Did you know Armageddon got a Criterion release, but for example The Shawshank Redemption never did?

Commercial reasons, secret reasons, legal reasons, personal quirks of the people who draw up the release plans – all of those probably come into play here.

yeah, but... Bruce Willis!!!! :p

gOg is saving hard drive space for System Shock 2.

i agree wit what many others ahve said about image and price-point, but ill throw in what would be top-of-mind for me making this desicion and what all this dances around:

risk v. rewards.

what is the best case secnario and what is the worst case ontario?

my company recently decided to not sell to THE largest retailer in the USA (i wont name names, but any american knows who im talking about).

yes, we potentially lost out on a few million in sales... however, they could bury us and we could potentially be put out of business if all doesnt go well.

not worth it when we sit down and crunch the numbers. but the gut reaction was initially, "how can we pass up such great business?"



a related issue, which you mentioned, is that there is a $amount attached to every sale. it costs money to even offer this. im sure they calculated their break-even and thier projections probably do not match that figure.

- There are still fixed costs attached, which needs to be earned before breakeven. However the costs are very small. But games of really bad quality could maybe even not reach this goal.

- Human ressources are still bound (contract making, support for the games). Which adds to the fixed costs.

- The expected return of investment might not be high enough. Concentrating on other more promising games and leaving the not so promising ones to themselves. Especially if human resources are scarce.

- The focus of the web site is lost, the audience does not recognize the brand any more.

- Customers cannot rely on high quality of releases anymore and loose interest in new releases.


GamersGate is doing it more or less. They have tons of casual and indie titles and probably some of them do not sell good in any way. If GOG would become the same they would also get less distinguishable from GamersGate.

after more thought, im going with company image.

this place is good OLD games. sure, that "old" can be interpreted, like "good ol' boy!" and not really mean "age."

im guessing they do not want to "lose thier soul."

the more new games and the more indie games they have here, the farther they go from their original mission.



while too small of a catalog is bad, so is too big! im one of those easily over-whelmed shoppers that cannot be presented with too many choices. i freak and shut-down. i like that i can actually browse the entire catalog here.



i guess its all them trying to maintain balance...


thanks for letting me think-this-through-type. im a stream of conciousness kinda typer :)

One of the things that further confuses me about this topic is a quick look at the wishlist. While I would by no means venture this as definitive proof of anything, it does raise questions.

Assassins Creed has a total of 58 votes as of this post.
Botanicula has 19 votes.

The three games I mentioned in the OP that were turned down have 9 votes each. (the whole series would total 28).

My gut says we are trying to define subjectivity... but I'm fulling willing to concede that it may be more than that.

Because they can.

The problem is, the GOG catalog has quite a few games in this genre... some better, some worse. I don't want to get too hung up on the specific game, but I do feel it warranted the discussion. On amazon its averaged 3/5 stars, but with a low playerbase its only from 9 reviews. The most voted reviews are 5 and 4 stars.

Its not the kind of game where you say, "WOW, you MUST play this!!!!", but I can't find a real problem with it either. It was enjoyable enough to play, I would have backed the kickstarter had I known about it before it ended. They only managed 4k, but I have to believe that is due to no press, no previous big name publishers, and other criteria keeping them out of the gaming spotlight. (I think they mentioned the first 3 games were made solely in their spare time - the KS was to see what they could with with a full time studio).

This is why I'm curious mostly about if game quality has anything to do decisions. In terms of quality I would place it roughly in the middle of the GOG catalog of current games. I can definitely see how some really bad games out there SHOULD be passed on. while all our opinions on which ones vary, this one surprised me.

So which genre is it? Is this a standard first person perspective adventure game - like Myst or Dark Fall - or is it a hidden object game like Midnight Mysteries? There's a world of difference, and I don't think GOG has any hidden object games.

Its very much like Darkfall. That is a great comparison, but I'll admit its been a while since I played either series. I remember with DSJ, I liked the first 2 and thought the third was kind of meh. With Darkfall, I really liked the first and the second was really bad. Haven't played the third yet.

Is this the same game that's currently $3 at BigFishGames?

Every game at BFG is $2.99 right now, so, yes ;)

And if I remember correctly they are DRM-free on their site?