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General discussion (archive)GOG distributions bought elsewhere(34 posts)(34 posts)
(34 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 14, 2013
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Fafhred: Hi, people.

I am afraid that none of your answers work out.
- A distribution being ostensibly from GOG makes it GOG's version, regardless who distributes it afterwards.
- It is a point of international law that any company selling products in a country has to comply with the sales-related laws of that country: what is lawful or not to sell, and the customer's rights laws in that country; Amazon, Ebay, comply with this, for instance some items will be on sale in some countries and not in others; even Microsoft was made to comply, in some notorious cases.
- I am living in UK, and UK law has very specific points regarding sales, their version of customer's rights, and saler's obligations; In UK law for instance, the customer has the right to turn to the manufacturer of an item, and the relevant laws have been modified some time back to explicitely include digital purchases.
- So basically, GOG has a legal obligation for products which they made and are sold in UK, regardless who sold them.
What? Nothing you typed there makes any sense.

You got a version of the game that GOG worked on at some point in the past. This doesn't magically grant you any rights outside of your contract with GamersGate.
None of the laws you cite have any relevance to this case. You have the right to turn to the manufacturer... ok, even if GOG counts as the manufacturer (which I doubt), I don't see why that gives you the right to a copy of the game here. Is the copy you got on GamersGate faulty?
Posted January 14, 2013
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dr.zli: Jmich is right, gog versions are handed out by the publisher, not gog.
This, it's the same with the $6,50 (on sale) D&D Anthology on Gamersgate (and probably Steam soon), Baldurs Gate 1+2, Neverwinter Nights 1+2, Planescape Torment, Temple of Elemental Evil, all GOG versions and for a pittance that collection costs here, even on sale. It's why I never bothered to pick up the D&D titles on GOG.

But yeah, they're seperate, GOG isn't helped by this nor has any stake in it, so distributing it for free through their own service is probably not planned. Although I guess it might be nice for them to consider some sort of arrangement where by those distributions could still end up here (kind of like Steam keys). It might help them in the long term. Just make sure to keep it always optional if they want to stick to their ethics.
Post edited January 14, 2013 by Pheace
Posted January 14, 2013
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dr.zli: Jmich is right, gog versions are handed out by the publisher, not gog.
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Pheace: This, it's the same with the $6,50 (on sale) D&D Anthology on Gamersgate (and probably Steam soon), Baldurs Gate 1+2, Neverwinter Nights 1+2, Planescape Torment, Temple of Elemental Evil, all GOG versions and for a pittance that collection costs here, even on sale. It's why I never bothered to pick up the D&D titles on GOG.

But yeah, they're seperate, GOG isn't helped by this. Although I guess it might be nice for them to consider some sort of arrangement where by those distributions could still end up here (kind of like Steam keys). It might help them in the long term. Just make sure to keep it always optional if they want to stick to their ethics.
They may get a % of sales? We don't know what is in the contract... most likely it was a one of sub-contract payment, though. or some timed exclusivity. But, they did get something out of, if they did not they would not have done so.
Posted January 14, 2013
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amok: They may get a % of sales? We don't know what is in the contract... most likely it was a one of sub-contract payment, though. or some timed exclusivity. But, they did get something out of, if they did not they would not have done so.
I'd imagine timed exclusivity is the most likely. If there was some kind of sub-contract involved then being able to enable them on GOG would've been the best and most obvious choice, but there's none of that.
Posted January 14, 2013
I'm in the UK and
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Fafhred: Hi, people.

I am afraid that none of your answers work out.
Yep they work GOG supplied new installers to the publishers they are not the seller or the manufacturer in these cases
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Fafhred: - A distribution being ostensibly from GOG makes it GOG's version, regardless who distributes it afterwards.
Nope they don't that's like saying putting the xbox logo on a game makes it MS's game
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Fafhred: - It is a point of international law that any company selling products in a country has to comply with the sales-related laws of that country: what is lawful or not to sell, and the customer's rights laws in that country; Amazon, Ebay, comply with this, for instance some items will be on sale in some countries and not in others; even Microsoft was made to comply, in some notorious cases.
Sure and the company that sold it was GamersGate and the company that sold it to them was the publisher GOG was not involved
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Fafhred: - I am living in UK, and UK law has very specific points regarding sales, their version of customer's rights, and saler's obligations; In UK law for instance, the customer has the right to turn to the manufacturer of an item, and the relevant laws have been modified some time back to explicitely include digital purchases.
sure we can contact THE PUBLISHER and the digital purchase says GAMERSGATE must offer refunds where applicable
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Fafhred: - So basically, GOG has a legal obligation for products which they made and are sold in UK, regardless who sold them.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO... dear god NO! GOG has NOTHING to do with the game if you don't purchase it from their site! You purchase it from GOG sure they have obligations same as any other store. IF YOU DON'T PURCHASE IT FROM GOG IT'S THE OBLIGATION OF THE PUBLISER AND THEIR SALES AGENTS!

