Then I don't get it at all. I thought it would be in a library, like Softporn Adventures, for example.

When GOG removes extras, they disappear not only from new purchases, but also from the libraries of all the previous owners.

We need some explanation, GOG.

Then all seems to suggest that it won't be possible to buy it separately.

I'd love a sequel of this game. So much fun. The music, the fairy-tale like atmosphere, the humour. The milk!

I never got around to play KnightShift but i have the physical german 2 CD version. It comes with a whopping 256 pages manual that deserves being called "Handbuch".
RTS games are usually not my cup of tea but i'll grab KnightShift to have a reason to use that great manual. :)

If gog removes stuff you already bougth even if it was included as a bonus in extras
isnt that a breach of contract?

If an estate manager sells you a property with included Home appliances
and then later removes the same appliances they are essentially breaking the law.
The custommrer arent getting what they orginally paid for.

So your claim sounds unlikly since Gog woud then have been sued by a walthy custommer long ago

The most recent example that I remember is removing a German manual from all owners of Jagged Alliance 2:
https://www.gog.com/forum/jagged_alliance_series/re_the_removal_of_the_ja2_german_manual

I bought Jagged Alliance 2 before the manual was removed, and now I don't have this manual in my library, so I know what I'm talking about.

By the way, I remember that MarkoH01 (the person who first noticed that the German manual was removed) said that it wasn't the first time that something was removed from libraries. I think you can contact MarkoH01 if you want to hear more examples.

why would a digital manual be removed ?

i have the paper manuals from the retail i bought at release of the physical games many years ago.... really miss the lack of physical copies in retail stores and the proper manuals.

If retails are available in some retailstores, they are usually more like a index instead of a proper manual, the ones that only got shipped with the first release, lateron they sold the games on cd ( bad quality and very thin cd/dvd) with a nonexisting manual... i still have the original proper good quality paper manuals.


Anyway....always back files up on a dvd and make some extra copies of the digital manuals.

I have the original manual of Mechcommander, game wont run ofcourse on windows starting from XP
but i still have it , and many other classic games with original paper manuals, it was always a joy to go out and buy games decades ago.... , they were pricey but you got your money's worth: a nice manual, physical cd or dvd and yes 75% or more had "DRM" on it ٩◔‿◔۶ that usually did not bother cause you know ≖‿≖

Anyway, there was a lot of variety in games , today its more of the same , that is for the new games it is more of the same thats why > 85% of my games are 'old' games : retail and digital only .

With the arrival of many casualgames i found a new games to spend the leftover $/ euros i already have all the classic games i want and that are avaialable online.... ofcourse there are still dozens and dozens classics still out on the 'abandoned' sites , many will probably never be available for sale on GOG, Steam or similar.... so thats why casualgames get the most of my $/ euros cause they do keep on coming by the 1000's so there is always something i like to buy.

Removing something from the store is not the same as removing something from custommers.
Im still waiting for proof and not just hearsay.
It woud also be really easy to win in court since i imagine those laws are the same in Poland.
Heck, il even chip in in donation drive on kickstarter or something if somone in Poland can organize a group sue againt Gog if this claim can be proven.

By proof i mean a screenshot of a blue post/notification or any other proof which is Not Photoshopped or in any other form tried to fake

That is actually a documented fact. To understand how that came to be requires understanding 1) how GOG works when it comes to older games and 2) how game translations were done in the past.

1) First GOG tracks down who holds the rights to the game and get them to sign a contract that states that GOG is allowed to modify the game to make it run better on modern systems and sell the game in exchange for typically 30% of the selling price.

Normally they receive everything they put up for download from the rightsholder but for old games they often hear that the publisher doesn't have any copies of the game or goodies, handbooks, etc. left and GOG has to track down an old copy with all its goodies on their own. They usually do so through EBay or sometimes even with the help of customers who send them scanned manuals, etc.

And that's where GOG made an error. They thought that their contract for JA 2 encompassed all language versions but it didn't.

