Thinking about it some more, I actually suspect Digital Eclipse overlooked something, and they are at fault, but it isn't because of a pattern. When you buy Atari 50 on GoG, you are also getting the game on Amazon Luna (whether you take advantage of that or not, you get that as a feature of owning it here on GoG). I suspect that's what the holdup is. Whatever they publish on GoG has to also be on Luna since it is already a product sold, and I bet they forgot all about the process of getting it on there. That could be why they are hoping it'll be ready in early 2025, why they couldn't say anything until now, and why they are still unsure. I bet they are under NDA that prevents specifics to avoid any drama for Amazon if things don't go right.

But that's just all an educated guess, not facts on the ground by any means.

Luna cross-buy with GoG is a relatively new thing, so it isn't surprising if it was forgotten or even if not forgotten, the delay isn't surprising. Plus Digital Eclipse doesn't have any other product that takes advantage of it.

Again, just guessing. It REALLY stinks for us though no matter what. A $40 game not getting updates on time, and at worst not at all, is not what anyone signed up for.

Possible yes and I can see them sighting that be it true or not for a delay but its still odd this sort of thing has happened twice with Digital Eclipse involvement reguardless

With regards to the point on Luna:

As an established developer, it seems unlikely that Digital Eclipse would simply ‘forget’ about the Luna process of the GOG release. Again, DE were aware of the process the first time around.

GOG's Luna form page states that developers only need to ‘opt in’ by submitting a form to GOG and GOG takes care of the 'extremely simple' process. There is no additional build requirement from developers.


If we look back to the initial announcement of this DLC in June 25:
Atari (the publisher) stated that the ‘Expanded Edition’ of Atari 50, would be released on all platforms - including the VCS (no mention of GOG) on October 25, along with two timelines and 39 games. Available as a purchasable DLC for owners of the ‘Atari 50’ base game.

On Sept 24:
Atari then announced that they would be releasing the first timeline ‘The Wider World of Atari’ - for the main platforms (no VCS) - the following day, with the second timeline to follow in November.

From a commercial and marketing standpoint, this would make sense, as they could generate more awareness - of an already niche product - with the sale of two separately released DLCs.
This would also explain the introduction of a Season Pass, for current and future DLC.

It seems reasonable to assume, that given this change in the release schedule: essentially, bringing half of the content forward by 1 month - Digital Eclipse (the developer) had to then prioritize work on the main platforms - for both DLCs, possibly at the expense of the GOG and VCS DLC.
Again, this would be consistent from a practicality and business needs standpoint.

This decision, to split the two DLCs, could have impacted plans for a simultaneous release across all platforms and meant Atari had to then implement a phased release strategy: main platforms > VCS / GOG.
Releasing even the GOG DLC along with the main platforms, may have been identified as being too problematic, in terms of development resources / time constraints.

If the GOG release was indeed impacted - as the result of prioritization of the main platforms - at the inevitable expense of GOG customers - would it not follow that DE PR, would have had to somehow explain the absence of the GOG DLC on 25th Sept?
DE's implied statement - on the YT trailer vid for DLC1 - of an unforeseen 'issue', could be construed as a damage limitation exercise on DE's part, possibly constrained by their publisher, Atari.
This comment could be aimed at placating GOG users and negating any perceived incompetence and / or neglect on the part of DE, from their customers.
In the absence of any further statements from Atari / DE on the issue, GOG customers are none the wiser, and Atari / DE would have maintained plausible deniability.

Again, the whole issue of delayed / missing GOG updates, is not one of the developer / publisher being solely at fault, but as endemic of business practices between publishers / GOG and the purchasing choices of customers themselves.
If customers are not making choices, through either lack of awareness / information, then they are not making informed choices and are inadvertently contributing to, and supporting these business practices.

GOG needs to clamp down on this long running problem of delayed updates and lack of promotion / communication / clear expectations on what customers should expect when buying a game, particularly new releases on the GOG store.

We as customers, should, at the very least, be afforded with clear information - perhaps extending to a guarantee - that we are to receive updates / DLC in a timely manner.
GOG’s (already generous) refund policy could be extended to include refunds on missing content (which has been mentioned), but this specific refund extending to an agreed (between publishers / GOG) ‘reasonable’ timescale for customers to receive their updates.
Whether this is mutually beneficial or workable between GOG / publishers, is another matter, but a reasonable, incentive solution should be pursued regardless.

But, if GOG’s ‘gamers first’ statement is to be believed by customers - and hence further growth of the GOG storefront - then GOG should at least make transparent moves towards this end, in bringing customers away from DRM, while also having access to important updates / DLC.

Yeah, to me that's the biggest issue here. Regardless of blame, this is a problem on GoG and it needs to be reigned in. I like the DRM free stance because it's customer-friendly and puts aside the modern gaming nonsense we have to deal with now. But we're still dealing with modern gaming nonsense when we can't get updates. It's pretty cool that updates are even a thing, but not when the game collections you're wanting requires a base game on another platform because the platform you have it on doesn't have the additional content and may or may not in the future.

I just uninstalled it and am getting the Steam version after I get paid next week. I'm aware I'll be paying full price, plus more for the DLC, but it's worth it