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General discussionBoycotting DRM and Game Censorship on GOG, 2021-2022(5216 posts) (5216 posts) 
(5216 posts) 
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 11, 2021
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richlind33: How could they not have playtesters that have familiarity with games?
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AstralWanderer: It's more a case of being familiar with a specific game, and being willing to tolerate the DRM-restrictions originally imposed.
GOG's tolerance for DRM-restrictions seems to be steadily increasing.

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richlind33: There are probably people here that would volunteer to do it...
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AstralWanderer: But they'd also have to be willing to live in or relocate to Poland - which is apparently a post-apocalyptic wilderness, overrun with crazed mutants. Who'd want to live there? :D
Their biggest problem at present is a crazed dictator named Lukashenko who has gone off the deep end. So no, I definitely would not want to live there right now.
Post edited November 11, 2021 by richlind33
Posted November 11, 2021
high rated
@Time4Tea you should have an end of year post regarding any changes (positive or negative) that have occurred throughout the year concerning your goals for the thread. Others can also add anything they have noticed. Start around Christmas time and go through New Years Eve. Then the thread can be rolled over into 2022.


I don't know about anyone else, but I have been a little tempted to buy some games over the last couple sales but GOG gets no money until they re-commit to DRM free and show real progress towards that goal.
Posted November 12, 2021
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kblazer883: @Time4Tea you should have an end of year post regarding any changes (positive or negative) that have occurred throughout the year concerning your goals for the thread. Others can also add anything they have noticed.
Excellent idea! We need a working & updating list of complete complaints.
Maybe each personal list could make up a "majority complaint" list in post #1 or something.
Posted November 24, 2021
low rated
I quit, you can remove my tag from the list.
Posted November 24, 2021
low rated
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kblazer883: @Time4Tea you should have an end of year post regarding any changes (positive or negative) that have occurred throughout the year concerning your goals for the thread. Others can also add anything they have noticed. Start around Christmas time and go through New Years Eve. Then the thread can be rolled over into 2022.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been a little tempted to buy some games over the last couple sales but GOG gets no money until they re-commit to DRM free and show real progress towards that goal.
There have been no positives. They only removed hitman as there was outrage on social media (apparently). Other than that nothing has changed. Nothing has been fixed. More games were released badly, less communication, more pushing of galaxy.
It’s actually been a really easy decision to continue not buying anything. Even the releases haven’t been that great. Let’s just look at today’s great news on a re-release of a demo for something already released. Afraid the site has long since lost its way and is now scrabbling for anything to keep going.
Posted November 25, 2021
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tag+: I quit, you can remove my tag from the list.
Done! Thanks for your support.

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kblazer883: @Time4Tea you should have an end of year post regarding any changes (positive or negative) that have occurred throughout the year concerning your goals for the thread. Others can also add anything they have noticed. Start around Christmas time and go through New Years Eve. Then the thread can be rolled over into 2022.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been a little tempted to buy some games over the last couple sales but GOG gets no money until they re-commit to DRM free and show real progress towards that goal.
I am planning to do an end-of-year review post on the state of the boycott. Between Christmas and New Year seems like a good time. I will look at each complaint item on the list and of course it would be great to hear comments/discussion from other boycotters.

Otherwise, my boycott has been holding firm and will until the end of the year. I am currently still considering buying 1 or 2 things during the January sale (but then probably nothing else during 2022).
Post edited November 25, 2021 by Time4Tea
Posted November 25, 2021
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nightcraw1er.488: There have been no positives. They only removed hitman as there was outrage on social media (apparently). Other than that nothing has changed. Nothing has been fixed. More games were released badly, less communication, more pushing of galaxy.
It’s actually been a really easy decision to continue not buying anything. Even the releases haven’t been that great. Let’s just look at today’s great news on a re-release of a demo for something already released. Afraid the site has long since lost its way and is now scrabbling for anything to keep going.
Hitman being removed was the right result - we wanted it gone and it was removed. But I agree that, from the POV of the boycott, we're not really any better off than we were before Hitman was released. They made a bad decision and then reversed it ==> net zero overall outcome. I also agree that GOG stopped short of explaining how the mistake happened and didn't provide the assurance that many people wanted that similar things wouldn't happen again in future.

I totally agree about the dearth of good games being released this year. Compared to last year, there have been very few big new releases. The Star Trek games come to mind, as well as Legacy of Kain. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has been at the top of the 'Store' dropdown for months now. From the reviews I've read it seems very buggy and unfinished, particularly in the later stages. Boycotting has never been easier! ;-)
Posted November 26, 2021
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nightcraw1er.488: There have been no positives. They only removed hitman as there was outrage on social media (apparently). Other than that nothing has changed. Nothing has been fixed. More games were released badly, less communication, more pushing of galaxy.
It’s actually been a really easy decision to continue not buying anything. Even the releases haven’t been that great. Let’s just look at today’s great news on a re-release of a demo for something already released. Afraid the site has long since lost its way and is now scrabbling for anything to keep going.
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Time4Tea: Hitman being removed was the right result - we wanted it gone and it was removed. But I agree that, from the POV of the boycott, we're not really any better off than we were before Hitman was released. They made a bad decision and then reversed it ==> net zero overall outcome. I also agree that GOG stopped short of explaining how the mistake happened and didn't provide the assurance that many people wanted that similar things wouldn't happen again in future.

