But if you are downloading the Linux installers, what does that tell us about your OS preferences? :)


I know. It's just that I'd like to know for sure GOG's way of computing sales, so I could stop dreaming of ever seeing those games here *and* for Linux, should their respective devs/publishers eventually decide to bring them to GOG.

God I want Aspyr in here so bad. I'd love to play the new Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered drm-free. Not to mention Stubbs, a true masterpiece and their Star Wars mac/linux games and Trek ones. Actually good old Stubbs on Linux is surely a dream many, including me, have... do you hear me, Aspyr? :P

Too bad a mere portion of their current games is here on GOG, since they're highly attached to steam, it seems; they're masters, the Da Vinci ones when it comes to porting -alongside Feral which also totally should be in here as well- and stuff. Yep, we surely need 2K in here, I see.

Their legacy games list is ginormously awesome, but I think most of these are in publisher hell or have different publishers nowadays, such as Cryostasis, Dreamfall, Gothic and the 1C games Aspyr once published. Their practice of selling digitally is something pretty new (I guess, since there's GameAgent out there) to a fine company who's almost 20 years old now.

That I like backing up all my games.
Except for the Mac versions which I'll never have a use for. ;)

many of those linux ports came a long time after the original windows release. And were added for free to all existing (windows) purchases. If Valve really is using a system as described in the first post, the companies doing the linux ports would hardly see any money. Neither steam nor GOG really allow the distinction between a windows sale, mac sale or linux sale. What could be tracked is on which system the game is used.
But for that both ways described above(most in-game hours/system the game was bought on) seem rather stupid and unreliable. The only way that would make sense to me is to track the download/installation. And for every sale where the linux version is downloaded/installed -> give the linux dev their share.
And i think it is safe to assume that GOG is tracking the downloads.

Firstly, I find that very hard to believe. Such a business model seems totally unviable. I would expect a company to be hired to make a port, get paid for that, and that's it. To get nothing except a percentage of sales seems ludicrous, especially in today's gaming environment where games are frequently sold as multiplatform titles.

Secondly, how would you propose GOG should handle it? Given that they do multiplatform releases, what if someone buys a game, downloads the Windows version, then later on downloads the Linux version? Should they pay both parties? Pay them half each? Demand their money back from the Windows dev and give them to the Linux dev instead? And for how long? I have games here that I bought in 2008. I might download the Linux version of one of them in a couple of years. When should GOG be able to count on keeping the money they have gotten for a sale?

Frankly, I think any dev agreeing to a porting contract like the one you describe had better look for work elsewhere, because that seems like an impossible way of doing business.

First of all, Steam does indeed have a system to "assign" an OS to a sale. Furthermore, there even happens to be such things as "Windows Steam keys", or "Linux Steam keys". See for instance this comment from a Feral guy.

And regarding these porting houses' modus vivendi, I don't really know for sure, but it's accepted knowledge in the Linux community that they take a cut (or the whole profit) on Mac and Linux sales on Steam for the games they've ported. See e.g. the "Editorial Note" on the first article I've linked in the previous paragraph. Of course this is not their only source of income: they also sell their ports directly from their website (though again I don't know whether they keep the whole profit or just a cut).

It doesn't matter though. My premise was that, since Feral or Aspyr are interested in having Mac/Linux sales properly accounted for the games they port, I wanted to know how does GoG operate: do they have an implemented way of distinguishing sales by OS (like Steam does), or at least are considering it? Because if not, I can stop hoping to ever see the Linux version of their ported games here on GoG. Otherwise I can keep dreaming. :)

That's fair enough. However, as I said, I don't see how it can work, given the way GOG operates. But I suppose you'll have to get an answer from GOG. As someone else said, they certainly know which files are downloaded, but as I pointed out, that's not really enough since people can download all the available versions of a game, and all of them are included in the price GOG asks for the game.

It really is a tricky one, that is for sure. Even Steam doesn't get it right all the time.

From my own perspective, and from what I've read, a lot of Linux gamers (apologies for generalisation) the biggest reason for wanting a digital store front to track OS is:

a) to "be counted" as a relevant Linux user / gamer / install. Basically when stat time rolls around, we want to be counted and clearly show our support for any devs that go to the trouble of making Linux ports.

b) be sure that our money goes to the "right" people. I don't know the insides of whatever deals are struck. But I like to do what I can to ensure that the relevant parties get paid for their work. Porting ain't cheap. You will actually find that a lot of Linux players will hold back on their purchase until a port happens, if such a port is part of the dev's release plan of course.

I don't really see it as a Linux vs Win thing, or a technical support thing. I do see it as a factor in my purchase choice though.

Take Big Pharma, as a recent example:
I would much rather support a DRM free version on GOG.
But if GOG cannot tag my purchase as a Linux one, I'm probably going to buy the game on Steam purely to show my +1 for Linux.

So yeah, it's nothing personal against GOG. If they don't / can't track, then it's fine, I don't like them any less. But my Linux money is probably gonna go through a different store then. Which is a pity.

I logged a support ticket regarding this topic (including a link to this thread).

I received this reply from Natalia:

"
I am afraid that I am unable to disclose any details about our sales and stats tracking. I apologise for the inconvenience.
"

While I do accept that it is entirely up to GOG what information they wish to disclose, this reply does sadden me.

Unless I can be sure that GOG allocates Linux purchases correctly, I will be taking my Linux purchases to other digital retailers.

Really they should place this as a profile option "Preferred OS" or whatever

I don't see any other reasonable way of doing it. For instance I have an issue with all the Shadowrun games where they won't exit using the menu while running the windows version in wine runs fine plus I can use cheat engine on games under wine... okay its mostly a cheat engine addiction I have, any of you good with pascal?

I think it was at checkout before paying when I was buying Quake.
(For running it with quakespasm in Linux).

Thanks, I'll pay attention to it next time.

Yes, a warning is displayed at the checkout whenever you try to buy something that isn't supported on the current OS you're running

That means they're using the browser's user agent to determine OS. I wonder if that's the only criteria employed when determining number of Linux users.