I'm not sure there were sales to be getting money from while the site was for all practical purposes inactive. And if they also add something like only sending money after a minimum amount is gathered (seem to remember a dev mentioning that about GOG too, I think it was $100 minimum?), even less likely.

And GOG couldn't do such a special arrangement? I find it highly unlikely. Something's fishy over there.

From what I've read on their discord channel (about 1 month ago), it's not any special arrangment, but indefinite contract they've got on games published on Zoom. They claimed that as long as they don't receive notification about removing the game, it's still in their offer.

Of course we can discuss, if they didn't receive notification for some games intenttionally, or rather because "owners" simply skipped/missed the fact that they're selling their game on the small Zoom store. But from what I know, for example,. Gearbox is 100% aware of the fact that Zoom has those old Duke Nukem games in their offer and yet they didn't do anything with it.

Don't want here to be Zoom's defender (since I'm rather neutral about this store, although I appreciate some of their titles, like Alien Trilogy or original, not castrated Alien Vs Predator), just share what I've learned personally.

To quote a local proverb: "The uncaught thief is an honest merchant". I was thinking of eventually picking up Wolfpack on Zoom, but yeah, no thanks.

That's not a special arrangement. That's their burying their head in the sand.

gog isn't perfect, I remember they stole zoom's solution to get killing time working proper.

That might be so, but it never did work properly and still required some tinkering. And please use euphemisms like "permanently borrowed", we're all honest people here.

While we're at it, can I interest you in some curated DRM-ed games you can buy on Galaxy but are actually sold by some other store with no affiliation to the DRM-free GOG whatsoever?

I believe the correct term is "DRM-free-free games".

Well, when:

1) You share the same name as an unrelated piece of software that is far more famous than you
2) Have no kind of sales and thus at least a bit of visibility in sites like isthereanydeal, cheapshark, reddit, etc.
3) Have no big-draw games that can't already be found in other stores

Then I wouldn't really be surprised if publishers don't even know/remember you exist. I mean, if nodoby had informed the owners of Unrest that their game was sold on Zoom, it is doubtful if the game would ever be removed from there.

Oh, so the Unrest page is gone from Zoom. That's only fair. Though I doubt they sold many copies there, it was still theft.

Gog is still a platform without drm. It is the only non-drm platform that is getting the general public to buy non-drm games and is adding more and more AAA to its store.

The best thing is that Gog gives everyone options. Whoever buys the game and downloads the installer. Whoever wants achievements, profiles ... has a gog galaxy.

But the reality is that without gog galaxy it would have been impossible to have visibility. Many steam friends are now shopping on gog because they found out about the platform through gog galaxy.

The problem is that there is a small group of users who only want the game and the installer (I think it's perfect) and it bothers them that there are other options even though they are not mandatory for them.

And because of that small group of users, most users use other forums to talk about gog.

The truth is that for almost all users of gog zoom platform it is not an alternative to anything. And for steam users who buy from gog either.

Even so, if zoom platform has come to generate competition, welcome.

You nailed it. And some users are here for both. I like Galaxy and I want the DRM-free installers, which are the main thing why I'm here, even when I'm not using them because Galaxy is more convenient. The game is still mine to keep and install without Galaxy, and still DRM-free. And saying that Zoom is a GOG competitor makes as much sense as saying that Steam is a Big Fish competitor because there are many hidden object games on both. Also, when the games are not sold legitimately and the devs are not getting paid, if you want an installer that is not legitimate and DRM-free, you would be doing better pirating it, seriously. What's the point of purchasing a digital good when there's no achivements, cloud-saves and you are not supporting the devs? It's like paying for a pirated copy!

Stores don't pay devs, they pay the publishers. The publishers sell the games and they pay the devs from the money they make on the stores they have agreements with.

The stores are not the ones selling anything, its the publishers using their storefront. Much like eBay - eBay sells nothing, they just provide the store front, accept payment and move the money around. Same for GOG, Steam, Zoom.

So what? It doesn't change that Zoom was selling Unrest without paying anything to the dev and publisher, Pyrodactyl. Pyrodactyl Games is their own publisher. They were selling it illegitimately, profitting of "we are small and until we are notified we don't care, and we are not notified because we are small". What point are you trying to make? Thet weren't paying money to Pyrodactyl Games publisher, that is Pyrodactyl Games themselves. What is not clear and why did you feel the need to explain this?

"Same for GOG, Steam, Zoom."
No, GOG and Steam were correctly indicating Pyrodactil Games as the legitimate publisher, and the dev and publisher was aware of the game being sold and were being paid. Zoom Platform was selling the game in a grey legal area of "nobody told us anything", and as soon the dev knew about it they had to stop selling the game. Zoom operates in a way that is absolutely unlike a serious storefront/business like Steam or GOG, you like them or not.

Unrest copies bought on Zoom are not better than paid pirated copies. One might argue that it's unlikely they even sold one copy at all, being an inactive store without sales.

The fault is with the publisher not notifying where they had the game for sale (Zoom) that they lost the rights. You don't seem to understand the process isn't for stores to look all over the internet and Twitter to see what the latest news/drama/what ever is. Its to take down games when requested by the people who told them to put them up in the first place, no more, no less.

Pyrodactyl notified GoG and Steam and it was changed. When they notified Zoom, it was also changed. The system works, yay!