The latter, or any substance in a similar state really.

So back to possible scenarios.

I think a lot of people here confuse their wishful thinking, what GOGs strategy should be, with what appears to be Gogs strategy if you analyze GOGs decisions.

The wishful thinking of the DRM-Free Fanatics is that there is only one pillar that makes GOGs strategy: Selling DRM-Free games. But this was never the fact, and it is not the only point that makes GOG unique and secures its niche in the market. It is more likely there are five big pillars that make GOGs strategy

1. Selling Good old games, make games legally available again. This is obvious, this was the most visual part of there strategy as they started.

2. Generating higher profit for CD Project Reds Games. Again,. It is obvious. They made millions more with the witcher games (especially the third) by cutting out the middle man for a large percentage of these sales.

3. Selling DRM free games. This is not so much about hating DRM, as about not needing DRM. it is more about a certain attitude, a stance on a seller-customer relationship in which trust and love are more important as distrust or criminalizing your costumers. This attracts a certain kind of customers, and it works best with certain customers, it might not work so well with very young costumers which have little money. (I will get back to this when I get to the business with Epic.)

4. Curation
They said that often enough, curation is a very important part, and it is one pillar of their strategy which makes GOG unique. Other shops curate as well, but not as strategic. Yes, they reject games which might fit their shop … but over all, I think they now a lot about what their customers want or would buy and try to deliver. This pillar is very much connected with next point.

5. Galaxy
Galaxy was seen as an imitation of other sellers that use clients like steam. There is some truth to it, but the purpose is different. Yes, they want to attract new customers, which like the possibilities that clients give, be it multiplayer or chatting with friends or cloud saves ... or some young people simply think, that buying wvia a client is the only way nowadays.
But GOG Galaxy, the one client to rule them all, is also a part of the curation strategy. They want to extend the curation to the shops of their competitors, to games they could right now never sell (drm-free) in the GOG Shop. They start with Epic – which is not crazy, but a logical decision. (And they might never get steam on that ship …)

Epic has made a lot of money with the unreal engine and with Fortnite. They have a lot of costumers – but a lot of them are kids with little money that play mostly fortnite and a lot of them are "leechers" which are only attracted by the free games Epic offers. And their client is nothing to write home about or even worse, something to write home about because it is one of the worst clients out there.

On the other side, Galaxy is the best gaming client. Period. Yes it is, even with its rough edges and little problems. So Epic customers can now use Galaxy, and don’t have to bother too much with the Epic crap client. And the young Epic costumers will get older, earn more money … they might even buy some games on GOG in the future.

Then the GOG user base – very different from Epics. Many Older people that earn decent money, that actually BUY a lot of different games. Less freebies only user, less kidds. So GOG shows their costumers (the part using Galaxy, the grumpy part that never will use galaxy would never buy at Epic anyway) some games in the Epic store: “Here look at this game, it is a good game, you might consider buying it. We cannot sell it in the GOG store, but as a you are a GOG fan and want to support us, you can buy it via galaxy, and then we make some money with that as well.”

It works a bit like an affiliate link for amazon … which might be not the best practise as well, because Amazon at least as evil es Epic. But it is not the end of the world and most likely not the end of GOG.

So Epic and GOG ... not a match made in heaven, but it makes a lot of sense for both companies as a business strategy. And it does not have to be so bad for the customers.

https://fckdrm.com

Give me bloated Steam any day over Galaxy. Period.

I understand that some of you need to invent this whole story in your head that GOG is your friend with good values, but there's no more reason to believe this. CDP is a company with shareholders, and their main product right now is video games without DRM. Maybe it will remain their biggest segment, maybe not.

Your Loss.

GOG ist not your friend, i never wrote that. I explicitly argumented from the business side of things against those whose arguments derive from theier wishful thinking. That you do not need DRM is a business decision, but one which sends a signal that many would interpret as friendly. And you can get an imteresting and valuable type of customer which differs a lot from th etypical steam or epic customer.

What do I lose?

