Licensing reasons. Sometimes the translation has been done by a different company, sometimes the publisher jus doesn't bother with any non-English release and sometimes the English version simply the only one GOG received. Some games have multiple languages, so it depends on the game in question. In the case of Theme Hospital the game actually has several languages, but GOG can only advertise it as English due to licensing reasons.

maybe the reason is that localized version was managed and distributed by a local distributor. it happened to many games. so since gog deal direct with main developer, that version is not available.

Myst was almost completely unknown here in 1993, but was a massive hit in 1995. With Cannon Fodder there are a couple things to remember, it was a British game so that will certainly play a part for starters. But it was also on multiple platforms with the Amiga and PC - and on the Amiga it was even more well known so it may also depend on if you had an Amiga and the popularity of that platform in different markets as to whether you know it personally and/or if it is well known where you are.

Gabriel Knight is practically completely unknown here unless you search out adventure games.

I assumed it had to have been British developed; one of the interesting results of the "retro" game movement has been learning about these parallel industries that had been going on overseas under my radar - hugely popular developers and games of which I was completely unaware that the time. And as you say, I think that had a lot to do with lingering platform differentiation - it seems like non-PC platforms hung on much longer in Europe than in the US.

A shame about Gabe, though - such a great game! Everyone should have had a chance to give it a whirl.

Regardless of the year it finally became popular in any particular region or platform, Myst was the best-selling game of the 90's. For the purpose of this sale, GOG is not going to list Myst in some other year, so 1993 was the appropriate place to see it offered. I was surprised to see a relatively unknown (in the U.S.) game listed instead.

Cannon Fodder may be better known than Myst in the UK, but I would wager that's the only place that is so.

It would make perfect sense to list it in the year it was released on PC and actually achieved what it did if they wanted to do that.

And why should it matter if it is unknown in the US, the world doesn't revolve around what you like/know in the US- this is especially true on a European website where Cannon Fodder and British games from the time are definitely well known.

Stuff like that happening is awful for gamers, I too remember looking forward to buying the Commandos saga in spanish ( I played them all with spanish voices, it is a spanish game made so it launched with that language) but when I searched for it on both steam and gog, it was only in english.... My dissapointment level went over 9000 right there and ended up not buying them.

I agree, and that year is 1993.

Because we were discussing popularity, i.e. number of copies sold. If I check the list for best-selling PC games of all-time, am I going to find Cannon Fodder above Myst then?

Nobody said the world revolves around anywhere. Stop trying to start a fight where there is none.

crusader no remorse. another that I owned.

What was the 1993 game? I slept through that...

Cannon Fodder

It seems I missed Wizardry. Unfortunately, a man needs to sleep! Maybe it will turn up again sometimes...

It was released in 1995 on Windows when it became massive not 1993. It was released in 1993 on Mac (with a tiny market share in 1993).

I was not at any point discussing popularity sorry if you mistook my intention (the other poster who I spoke to had no problem with what I said), popularity is something people here don't really care as much about - we would be using Steam if that is all that mattered, and CoD would be one of the best games ever made.

I was talking about how well known something is in different markets. This sale did not mention popularity as far as I know, and popularity is not always important (kept in context, like my CoD example).

And it was you who clearly stated something being not well known in the US should be taken into account, which across the entire sale is fair enough just for business reasons but for one game not as popular is just petty and sounds like you want everything to revolve around the US (you really can't see thats what it sounds like?).

Cannon Fodder is a fine game and a fine choice - Sensible Software and John Hare FTW! But as a fellow Brit I would seriously dispute whether CF is "unquestionably better known" here than Syndicate, MoO, Myst or 7th Guest - right up there and in the same bracket maybe but not better known and certainly not 'unquestionably' - I'm questioning it right now! proves it! :-D