24
Why is GOG not as succesful as a Gaming Alternative? (feddit.org)
submitted 7 months ago* by to c/gog@lemmy.world
55 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Now i am someone whos a Huge Fan of DRM Free Gaming (well im in GOG Community go figure :P) and basically what i was always wondering as as to why DRM seems to be so popular still among Gamers considering StarForce and such? >.>

DRM Free Gaming is probably mostly a Thing that probably comes into Old Gamers Minds more than newer ones considering that StarForce and SafeDisc are more or less RetroDRMs that i doubt many Newer Gamers cant phatom really? >.>

But what surprises me the most is that the Voice arent "louder" for even just removing Basic Denuvo after 6 Months off Steam or so >.>
Like for me itd be honestly fine to make a Trade off them just having Denuvo on a New Release for 6 - 12 Months and then removing it honestly as itd love to buy Games such as the Persona Games instead of having to emulate them honestly :P
Where i was wondering as to Why is GOG not the most Popular Gaming Platform?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I'd say GOG's position only proves the point of Epic and the ongoing class action lawsuits against Valve. Steam is deeply entrenched in the market and uses shady tactics like telling developers not to sell games for less outside Steam. You'd think offering good features and better practices would help, but it has not. Gamers are overwhelmingly positive about GOG, but most feel tied to Steam, and only a handful buy from GOG. It's no wonder Epic prioritized exclusives.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

    **Telling developers that they can't have bigger discounts on other store fronts is an unsubstantiated claim by one developer. The official policy has to do with discounting Steam keys, ie selling a Steam game for less than on the Steam store, while keeping all profits and taking advantage of Steams features.

    If general sales were actually being restricted by Steam, it would have been made immediately obvious with sites like isthereanydeal. Such a site would have no reason to exist if the Steam store would always have the best discounts due to forced store policy.

    *EDIT: Was gonna strike through this text, can't get formatting to work. See below comment by Rose@lemmy.zip

    "Overwhelmingly positive" please spend at least 5 minutes reading the GOG general discussion forums and get back to me. GOG is constantly being criticized by their main user base for how poorly they run their store and their nonsensical business decisions. I don't think this is a bad thing tbh; its a better situation than the Steam fanboys being creepy boot lickers. But I would not describe GOGs most adamant supports being universally "positive" about the state of the store and company.

    The general customer base of GOG does not care about the Galaxy 2.0 client, or GOGs collaboration with Amazon Luna for streaming owned titles. I don't know what other "good features" you could be referring to. GOG is barebones, but competent, in the world of digital store fronts/game launchers. But obviously being competent is not enough when dealing with an entrenched monopoly.

    Most gamers do not care about DRM. This is the same market that is suffering from enshittification at an abnormal rate. This market has already long normalized things like gambling mechanics advertised towards children, or installing spyware for the sole purpose of stopping cheaters. Outside of the bubble of online discussions, the target audience does not think about these things and will buy whatever slop is put in front of them. Clearly the people who buy Denuvo releases at launch on Steam do not feel any reason to buy games on GOG specifically. And judging by public sales/player data, that's a lot of people.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    One developer? The Wolfire case contains dozens of those messages to various developers, irrespective of Steam key use. See page 160 here. The way Valve goes about it is also not contradicted by you pointing out there are lower prices. For one, they say they expect price parity soon, not immediately. Secondly, they don't and can't enforce that rule automatically, so there are always instances they don't see. As seen in those messages from court, sometimes their response is to restrict the games' visibility on the store, which is not something a platform like ITAD can track.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago* (1 child)

    I will admit that I foolishly believed someone else's summation on the situation; that sourced report, assuming the emails are real, is pretty damning. Notably the email correspondence between publishers/developers and Valve does not mention any official policy, but without additional context comes off as threatening... multiple examples of punishment and out right removal from the store, wow.

    And incidents as recent as 2022. I would have figured the older examples would be there because Valve was a lot more blatantly corrupt when they were first forcing the Steam client on consumers. People tend not to bring up when Valve was buying exclusivity of already released retail CD games and taking them off shelves to force Steam exclusivity. Wonder why its taken this long to come out in a court case? Its not like there isn't a long, recent history of indie devs yelling publicly on the internet about the dumb shit Valve puts them through.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    A case like this takes money and years of efforts. I don't think any indie dev would be willing to spend that much, especially knowing Valve can afford incredible lawyers. The evidence would have to be really convincing for this to even be worth risking. Those messages not being accurate could also make the plaintiffs liable for lying under oath.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent