Q1: Someone asked why thee Linux/Mac ports weren't on gog when the windows ports were. The answer didn't answer the question,

"Q: So, Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion and/or Fallout New Vegas... Yes, no, soon? If no, why not? A: Hmm... Why not? ;)""

So, they'll never make it here then I take it?

"Q: What is BizDev doing to ensure games actually receive their updates in a reasonable amount of time (at least patches)? There's a large list of games that show some devs or pubs treat GOG users very poorly. Slender hasn't received updates in like 4 years. A: We’re aware some games are missing updates, in many cases thanks to the awesome community gathered around GOG. In such situations we, together with Product team, reach out to developers and remind them about it. We’re all human and we need to remember developers are sometimes too busy or simply get forgetful. We do our best to chase them to deliver updates, we try to help them with patches preparations, but at the end of the day we can’t do this without developers help."

Too busy or forgetful is a bad excuse. Four years for a missing patch or several & still selling the game?
Perhaps if is was just the one....but several games are missing patches/DLC etc.

Meh! overall answers.

Good.. even if they skipped my question :\
(they considered a duplicate one, instead)

Mine was this:
"Hello, can you please make sure (by contract?) that games that show up on GOG won't get neglected\left outdated\abandoned by the devs? (compared to other stores, like Steam)

There are various cases in which existing patches\DLCs\extras take months to appear (IF they do).
Some games miss various features because they're tied to Steamworks (but this isn't often clearly stated).
Some titles have even been completely abandoned!"

This was similar to what I asked & was hoping for an (proper) answer.
Guess should've known better :$

Most famous quotes from the answers:

1. Q "... there are certain circumstances which prohibit us from moving onwards with this. We are working on getting the missing Mac builds, but the process is quite complex. ..." Not much info there.

2. Q The BizDev department explains the wish list but completely fails to answer the question.

3. Q. "...we are working on it every day..." Good to know.

4. Q. "That's a question to CDPR, not GOG. We are not involved in The Witcher 3 development." Again a dodge, as if GOG was not a daughter of CDPR.

5. Q. "..it’s a bit of a licensing limbo. But we’re working on solving those..." Good to know. (yawn)

6. Q. "...the negotiations are led by the bizdev team..." they themselves "...We always try to meet in person ... as it’s always nice to talk to a real person " Hm, you can talk to real persons also via other means, but okay. "...As for the issues; these are very diverse" is not an answer to "What are some of the typical issues..." If you don't want to say, then say that you don't want to say. Simple.

7. Q. "...movies are not a priority for us" is a bit fishy answer to "Could you set the record straight?" Probably as clear as it gets when a bizdev department is involved.

8. Q."...it is very difficult..." and "...our product team is in charge of that..." does summarize the answer nicely. Unfortunately they do not give any statistical information.

9. Q. "...it’s just a matter of developers’ resources and availability..." blaming others (the developer) when the question was about games that already have Linux binaries "...even though those games have Linux binaries on Steam?" is not very nice.

10. Q. " ...In the worst case we put certain games on hold for a year..." Actually a bit of information here. So, they spam the publishers at least once per year.

11. Q. Surprisingly a bad question (what numbers exactly does the asker mean?). And the answer of GOG is unsurprisingly a NO.

12. Q. "We cannot tell you anything..." Nicely summarizes the answer.

13. Q. "..." Nicely summarizes the answer.

14. Q. "...we know exactly who owns the rights to this amazing game. Still this side doesn't want to acknowledge this" Wow, another bit of information here. Probably a good example of the diverse issues that occur (could have been mentioned in answer to the 6. Q. instead of dodging there).

15. Q. "...we assure you this chapter is not closed..." typical bizdev talk (yawn)

16. Q. "...the final decision is on the developer's side..." Some real information here. It probably means devs are not caring much about GOG to offer GOG keys through Humble Bundles.

17. Q. Actually a good answer because it explains the difficulties with getting games for outdated platforms.

18. Q. "...We encountered certain legal blockers..." Is not very precise. Do they mean the other side doesn't want to make a deal or is there a legal limbo?? Unclear what they want to say.