Clear? Again just because GOG is listed on the installer does not change the fact they have no obligations under the law.
Posted January 14, 2013
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gameon: It is kind of weird for other distributors to sell GOG installer games.

Saying that though, places such as Greenman gaming and gamersgate sell steam keys, and people are fine with that....
From the point of view of the retailer, it's a ready-working solution for games that would otherwise require a considerable investment to get working, at the cost of advertising a competitor.

From the point of view of the publisher, it allows them to more easily sell a working game through additional channels, at the cost of being an extra demand to negotiate with GOG for.

For GOG, it is good advertising at the cost of giving up some of their advantage over other sellers (they still have the convenient installers that make troublesome old games work on new computers, but now so do some of their competitors).

Business is all about these cost-benefit tradeoffs, and ideally making decisions that leave all parties involved better off. Not that I have any idea what GOG's contract with Atari is, but Outcast sells quite well here, I believe, so I imagine it would have been worth it to let Atari give the GOG installer to GG in exchange for the right to sell the game themselves as well.
Posted January 14, 2013
OP is trollin'
It's the same as if my store sold you windows 7 disc, if it's defective, you go to my store to complain, not to microsoft.
Here, go to gamersgate and complain, get a refund and buy a game on gog if you like it so much. Case closed, another job well done for gog detectives.
Posted January 14, 2013
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Fafhred: I am afraid that none of your answers work out.
- A distribution being ostensibly from GOG makes it GOG's version, regardless who distributes it afterwards.
- It is a point of international law that any company selling products in a country has to comply with the sales-related laws of that country: what is lawful or not to sell, and the customer's rights laws in that country; Amazon, Ebay, comply with this, for instance some items will be on sale in some countries and not in others; even Microsoft was made to comply, in some notorious cases.
- I am living in UK, and UK law has very specific points regarding sales, their version of customer's rights, and saler's obligations; In UK law for instance, the customer has the right to turn to the manufacturer of an item, and the relevant laws have been modified some time back to explicitely include digital purchases.
- So basicaly, GOG has a legal obligation for products which they made and are sold in UK, regardless who sold them.
You're the person I dread having to do business with.
Posted January 14, 2013
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Fafhred: - A distribution being ostensibly from GOG makes it GOG's version, regardless who distributes it afterwards.
It's the GOG installer, but gamersgate would be liable for any customer support for that game. Your game licence would be with them also, because you bought it from them. If someone had Outcast on both Gamersgate and GOG they would be two seperate copies of the game.
Post edited January 14, 2013 by gameon
Posted January 14, 2013
You do have to wonder why GOG agree to let the publishers have the installer as part of the deal?, after all i would have thought making the game work with modern systems was worth more than the short window for exclusivity of selling the game, than having the possibility of their hard work being used by others down the road.
Posted January 14, 2013
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nijuu: You do have to wonder why GOG agree to let the publishers have the installer as part of the deal?, after all i would have thought making the game work with modern systems was worth more than the short window for exclusivity of selling the game, than having the possibility of their hard work being used by others down the road.
Because it may be part of the deal when getting older games redistributed again?
Posted January 14, 2013
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nijuu: You do have to wonder why GOG agree to let the publishers have the installer as part of the deal?, after all i would have thought making the game work with modern systems was worth more than the short window for exclusivity of selling the game, than having the possibility of their hard work being used by others down the road.
they also get advertising.. Steam uses a GOG version GOG get their logo on a steam page, Gamersgate same, GMG same...
Posted January 14, 2013
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nijuu: You do have to wonder why GOG agree to let the publishers have the installer as part of the deal?, after all i would have thought making the game work with modern systems was worth more than the short window for exclusivity of selling the game, than having the possibility of their hard work being used by others down the road.
I wouldn't discount that exclusivity window. Most sales of a game are from when they are first released (or re-released, in the case of GOGs). I imagine the game gets a lot more sales through GOG this way then if it were to release on GOG and Steam the same day, even if Steam had to do their own compatibility work and it ended up being sub par.
Posted January 14, 2013
If the game required you to register a GOG account to run you might have a point, but it doesn't, so you don't.

Even if another company sells it, if GOG did the work for the publisher and they are reselling that code, it falls upon the publisher, and store where you bought that version to solve problems for you. You didn't buy the game on GOG, so support has no obligation to help you out with it, much less give you a refund when you spent no money on it here.

This would be like me trying to sue Google if my Android phone died from a hardware malfunction. Google didn't make the phone to sell to me, just like GOG didn't make the distribution Atari is selling through Gamersgate.
Post edited January 14, 2013 by Fictionvision
Posted January 14, 2013
I think it all depends on the publishers. The contract probably changes from publisher to publisher... either way, I see this as both good and bad:

Bad: People steer towards other sites to buy from if they also hold the gog versions.
Good: Gog's name will begin to shine if it's seen more and more by people.
Post edited January 14, 2013 by Tpiom
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)GOG distributions bought elsewhere(34 posts)(34 posts)
(34 posts)