Unless you count the multiplayer/server parts. Which wasn't a problem until they made Diablo3 online only.

Its just impractical to balance & prevent hacks/cheat glitches in an online game prior to release... Plus online always lures devs to be lazy (fast iterate as we call it), since everyone has to be online you know you can constantly push out another patch. So this requires additional discipline/processes to guard against.

The problem is that consumers continue to buy buggy software, so in order to gain an edge over competition, games (and software in genereal) get released in incomplete chunks (good when the released parts are stable, bad if they're buggy). The latest incarnation of this is the wave of kickstarter / steam early access releases. But at least there you know what you get. Unless it gets stamped "finished" while still buggy...
This lists *removed* and not *to be* removed games (so i can instabuy before removal).
But thanks anyway its a very fine tool i didn't know about :)

So yesterday I bought Defender's Quest and I'm very glad I did that! The game is more interesting and fun than I expected. I played it for five or six hours into the night! While the gameplay itself is intriguing, it is the story, characters and especially great dialogs that keep me going on with "just one more battle". Graphic art feels much more lively (and lovely) than from screenshots – especially characters and their emotions, I like Azra and Slak very much – and there are landscapes that are downright beautiful. All in all, while playing I have strange mixture of sentimental and novelty feeling; it somehow feels like one of the good old games but when they were new.

Spreadsheet updated for the morning...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-VD-iAhDf-nBcCS2unQF96Q0wYxUgVaqQWEVXvkJ-X8/edit?usp=sharing

Observations of the day...

Just 2 games (now) with only 3 appearances left:
Defender's Quest
Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut

And just recently we had our first 8 time flash appearance!
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™

I'm still not convinced that certain publishers are asking for fewer appearances. That being the case I'd expect there to be 2 or 3 distinct tracks. Instead the breakdown is as follows:
3 appearances - 4 games
4 appearances - 54 games
5 appearances - 94 games
6 appearances - 65 games
7 appearances - 9 games
8 appearances - 1 game

This looks like some sort of bell curve which is making me believe it might be truly random and the games with fewer appearances were just unlucky.

I find it harder to believe that the money to be made by devs/ pubs and the success of GOG's Summer Flash Deals sales' model is left to randomness and luck. If it was the case, don't think that there would a good number of devs/pubs displeased (to say the least) with GOG and the way they handled this sale model?


Nicely put, felt more or less the same way the first time I played the game. :-)

Here's the thing, if there were different tiers of entry, you'd expect groupings. Probably one high frequency and one low frequency. Instead you have all but 14 games hovering around the average and there is no pattern to which games these are. It's not like the games with most appearances come from the same publisher (same with least). I would not be surprised if the appearances are randomly generated, but by the end of the sale, the numbers start to converge. In other words, the unlucky games might be guaranteed lucky for the second half of the sale because all games will appear the same number of times.

And what's important if this is the case...the games to worry about would be the ones that have appeared many times already. Some expect them to continue this pace. Hopefully people aren't holding off on these, because if I'm right, games like Alpha Centauri will likely be the scarce ones at the end of the sale.

OK, I see what you mean, and it could very well be the case, but wouldn't that also mean that the extra pics that were uncovered by JMich won't be part of this summer sale?
OTOH, can you rule out that there isn't a fixed number of predefined tiers?

I'm thinking the other pics are either something else (maybe a special flash sale) or some deal that fell through or went so well that instead of a flash sale, they went with a sale-long discount. The other weird thing is all the DLC on that list.

In terms of predefined tiers, the number distribution doesn't look like that. I can be more sure as we get closer to the end of the sale though since, if I'm correct, the number will have to converge on the final appearance number. Since we are a little more than halfway done, and it's very round, I'm guessing that number is 10. Which might be games with 8 appearances have only 2 more left for the rest of the sale.

