I think you're vastly overstating how 'outside of the box' thinking this move appears to be.

Publishers already do this every single time you see a DRM-Free version sold with a Steam key, which is pretty much everywhere *except* GOG. For publishers it's incredibly normal to allow you a second version of your game in a different place than you bought it. Except here, because GOG does not want to sell Steam keys (or Uplay, Origin etc).

There are lots of games on GOG that are sold with both a DRM-Free version *and* a Steam key elsewhere. Which to be honest makes the whole "You own the games, so why buy them more than once?" slogan of GOG connect a little ironic. It's not the publishers blocking the activation of games on another service there, it's GOG.

So no, I don't consider this to be something that 'speaks volumes' when it comes to publishers attitude. Imo they're just allowing GOG to do something that's pretty common in the industry, and probably wouldn't have been needed if GOG been more pro active about allowing publishers to hand out GOG keys as their 'DRM-Free' version, which would've been ideal imo.

But then from what I've read it seems GOG does not want to give publishers GOG keys to sell if they're going to combine them with Steam keys. Though I believe when that was mentioned it was for a kickstarter or Humble? Don't remember.

I do agree it was a smart move of GOG to take that step off the publishers hands by creating a system that verifies ownership for them with the Steam API and thus making it easy to also hand out a GOG version that way. Up till now you pretty much had to email developers and hope they handled the ticket and bothered to send you a GOG key (which some do).

The only disappointing thing is the 5 day limit, which, if anything about this 'speaks volumes', this would be it. That apparently publishers are not ready to make this step permanently but are only willing to do it for a limited timeframe only. Making it more of a limited giveaway than a permanent step towards allowing people copies on multiple platforms no matter where it is bought.

Imo, that's the smartest step made here. Making it convenient for the publishers. That's what Steamworks does for publishers, and where the publishers are, consumers will follow.

PS: I have to say, from the perspective of a mainly Steam user, I have to admit GOG connect actually makes me more comfortable buying Steam games, with the prospect of my GOG library filling itself up over time thanks to this anyway. (if, hopefully the publishers keep adding to this program)

The opposite is also true in some cases. Humble Bundles, at the beginning, used to be DRM-free only (their own versions, not GOG versions), but ever since they changed that policy, many times I've seen Humble Bundles only offering Steam, Origin, or uPlay keys for some games, and no DRM-free option, even though we know those games can exist DRM-free, because they're also on GOG.

Quite true, they seem to be getting lazy in that regard.

3 days ago since I discovered this connect thing and all 3 days when I try and check I get "SORRY, WE ENCOUNTERED AN UNEXPECTED ERROR DUE TO HIGH TRAFFIC. Please return to this page and try again in a few hours". I have not even got an option to connect my steam account yet

It's been nearly a week and the page times out EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I click on the "Sign in through steam" button. I've tried it over and over every single day to no avail. Aaaaaand now there's a countdown timer for the games! Are you serious?

Try Again Shortly They Have Just Fixed All Known Issues And It Should Be Working.
It Took 4 Days For Mine But As Soon As They Released The Fix It Worked.

Still can't connect. I keep getting the same message saying it's in progress. I connected the account shortly after they announced it (~1h). Other people seem to be having more luck doing it instantly. I wonder whats holding it up

Probably should've made sure this works before putting time limits on anything.

I've been trying since it said 5 days to go. Now it's down to 34 hours to go and no luck. It fails to open page (server unresponsive) every time. I don't even get to the busy server.

It would be nice if the timer could at least be extended to deal with the initial rush.

About to end the countdown for those games and looks like many of us haven't been able to connect our accounts... That's really unfair... Come on GOG many of us have tried to connect many times each day since the beggining...

I tired to tell everyone that little of time to redeem the games wasn't enough given gog's history of their site being swamped and features not working properly whenever there's a big event of some sort, but I was told I was "complaining". :P

When will we know when something becomes available through Connect? Do we just have to check every other day or something? Or will there be announcements

Still getting connection time-outs while trying to connect my steam account.

You know, launching this would've been absolutely perfect and hilarious about two months ago. Now, it's just kind of slightly annoying which is a shame. Get a calendar next time.

What happened two months ago?