Does this crop up on a thread like once a month?. is it from the same person?.

I still don't understand why gog didn't accept it, gog carries other shmups and both the dev and the game are highly regarded by people who like those kind of games.

So the whole curation argument is kind of moot.

I think Crimzon Clover's presence is a big part of why it's so baffling, since it's basically an imitation (a good one, I should say) of Cave's games. It's like saying, "Eh, we don't need id's FPSs here, we've already got Blake Stone."

What? When? Were?
I didn't know you were a member of GOG's staff. I don't know what the internal procedure for releasing each game is, but honestly, game installer, patches and extras -not that we get many of those in new games, mind you- should be automated already.
But anyway, that shouldn't be your problem except for all those time you had to get support to help you, I guess, but they couldn't because they were releasing new games. I guess that's why you want GOG to curate more and release about the 30% of games you don't like. So they can help you faster.

So yes, you king of bent the answer to something that didn't really had to do with the question. Which is basically my complain about the selfishness of those going for GOG not releasing the games they don't like.

If Spellforce 2 is Nordic's, then yes. It would be here if GOG wanted it. As would the two House of Tales adventures they rejected.

That's what it all comes to at the end of the day, isn't it. Your pretty sure "your" games would be here if they could, so who cares?. Lucky you. Liking popamole* is always so rewarding. I'll always wonder what people see in those games. It's always funny how it works for different industries. How most people deservedly treat comercial music or blockbuster movies, and yet how popamole games are revered.

I won't complain if the game gets here, as I find it an awful attitude and kind of the worst thing to do. And I even consider the game historically relevant to be here. It's kind of the first joke "let's play" game of its kind. But I don't undertand the appeal at all. And it doesn't even have the good 3D realistic graphics you normally demand.

Obviously. You are pretty sure GOG would never reject the games you really want anyway.

Rejecting good games, or increasing the amount of games to release while keeping the curation is not impossible, even if some of you feel like only an all or nothing approach is possible. Basically, if you can increase the amount of releases, more people will get the games they want and less people will complain. And automating the release process is the way to do it. As is giving the devolopers access to update the game themselves. Something I think GOG was working on with galaxy. We just neet that to translate into automated installers as well. And that is also key to reduce the complains about delayed patches compared to Steam.

It doesn't look like the same person. But then, so what?
I'm not into Shmups, but if this is one of the cornerstones of the genre, it makes sense that people complain.
It's not like certain Bethesda games, that nobody ever post about.

Thus creating their own lack of demand. Can't get people interested in a genre here if they keep rejecting the cream of the crop.

GOG is it's own worst enemy sometimes.
Spot on.

What else am i supposed to do? Be happy that I don't have an alternative?

I suppose at this point it doesn't make sense even for Degica to pursue this issue further. I don't think they would be too interested in wasting their resources appealing to GOG, knowing that they'll most likely keep getting turned down. This is a lost cause here I'm afraid. After all these years we still don't have the Crimson Clover DLCs here, there is a reason for that.

Go check out the amazing DRM-free shmups on Humble instead: Blue Revolver, Mecha Ritz... GOG is not the right platform for the genre.

GOG -could- be the right platform, if they tried a bit harder with Japanese / Asian titles.

Sure, they are nitch, but so was classic gaming at one point in time & the only people who bothered with it were old fart losers who wouldn't let go of the past and play, like, ya know, modern games with cool graphics.

.... and even then, all of them were just pirates that downloaded old ROMs to use on emulators: so why even bothering to try to sell to them since they are just thieves who wont pay.

Not saying that I think Japanese indie titles will ever be big sellers on GOG, but refusing to sell the titles unless they see solid sales at another store is just flat fucking retarded and self defeating.

who the fuck is going to bother buying re-buying a Japanese import game on GOG if they already bought it on Steam?

This right here. Far as I am concerned, that is the greatest argument against GOG's curation. They aren't doing it right in the first place, which is why opening the floodgates looks so much more appealing to me.