I totally agree about the dearth of good games being released this year. Compared to last year, there have been very few big new releases. The Star Trek games come to mind, as well as Legacy of Kain. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has been at the top of the 'Store' dropdown for months now. From the reviews I've read it seems very buggy and unfinished, particularly in the later stages. Boycotting has never been easier! ;-)
The lack of large output is also explained by the covid. We had a lot of good output in 2020 because certainly negotiated in 2019. But the 2021 outputs certainly negotiated in 2020 were hampered by the restrictions of the 2020 covid which was very restrictive. After that we can talk about visionconference and etc but often commercial negotiations are done orally (hand to hand) when signing the contract. Video conferencing serves as the first step.
Posted November 26, 2021
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Time4Tea: I totally agree about the dearth of good games being released this year. Compared to last year, there have been very few big new releases.
I don't think that's necessarily GOG's fault though, unless maybe too many "2nd class citizen" games (caused by GOG not putting their foot down) have caused many people to stop buying here, resulting in less GOG income/market share and publishers being less interested in GOG. I'm not sure all that many people are actively boycotting GOG like those in this thread.

Maybe most people buy their old games on Steam now or recognize that old games eventually they show up on Steam (fewer exclusives might hurt GOG), or Cyberpunk2077 fiasco impacted CDP's overall relationship with publishers (thus impacting GOG's ability to get games here), or most publishers want to direct people to their own clients and stores (like EA and Ubi), etc.

Plus it's not like GOG ever got too many "big-name" titles in one year, they've always struggled to get "AAA" devs' and pubs' attention. And a negative outlook might put blinders on us to hamper us from remembering the "big-name"(ish) titles that did show up, such as a portion of the missing Tomb Raider games.

(edit: as an aside I'm guessing we'll get something big-name-ish released at the start of the Christmas sale, maybe TR Rise and Shadow or Days Gone)

There's plenty to criticize GOG about but a concern of mine is that emotions seem to run so high around here sometimes that it seems like some people (not pointing at you, just saying) want to blame everything on GOG (and it can feel "masturbatory" at times), and I think criticism should try to stay pointed and reasoned out.

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Lukin86: The lack of large output is also explained by the covid. We had a lot of good output in 2020 because certainly negotiated in 2019. But the 2021 outputs certainly negotiated in 2020 were hampered by the restrictions of the 2020 covid which was very restrictive. After that we can talk about visionconference and etc but often commercial negotiations are done orally (hand to hand) when signing the contract. Video conferencing serves as the first step.
I guess that's a possibility.
Post edited November 26, 2021 by tfishell
Posted November 26, 2021
Info for Time4Tea: Right now, GamezRanker is listed on both the "boycott" list and the "sympathetic to the concept" list. Not sure if you intended people to be able to be on both list or if it's an oversight.
Posted November 26, 2021
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Lukin86: The lack of large output is also explained by the covid. We had a lot of good output in 2020 because certainly negotiated in 2019. But the 2021 outputs certainly negotiated in 2020 were hampered by the restrictions of the 2020 covid which was very restrictive. After that we can talk about visionconference and etc but often commercial negotiations are done orally (hand to hand) when signing the contract. Video conferencing serves as the first step.
It's possible, although I am skeptical that COVID would be a big factor for a digital online store. Do you think GOG staffers typically hop on planes to US, Japan etc to 'press the flesh' for every game they sign that isn't owned by a publisher in Central Europe?

There have been quite a lot of games released this year, just that most of them have been from smaller, lesser-known indie studios.

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InSaintMonoxide: Info for Time4Tea: Right now, GamezRanker is listed on both the "boycott" list and the "sympathetic to the concept" list. Not sure if you intended people to be able to be on both list or if it's an oversight.
Fixed - thanks!

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tfishell:
Yes, it's hard to know what's going on behind the scenes and perhaps last year was abnormally strong. I also wouldn't be surprised if they are holding back 1 or 2 big releases for the end of the year. I had also forgotten to mention the newer Tomb Raider games, thanks for pointing those out.

Tbh, I'd rather see a slow trickle of new games than more releases like Hitman.
Post edited November 26, 2021 by Time4Tea
Posted November 29, 2021
New results (Q3) for GOG are out:
Sales are lower than Q2 2021 (this was expected) and higher than Q3 2020 (I didnt expect that).
Profit is very bad though - GOG is making significant losses (*) - even more so than in the earlier quarters 2021.

