This is why GOG should offer p2p network torrent sharing for their games. That would solve most download issues.

Simply put, most customers at GOG don't have a super fast web connection and many don't have a reliable one, so it is simplest and best to split up into 4 GB sections. Resume while great, doesn't always cope with corrupted segments, especially via your browser.

There are some here who don't care about others, which you can see in their replies. Just ignore them.

And GOG are not so financial that they can afford to keep a second copy of a game as a single download, just for those who would prefer it. Not to mention managing that extra copy.

Some will of course see conspiracies everywhere, and yes GOG does go too far pushing Galaxy, but not in this instance. Galaxy wasn't even a thing or barely on the radar when GOG provided split downloads.

As for other stores providing single huge downloads, I'd like to know which ones?
Steam does a stream download and install, as does Epic and no doubt others. That is similar to what Galaxy does if you don't get the Offline Installers.

Those who don't experience hardship have little sympathy for those who do.

I think at least Humble and Itch.io offer one file downloads, although I'm not 100% sure about that without actually checking (and I'm not going to check right now).

Of course the real question here probably would be which stores offer client-free downloads, and there aren't that many. At least not in English, I think there could be some in other languages, like Spanish etc.

it's meant to accomodate USBs with a 4gb size limit.

I can almost hear the outcry if they got rid of that. "OMG GOG cares only about gays and not folks with bad connection and retro gamers sitting on Windows XP with FAT32. I will NEVER buy anything here and hope they'll die next year!".

Indeed. I feel that I was far too soft on him in my my reply. Guy's an entitled and spoilt brat.

I've seen people try and run crazier combos, and you bet the woodworks is full of people who'd say this unironically.

While I have bought a sizable bunch of games from Humble, it has only been DRM-Free ones, and I don't recall any real huge files. But you may be right, as Outcast - Second Contact is a 5.92 GB zip file. But honestly I am not a fan of Humble, who care more about profits than service.

I don't recall any real large downloads with Itch.io, where I have grabbed hundreds of games over the years. But a lot of those were free or in special bundles.

And yes, they are two of the few where you don't need to use a store client to download.

The ZOOM Platform another store without a client, splits their downloads into 2 GB files (EXE and BIN).

It must be stated that GOG often provide very large Linux and MAC downloads, greater than 4 GB. But that is to very much a minority group of customers, including myself.

At least Brütal Legend seems to be 7GB files, according to game page there.
I can't actually confirm this, because I have that game on GOG, but as an example that probably proves the point anyway.

That's true, so the main reason must be seemingly possibility of Windows user with FAT32, because on other OS's you basically won't find filesystem with such restrictions.

I agree. There's probably even a way to authenticate or otherwise ensure only users are downloading, too.

Humble also offers all downloads through BitTorrent, as well as via direct download, so that would presumably (mostly) obviate the need for smaller "chunk" downloads from them, apart from the whole FAT32 thing (which they probably don't care about).

Personally I don't think FAT32 has anything to do with it. Those using such would be a small minority, and likely using Windows XP, which GOG no longer really supports.

I have read where there are difficulties with split installers for Linux and presumably the same for MAC. It is also possible there are less issues relating to large files and downloading on Linux, and maybe MAC as well. Or because they are a minority and GOG doesn't really support, they don't care much about such issues or never get failure complaints for those systems.

But all that is beside the point. As I and others have said, it would be down to supporting the many who don't have a great web connection or download speed. That would have to be the prime reason. GOG would get enough complaints as it is with failed downloads and seemingly corrupt files, which would be much worse with huge files.

I've also read where the standard InnoSetup split is 2 GB, but GOG have increased that to 4 GB.

There is.