Yes, and, in that sense, it would be like any other game that gets de-listed. No guarantee of updates. Honestly, there is no guarantee of updates for games that ARE here and not (yet) de-listed, as far as I can tell. Haven't games that were listed been removed for lack of updates? Supraland was de-listed, the dev won't update here, customers who bought it when it first came here don't seem eligible for a refund. What would your solution be for instances like that? Legitimately curious.

Not sure what your comment about Galaxy being popular has to do with this, since if there were going to be updates it would eventually be available through Galaxy and offline installer, at least while some of us keep making our voice heard about how important the offline installer experience outside of Galaxy is.

It really isn't. The people who bought the game won't have it "taken away" if it's delisted, so the whole "in theory nothing was taken away from the DRM free game you bought, you're just not getting the new additions" point is moot. If anything, it makes your other point about lack of updates in case of delisting also moot, since how is the lack of future updates different than not having access to this DRM-ed content? You yourself seem to be saying that people who own the game are in the exactly same situation whether it is delisted or not.

In any case, no one sane could blame GOG for the game that violates their basic policy being delisted. If people should have a problem with that, they should pick it up with the devs. The idea that GOG should start allowing breaches of their fundamental policy because the alternative might inconvenience some users is insane and makes basicaly any store policy a flimsy pretense.

What matters is only this: the game now has DRM. It should not be sold here. That's it. It's that simple. It's either that, or GOG needs to loudly and clearly announce they are discontinuing their DRM-free policy.

Abso-fricking-lutely. No DRM has to mean NO DRM. That is literally the only reason I buy games here.

Yes, GOG should insist that the developers remove the DRM, or they should pull the game. If not, at the very least it should be rolled back to the last version that didn't include the DRM.

As for those who have already bought the game, I would hope that GOG would have a clause in their contract that developers must agree to abide by GOG's anti-DRM values. If the developers provide updates that contain DRM and refuse to remove it when requested, they should be bound to give everyone who bought the game a full refund.

I have created a wishlist request here, to demand the game be removed from the GOG store, if the DRM is not removed. Feel free to use this to make a stand to demand that GOG uphold their core values.

For those that bought the game and are unhappy at a possible backlash: you are being let down by the developer here, not GOG. Blame them.

I'm not sure if you are serious or just trolling. If you agree on selling something on some place, you should follow that direction AND the customers who support you and your game on that platform (in this case GOG).

Quicksilver and their related questline being doable while offline should be A STANDARD, not something enclosed to "online only fEaTuReS": I can understand MP being locked such as one, be that for server dependency, possible cheaters and other BS, but not SP content which can be done completely offline with no consequences.

I was burnt in a similar fashion with Absolver, first game I pre-ordered on GOG (and probably the last one for years): the storepage and the developers were blunt into saying that ALL THE CONTENT would be available both offline and online, and guess what? Bosses could NOT be fought again in offline mode, cutting in half a very short game already, but also locking away other in-game content (items, gear and so on which were unique drops from every boss), you wouln'd be able to freely change fighting style unless with other players, making available only one style attainable in-game (while they could do the same for every one) AND locking other gear after grinding to death the boring MP PVP counterpart.

And as a cherry on top of this shitcake, many months after its initial release (about 8 iirc or so) they incorporated EAC (easy anti cheat) as SILENT INSTALL on the offline installers (or silently downloaded and installed from galaxy) without any prompt from the user in both cases (while suprise, the steam version asks the user for its installation first).

TLDR; When you are a developer you should always think about where you sell your piece of software, and think accordingly how to add certain features, NMS ones are a clear example on how NOT to do it.

This is interesting. I don't know much about the game so I don't want to grab a pitchfork just yet, but it is concerning so I'd appreciate clarification from GOG and the devs.

Apparently there's a workaround where you can edit your offline savegames to have the ingame merchants carry the mp-only resources and items?
If it's that easy then GoG probably could slap together an "official" workaround, just like they did with the Ghost wrapper. If Hello Games can't be arsed to provide a solution themselves, that is.

Unfortunately, for those of us who choose not to use Galaxy, GOG tends to be a poor place to buy games that are still receiving regular or frequent updates. This case, the addition of new content that doesn't function without Galaxy use, is on the extreme end of the spectrum, but there have been plenty of other games where the offline installers were updated on a significantly delayed schedule, or where updates/patches were handled quite poorly (such as requiring a full re-download of a multi-GB game each time a new patch was released). Overall it tends to just be a very poor experience using the offline installers for games still receiving updates. I don't really see GOG changing their behavior on this as I suspect those of us who use the offline installers and care about this kind of thing make up a small enough portion of the GOG userbase that our purchasing power doesn't amount to enough for GOG to care. For myself I've only been purchasing games on GOG once I'm confident they've reached a stable state I'm happy with where I don't really need to care if the games receive any further updates or content.

