Thank you for posting here, though I don't find it very reassuring. Here is where some of the confusion lies: A consumer purchase is between two entities: customer and business. In this case, the business, or company, is GOG. As it turns out, the company GOG is now seeking to sell games both on "GOG.com" and through "Galaxy 2.0". However, both points of purchase as I understand it are run by GOG and trace back to GOG, the company.

In other words, it appears GOG the company is now affirming they are okay with the idea of selling DRMed products via the "new store" in Galaxy 2.0 (so long as the DRMed products come from Epic). As other users have discussed, the DRM-free principle is paramount to GOG as a company and a brand which makes ANY such partnership extremely confusing at best.

Also confusing that now all of a sudden, "GOG and Galaxy 2.0 are totally different entities, honest!". I even made a topic in hopes of discussing and debunking such. This narrative is getting pushed awfully hard and as other users point out flies in the face of reality...especially for those of us who are here for the DRM-free offline installers completely separate from Galaxy and not using Galaxy to download even one of them.

It's about opportunity cost. Going forward, games that would have potentially been able to come to GOG DRM-free are now likely to just release on Epic, and only be available to GOG users through the Galaxy 2.0 app (i.e. the games would stay on Epic most likely with DRM). GOG the company is now not only "going to get and sell DRM-free games as usual," but also, apparently, DRMed games. That in turn weakens any negotiating power they have to get future releases here on GOG.com DRM-free. In fact, GOG's own push of everything Galaxy compounds the problem since they and developers/publishers have mutual incentive to get people buying and playing on Galaxy, instead of via offline installers downloaded through the browser library.

Yeah, but that came somewhat a bit later. My father was way more interested in it so I figured he could just have it while I did something else.

Funny thing is, when my grandmother announced that the dinner was ready, he had trouble letting go...
I can imagine you're glad you have some sort of protection in times like this (for your sake I mean)...

https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/e726/ca25/367c_4841514242/__10.jpg
https://images.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/e06d/463d/6a0c_4841514017/__10.jpg

Wow.

Please post more examples. I think more folks here need to be aware of this.

Neverwinter Nights got a massive lighting engine upgrade a while ago that still only exists on Galaxy.

A few more examples, collected in ten minutes of checking my library (only games beginning with S or T):
- Serment - Contract with a Devil ---- Galaxy not optional for 13+ months
- Slay the Spire --- Galaxy not optional for 2+ weeks
- True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 --- Galaxy not optional for 5+ weeks

If you seriously don't see how self-contradictory this is, I don't even know what to tell you.

Exactly.

Kinda like comments like "we're here in case you wondered or missed us... but unofficially we're really not here".

Nothing we say is going to change this situation. They will just bulldoze through all the objections and comments and go ahead with it, all the "we're listening to feedback" is just a weak attempt to deflect that it's a done deal.

I don't think anyone had any misunderstandings that games sold on GOG.com wouldn't remain DRM-Free, just that there's a very arbitrary distinction between GOG.com and GOG Galaxy being "completely different things" when it's more like a vegetarian website hoping that starting to sell meat products via an app won't dilute its core branding depending on how it was ordered (app vs website). That's definitely one of the most naive things I've read here when hardly anyone outside of GOG staff / forums makes a Galaxy vs website distinction.

Eg, in response to "which version should I buy, GOG or Steam", no-one on Reddit says "the offline installer purchased via GOG.com of x game is oudated". It's "The GOG version of x game is outdated". Literally no-one thinks "GOG Galaxy is not part of GOG.com" when the only way of installing GOG Galaxy is by downloading the GOG Galaxy installer from GOG.com...

Thanks for the detailed post. I don't pay attention to GOG very much these days, but it's clear that they don't want people like us to care about the actual game installer. If I wanted an ongoing updated version, I'd only use Steam.

GOG finds people like us to be a burden, because they have to maintain file versions and upgrade patches. And now without the file downloader, I have to use Galaxy to download the big games because my browser times out during downloads, and it detects installed game, prompting the "ongoing update" scheme like Steam.

If GOG wants to work like Steam, I'll use Steam. Hopefully the devs that want to sell their games without DRM will use itch.io more and more.

Indeed. Broken tooltips in Divinity Original Sin, Broken mouse input in Amnesia The Dark Descent, etc. Solution = "We won't supply the last non-buggy offline installers, so just use Galaxy and roll-back". Luckily I still had the pre-Galaxified non-buggy versions but have since learned to not update any older offline installer unless something is actually buggy.

Thank you so much for doing so. That is a very nice (grim?) snapshot. The reality too is that there are 24 other letters in the alphabet and thus surely there are many more games that demonstrate this same problem. I know there is a forum topic dedicated to the second-class treatment of offline installer users so it is not like this is a new revelation, but it is really startling when spelled out line by line with the time frame like that.
Thank you for adding to the list :)

Best summary of the situation. There are many other examples.

Selling movies here was a better idea than this. If I want games from another store, I'll buy them from the other store. You guys are shooting yourselves in both feet and knees.