Yeah that's the thing. It has left a bit of a bad taste about this whole deal. I was super excited about this sale, and have been spending a ton of time on gog during this sale. I thought it was a fantastic idea about the free mystery game, but this "running out" thing kinda makes it so that it ends on a sour note. I didn't read the fine print before starting to purchase games at random, and even if I had, the whole "unlikely" part of their statement on running out makes it seem like it's not going to happen.

But the mystery games where just games from the current sale. Why not just buy the games you wanted in the first place instead of buying a bunch of games you didn't want? Isn't that a waste of your money?

That is possible, but in that case it would indicate it was less popular than anticipated, if we assume "more popular" to mean "more people took part" (instead we had less people buying more games and thus getting more freebies as opposed to more people buying less games). That's the point. It was not intended to run out by Friday (or by any day). It was to be run till n games got sold rather than till t time has elapsed.

Think of it this way: The publisher allow for GOG to give away a certain number of licenses for a certain game, whereas they allow an "unlimited" (or at least much higher) number to be sold for a reduced price for a certain amount of time. The number of freebies is not for GOG to decide by themselves (unless they want to pay the publisher out of their own pocket for each copy they give away).

Yes.

Yeah, definitely not cool Gog! Only noticed now that the info about 'they might run out of freebies' is buried somewhere in the FAQ list, so I guess they are covered. It should have been more clear it was a limited offer, and also an indication should have been given that they were about to run out. This definitely leaves a bad aftertaste to a sale that was otherwise very enjoyable. I only had gotten three games so far, so was pretty far of from a freebie, and wasn't really working towards that goal anyway, but the lacking communication from Gog on this whole affair puts me off from buying anything else for now.

I suggest anyone who bought games towards reaching ten purchases to get a freebie before they ran out, contacts support and asks for a refund for the games they didn't really want.

Unbelievable! I literally bought a random game to get to 10 just minutes before the message went up. Absolutely nothing prevents GOG from buying extra keys from developers to reward their customers. Instead they choose to screw everyone who was working toward a promised reward. Congratulations GOG on coming up with a shit solution that makes Steam look fair and even-handed.

Hey guys, not sure where else to put this, but I did get a freebie, and I already have Chaos Reborn on Steam, so here:

D5318-97F32-148D7-D1E1B

Now I understand better. Yesterday, I was at 9 games purchased and the second day of the sale it was reset to needing 10 games again.

I wrote gog about this and got a less than satisfactory answer.

Not sure if this happened to others as well.

Now it seems to make more sense in my mind the reason to reset the numbers so people will purchase more games before the free games run out.

Full disclosure: For some reason, I received a free copy of Democracy yesterday after buying 5 or 6 titles. I figured it was some sort of random reward.

This is very disappointing after supporting gog by purchasing over 400 titles since being a member here.
EDIT: Just did the math, that is a minimum of 50 games a year for approximately 8 years.

Ya I was definitely a bit disappointed to see that message saying the free games were all "wolfed down" only AFTER I had bought my tenth game. I feel like I was led on. They should have displayed that message as soon as it happened, not after I had bought my tenth game. Pretty cheap marketing tactic there gog. I probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger on a couple of my games if I had known the freebies "ran out" (how does that even happen, it's not like they're selling physical commodities), but I'm sure gog probably knew that.

I don't have as many titles as you, and have "only" been here since 2011, but yeah it is disappointing. I'm always promoting gog to strangers when I get the chance, but this has been a letdown I'm not going to lie. Not really sure I can be bothered promoting them at every opportunity when they pull stunts like this.

And before someone says it, yes I know they technically covered their ass by burying the "we might run out however unlikely" in the FAQ, who really reads the FAQ at a sale. It's like reading the manual. Who really does that before it's too late? :)

At the end of the day, I'll still purchase games on gog, but this has put a damper on the good will I had towards them. Not so much so that it'll affect me not shopping here, but it's just a bit annoying.

Pretty bummed about this. I was getting a whole bunch of games to meet the limit and I was just two games away... I kinda wish they had some sort of indicator to let people know that they were running out of games, maybe something on the front page, because it seemed really abrupt.

Oh wow that sucks. I was only half way there. Had just bought my fifth game when I saw it. I was on the way to grabbing the 6th one, but luckily saw it first. Hard luck, man.

:-( Bad show.


Maybe the best thing is to buy indiscriminately and then later sort out what you want and get a refund on the rest.