Please forgive me if I misunderstood the information conveyed by Staff in this post, but I am making this topic for visibility and since a full discussion on it would not really fit the rest of the discussion there:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/preload_cyberpunk_2077_today_cfffe/post117

But the way I am reading this, apparently there are cosmetic "rewards", i.e. additional content, that require connecting to GOG Galaxy client.

Why is this content not available in offline installer form? We know there is precedent from other games here where cosmetic content is given in offline installers.

No, you didn't misunderstand anything and the Why is: because GOG wants to make Galaxy more mandatory, step by step.

Looks like the old "it's only required for multiplayer, singleplayer is 100% DRM-free" chestnut has turned out to be false. I am trying to figure out the reasoning that how the content is cosmetic, therefore it (supposedly) doesn't count for singleplayer. In a game that is completely singleplayer, because it's been made a point to say the upcoming multiplayer for it is an entirely separate game.

Because GOG seems to very badly want everyone to be using Galaxy. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but my suspicion is that they want to do away with the overhead of having to maintain the offline installers, which seem to be falling more and more behind the Galaxy files, in terms of updates. Presumably, fewer people are using them, compared with Galaxy, so their corporate calculations are telling them the offline installers are not an efficient use of resources.

It's a very sad state of affairs. The day GOG stops updating the offline installers and makes Galaxy mandatory will be the day that DRM-free on GOG dies (if that day isn't effectively here already).

I would say that day is already here. DRM-free is officially dead with the statement by GOG concerning Cyberpunk. And of course they want to make Galaxy the only way to access their games. They tried to bundle it sneakily with all offline installers but were stopped at that time. Then they discontinued the Downloader and they will also discontinue the offline installers, eventually.

GOG will continue to sell some DRM-free games and games with DRM. And the only way to get them will be Galaxy. So basically the same as Steam and EGS. They have also some DRM-free games. That's the way GOG wants to go, probably because they see the big ones raking in big money and want to copy them. Forgetting that they have to scrap their one stand-alone selling point for that. With this development, there is no reason to prefer GOG to Steam anymore.

I don't get what is so hard to make an automated offline installer, it just have to package the game files into an executable + data and that's all , even updates shouldn't be hard to automate

GOG, why don't you just drop support for offline installers? Every day you make it more clear that you don't care and that in your reality Galaxy doesn't have anything to do with your definition of DRM-freedom. So why keep them? It's unnecessary work for you. Stop with the salami tactics and just ged rid of them, so that we all know where we stand and that we cannot expect anything in that regard. No more complains by the users that made you big, no more shitstorms about outdated installers. Make Galaxy mandatory and everyone will be happy about Steams little brother, who does the same, just a little bit worse. Isn't this what you always wanted?

I wouldn't say that's accurate. No Man's Sky set the opposite precedent to what you said there: of GOG allowing its SP games to have some of their content be excluded and instead DRM-gated behind the need to go online with the Galaxy client.

Seems like this Cyberpunk scandal is merely further reinforcement of that precedent.

Galaxy is convenient, but please Gog, add the items also to standalones in the future!
Those files are mandatory for the DRM-free and ownership concepts!

Way too early, CDPR isnt even publisher yet. They might lose it like 10-20 year down the line.

They could in theory include zip files with the updates for that version of the game. Don't need a huge installer to deal with that.

I don't know. I hated the steam client, I'll be allergic to the GoG client too.

It IS part of the game.
You CANNOT access it without GOG Galaxy online.
-> the extras are locked out with DRM. Quite simple.

I agree, after all the game will have offline installers and all - and it's really just a bunch of skins. It's not like part of the story is missing. The NMS situation is arguably worse, on the other hand there the content was added later, and it can be unlocked by a bit of savegame hacking.

But... insert slippery slope, broken window arguments here.
And having a "DRM-free revolution GOG t-shirt" among those items locked behind the client requirement is... either someone at CDPR is being really sarcastic, or their brains melted during crunch mode.

And it's so pointless. The client-haters will not reconsider over a t-shirt and a jacket with no gameplay impact. All it does is piss off loyal customers.

I don't understand what everyone has against galaxy? You perfectly download the offline installers in galaxy.

Same with all the nagging about not being able to pre-load cyberpunk without galaxy. Isn't it logical that you can't do that without galaxy? I am pretty sure that starting from Thursday, you will be able to download Cypberpunk drm free without any problems.