick to call for them to be dropped? :\
fronzelneekburm: Gog haven't learnt their lesson and still court these assholes while turning down less terrible publishers (which is pretty much all of them).
Lucumo: That's the thing. With the confirmation of intent, GOG is even more at fault here if they don't do anything about it. For one, they are choosing a single publisher over their own customers and second, they are supporting this atrocious behavior on their own store which damages their reputation.
If they have a legal contract to sell Tinybuild's games for a set period they MUST DO SO or else be legally held liable.
Klumpen0815: That is either incredibly dumb or incredibly dishonest.
Aramandur: Both, actually.
This is simply disgusting. I'm not going to buy a tinyBuild game anytime soon... Not that I ever wanted to :P
Not to nitpick too much or sound overly mean, but if you were never going to buy their games why even say you won't buy them now or threaten them with such payback/punishment?
It's like all those activists who say they won't buy x game until y feature is added/removed from a game when they never intended to buy or play that game anyways.