2) Today publishers try to keep all rights to themselves and spread them around as little as possible but in the past that wasn't the case. Especially when it came to foreign language versions when the publisher wasn't sure that they would pay off they simply looked for a business partner to carry the risk.

The deal basically worked like this: The exclusive rights to produce a German version would be transfered to company X in exchange for a cut on the profits. All the work on translating the game, the manual, producing the discs, boxes and manuals and bringing them to stores in the German speaking market would be done by X.

If the game sells well both of them, X and the publisher of the original, make good money. If the game flops X carries all the risk, the original publisher loses nothing. Well, except for the rights to the German version but if the game doesn't sell well in the German market they weren't worth anything anyway. Sure, the original publisher could have made more money by doing everything themselves if the game sells well but then they would also carry the risks.

Since in the past the computer game market wasn't as big as today such arrangements were more widely made than you would imagine. And that lead to the fact that the holder to the rights of the original (typically the English) version did not have the rights to the German version.

GOG was unaware of the fact that the partner they contracted with for JA2 did not have the right to the German version when they put up the German manual for download. The German manual was actually online for quite some time before company X saw that GOG was using their manual without their OK and DMCA'd GOG to take it down.

And there is no way to win in court against GOG for that. Taking the manual down was a legal requirement. In theory even all customers who still have a copy have to delete it because GOG never had the right to put it up for download in the first place. But that is of course impossible to enforce.

Even if you write to GOG support that you really need the German manual and can't play the game without it and you wouldn't have bought the game without the German manual they can't give you the manual. That's how copyright law works. You can't sue for getting the manual back. GOG can't give you what they do not own. The only thing you could in theory sue for is a recompensation. In other words, the difference in value between the product with or without manual.

But that will also not work because in such cases (if the manual was really THAT important to you) GOG typically offers you your money back even if the game was bought long ago. That basically is a recompensation. Even a full one. Then it's your choice to either accept (you get your money back, the game will be removed from your account and GOG doesn't owe you the manual any more) or refuse. But if you refuse you also can't sue for recompensation any more. Your case would get thrown right out of the court if GOG shows the judge the mails in which you were offered your money back and you refused.

Also, this really isn't the first time such a thing happened. I don't remember every single case (although I know there were a few) but I still remember how the dev of Vertical Drop Heroes HD has removed the Halloween update from GOG. First he integrated it into the game with an update and removed the DLC, later he removed the content from the game again without giving the DLC back. So if you bought the game when it was offered toogether with the DLC with you were out of the DLC's content. While in this case it's not such a big deal (the DLC was only a Halloween themed reskin of the game) it's still a matter of principle. I think GOG shouldn't have allowed the dev to get through with such shenanigans. While strictly speaking this wasn't GOG's fault they did allow the dev to get through with this.

Edit: I forgot you asked for a link with proof. Here you are: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_removed_materials_from_users_library_gog_what_happened/post9

That's why I wonder if a similar situation could happen with Polanie after June 29, 2020.

I don't think so. Typically GOG handles this situation this way: They put the main product (Knightshift in this case) into the database twice, once with product ID X with Polanie as extra and once with product ID Y without the extra. Buy Knightshift before the date and you receive product X, buy it afterwards and you receive Y.

So it should stay in your account.

But then again I also remember the Softporn Adventure incident. In case someone doesn't know Softporn Adventure is the predecessor to the Leisure Suit Larry series and was part of the Leisure Suit Larry Greatest Hits Collection (https://www.gog.com/game/leisure_suit_larry).

When it was removed (I don't remember the reason) it also disappeared from the customer's libraries. When GOG was asked what has happened to the game they did apologize and called it a mistake though and made the game its own product and everyone who already bought the LSL collection before the removal received a key to it.

As far as I know, Softporn Adventure was automatically returned to all owners of the Leisure Suit Larry bundle.

I definitely didn't ask for any keys, but the game was returned to my account, and now it even has its own entry in the orders section (in my case, it's March 7, 2018).

Is "Staplerbuch" a thing? :P