Stinking city.

Noooooooooooooo!

I kind of expected Metro 3 to come here at the end of Epic's exclusivity, but it did not. I'd guess these publishers want to give Steam some exclusive time too, before going DRM free. Even though that's silly since the game was cracked already, this is how publishers think.

Guess i'll be "asking a friend to let me play their copy".....bloody money first sellouts....and during a pandemic, no less.

Also to anyone who might have the knowledge: Can't GOG sue over them backing out if they had signed a deal with GOG already?
--------------------------- I get being morally upright or wanting to follow the law, but wouldn't that just be saying one will still support a company even if they treat GOG users with 'sloppy seconds"(to use the crude vernacular)?

I think if anyone buys this & dislikes this move by them and Epic they should buy it USED(if on console) or in a deep sale.

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That word....I don't think it means what you think it means. o.0 ;)

They could but it could alienate the developer/publisher. Also I do know this that Steam updated their rules about Game delivery. Once you singed up for to have Steam sell your game then you are under contract to steam and you have to sell your game there also you have to release timely updates so if you selling said game on another platform you have to keep the Steam version up to date to be on equal ground with that platform's version of the game. https://imgur.com/PmDL9dO

And that imo is part of why GOG gets the crap end of the stick....they let devs and pubs do such things to not sour relationships....thing is, some devs-pubs do some of that to begin with by pulling these sorts of stunts.

Imo it shouldn't be tolerated to such a degree.

Didn't know that...thanks for the info.

I don't think they (publishers in general) want to bring their games here at all if they can help it. Yes this goes counter to an "economically rational" approach...they hate DRM-free so much it makes them act irrationally.

Well that's very disappointing.

I think they're fine with it for "old" games. They just don't want an "unprotected" .exe out there for newer stuff. I just think that's an irrational fear, since a DRM free version exists on torrent sites, but whatever. I don't think there's any getting through to them.

One (if not more) users here have speculated it's more about appearances. In other words the publishers are aware that the stuff is out there in that capacity but they don't want it sold anywhere explicitly DRM-free. There are (or in some cases were) a handful of surprising games available on Scheme that could be downloaded and then not require the client. But certainly that was never advertised. It is along the same lines of why I call Epic a primarily DRMed storefront. Yes, some (maybe most??) of the games can apparently be made DRM-free once downloaded, but this is never explained and the "default" as it were is to use the DRMed service. Personally I would think it would build a lot of goodwill among consumers for publishers to be honest about things and bring games here DRM-free.

Was there a Sinking City page? I remember seeing the "coming soon" splash page but I never clicked through. If there was a GOG Sinking City page, who was listed as the publisher?

If the publisher was Bigben...

Recently Frogwares have been getting their IPs back from publishers -- in some cases as I understand, legally "clawing them back." This is what led to the de-listing removal of Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments
and then ultimate re-listing of said game under new pages with Frogwares as the publisher.

This could be the scenario. They did relatively recently self-publish The Sinking City on Switch... and I read an interview with Frogwares from March 6th where -- as I remember -- they seemed to claim that not all of the IPs reverting to them had gone smoothly.

* * Warning! - Tin Foil Hat moment * *
I've long suspected (long before there ever was an epic store) that valve "bribed" some publishers in order to guarantee that their games would only be steam-exclusive and wouldn't be sold on GOG or other stores.
Of course I've no proof to support my suspicions. But along the years I always found it strange how some very small devs (without any sort of market visibility) would only sale on steam, when selling on more stores would obviously grant them more publicity and sales. The same applying for big publishers like Ubi or EA retaining their games on steam while clearly (after more than 10 years on the market and being pirated to exhaustion) they would gather a nice extra buck or two on GOG.

Or maybe Gaben is just your average Reptilian Illuminati devil-worshiping Bilderberg member and then it all makes sense.
https://gaben.caseif.net/

Thanks for the info!

While I don't have any answers, it does list Frogwares and Nacon as associated companies (as well as listing BIgben in the copyright / trademark line below the product description). Nacon is essentially Bigben.

Meanwhile, if you go to the Nintendo Switch page for the game, there is no mention of either Bigben or Nacon... just Frogwares.

I'm wondering if this GOG sale page was set-up prior to the separation of Frogwares and Bigben / Nacon... and Frogwares will in time relist The Sinking City here under a new page with them as sole company / owner?

Hanlon's Razor!
(Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.)