I fail to see how that had to do with this discussion, but ok. Weird.

To do something like this they have to convince Ubisoft to release their games on ZP. Syphon72 gave you an example with EA games. They want to remove their games on ZP. Other big publishers don't have games on ZP too. Just go to their store and look what kind of games they usually get there.

The fact that they are ignored like this shows what I said before. The Zoom Platform is a small irrelevant store.

OP: Provide the poaching evidence

Or.. games are delisted here because of any or a combination of a multitude of valid reasons, like GOG's screwy invoicing practices or updating procedures, and the Zoom Platform allowed the game to be listed there, or keep being listed there, and are taking advantage of the fact that the game is not actually available on any other platform to advertise it as an exclusive.

Having a game disappear from one platform and reappear on another one later may not be an example of true poaching.

Poaching usually indicates a direct intentional action. In this case it might be the client (the publisher/dev) independently making a financial decision to withdraw from one underperforming (or "problematic") platform to sell on another. There may not have been any direct "reach out" by Zoom in order to "poach" the product from GOG's catalogue.

And let's not forget: although GOG had cornered the market on old game releases and was founded on G.O.G sales, it has since broadened its horizons and reinvented itself to sell almost any game it can. Zoom sat and slowly accumulated niche games that GOG either couldn't get its hands on at the time, or ignored on the basis of its old curation system (meaning while it would sell X old game, a cheap knockoff unpopular title Y wasn't interesting enough to bother with). Now that Zoom is primarily covering that old game niche and attracts customers after this specific subset of old games, then it's only natural that some publishers might see them as more profitable to sell their old catalogues on.

Ergo GOG is not what it used to be, and in a pure business sense seeing titles disappear shouldn't be a surprise unless it's a strong seller here.

I don't see how this flex is even necessary. I look at ZP as something that's new in the game. It's not the only one. Calling it irrelevant just because it sells a "bad game"? Should it sell as many bad games as Steam does? The DRM'd version is notable for its design flaw, that could be worked around. But ZP at least gives you the DRM-free version apparently, so how is this a bad thing exactly? What is the issue?

Publishers left because they felt the complete opposite about ZOOM. I don't think ZOOM makes much money at all. It's a big reason they do not have game sales often, and had to release hardwar on steam. They only have duke because ZOOM has a contract that will never expire long as they keep paying into it. This is what I remember the CEO telling people on steam and discord. Which in the long run is a bad investment.

ZP isn't new. They are around since 2014. I am not calling them irrelevant because they sell a "bad game". I pointed out the situation. When Postal 3 was removed from Steam they were systematically ignored.

The OP thinks that ZP could be big enough to "poach" big titles from GOG like HOMM3. I think this won't happen. Why? Because they are a small irrelevant store. I gave one example which shows this. Other examples are publishers who have removed or planning to remove their games from ZP. The case with EA games is another example why their are irrelevant.

You can also doubt that they become big enough so that they can do what the OP thinks. One reason is that the people behind ZP, especially the owner of the store, are unprofessional. LOL.

I think companies who like NDAs just need to go ZP's Discord channel. LOL.

what is unprofessional about them?

It starts with the owner telling "interesting" business details on ZP's Discord channel. This includes details about contracts. It ends with their Twitter page and tons of unprofessional tweets.

Maybe he has motive? lol but the issue none existence. This thread should be closed to be honest.

They're not even a decade old. Not as old as the other platforms. The fact it was delisted on Steam has zero bearing on ZP. That doesn't mean they were "ignored". This is a really weird and distorted interpretation of events.

Windows NT never be good at backward compatibility (for older NT). It can but Ms always do worse at it for purpose. Starting from Win8+ it is no more NT family but mobile OS. And Win8 broke Postal 3 FROm (also used in very few games from Akella). It is not work on Steam for users since Win8. And delisted only now (for unknown can be anything reason). Steam is a separate case cause of DRM things and own system requirements where officially Win7 supported but Steam client bugged like hell on anything older than Win10 2022 (well, or it is crap on any OS right?).


By the way Zoom coder try to make it not only DRM free but portable. So if the - in case if that happen - get Heroes 3 they try to make new exe, and not use existed ones. At one point it is good and it is bad. Official crack.
Like for Postal 3 in which they own cracked exe bring same issues as scene cracs for steam version (increase bugs and cause CTD crashes random). For Hogs of War they forgot about patch and use 1.0 exe not compatible with non-english Windows (they know about that issue now). But this is general digital distribution issue. We didnt get games in their orignal forms or current stores have wrong version when some older stores have more correct (Amazom and Stardock Impulse have a lot of DRM free not all are re appear except on steam with DRM).
GTA 1 and 2 in DRM free digital online versions (steam and WEB-DL) are use 1.0 with new improvets but miss fixes from patches. A lot of releases miss latest updates. Sometimes on Steam, sometimes on GOG. At least 3 games on ZOOM (HoW and Disciples 2/ROTE)

Back to ZOOM. They usually release store bundles as games bundles. Installer are bundled. Like GOG did in old times. And unlike GOG ZOOM installers do not allow chose which games to install. Only one bundle probably have separate installers. And another one UN band led release as addition to bundle (differ store entry for Trilogy version). Such releases as Kao Trilogy and Disciples 2 Gold can be downloaded and installed only as one game. And they dont see issue here, don't want change that in future. Which one is bruh.