Ah sorry, I haven't read your post careful enough. Unfortunately there is no such list as removals are usually not planned long before they happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 41
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flash Deals #401 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:00:00 UTC)

Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes $2.99 ($19.99) [85% OFF]
InFlux $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]


Flash Deals #402 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:36:00 UTC)

BloodRayne 2 $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]
Smugglers V $2.99 ($9.99) [70% OFF]


Flash Deals #403 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 11:12:00 UTC)

Tropico 3 Gold Edition $2.99 ($14.99) [80% OFF]
Fragile Allegiance $1.49 ($5.99) [75% OFF]


Flash Deals #404 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 11:48:00 UTC)

Botanicula $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]
La Mulana $2.99 ($14.99) [80% OFF]


Flash Deals #405 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 12:24:00 UTC)

Summoner $1.49 ($5.99) [75% OFF]
Hotline Miami $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]


Flash Deals #406 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 13:00:00 UTC)

Stronghold Crusader HD $3.33 ($9.99) [66% OFF]
Book Of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles, The $4.99 ($19.99) [75% OFF]


Flash Deals #407 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 13:36:00 UTC)

Windforge $4.99 ($14.99) [66% OFF]
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition $2.49 ($9.99) [75% OFF]


Flash Deals #408 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:12:00 UTC)

Sir, You Are Being Hunted $4.99 ($19.99) [75% OFF]
King's Bounty: Crossworlds GOTY $3.99 ($19.99) [80% OFF]


Flash Deals #409 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:48:00 UTC)

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ $1.49 ($5.99) [75% OFF]
Driftmoon $2.24 ($14.99) [85% OFF]


Flash Deals #410 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 15:24:00 UTC)

Super Hexagon $0.99 ($2.99) [66% OFF]
Beyond Good and Evil™ $2.49 ($9.99) [75% OFF]

Sometimes we are given a forewarning. For example, the rights for the Fallout games were due to expire on a particular date, so we knew in advance. With Arma and Original War we were also given a warning.

In a couple cases, a lawsuit suddenly reared its ugly head and the game got pulled with no warning. For example, Re-Volt was sued for using code developed by the community without credit. As a result, the game was pulled and probably will not reappear until the rights get settled.

Definitely not purely random, the distribution would look a lot different if it was, much less bunched at 4/5/6 appearances.

But relatively consistent with random but guaranteed X number of times. Changes the equation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 42
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daily Deals #8

Wing Commander Saga 80% OFF
Wing Commander 1-5 + Privateer 1-2 + Armada + Academy
$9.52 ($47.92)

Risen Saga 80% OFF
Risen 1-2
$7.98($39.98)

Flash Deals #411 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 16:00:00 UTC)

Aarklash: Legacy $6.29 ($20.99) [70% OFF]
Painkiller Black Edition $2.49 ($9.99) [75% OFF]

Flash Deals #412 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 16:36:00 UTC)

Journey of a Roach $2.24 ($14.99) [85% OFF]
Democracy 3 $6.24 ($24.99) [75% OFF]

Flash Deals #413 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 17:12:00 UTC)

System Shock 2 $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]
To The Moon $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]

Flash Deals #414 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 17:48:00 UTC)

King of Dragon Pass $1.49 ($5.99) [75% OFF]
Ether One Deluxe Edition [Premium] $7.49 ($29.99) [75% OFF]

Flash Deals #415 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:24:00 UTC)

Lucius $2.99 ($19.99) [85% OFF]
Red Baron Pack $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]

Flash Deals #416 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:00:00 UTC)

Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers $0.99 ($9.99) [90% OFF]
New Beginning - Final Cut, A $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]

Flash Deals #417 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:36:00 UTC)

Capitalism 2 $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]
Consortium: Master Edition, The $4.99 ($19.99) [75% OFF]

Flash Deals #418 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 20:12:00 UTC)

Journeyman Project 1: Pegasus Prime, The $4.99 ($9.99) [50% OFF]
PixelJunk Shooter $1.79 ($8.99) [80% OFF]

Flash Deals #419 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 20:48:00 UTC)

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest $2.49 ($9.99) [75% OFF]
Lilly Looking Through $1.99 ($9.99) [80% OFF]

Flash Deals #420 (Ends Mon, 23 Jun 2014 21:24:00 UTC)

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee $1.49 ($5.99) [75% OFF]
Don't Starve $4.99 ($14.99) [66% OFF]

Thanks. A bit of forum searching and i guess you mean that post. But i can't find such a post for fallout. I guess it's just plain luck to get that "warning" in time...

For Space Rangers, Fallout, Guilty Gear Isuka & possibly ObsCure the removal was clearly a (HD) re-release on steam... For ArmA / Original Sin it might be that Bohemia Interactive just pulled everthing not on steam. but does anyone know why the others were pulled (ColinMcRae, Cryostasis,TOCA,...) ?

Fallout's removal was right before the new year and Gog posted it on the front page and gave them out for free! That one was really obvious...

Colin McRae had something to do with a limit on the license for the cars in the game.

And Fallout was the distributor deal expired and changed hands, not HD versions.