I didn't know about Nine Sols, thank you. Checking each developer individually is extremely tedious. It would be very convenient if there were a community pooled 'many hands make light work' list of titles that aren't otherwise available from a DRM-free distributor unless purchased directly from the developer/publisher. If there's an extensive list out there already rather than just sporadic tidbits of information, I couldn't find it.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/good_games_that_are_available_drmfree_but_currently_are_not_sold_on_gog

Thanks. I must have overlooked this thread, as it naturally is going to focus on games on EGS, Itch, etc first.

I miss JMich. He always had the exact numbers. Every year somebody complained and every year he proved that we got more games than the year before. Not sure that's still true, but he would have hade the numbers to discuss it based on facts.

Edit: Nevermind, gogtrial already gave us some numbers. Thank you for that.

Great work with those numbers.

Been here long enough to see numerous developers state on steam forums, they are waiting on gog staff to ask them to join gog. Seems common enough, that gog must not court any or not many.

So we end up with a lot of games that have little or no depth.

Not original thoughts, but maybe Epic stole GOG's position as the #2 store. Or just not enough money made here for devs/pubs to want to bother.

Conversely, there are stories littered around that demonstrate GOG do, or used to approach certain developers. What there process was or is, is a somewhat of a mystery to me. One possibility is that in the past GOG approached developers/publishers much more assertively than they do now, and this expectation has remained. But here are two examples I know of from the top of my head:
- https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/faq.html
"GOG at one point years ago contacted me to say they would like to see Cogmind on their platform, though when later asked for business-related details they did not respond, so I don't know what to think about that. "
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pmc5yIEE2g
In the Dino Crisis video, it is insinuated that GOG approached Capcom, "two Polish dudes coming to them saying..."

Numbers don't matter unless they're either a serious order of increase over previous or have the provenance of significant quality attached to them.

Of the 664 games released last year on GOG, how many do you really think you'd have gone out of your way to play?

The numbers might help here, otherwise we are right back to where we started; the feelings of one person that he didn't like this years releases all that much. In lieu of the collective play-time information of users or some user survey results, the sales numbers of games released this year could be useful in answering that question: "Of the 664 games released last year on GOG, how many did people go out of their way to purchase, relative to those released the year prior?"

Unfortunately, I don't have such a figure for you. The closest thing I have is the generic annual "sales of goods and materials" figure, pg 36, (i.e. games sold) which went down by 13.9% from a recorded PLN 168,126K to PLN 144,716K. CDP claims this is primarily due to a big ticket title Cyperpunk: Phantom Liberty boosting sales in its comparative year and the relative weakening of the PLN to the EUR in its contemporary year, rather than a reduction in user interest. But this number and information isn't all that useful or qualitative, sorry. But it's all I've got.

Thanks for this. I wouldn't have expected this year to be on par with many of the last few years. Guess I was wrong.

speaking as some one that stuggled not to fall asleep watching this years triple_i promo added with the now infamous Cyperpunk

then add in the current Steam [redo their code to block Gog + all games MUST be released first on Steam before going anywhere else or will be banned] policy

yes its not a major shock that Gog doesn't matter as much as past years

Don't think GOG ever actually was the #2 store. Maybe for a handful of select games, but overall, definitely not.
On the other hand, Epic shouldn't be included in any comparison about the market since it doesn't function as a "real" store, just taking money from the parent company and throwing it at rightsholders to put their games there, specifically not aiming to do anything other than lose sums comparable if not greater than GOG's total income just for market share.

If those devs actually cared, they could approach GOG themselves, and GOG even provide a way to do so.

So I take what those devs say, with a pinch of salt.

Many in my estimation, are deliberately trying to foster GOG in a bad light, either because GOG wouldn't agree to the terms they wanted, or because in general they don't approve of a DRM-Free store.

As we have seen in the past, some devs try to introduce DRM via updates, so my trust of them doesn't go very far.

And many likely have an agenda of using GOG to get two bites of the cherry by coercing folk to double dip. There have been many examples of GOG customers getting fed up with an abandoned game on GOG or its way behind with bug fixing updates, and so they buy again on Steam etc.

And some no doubt, just see GOG as an advertising venue, and just really want to lure customers to Steam etc. Much no doubt gets lost in the wash at Steam, but perhaps more easily come across at GOG, which is a tidier less hectic place.