Sales Q3 2021: 41 784 KPLN
Sales Q3 2020: 40 500 KPLN

Loss (after tax) Q3 2021: 4 752 KPLN
Loss (before tax) Q3 2021: 6 028 KPLN
Profit Q3 2020: ~131 KPLN

Note that GOG gets at most ~30% of sales, so the profit vs potential money from sales relation is a lot worse than those numbers suggest if one doesnt know this.
Of those 41784 KPLN sales ~2987 KPLN may have been CDPR games - though I dont know how GWENT factors into that.

Source:
https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-content/uploads-en/2021/11/consolidated-finacial-statement-q3-2021-1.pdf#page=27
Comparison gfx for quarterly sales: https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-content/uploads-en/2021/11/consolidated-finacial-statement-q3-2021-1.pdf#page=42

Related posts for Q2 2021:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/boycotting_gog_2021/post2822
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/boycotting_gog_2021/post2870

(*) Page 8: Most of the money (apart from ~70% of sales to pay for games) is spent on this: "In the GOG.COM segment selling costs are generated mainly by marketing activities related to the GOG.COM platform, and by work on further development and support for sales carried out on this platform"
Post edited November 29, 2021 by Zrevnur
Posted November 30, 2021
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Time4Tea: I also wouldn't be surprised if they are holding back 1 or 2 big releases for the end of the year. I had also forgotten to mention the newer Tomb Raider games, thanks for pointing those out.
Yeah I'm pretty sure we'll see something big released at the start of the Christmas sale. Nicalis was just added to the catalog so maybe Isaacs (I'd like Cave Story+ to show up), or the two newest TR games.
Posted November 30, 2021
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Zrevnur: Profit is very bad though - GOG is making significant losses (*) - even more so than in the earlier quarters 2021.
IMO I think that explains why they publicly sort-of addressed the Hitman GOTY debacle, instead of completely ignoring it and totally sweeping it under the rug like they did with their previous Devotion debacle.

They must have been looking at their financial numbers, and realized that they literally can't afford to keep damaging their brand name and causing it to be dragged through the mud while they ignore the catastrophes they caused by outraging their customers, because they realized that ignoring those things was causing them to lose way too many customers.
Posted November 30, 2021
low rated
We're winning, boyos!!!

Unfortunately, gog being gog, they simply double down on the stupidity:

GOG is losing money and refocusing on ‘handpicked selection of games’
It’s apparently transferring some developers

CD Projekt says its GOG games storefront will put more focus on offering “a handpicked selection of games” and transfer some developers to other projects, following ongoing financial losses at the division.

“Regarding GOG, its performance does present a challenge, and recently we’ve taken measures to improve its financial standing,” CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz told investors on a quarterly earnings call. “First and foremost, we’ve decided that GOG should focus more on its core business activity, which means offering a handpicked selection of games with its unique DRM-free philosophy. In line with this approach, there will be changes in the team structure.”

Nielubowicz said that some developers who’d been working on GOG’s online solutions will be transferred from the project. At the end of 2021, GOG is also leaving the Gwent consortium, a cross-division project related to CD Projekt’s The Witcher card game Gwent. This means it won’t bear any development costs or share any profits from the development consortium. CD Projekt previously called Gwent “the most important project of 2017 in the GOG.com segment.”

These latest statements came after disappointing financial results for GOG. The storefront saw a slight increase in revenue but a net loss of around $1.14 million in the last financial quarter. Overall, it’s lost about $2.21 million over the past three quarters compared to a $1.37 million profit over the same period in 2020. CD Projekt didn’t immediately reply to questions about how its new strategy might translate into changes to GOG’s features or catalog.

GOG launched in 2008 as Good Old Games, a platform built around selling hard-to-find classic games without digital rights management or DRM. Since then, it’s expanded into a more all-purpose storefront selling new third-party games and internal studio CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, plus an online service called GOG Galaxy. But it’s also faced apparent financial problems before, laying off a reported 10 percent of its staff in 2019.
One staff member tied the earlier layoffs to increased competition in PC gaming storefronts, which has driven major platforms to lower the commission they take from developers. Valve’s Steam service has long dominated the market for computer game sales. At least one recent competitor, the Epic Games Store, isn’t expected to turn a profit until 2024. And Epic’s store is cushioned by revenue from the publisher’s blockbuster game Fortnite and Unreal game engine. Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red’s botched 2020 launch of Cyberpunk 2077 has put a damper on its recent earnings — although the company says it has seen renewed enthusiasm for the game and is “on track” to release a delayed update in early 2022.
So many things they could improve... and instead they decide to double down on their "curated storefront" hogwash (which has arguably already cost them countless sales).
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionBoycotting DRM and Game Censorship on GOG, 2021-2022(5216 posts) (5216 posts) 
(5216 posts)