Some worthy and interesting suggestions .... makes for a nice change.

While I understand the sentiment, it isn't rational ... both are crap, but Steam's client is crappier overall.
I regularly use the Steam client to get the odd free game, and it's a pain in the arse waiting for it to start up and do some checking, downloading and installing. If they got rid of that aspect, I might agree with you.

Mmmm pretty sure I never claimed GOG was my friend. But with their support and promotion of DRM-Free they have been somewhat a friend to every sensible gamer. There is no denying now that they are less of a friend ... always happens when money issues arise. None of that means they wanted to become a friend or are a friend in any other sense than we shared a common goal of DRM-Free. Their reasons would be based on some different motivations to ours, so not a true friend as such in an ideal sense.

They are certainly more friendly than Steam and Epic and most of the other stores.

Fair enough, just wanted to make sure, as what you were saying wasn't particularly clear to me.

And you are right about the little specific facts we have, and the rest all speculation based on other indirect facts and then some. Those specific facts (financial figures) are not immune to wrong interpretation or having been fudged in various ways ... not talking criminally ... there are various ways to make things look better than what they truly are.

P.S. Think omission and misdirection.

Cyberpunk 2077
<months later>
Cyberpunk Multiplayer update
<months later>
Cyberpunk Zombie survival update
<months later>
Cyberpunk Battle Royale update
...
???
...
Profit!

:)

Cyberpunk VR

Cyberpunk Mobile

Cyberpunk Gaming Cockpits

Cyberpunk 2

(...)

Cyberwitch 2023... new game from CDPX

Cyberwitch deluxe edition with name engraved antigravity broom controller

Cyberwitch 2...

... :D

I think the best worst case scenario for GOG, if it survives, is that Galaxy will become mandatory even for offline installer downloads.

Optional forever is optional forever. It could be new external tiny downloader but that is extra work and extra activity.
I guess in-browser downloaders are solution now.

How about this ?
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_beta_gog_galaxy_2.0/gog_galaxy_20_is_now_enhanced_with_epic_games_store_official_integration/post81 ?

What should I believe in? I`m a bit lost.

1. Drm game in Gog`s Library (without offline installer) (I don`t like this version)
or
2. Drm game integrated with my Gog`s Library (I accept this version)
or
3. These would be Epic store Drm-free games. (I love this version) ^

Please advise.

1. No, they will be in the EpicGames part of your whole library in Galaxy, Same for Point 2. You wolud not be buying them from GOG, it would technically be more that you buy the game from the PUblisher and Epic gets their (12% ?) cut and then GOG gets a small part of the cut as well.

3. Could happen, but would most likely not be mandatory. And if a company releases a game DRM-Free on EPIC (that the GOG curators like), it would make sense for GOG to contact that company for a direct GOG release.

My guess: The games you will be able to buy from Epic Store via Galaxy will be games, that woud NOT make it in to GOGs own store for years to come. AAA Games with DRM , think Red Dead Redemption 2, Borderlines 3 or the like. Maybe Epics own games, but most of them are free to play nowadays if i am right.

Example: Red Dead Redemption 2 on sale for 40 €. It is sold to you by Rockstar Games via Epic integration of galaxy. Epic gets 12 that is, 4,80 €. Then Gog gets some part of that 4,80 € ....my guess would be something between 0,5 and 1,2 €.

That is how i think the deal world work, but I do't work for either of them, so of course I don't know.

GOG can exist as a site to download / buy CDP Red releases and Kickstarter DRM-free releases, with minimal features - and maintaining such site wouldn't cost much, as similar, much smaller digital stores manage to survive.

Galaxy is something that is generating costs - not direct installer downloads. Removing direct installer downloads opens up opportunities for DRM-free competition.

Yes. I see no reason why they should remove these links. And it is not much work to add the links for new patches or installers, that is simply copy and paste, the installers are needed anyway. Why would GOG get rid of one of the most liked and mopst prominent feature?

In the long term Galaxy should be generating revenue and profit, maybe it is already a profitable move.