you're broke crying about a measly 6 dollars lol.

What on Earth are you talking about? For the last time (because I am not going to repeat myself to you again): Zoom Platform's license for Duke Nukem is not exclusive to them because of an exclusivity clause built into the contract. They are the only store that has it DRM-free, because Gearbox do not want to sell Duke Nukem DRM-free, but they are legally required to honor the existing contract that the previous IP owner agreed with Zoom Platform, which happens to be a perpetual contract.

Zoom Platform do not have the financial resources to agree an exclusive deal for Duke Nukem and they are not doing anything to prevent Gearbox releasing Duke on other stores. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?

If you have a problem with Duke Nukem not being available on GOG or other DRM-free stores, then you need to talk to Gearbox about that, because that is their fault, not Zoom Platform's.

DLC has been mentioned on the page since the DLC was added (sometime in 2020?)

I didn't say it 'negates' anything. I'm saying you're making a meal of out what is obviously a small price increase in the face of increasing inflationary pressures. If you don't like the price, then don't buy the games for that price.

The word I heard on the ZP Discord was that the recent sale was a big success and they are planning to do more of them. So, it seems likely those games will be available at a reduced price again in the not too distant future.

In terms of website infrastructure, I would think Zoom has pretty much the same set of systems to maintain as GOG does. They have to maintain the front page, games store pages, games list, user accounts and payment infrastructure. I would expect an online game store like this to see economies of scale as it grows bigger, therefore I highly suspect Zoom are facing a more challenging task to maintain their store with fewer resources.

So the store that is backed by a huge corporation and has much more resources has a constant stream of new games and the smaller store that is being run by a smaller team doesn't. What part of the maths there doesn't add up? Perhaps you need to brush up on your math?

They would probably help themselves out tremendously, in terms of growing and gaining more resources, if they changed their extremely dumb company name (i.e. "Zoom Platform") to something that is a) appealing and b) makes clear what they actually are and c) doesn't come across like a cheap super low-rent knockoff of an actually successful company.

The fact that they keep clinging to their horrible current name, for no sensible reason, does seem to indicate that they apparently don't want many new customers, and instead desire to remain as an ultra-small-niche store.

I hope you're not suggesting it's changed to Great Old Games

And what you are not understanding is that I am talking about the concept of the perpetual license, not about Gearbox or exclusivities specifcally. About the exclusivity I've just have stated my doubts. that's all.

I do not mind where those games are available if they are DRM Free. I am just critizising the perpetual license concept and origin. Advantage fallen from the skyes. A gift from God?

Forget your arrogance and condescendence and focus in the perpetual license. And NO, I am NOT talking about Gearbox. Again. You did.

Were those catalog stats ever substantiated? Zoom has 420 items in their catalog according to the counter on their home page. According to my calculations, GOG had 417 base games in their catalog at the end of 2012 and 1067 at the end of 2015. I included only base games in the GOG numbers, excluding all DLCs/editions/bundles (unless the bundle contained games not available for purchase individually). Also, delisted games were not included.

You are clearly incapable of understanding the concepts I have tried twice now to explain. I am not going to waste my time doing it again. Believe whatever you want.

Oh, but I don't mind. I am still interested.

Gearbox does not want a DRM Free version, and they are the guys to be contacted to have the game available in different stores.

The previous perpetual Legacy contract "de facto" starts and ends with Zoom because 3DRealms is not the real IP Owner anymore. Not the guys to be contacted. But the contract with 3Realms was perpetual originally. So, Isn't it a de facto Zoom exclusive title? exclusive de facto? And no, I do not mean Gearbox, but the previous one with 3D Realms.

A pretty good advantage because, for now, Duke Nukem classic Atomic version is not available anywhere Zoom aside. And probably it won't.
When a company owns those kind of contracts is pretty insulting that the company CEO enraged and complained when the rights to other games expire. Apparently this guy wants every game they sell has to be a "perpetual license" whatever it means. :D

Makes sense to me.

3D Realms signed a deal with Zoom and gave Perpetuity so the contract must always be honoured.