19. Q. "...many thanks for your support..." Nice from the bizdev department to officially thank this user. "...they've mentioned quite a few times you guys being active on social networks ..." A bit of information here (maybe inadvertedly). Obviously big publishers put most interest on social networks, so being active/vocal there could be the answer to "What can the community do..:"

20. Q. "...we don't have any ongoing plans for Android" A pity if you ask me but well, as long as there is PC. For emulators like DosBox... "...we’ve managed to work out great relationships with people behind them, with benefits for both sides..." could mean they pay them or the production department fixes bugs for them or just about anything. A bit unclear there.

21. Q. Question could be better. We already know that GOG has any type of resource. The question should have been worded towards the future and if they plan on increasing it or staying at or below the current level.

22. Q. "...We are not able to sign a deal with the current rights holder due to its internal policies that don't match with our approach to digital distribution...." A bit difficult wording for what seems to be the fact that they cannot get them DRM free.

23. Q. "...we have never revealed what are we going to release in the future, aside of pre-orders of course. And we believe this makes GOG special..." Sorry, no. Doesn't make GOG special. This is rather normal, not special.

24. Q. "...with some partners we can't get it..." A bit of information here. Some publishers do not want to (or cannot) sell Linux&Mac versions even if technically it would be easy (Dosbox).

25. Q. "...we need to remember developers are sometimes too busy or simply get forgetful..." Not only developers. I guess the same holds true for bizdev departments. An automated system could probably help. It seems they are doing a lot of things manually there regarding updates.

26. Q. "...The reasons why they are not on GOG are different..." means: We don't want to answer that question.

27. Q. "...we’re working..." bizdev talk

All in all, I feel like maybe a handful of questions out of 27 got informative answers and the rest is mostly being dodged by the bizdev deparment with a some common phrases ("never lose hope", "we are on it", "we believe..."). There could have been a bit more meat, but then I can understand that they cannot and should not deliver all the details.

Was to be expected. Its kind of like a Q&A with the NSA :P

I appreciate the amount of questions they do tackled and at least said something to; while they did not gave a straight answer more than not it did send a "We read it and are aware of it" message which IMO is better than no answer.

a bit disappointed my questions were ignored as well:

"There are quite a few games that are missing expansions, superior versions, variations or lossless audio track (Phantasmagoria 2, Monkey Island games, Tomb Raider games, King's Quest games, Blood, Castles series, Neverwinter Nights... to name a few). Are you making efforts to bring them?
Do you also concentrate on bringing licensed games (Dune, Queen: The Eye, Blade Runner, Discworld, UBIK etc)? What makes it more difficult to convince a licence holder rather than a publisher?"

I wouldn't be though if I didn't have to wait 2 months for the answers

Perhaps they could've worded the other part better:

"Q: What can the community do to help make games available via GOG?...." reply "First of all, many thanks for your support! We've heard about you bothering devs and publishers about GOG.com quite a few times during last years ;) All these letters, requests, questions that you send towards devs count. As for big publishers - we've never heard about them getting any of your support tickets. Still they've mentioned quite a few times you guys being active on social networks ;). In any case, we are happy with support you are providing us with and your kind words always motivate us to do more."

Wow, I got several questions answered at the bottom, thanks biz-dev! :) I do feel bad for others who didn't have their questions answered, though.

re: Cinemaware

That must be one helluva legal obstacle. I consider the Cinemaware debacle to be the biggest humiliation gog ever faced - even Armello had nothing on this, devs abandoning their gog builds are dime a dozen, Armello made the mistake of being upfront about it.

I'm still very puzzled about stuff like the Linux builds of Metro 2033.. I recall reading that GOG *did* manage to obtain the binaries, so it's not clear what's holding them up. Do they still blame the developers? Sigh, I do not expect an answer to be honest.

They called it a licensing issue upfront, though, so it could have more to do with Games Workshop than Sega. Tough to say. And keep in mind that Sega did have, for example, some of their Genesis ports available DRM free on other storefronts, so they aren't necessarily opposed to DRM-free as a hardline stance.


Anyway, wasn't surprised to see the questions about "what does too niche mean?" dodged.

I think that mine was the duplicate; did the answer I received help at all?

I read it as:

if no:
why not?

A programmer's joke perhaps? In any case, quite disappointing, though I wasn't expecting an answer at all. Not sure if this is better though.

Don't tell fortune, he'll get depressed and start a brussels sprouts massacre.

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