Forgive me, I forgot one second how people here can be assholes ... my bad.

I'll try to explain. probably unsuccessfully, with an example. Suppose GOG comes out tomorrow with five new games, all with DRM. Would you also say: "people who want to buy DRM games can now buy them from GOG. GOG has the opportunity to make more money. People who don't want to buy DRM games are unaffected. What exactly is the downside?". My guess is that you wouldn't. I may be wrong.

The automatic assumption that the only reason people buy on GOG is because DRM-free is false. I, for one, care about other things (e.g. worldwide availability, fair and equal pricing, complete editions, game quality) no less and perhaps even more than I do about DRM-free. I do not subscribe to the notion that as long as GOG sells DRM-free games it can do anything it wishes and that would be fine by me. I myself do not want to promote the habit of releasing incomplete products and I find it annoying that a place I frequent daily does support it. It goes without saying that I will not buy such games. The question remains whether I want to have to see them on the screen day after day.

Been there, done that. I get the urge to bump it every time. http://www.gog.com/forum/general/dear_diarygog

Is there really such a big difference between unfinished, "in progress" games, and completed games which are plain bad? Or for that matter, what about genres which don't interest you? Or publishers/devs you don't like? In the end it all comes down to the same thing: Decide for yourself what you want to buy and who you support with your money. One man's trash, another man's treasure and all that... It's ridiculous how so many people on the forum seem to think GOG should only cater to their specific preferences.

The in-Dev games added to the site so far all seem to be selling well, so obviously there is an audience for that kind of service here. GOG has more income, the devs of those games more support during development, and customers who like those games have a new, DRM-free option of purchasing and playing those games. And as for the others? The solution is as brilliant as it is simple. They can just continue not buying those unfinished games here, just as they don't buy unfinished games elsewhere. ( And if they don't play those games, they also have more time to create pointless complaint threads in the forum. Everyone wins! )

I don't buy games until they're finished.

I don't go for Games in Development, Early Access, Season Passes, whatevers...


That said; I don't see any reason to 'oppose' them. Other folk obviously like those types of things - and thus there is a market.

I vote with my wallet - by not bringing out the wallet for those things. That's all you need to do if you don't care for it. No one makes anyone buy these unfinished products.


So why not have them here? Might bring some new customers that otherwise would grab same/similar on another service/storefront.

I see a potential downside in a possible increase in bitching in some cases about how these products eventually turn out. But there is already tons of bitching on virtually every forum everywhere - so nothing new there. If the company (GOG) and its moderators can handle it - then why should we oppose it? Just don't buy if they don't cater to your interests.


Simple... :)

Fair enough. I agree that the In Development games are being over-promoted right now. I assume/hope that they will drop off the top of the page once the novelty wears off, or the next big thing comes along. EDIT: Look at that - I just checked the frontpage, and the In Development games have dropped from the top of the page. This is definitely better.

They only other point I'd like to make is this - I'm not sure it's 100% valid to call the In Development games incomplete or unfinished. I think GOG has chosen a perfect name for these games. They're In Development. The problem is, it's easy to get hung up on "1.0", when 1.0 is really an arbitrary target set by the developer.

Look at Terreria. Terreria released version 1.0 in 2011. By normal standards, it's V1.0 - it's complete. There have been several significant updates to Terreria, the most recent being released in 2015. The current version (1.3) is quite a bit different than 1.0. Improved engine, different end-games, more bosses and NPC's, etc. The Terreria developer gets credit for continuing to support their game after release, when perhaps the game wasn't actually complete at 1.0. Realistically, Terreria has been "In Development" for the last four+ years, but because the version number is > 1.0, that's OK.

Alternatively, look at Spacebase DF-9. I know this one isn't available at GOG, but it could be. It's even complete, right? Double Fine slapped a 1.0 on a half finished game and abandoned it. It's not a finished game by any stretch, but it's also not in development any more, so it could come to GOG and be sold as a finished product because it's got that snazzy 1.0 on it. I'd rather play Starbound than Spacebase DF-9 - it's a much better game, despite the fact that it's still "In Development".

As I see it, there is a class of game like Starbound and Project Zomboid that are always in development, and this is just an extension of GOG's product line. It's still curated - so far the In Development games appear to be games that are very playable in their current state. It's still DRM free.

I have nothing against it. I might buy some of them when they are in late development cycle, basically just before release so that I can refund them if they are not what they seem to be + the ability to get the game 50% off before release. This was always one of the issues for me when a formerly early access game came here with a lot higher price then before, while it had already sold thousands of copies and was basically an old product. Definitely looking at Ashes of Singularity and Master of Orion (if it comes here to early access). At the end more options is always good. People just have to use their brains and check on how the game development is going, etc. For example Starbound seems to be a game that promised much and is still where it was at the beginning (which doesn't mean that its not a good game).

And that's all the better that they shouldn't, in my opinion

Those games are already on the bestsellers list. Clearly the demand is there and GoG if supplying it as they should.

GoG makes more money and uses those resources to become a better service while people get the games they've been demanding now DRM free. I see no problem with this situation