Fruit of Grisaia? Not here. Luv-Muv is no-go. Danganronpa is no show. World End Economica? No word of it coming. In the realm of VN games, GOG is dead in the water by choice, far as I can tell.

We also don't have Cave Story - a highly regarded platformer that has been freeware, sold on Humble, and stocked at Steam...while never appearing on GOG. Whose developer also made Kero Blaster, a respectable game. Which again, isn't sold here.


One of the major things that bother me with GOG's approach (or lack of such) is that it doesn't allow for the cultivation of a good relationship with developers. Saying no to stocking their games makes it much less likely for the developers to listen if GOG wants to pick up a future product. Meanwhile, Valve gets to develop a working relationship and reputation that says "I am here for you, let's sell games!".

In my eyes, GOG has prepared a noose that will tighten with the passage of decades.

They probably tout the excuse that "it's been bundled to hell and back and isn't going to be worth selling".

...and then go on to sell something like 140. Hypocrisy, thy name is GOG.

Cave Story is a game that I would buy and re-buy until the end of the days.

And about the topic: I'm not a shmup lover, but anyone knows that Cave isn't just a good developer, Cave is the GOD of shmup genre. It doesn't make any sense rejecting their games.

I disagree that GoG is not the right platform.

GoG by very definition and it's business practices and model are niche. GoG has created this business venture with the express niche and uniqueness of making sure all games have no DRM. This very decision means GoG will never get the overwhelming majority of major release (CoD, GTA, Assassin's Creed, FIFA etc.).

As such, it would help GoG to OWN THE MARKET in niches it can. Shmups are difficult enough to get a hold, and spread among so many different platforms has made it difficult for fans to be fully engaged and for the creation of new fans.

Owning a market can also create residual revenue. Consoles sell at a loss most times because companies make money on software sold across the board going forward. Razors and blades!

This can be true for GoG. Shmups for Steam can't move the needle. Steam controls 80 percent of the digital market. On top of that, the revenue they generate may be 50-150 times that of GoG. The same game on Steam and GoG and usually the Steam sales are 5-8 to 1. in favor of steam. And that is for the games they both sell, Steam has far more games that GoG, so GoG gets no sales on those games. Steam also sells $60 major "triple-A" titles. So their revenue is much, much higher. GoG can't compete with that.

But shmups can move the needle for GoG. if the entire schmup community is just 100,00 fans. If GoG had Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Deathsmiles, Akai Katana, Espacluda II Black Label, DoDonPachi Resurrection, Mushihimesama, Super Stardust, Jamestown and others that are of excellent quality they would Own The Market in that niche and those gamers would buy a bunch of these games.

And, just like when owning a console, people buy other games. If you had 100,000 fans of the genre and could get sales of 25,000 on average for each of the shmups that would be worth it on it's own. But if 100,000 people also bought five additional games a year at an average of $15 that would be an additional $7.5 million a year in total revenue, GoG's cut of 30 percent is $2.25 million a year.

I have no idea what the average number of games a GoG account owns, or how many games on average a year each account purchases as such data is not available publicly, but shmups are a market segment GoG could go after, corner the market and generate additional sales from new customers.

But if I were to assume (never do that by the way) that the shmups didn't make any money at all and only broke even - GoG would still win if they gained new customers.

What is the cost of advertising and customer acquisition? Very expensive. (Just look at what the F2P market spends to get a customer on iOS and Droid).

So if these games break even but your company gets new customers, you essentially added business at no overall cost.

Yep, sadly it does come down only to sales numbers on gog. Everything else is just fiction.

I was really excited for GOG when VNs and other niche genres from Asia began to proliferate on Kickstarter - it seemed like a golden opportunity for GOG to distribute games for developers that had little exposure to western practices. Unfortunately, GOG pretty much ignored all but Bloodstained, so the vast bulk of the Kickstarter developers ended up only forming a relationship with Valve.

In short: GOG missed an opportunity to become the first choice of distributor for Asian developers.