3D Realms signs over the game rights to Gearbox, this pulls the Duke Nukem games from all digital stores that Gearbox does not have any contracts with excluding Zoom Platform due to this perpetuity.

Gearbox does not want to create new contracts with digital stores that offer DRM-free copies of games but they must honour the perpetuity of the contract 3D Realms signed with Zoom, so because of this the Zoom Platform contract can be seen as an exclusive since it is the only DRM-free store that can offer the Duke Nukem games.

Makes total sense.

Bought the games on GOG before they were removed so I'm good there at least.

For starters, my comments about price weren't just about the two Duke games, which was a small increase compared to the others. Not going to repeat myself for the rest.

Goodo I hope they do. :)

Claiming all that, it sounds to me like you have no idea what goes on.
You do a great job of simplifying things, but that simplification simply isn't true.

What the hell does backing by a huge corporation have to do with what I was responding to. It was claimed that GOG at a similar stage in their career had the same number of games. That is what the maths is about.

Never said it wasn't, but now it is specific rather than general, so very much clearer and no ambiguity or something that could be misunderstood or missed.

It is great that they have done that, and better than it was, so I am not complaining or claiming anything. :)

I mentioned it, because it was the first time I had been back to that game page in a while, and other than price, that was the first change I noticed.

It's not a one game world and me complaining about the price of one game.

It is the prices in general of the games at ZOOM Platform.
All I have done is mentioned some specific ones, that recently went up in price, when to my mind that should have gone down in price. I also already have the games I mentioned, bought at ZOOM Platform, so their price change is not going to effect me. However, I want the ZOOM Platform to grow big and strong and be a viable contender in the DRM-Free games market.

And I am no slouch when it comes to buying games buddy.

How many games have you bought at GOG?
I've bought well over a thousand.
I've also bought 13 games at ZOOM Platform.
How many have you bought there?
What about at Humble and Itch.io and Steam and Epic.
Then there is my huge collection on disc, for PC and Consoles.

Before you accuse me of something bud, take a long hard look at yourself.

I buy a lot of games, and every dollar counts, because if I spend an unnecessary amount on one game, I either miss out on another game or something else in my life goes without. I also spend a lot on backup drives.

All I am trying to be is sensible with my money.

Indeed. That's it.

What I am just saying is that this state of things is de facto an exclusivity for the classic game. A perpetual advantage over others for ts most seller game. And all of this with a contract "one of a kind" in digital stores. Unusual.
For me this is a pretty good advantage to forget for a moment victimisms about the small fish in the pool as I previouslly stated. It was the origin of the series of posts. He does not agree. Well, Ok.

Greetings

Just butting in to say that flat pricing is the one reason I keep an eye on ZP, and have done so for years, since it's the GOG core principle that GOG dropped and what's not found elsewhere now. (Allowing payment in local currencies is another matter of course, but exchange rate should be the day's official exchange rate, nothing else.) If that would change, and as long as GOG would still overall be DRM-free for SP, without the "slip" a la Hitman extending into the boiling frog tactic, from my point of view ZP would have pretty much as much reason to still exist as GOG would have if it'd drop DRM-free, which is to say absolutely none.
Of course, that remains irrelevant in terms of purchases since I still can't get anything from there if they don't either add PSC or perhaps somehow sell their own prepaid cards (which even GOG apparently can't manage to do), or maybe find some other payment method that can be just as simply and readily be purchased with cash from here (I personally don't know of any, and I searched). And the lack of sales would hurt a great deal even if I'd have a way to pay, since at more than a couple of bucks it'd no longer be a matter of "eh, might as well" but of "am I actually going to play this in the near future?", and with a backlog to last me more than the next ten years and a very patient mindset, the answer to the latter is likely to be no for just about anything. But let's get there first...

PS: And indeed, as games get older, the price should decrease rather by default. Or at the very least remain level in the face of significant inflation as a de facto decrease in such circumstances. Always baffled when I see the odd price increase here too, not counting games coming out of in dev I mean.