While I agree with most of what you've said, I don't think it's fair to accuse StringingVelvet of trolling. He's bringing up legitimate concerns: If people have bought No Man's Sky here, which I think has at its cheapest been 50% off for $30, it'd be pretty messed up for them to lose access to any future updates (which in the case of this game tend to be pretty significant) because a small, cosmetic part of the game is locked behind a client or internet access when it shouldn't be. The principle behind this is certainly important, and it's something that needs to be fixed, but from a practical standpoint removing the game entirely is a major decision with major consequences either way. If left in its current state, it violates GOG's DRM-free principle which is completely unacceptable. But if removed, countless people who bought the game here get stuck with a dead copy of the game and the chances of them getting refunds are probably nonexistent. Plenty of games have been removed from GOG after treating its customers like second-class citizens or for other reasons, but if there have ever been mass refunds issued in such cases it's been extremely rare.

To me, what needs doing here is simply having the problem be fixed instead of GOG dismissing it. It shouldn't be too difficult to do given that save editors can allegedly already fix the quicksilver store stock issue (proving the content works fine offline as-is) and there's no reason the developers can't simply make quicksilver missions available offline. Even if the daily ones the game currently has are implemented in a way that really won't work without a client, it would be simple enough to just make quicksilver a possible mission reward in normal missions, including the ones offered on The Anomaly (the space station that offers quicksilver missions and houses the quicksilver store) that do work offline.

Someone asked if quicksilver is completely unobtainable offline, and from what I understand the answer is no. There are supposedly rare events when travelling through space where you can encounter crystals that can contain quicksilver. Of course, this isn't a viable alternative to the missions unless you're okay with spending countless hours drifting through space hoping for RNG to give you the event you want and then getting quicksilver from it. It's also possible to give yourself quicksilver using a save editor, further showing that the currency itself does work offline. Even the quicksilver shop, oddly enough, contains a very limited amount of items when playing offline, it's just that most of the stock is missing for some reason unless you've played online at least once.

All that is still fundamentally different from GOG officially saying on the game's store page that there is single-player content that's only available using Galaxy. This isn't GOG handling something poorly, or being negligent or incompetent, all of which while annoying and unwelcome can be forgiven. This is GOG straight up introducing a DRMed single player content into the store and stating that they know about it and that's how it's intended to be (while still maintaining the pretense their DRM-free policy remains unaltered).

I admit that I was a bit harsh in that post, but I was strictly talking about him saying that as long the original content from 1.0 release wasn't taken in any way from you, you shouldn't be arguing about the online only features added through updates; on top of that, he mentioned that it's fine when it comes to MP only portion of the game, while the quicksilver and quests related thing is for 99% SP only, hence my reaction with that post.

All of this was never aimed at delisting the game from GOG (I never mentioned it in the first place).

I also agree with what you said, and that they could easily implement quicksilver currency as normally in game, but it would be even easier to just enable while offline all the content (in short all the online only quests/events and shop items), because there is completely no reason to lock them behind online ESPECIALLY if the game is sold on GOG.

I can be fine with MP modes being locked behind a client or online services, but something that can be played in SP? Hell no.

Years ago there was a similar situation with "the incredible adventures of van helsing final cut" with currency and other content locked as ONLINE ONLY, IN SP TOO, there was an outrage and for a valid reason, and after many complaints the devs decided/were forced to enable them offline too.

I mean, if you (a dev) decide to implement online only content in your game, ok, but at least don't dare to sell your product on a platform which stands against drm and online only stuff, and if you already are, either make workarounds or even better, don't force them as online only.

EDIT: I also want to add that it should be important to note that if people buy games here, is because of GOG DRM free nature, if a game starts as drm free, but then adds non drm-free features, what's the point of selling their games here in the first place?

I'm glad I never bought NMS. It's been nothing but a shitshow since its release, and its updates continue to do that. And if what the OP posted/thread is true, it's not a hard fix on the developer's side: NOTHING should be multiplayer exclusive or locked or gated behind requiring multiplayer (with the possible exception of something that is only of any value at all in multiplayer; not a developer's arbitrary decision to make something multiplayer exclusive).
It is still offensive that Absolver is still on GOG.

Devs should have made it that way in the first place... They should probably be directly alerted to the flaw, if they haven't already.

No Man's Sky isn't the only game pulling this stunt. Northgard's conquest mode is also considered an online only feature and requires Galaxy even though it can be played solo if you don't want to co-op.

northgard.net/northgard-conquest/

I'm not trolling, nor do I agree with what the developers did. I also don't want GOG to start allowing DRM, obviously. However my point is the situation is a lot more complicated than all of you are treating it as.

GOG might not even be able to pull the game honestly, depending on contracts. Support for existing customers is an issue, and yes, so is the mere act of pulling the game and the news it would create and impact that would have with their other partners. They could have refused the patch, but then their customers would probably be (rightly) upset they are not getting the current version. The game does work offline, just with less content apparently, which is far different from an online activation.

Again, it's a tricky issue. "Delist the game now!" is treating it as something way more simple than it is. Things are rarely black and white or easy to judge, though we all wish they were.