Patias: Thank you so much, bro!
I managed to work on the rest of the podcast. Here's my transcription of the segments related to curation and publishing a game on GOG (I skipped some parts about other topics, such as how Galaxy works):
How a developer benefits from working with GOG "That’s a great question, that’s actually the main question that the developers and publishers ask us when we approach them to bring the game to GOG. And the answer is that we offer exposure to customers that they otherwise might not be able to reach, by a Steam-only approach. For example, there are gamers, hardcore PC gamers, that are basically like GOG or nothing. They love what we do, they love our approach to games, they love our curation, so they are hardcore GOG supporters. So if the game launches on any other platform, it’s mostly non-existent to them. Now, is that like double the amount of players there are on Steam? Of course not. But it isn’t the amount of people. But more importantly than that, we emphasize the global reach of our platform, and a very multinational approach to distribution. We have specialists in all the major region, we have localized the platform into the major languages, we have deep access to non-English speaking European countries, including media outlets in those countries, including streamers, influencers… We have people who work specifically with those promotional opportunities in those non-English speaking regions to promote those games outside of just English-speaking America or English-speaking Europe. And that’s really important, but the aspect that makes that so important is that, when we do this, when we promote the games that we release, we don’t just do it just for the GOG version of the game. We try and represent the game for what the game is. We’re not trying to sell more copies on GOG, we’re trying to expose the game to a bigger audience, to get more people interested in it. So, let’s say for example, Poland, we have a Polish team. Of course it’s their market. We approach media outlets, and streamers and influencers there who play the game, who review the game. We do it in their local language, we do it from a local perspective in their time zone, it’s all very important to them, and we just want them to play it, we want them to enjoy it and promote it, say good things about it. That helps not only the GOG version, but it helps the Steam version, it helps the Epic Store version, it helps the game globally, even if we’re launching on consoles or Switch or anything else at the same time. It helps the game globally. And because we’re a curated platform, because we don’t release everything, because we’re not open to releasing any game, we want to make sure that the games that we do release, we give them their full care that they deserve also. Because we want them to succeed. We basically selected these games, or approved these games, whatever the case is, for GOG release, so we don’t want to just sell it and forget it. We want to actively help them succeed. So that’s why these things are important for us, and that’s why… That’s what I think people get… That’s what I think developers and publishers get from releasing on GOG. They get more support, more promotional support, more… even QA support sometimes for their game. We find things when we play the game before release that sometimes they don’t know about, or sometimes they haven’t had time in the case of a lot of indie developers to really dive deeply into it. So we want to be true partners with them, as opposed to just sort of a blind distribution platform."
On exclusives "We do not seek exclusives at all. We don’t think that exclusives are really helpful to gamers. Maybe the term “anti-gamer” is too aggressive, but… exclusives, I don’t think really help anybody. Now, this landscape might be changing a little bit. Gamers’ perception of exclusivity might be changing a little bit. But we’re moving into an era where the platform itself matters less and less. So many things are closs-platform, so many things are playable on so many different devices, that I think it is a mistake to lock your game down to a specific platform. Unless you get a deal from someone that is so good, it’s so valuable that it willl really, really, help you."
"From my perspective, I see the PC as its own console. And if you’re dividing it, that console being further divided up, for the most part doesn’t really help anybody. So people wanna play their game and they’ve chosen PC as their gaming platform of choice, I think that it’s best to make your game available to as many people as you possibly can. So that’s we I always advocate for a multi-store day 1 release. Specially for indies, because a lot of indie developers talk about exposure, about discoverability issues, with platforms that are more open, where they’re releasing a lot of games. That’s why I believe that, for a PC launch strategy, it’s so important to release your game on as many platforms as you can on day 1. Because discoverability can be a huge issue, specially for indie games. If you’re not a big AAA game, discoverability can be really, really difficult. So it’s important to get your game in front of as many people as you can, and that can include a Steam launch, GOG launch, and other stores launches as well, Humble launch, Epic… There’s a lot of opportunities out there and, unless, as we said earlier, unless you get some deal that you can’t refuse, it’s really important to put in the extra time and effort to do a multi-store launch. I’ve heard some strategies of publishers and developers… want to stagger their store launches, so they get sort of a bouncing ball of promotion over the course of a couple of weeks, or a couple of months, or whatever. I believe often that’s a mistake, because you get one shot at your launch. And that even includes early access sometimes. And the more you can do to raise awareness of your game in that one big shot that you have, get as many eyeballs on the game as you can, that’s gonna do much more for you than jumping from store to store over time."
"Of course, everybody’s limited. Everybody’s limited by time, by effort, by manpower… Totally understandable. But it is important to pick a couple, if you’re not a exclusive somewhere, pick a couple of stores, Steam, GOG, whatever else, maybe just those two, and launch those at the same time."
On early access "It was born out of the rise of free-to-play MMOs and online games. And of course developers wanted to get their games out there early so they can start making gameplay tweaks, balance tweaks, even see early signs of, you know, monetization, user flows into the game, and it’s all super fair. But at some point it got skewed for some people a little bit, where they started to consider that they could do an early access launch, and then do a 1.0 launch later, and get basically two big launches. That is wrong. That is always wrong. You cannot do both. You can barely do the one where you get good reviews and good marketing at early access, and that’s only if you have like a high profile, if you have something special, but to think that you can get two is a huge mistake."
"On GOG we have, our program is called “Games In Development”, and we use very similar and sometimes even more strict, often more strict curation policies towards “Games In Development” games, because again, we need to be able to say that we know that this is a good game, and how can we say it’s a good game if it’s not done? We don’t want to put our customers in a position where they buy a “Games In Development” game that actually never gets done, and we all have experience with games that just, like, linger in early access for years and years. And most likely will never come out of early access, because for some people, they use it as a sort of a shield, for why things aren’t done or whatever. That’s not good for anybody."
"So we do have our “Games In Development” on GOG, but you know, we don’t push it too hard, but we want to be able to support developers. You have to have a reason for it. Like, we need a couple hundred, we need a couple thousand players in this game for balance tweaks, to see if anyone else actually thinks it’s fun, then yes, do it. But don’t believe that your early access is gonna be a good launch and your 1.0 is gonna be a big launch."
On getting coverage "You really got to be something really, really special to get ongoing coverage. And there’s so many games now. There’s so much content. And there’s a limited number of super influential, editorial websites, like, view game websites, magazines. And a lot of influencers, they’re driven by traffic to them, and so there are many influencers that will, but many won’t play or cover new games they don’t know, because that’s not what their audience is into. Their audience want to see them play whatever game that they found them for. So it’s hard to get coverage, and that’s one of the main reasons I say… That’s why I think that you should strive to get your game in front of as many eyeballs as you can, because no longer are the days of somebody going to their favorite video game website, reading a good review of that previously unknown game, clicking through it to the store and then buying it. People buy games now based off social pressure… Pressure is not a good word, but you know what I mean. Like, their friends playing the game, or they see a pop-up on..."
"Influence, that’s it. It’s more social influence than editorial review-driven ever. And it’s though. Because there are so many games, all competing for a small amount of promotional opportunity."
[Went over the character limit, more to come]
