While I agree that the Hitman issue needs to be fixed, people are most certainly overreacting here. The only content that requires an online connection is cosmetic and content that is, well, online content ergo it would require an online connection to use. Moreover, if anyone is to blame for this, it's the developer of the game since this same exact issue happened on other platforms as well.

So yeah, GOG needs to pressure the devs into removing the online requirement for all single player content but at the same time, people need to chill. When you look at what the online requirement actually restricts, it's extremely minimal.

This is just untrue, the storefront knows what they are signing. They know what the game is and how it works. Are you honestly trying to say there are not lines upon lines of people a game goes through before release?

GOG, as a DRM-Free store, should be able to do a crumb of research into a game they are about to release. Hitman's connection to online services is well known. A google search can get you that info. You're being super naive. The Devotion topic was similar too. A single google search brought up why China was not happy with the game and the 'problems' around it.

IOI Interactive did the deal, but don't pretend for a second that GOG we're some sort of blameless victim here. We're not talking a mom and pop shop here, it's part of a mutli-million dollar group.So much for curation huh?

Don't want the service to meltdown and no longer exist but it certainly feels like they're 100% disconnected with their market and their place in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully this whole thing helps them adjust

The sad truth is not just cosmetic or the time-limited events are locked. Stuff like starting locations, guns, outfits, progression, its all behind the explicit "not for offline" statement. I truly wished to think of it as overreaction, hoped to find a solution to fix, well, there is no solution and the upgrade EXE from the offline installer is a joke, not a solution.

The forums are telling. In my native, and in French and German people seem to be concerned, in Polish, on the contrary, it gives the same "people are overreacting, let's wait" kind of attitude. In reviews, I see the misleading "everything unlocked" (no, it's not) from GogColonel: This can worsen the situation when people notice that it doesn't unlock and it's not "everything."

GOG should react and try to fix it, it won't pull down all the irreversible damage already done but it would help to calm down.

It's hardly naive to place the blame where it belongs. I'm not saying GOG didn't make a mistake here, because they absolutely did. However, the anger and vitriol should be directed to the devs, not GOG who gets constant whining because of people who slap the DRM label onto everything they hate (which cheapens the entire goal of the DRM-free cause but I digress).

Like you mentioned, they're a curated store. However, at the same time, a LOT of major publishers won't release modern games on GOG because they're so obsessed with controlling how people access games, never letting them own anything. Again, they're the ones to blame. GOG made a mistake here, absolutely, but people really should cut them a little slack and remember that licensing products isn't easy as it is. It's even worse when it comes to licensing media in a way that directly contradicts the profiteering of major media publishers.

Again, I'm not saying people shouldn't voice criticism on this. They absolutely should. GOG needs to know that we DO still care about DRM-free gaming and that they need to pressure the devs into removing the online requirement. However, people declaring "irreversible damage to the GOG brand" because one game has actual DRM (and not the false use of "DRM" that people use to describe whatever they hate), they're the ones who are overreacting. I voiced my feedback in several avenues, making it clear that I do not condone it, but I'm not preaching doom or throwing tantrums over this. It's just childish.

I think, if the DRM is so intrusive, the shouldn't have made the deal in the first place. I refuse to believe GOG did not know what they were getting into. I mean I am fine when DRM is only for the multiplayer or if it is required for completely optional community events like Dying Light, but providing core singleplayer content as service is just too far. I have never thought that GOG should have games as service. We have Steam and EGS for that.

Honestly, I feel hurt and betrayed. GOG was supposed to be better. Its always painful to see someone you admire and respect fall from grace.

If AAA studios refuse to release their AAA games here, that is fair enough. There are more than enough great indies. We can do without AAA, I think. We have other platforms for that. I don't wat to start a firefight, or anything. I am deeply saddened by this turn of events.

I feel like GOG is going to have to do something major, some huge changes to get me back as a customer because steam offers an objectively superior platform for DRM games... :(

How can I trust there won't be another mistake?

I have, possibly a bit generalized, impression that CD Project Red has some quality control issues after Cyberpunk 2077. The case how it had passed and is so buggy after such a long time is very alarming, while the corp states it's fine. My point if the store was curated well, the Hitman accident couldn't happen: Quality control should be tougher.

This, according to my knowledge and experience is fourth big and irreversible damage done to GOG by GOG itself in only last year and a half.
So:
1. In April 2020. => forced GOG Galaxy 2.0 Beta update!
2. Later in 2020. => refused Devotion, because "many massages from many gamers!"
3. Also in 2020. => deal with EGS!
4. Day before yesterday => releasing a game with almost half content locked behind online requirement!

I remember "Devotion." "Many messages from many gamers" for real are happening right now. Where is any reaction for all of those days? I see silence. I am afraid nothing correct will be done.

Gog is to blame for going right along with it.

They didn't make a mistake. This was deliberate.

People have been cutting them a little slack ever since the removal of their one-world-one-price policy. Things have gone downhill for over half a decade now, but up until the userbase have cut them a little slack since gog would still release a somewhat steady stream of DRM-freed AAA trash. But since the AAA trash isn't really all that DRM-free any more and half a game can be hidden behind constant online checks, the time for slack-cutting has clearly expired.

It sends the message that there is a group of consumers who don't see value in your product until it is DRM-Free. If you buy the games only when they are DRM-Free, you ensure that the next game gets a DRM-Free version, and the next one because there is still money to be made from it. That's why you buy it then.

I mean when your company used preservation and DRM-Free as their core principles and then goes on to sign a game, delist it before release, blame their users then release a game with DRM....of course the damage is there. You can't deny it.

I know you mean well but I think you're reaching pretty hard to play this off as anything less than a very very very bad move and a good example of problems at GOG and their sheer disconnect. No one wants the service to go under, hence why people are demanding better. It's from a place of enjoying the service, not hating it. You can't cut your teeth on DRM-Free, base your marketing, branding and community around it only to do this...it's shooting yourself in both feet lol

Exactly my thoughts, if GOG decides to abolish their DRM-free stance, they will certainly hurt themselfes in the long way. Nobody will stick with a Steam knock-off with higher prices.

Im an loyal and exclusive customer of GOG since years (nearly 500 games), and willing to pay higher prices rather than switching to other stores, however if GOG looses their No 1. selling point, there would not be much reason to buy on GOG anymore.

Between GOG and CDPR...

... I have never seen a more perfect crash-and-burn.

Both had HUGE fan good will...

Then they tried to make Thronebreaker exclusive to GOG... and it didn't work

Then they brought us Galaxy... which was data mining masquerading as convenience.

Then they started not updating offline installers... oops we forgot?

Then more games needed Galaxy for full functionality.

Then we had CP 2077. KAAAABOOOOOOOOOMMM! The crater left by that nuclear bomb is still smoldering.

Then we had some "mainland" censorship shenanigans.

And now we have Hitman...

It does feel like a company that's lost its mission and soul and now is just a puppet to financiers.

"You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain" -- The Dark Knight

Too bad the devolution was so quick.

Or was John Connor -- leader of the resistance -- a Terminator all along?

Sad.

Can they come back from this? I'm sure Witcher 4 will get pushed out the door... but if things keep going like this...???

Yeah. It's sad