Steam is Bad, GOG is good. yep we know.

The sales are not lost to steam, they are lost to Humble. Steam do not get a single cent from this bundle - which may be way gOg do not participate?

Doesn't matter how cheap it is, as they are just steam *spit* keys then you don't own anything. Even if they gave it away for free with a free "I love Steam" t-shirt, you still don't own anything hence its vastly overpriced. And GOG is good value, hence why we are here on this forum rather theirs surely?

INDEED!

There must have been some involvement in the past, because Humble Bundle gave away a GoG key for a game in a bundle at least once (Defender's Quest). I wonder what happened after this.

I'd be happy to see more GoG keys in humble bundles instead of Steam keys.

That's pretty easy to judge. Assuming the default split, that's 65% going to the devs, which is currently around $870,000. How this is divided between the devs I can't tell.

That was a choice taken by Level Up Labs rather then gOg. And even today - if you buy DQ from Humble or via Humble Widget, you get Steam + gOg key.

But it does show that Humble can do gOg keys, if gOg wanted to participate. But at a guess, I think gOg has judged it to not be economically feasible yet (remember - gOg do not get any income from any Humble sales).

Actually you'll really own that very ugly t-shirt ;)

When I bought DQ from Level Up Labs I asked why they're not advertising the GOG key, and they said that GOG didn't want them to. So my understanding is that it's possible to give away GOG keys (I certainly got some from bundles) but GOG doesn't encourage it. Since gamers probably also don't encourage it (I doubt there are tons of them writing devs to include such keys), it will probably remain an occasional key, rather than a common occurrence.

Giving away GOG keys in bundles can add to the number of GOG users but takes away income, so whether it's good or bad for GOG is not clear.

Gotta repeat it every week with a new thread for all us dummies out there ya'know.

I understand GOG is not opposed to providing bundle keys (GOG keys have been in Humble Bundles, Groupees, Indie Game Stand PWYW, etc). A blue text explained once GOG has a policy that developers not provide both Steam and GOG keys together so that likely accounts for some absence in bundles, developers often chose to offer the more popular Steam instead.

Edit: 666 rep!

It's not nice to see this Star Wars bundle so soon after the GOG releases, but I think it would be even worse if the bundle would include GOG keys. Imagine you had just bought one of these games on GOG for $10 or so, just to see several GOG keys given away for a dollar now. At least now there's still the incentive to support GOG for DRM-free versions.

I'm not trying to tell GOG how to run its business, I only vote with my wallet.

My understanding is that Valve doesn't get a dime directly from the HumbleBundle Steam key sales, so in that sense probably GOG wouldn't get either, if they offered (free) GOG keys to HB.

The reason for Valve to let developers sell Steam keys free-of-charge (e.g. in HB, or directly from the developer site) is to cement Steam's place as the de-facto platform to play your PC games in. Whether the same tactic worked similarly for GOG (before they'd ran out of money), hard to say.

For many the additional GOG key (on top of the Steam key) might just be worth nothing, they e.g. weren't ready to pay any extra for the GOG key, just like they wouldn't if the games came also with GamersGate keys. It is the same game, just on different stores. At best, the GOG keys would possibly be just sold or traded, like some are now doing for Steam keys.

Alternatively, it might work, and bring more potential customers also to GOG, who would also buy directly from GOG. Hard to say, GOG needs to figure it out themselves, it's their neck on the line, not mine (or any other non-blue writing to this thread). For someone like Valve who has the dominant role in the market, it is far easier to pull stunts like these (stuff for free, or at least heavily discounted, in order to keep the competition at bay).

The free Witcher GOG keys to Steam-version owners of the Witcher games were a very restricted version of that same tactic, ie. trying to lure some Steam users to GOG service as well with free GOG keys. It was easier to arrange, as the publisher of the game and GOG are so closely related, a bit like how Valve would offer free Steam keys for Half-life and Portal games (like they've done before for Portal at least).

I was making an assumption above that it would be "GOG keys on top of Steam keys". Maybe a GOG-key only sale on HB would work better, maybe. Then the GOG keys would be the center piece of the sales and not just some fluff on top of the Steam key sales.

Dunno, up to GOG. :) I presume HB would be fine with it, as long as GOG didn't want any cut for the GOG keys sold in the bundle.