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The end of the year and the beginning of the new one, is a very special time that allows us to take a moment to look back, and sum up everything that has happened. Those reflections are crucial in gaining more knowledge, celebrating our successes, and growing in pursuit of providing you with the very best experience while using both GOG and GOG GALAXY.

Having said that, 2022 was a year full of excitement, great new ideas, overcoming challenges, as well as finding and implementing new improvements and initiatives. And today, when we are looking back at this year, we are happy, proud and grateful. Happy, because we’ve managed to achieve goals that we’ve set for ourselves and for our community. Proud, because when facing challenges, we ended up better than we were before. And grateful, for you – our community and fellow gaming enthusiasts, because, simply, you’re the best.

Now, allow us to take you on a walk through 2022’s highlights, and see what we’ve managed to achieve together this year. But don’t worry, we’ll try to keep it short and sweet!

At the beginning of 2022, we focused on providing better platform experience for our community. We wanted to make sure that buying the game of your choosing, browsing the catalog, checking the best deals and new releases, finding hidden gems, or discovering what next to play would be as smooth and pleasant as possible. That desire manifested in releasing the new and improved catalog with more customized searches, and ability to sort and filter games by price, release date range, genres, and tags. We also made the main view in GOG GALAXY more dynamic and alive by highlighting all the events, giveaways, deals, and all the gaming goodness that took place.



Moreover, we increased our activities around classic games as a tribute to our roots. That means more classic releases, interviews with their creators, celebrating their anniversaries, adding the “Good Old Game” catalog, and more! Or, and that’s all thanks to you, gathering more than $4,000 USD for The Video Game History Foundation, which supports, preserves, celebrates, and teaches the history of video games.

Later in 2022, we raised a very important, both to you and us, topic of DRM-free gaming, our commitment to it and what it means to us. Everything we said back then still holds true and will continue to do so: the single-player mode has to be accessible offline, games you bought and downloaded can never be taken from you or altered against your will, the GOG GALAXY client is and will remain optional for accessing single-player offline mode.

Somewhere in the middle of the year, we also launched our blog! Creation of such a hub allowed us to post our editorials in a place, where its various engaging contents, filled with highlights of classic and new games, interviews, guest articles, gaming reflections and gaming’s universes deep dives, will be easy to find and always accessible through a few clicks. New editorial pieces will still appear there with even higher quality and interesting topics.



And when Halloween was just around the corner, we tackled another important topic of online-only games on GOG. We understand that some titles are meant to be played with others, and their multiplayer-only modes is also one of many beautiful gaming characteristics. Because we love games as much as you do, we wanted you to be able to scratch that multiplayer itch on GOG as well. And while we assure you that this will not influence our DRM-free approach discussed earlier, we opened our platform for online-only multiplayer games, which are marked as such on the gamecard, and we leave the decision up to you whether you want to play them.

Finally, to end the year on a high note, we’ve added new awesome feature to further improve GOG and GOG GALAXY experiences – OpenCritic implementation to our gamecards. By partnering up with one of the most renowned and respected review aggregation websites for video games, we want you to not only grasp a better understanding of games that you are interested in, but also help you make better decisions when making purchases and expand your library with titles that suit your gaming needs best.



We wholeheartedly believe that all that we’ve managed to achieve in 2022 are great steps towards becoming the favorite platform for everyone that loves, and still keeps falling in love with games. We absolutely can’t wait for all the incredibly exciting things that 2023 will bring, and we believe that for you, and with you, we are able to achieve every goal we’ll set for ourselves. Hope you all had a wonderful year, and the next one will be even better – see you in 2023!
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Mjauv: GOG taking a stance against the russian war of aggression in Ukraine was another important highlight of 2022.
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paladin181: Yes. GOG punishing Russian citizens for the actions of their government was a real message to help stop the war... >.>
Putler was elected.
The vast majority of Russians couldn't care less about Russian invasions, including Ukraine. They only somewhat reacted when they realized they could be told to join the army.
Russians are not completely guilt free.
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EnforcerSunWoo: Fair enough, but it is still not right. We have had enough "enhanced" and "remastered" titles show up that have their issues and it would be nice to have access to the originals yet (some in which we sadly do not with those getting replaced without warning).

Likewise, you don't see them making sure that the full DOS versions of games are added as extras when they replace them to something like ScummVM functionality either (instead packing in the bare minimum for those games to run).

Also, while I have my backups, there are many that probably do not. It very much can act as a cautionary warning for people to make sure to back up all their purchases.
I completely agree with you.

Personally, I think GoG should provide access to the old version downloads. I don't think that they should offer technical support for them (as it would be a bit unreasonable), but it would be nice to still be able to download them.
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EnforcerSunWoo: I definitely would like to have a receipt on that. That statement is all well and good, but that is strictly not true. Would like to hear what is going on with Saints Row IV Re-Elected as far as retaining the original Game of the Century release as a downloadable option outside of rolling it back on Galaxy. Seems like we get "enhanced" or "remastered" versions that do not retain the same functionality as the original releases. As well as there being a few times where these versions have been fundamentally broken one way or another without being fixed properly. If you're going to stay true to that statement, then access to the original releases is a must and Saints Row IV - Game of the Century Edition would be a good start with that.
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pds41: Unfortunately, if you read it again, you'll see that the statement is strictly true.

If you "bought AND DOWNLOADED" (emphasis added) Saints Row IV, you would still have Saints Row IV locally. If you didn't download and keep it, then you'd have the remastered version only.

I'm not defending this, but it's not inconsistent with what they said.
Bad luck to those who did not buy the game before the enhanced/remastered.

Not a good way of doing things, and not the way a store like what GOG should supposed to be, should do.
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While true, that gog did some things good in my eyes, and i grew my gog collection considerably, gog also achieved this year another milestone for me:
- Thanks to the latest witcher 3 update, i'll be buying what i think (from some reasearch i did, but have yet to test myself), to be a drm free game, on another platform outside gog, for the first time in almost a decade.
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arrua: Bad luck to those who did not buy the game before the enhanced/remastered.

Not a good way of doing things, and not the way a store like what GOG should supposed to be, should do.
Translation: "Not a good way of doing things, and not the way I expect a store like GOG to be, should do."
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Mjauv: GOG taking a stance against the russian war of aggression in Ukraine was another important highlight of 2022.
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paladin181: Yes. GOG punishing Russian citizens for the actions of their government was a real message to help stop the war... >.>
There is a word for harming innocent people for the purpose of drawing attention to a cause. It is sad that GOG would stoop to this, but perhaps they thought it would be good marketing.
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arrua: Bad luck to those who did not buy the game before the enhanced/remastered.

Not a good way of doing things, and not the way a store like what GOG should supposed to be, should do.
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BreOl72: Translation: "Not a good way of doing things, and not the way I expect a store like GOG to be, should do."
GOG claims to be DRM free, but it is pushing DRM all the time. It is not that I, among many other users, expect the store to be DRM free. It is that I, among other users, expect the store to be what they claim to be.
GOG, unfortunately, has adopted a definition of "DRM-free" that allows DRM. Their post on the topic (and their implementations with CP2077 and Witcher3) clearly show they're okay with some of the game being DRMed. Basically they defined "DRM-free single player" as, more or less "can you start the .exe file and get the credits to roll", with anything in between allowed to be gated behind online activation checks.

They also look at Schrodinger's feature that something is somehow simultaneously a "reward" but also "in no way affect the single player experience", creating quite the paradox. And the even extend the paradox by saying "We offer a fully DRM-free game, and while the additional digital content requires connecting to your GOG account via GOG GALAXY, after a successful log in, internet connection is no longer required." by defining DRM as DRM-free in one sentence.

I wonder what drugs CDPR/GOG feeds its employees to open them up to accepting such insane eldritch incantations?

And should anyone dare question this, GOG support will just point to this article and say "SEE! It's really DRM-free, read how we defined it!" Their customer support folk will outright lie to you and tell you the title is DRM-free, because GOG has redefined "DRM-free" to be "DRM-lite".

While it's true that GOG's made some minimal progress and improvements in the last year (the catalog improvement is lipstick on a pig: They need a total catalog redesign), it's been nothing but regression where it actually matters: DRM-free gaming. GOG has made it abundantly clear that, contrary to their article otherwise, they have no solid commitment to DRM-free gaming. Maybe 2023 will be better? Maybe? Doubtful, sadly.

No one can argue that GOG got some big hits this year: From finally releasing Skyrim, to Two Point Hospital [although that game has online connection requirements for some single content too... grr]

EDIT: And my delicious New Year treat is now in the oven. Shame that my husband works a closing shift on NYE. :(
Post edited December 30, 2022 by mqstout
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BreOl72: Translation: "Not a good way of doing things, and not the way I expect a store like GOG to be, should do."
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arrua: GOG claims to be DRM free, but it is pushing DRM all the time. It is not that I, among many other users, expect the store to be DRM free. It is that I, among other users, expect the store to be what they claim to be.
Sure buddy.
Only the comment you responded to, had zero to do with DRM, but only with preservation.
But nice try, anyway.
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arrua: GOG claims to be DRM free, but it is pushing DRM all the time. It is not that I, among many other users, expect the store to be DRM free. It is that I, among other users, expect the store to be what they claim to be.
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BreOl72: Sure buddy.
Only the comment you responded to, had zero to do with DRM, but only with preservation.
But nice try, anyway.
Which is one of the points of not wanting DRM on a game.

