Well someone suggested that this move was to distract from the CP launch... (I admit it: I like the game so far, even on my lowly machine, so there's that), but I don't believe GOG is that clever.

I think
a) Maybe Tencent put pressure on Epic who in turn put pressure on GOG (Epic store in Galaxy) or something like that, and/or
b) GOG in all their glorious competence we've all experienced really somehow didn't know about the controversy surrounding this game in China and when after the announcement the first million complaints came in someone quickly googled the issue and went all pale, and/or
c) CDP group has a lot of chinese investors (more than 60% are publicly traded) who were not amused, and/or
d) They are genuinely afraid to lose something on the Chinese market - which is huge, but I don't how much of a foothold GOG had there. There are a few active Chinese users here on the forum, and there could be a ton of customer who might be pissed off by the game.

Fact is, this is one of the worst cases of "handling a situation" GOG ever pulled. Headless chicken could have done it better.

Fact is also that the Chinese, who went through a lot of suffering, but also achieved a lot in the last years and decades, are genuinely proud of their country and leadership, and lack a sense of humour in that regard.
And they're not the only ones. Post "DRM-free #wontbeerased" on Twitter and watch yourself get turn apart, in the o so free "West".
Make a few jokes about Trump and be the rest of your life afraid some crazed Trumpist shows up at your front door with a gun.
We're different, but we're not better.

I can't even make the sarcastic joke. This just guarantees that China is once again going to get trolled with Winnie the Pooh memes and that this is going to cause way more of an uproar than simply releasing the game could ever hope to accomplish.

Welp, looking like I'm gonna be doing ALL my game shopping on Steam now...

Bunch of hypocrites that they now suddenly are crying because China is involved while ignoring years of games getting censored because of its content. At least GOG finally gets the backlash they deserved with their biased hypocritical agenda.

Funny how political talks here were a banning offense yet GOG themselves are now playing politically.

Seeing how 10c is the biggest entertainment company there, and western companies need approval from 10c (or other CCP approved companies with party representatives), I'd say it might be because CD Project Group wanted CyberPunk 2077 (especially), and past and future games to be sold there.

Steam also bent the knee to China so changing stores doesn't really solve the issue in this case.

Steam didn't removed the game. It was the developers. But we don't know what happend behind the doors.

There is however another very interesting one from that same guy (checked some of his earlier tweets), where he puts a screenshot of what he said he wrote a couple of days ago, in a nutshell :

CP2077 (CDPR) which is not yet licensed to be sold in China (where it seems to be really popular), could be banned by the government should there be any controversy, like, and he quoted, in and with Devotion.

Best to read the tweet to get exactly what he's talking about but seeing this, one could ask if we are dealing with a coincidence or a pattern...

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1339247561417367552

Nice to see GOG betraying it's fan and supporters for communist china.

Earlier in the thread a post was made that showed that Steam is working to change there client to appease Chinese censors, so they are guilty of kneeling regardless.

Do what I do. wait till it's filthy cheap then buy it so they can't profit much of me. see no reason to support another corrupt online store before the other so you need to make it so they can make as little money off you as possible. I only buy old games and ignore the new ones cause GOG refuses to bring certain titles here so I see no need to buy from them if they don't support my choice of games.

They really have nothing to be proud of. They're pretty much copying the holocaust one-to-one towards minorities in China - and in this case the silence of the people and the silence of leftists like you in America and Europe, just like the Nazis, is allowing for it.

The USA is nothing like a dictatorship. I'd be far more worried about the violent racism from Antifa or BLM than I would from any "Trumpist". So take your political opinion and stick it where the sun don't shine.

"We're different, but we're not better"
Yes. The West is better on Every.Single.Point. The western culture is better. The western education system is better. Western technology and western thought. Free speech and capitalism. Every single point of reference the West is better.

GOG, don't trust China, China asshoe!

I wonder if you even realize how self-cancelling your entire post was... probably not.

I'm sure Winnie is on his way to personally congratulate you with bonus social credit score points, "gamers" couldn't have put it better.

That's already what I usually do, unless the launch discount is good and/or I REALLY want the game. Green Man Gaming is especially helpful in this area. This storefront was my main source for retro computer games. Keyword being "was".