But it is ok, you have proven to be rude and I don´t like nor engage in this kind of forum kids-fights. So, you be you and have a good day, sir.
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Happy new year GOG. Here are some thing that you could improve in 2023.

1) Let us edit and delete reviews.
2) Fix the purple dot and probably install a new forum software such as (Vbulletin or IPB)
3) No Galaxy locked rewards (Withcer 3 and CP2077) (No reason to do that when you released Skyrim without locked content)
4) Contact devs about missing updates
5) Be more active with the community like you did in the past.
Post edited December 30, 2022 by alexandros050
The new catalog filters and tags came in very handy during the major sales. But getting a DRM-free offline installer for Skyrim was the crowning moment of the year for me. :) Tons of other nice releases, I hope we have such a busy series of releases next year too!
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mqstout: GOG, unfortunately, has adopted a definition of "DRM-free" that allows DRM. Their post on the topic (and their implementations with CP2077 and Witcher3) clearly show they're okay with some of the game being DRMed. Basically they defined "DRM-free single player" as, more or less "can you start the .exe file and get the credits to roll", with anything in between allowed to be gated behind online activation checks.

They also look at Schrodinger's feature that something is somehow simultaneously a "reward" but also "in no way affect the single player experience", creating quite the paradox. And the even extend the paradox by saying "We offer a fully DRM-free game, and while the additional digital content requires connecting to your GOG account via GOG GALAXY, after a successful log in, internet connection is no longer required." by defining DRM as DRM-free in one sentence.

I wonder what drugs CDPR/GOG feeds its employees to open them up to accepting such insane eldritch incantations?

And should anyone dare question this, GOG support will just point to this article and say "SEE! It's really DRM-free, read how we defined it!" Their customer support folk will outright lie to you and tell you the title is DRM-free, because GOG has redefined "DRM-free" to be "DRM-lite".

While it's true that GOG's made some minimal progress and improvements in the last year (the catalog improvement is lipstick on a pig: They need a total catalog redesign), it's been nothing but regression where it actually matters: DRM-free gaming. GOG has made it abundantly clear that, contrary to their article otherwise, they have no solid commitment to DRM-free gaming. Maybe 2023 will be better? Maybe? Doubtful, sadly.

No one can argue that GOG got some big hits this year: From finally releasing Skyrim, to Two Point Hospital [although that game has online connection requirements for some single content too... grr]

EDIT: And my delicious New Year treat is now in the oven. Shame that my husband works a closing shift on NYE. :(
With the way they manage things, and taking into account all that´s happened since the Cyberpunk fiasco, I reached to the conclusion that the decision-maker of CDProjekt is a mole from another company who seeks to sabotage and destroy CDProjekt.
Galaxy locked rewards are just DRM. This means that besides there being no reason to purchase The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, there's also no reason to purchase any game that is even related to either.

Why would I or anyone else that boycotts DRM purchase The Witcher 2 when it is know that the third installment has DRM? Likewise if I hadn't already claimed The Witcher when GOG was giving it away, I wouldn't bother with that game either even if GOG was giving it away. There's also no need to bother with Thronebreaker even though it seems like a side-story because it's a side-story of a game series where the third installment has DRM.


A much bigger complaint that I have though is that if you hang out in a developer's Discord channel because you own a game that is in development, you'll notice that there is a delay of a week or more between when they announce an update being pushed out to all storefronts and it actually showing up on GOG. It can give developers the very wrong impression that people who purchase games off GOG just don't care when we can't give timely feedback in the same way that Steam users can.

GOG really needs to prioritize 1) no more DRM and 2) timely releases for in development games.
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Thank you GOG for a lot of good things this year, and here's hoping for next year.

I of course want you to continue being DRM-Free, at least for the single playing element of games, and trust you will do so.

And like many others, I would like you to give access to an archive of older versions or games, and especially original versions that can run on older Windows, with any DRM removed of course. I am talking Offline Installers here, which also need to have parity with what Galaxy installs, unless it is only an update that is Galaxy related.

Please reconsider giving those of us who want it (a good number of GOG loyalists), a simple downloader. We have kept the faith, please show us your appreciation.