I plan on buying more games from GOG. These incidents are not going to turn me off of them. I'm not sure about the Console releases, but I always thought if I bought Cyberpunk 2077 it would be on GOG directly. I've seen enough releases to wait though, there's ALWAYS bugs on the initial release of a game. Some go more smoothly, others go less smoothly. Eventually, things get ironed out and everything is great. Plus, i wanted to get a better video card (Nvidia's recent release is very elusive...soo...could be a while) rather than the 2060 I have in my gaming rig currently...so I had time.

On the entire Devotion thing...xpost...again

Maybe I'm an optimist, but I don't think it's a fear of being Banned in China. I think Cyberpunk didn't go as smoothly as it could have, and right now they need to be able to do business on the internet.

The ramifications of releasing the game could have Chinese Hackers up the wazoo for GOG...and cyber attacks, DDOS, and the rest is not something they really can deal with right now on top of everything else they are trying to handle.

I think GOG may release it next year sometime, AFTER things are more settled down and they don't have multiple bonfires burning at the same time.

Undoubtedly some are loudmouths who will forget about this a week from now when a game they really want pops up, but then again some people (myself included) do not want a dictatorship to shape the future of what games we play and will just not do business with a company that plays along with that. The game was removed from Steam by Red Candle Games, not by Steam. Yeah, it's almost like saying you're releasing a game, then immediately turning around and claiming "gamers" didn't want it makes you look like a douchebag in some peoples eyes. I also perfectly understand their decision. I'm just hoping that they underestimated how many people would be pissed off about it and that their choice does not pay off as that would mean even larger chunks of my future entertainment will have to be made in a way that makes it tolerable to a hypersensitive authoritarian regime. I also think both Nord Stream 2 and continued investment into burning oil byproducts are stupid short-sighted mistakes. 100% Agreed, I wouldn't be calling Xi a honey munching dummy thick bear if I lived in China. Just because that is easy for me because of where I live, does that mean I shouldn't? Is this the same logic that says you can't complain if someone else has it worse?

That type of response is also a good way to trigger a violent response from China...and them trying to trash the site and hack everything while they are dealing with a bunch of other stuff taking their attention probably is not what they need currently.

edit: I don't really like this situation either, or what GOG did, but I certainly would be cautious if I were GOG in this type of situation.

What? Saying that there is some controversy regarding the game and the Chinese market? That is public knowledge! Saying they are not releasing the game is just the truth, and saying they have no new release date in sight is also true. What "violent response" could they possibly get?

People are blinded by this "China stuff = I'm scawy". Yeah, they are 1 billion. Well, India is another one. US and Europe is another one. Well, you know, there are 5 times that number outside of China. Another crazy thing is people thinking all of those are middle class. Most of them are "out of poverty" because according to the UN you can earn less than U$ 2,00 a day and you're already "out of poverty".

So yeah, you go on pissing everyone off because China is "danzelous".

F* China and f* Xi Jing Poh.

It's not that they are a Billion, it's that their hacking is extremely aggressive. Governments in the US and Europe are attacked all the time by Chinese Hackers, and those are Governments. What can a smaller company like GOG do in the face of that!?

I agree that GOG should NOT have blamed their base (gamers) for this decision. It could be they got slammed like STEAM did (with fake Chinese accounts, but in this instance a bunch of emails and such from fake outraged Chinese acting like they were gamers) and thought the emails and such were legit...they should have just said that they were not going to release it at this time and left it at that...but I can understand WHY they would be hesitant.

They are in the middle of another crisis (not GOG specifically, but their parent company) and I really don't think they can expend the resources to fight off or be defensive against a Chinese internet assault right now.

Which would make you angrier...what GOG did, or to have them hacked by the Chinese and all your information to be in the CCP's hands right now? I'd probable be even MORE upset if the latter happened then the former.

And, as we've seen in the past, even if some accept that it was the hacker's fault, the company still takes a majority of the blame. I'd think GOG would have deeper problems if that happened than doing what they did.

It's an infuriating situation to be in. I don't think we should give in to the demands of a Red China in things like this. If you submit to what they want, who knows how far else they will go.

On the otherhand, they ARE a threat in these instances. They are a BIG threat and they have shown they are not afraid to push their weight around. if it's a choice between what GOG did, and having China unleash it's electronic resources to punish GOG...

It's a rock and a hard place situation...how far do people want GOG to go. Are they already on the Hill that they want all their information taken by a possible Hack because GOG's parent company is currently placing most of their resources into the Cyberpunk situation and can't expend anymore on building up GOG's defenses against an easily offended China...because my feeling is that if that happened many of those here wouldn't be commending GOG on taking a stand, but instead complaining about how GOG didn't do enough to protect their information or try to do anything in their power to keep it safe.

GOG HAS done something to keep it safe here perhaps...which is another facet to consider.

People aren't giving China enough credit for how hostile China gets with those that defy them...and what that type of hostility can lead to. I'd imagine people would blame GOG even moreso than China if a Chinese attack was successful. Losing people's personal information in that way probably would hurt GOG FAR MORE than their decision on Devotion has already...and could possibly hurt it more than the Cyberpunk situation has.

(Edit: Because...when if that happened, people would REALLY not buy things on GOG for fear of it being insecure...it's been a deathknell to many companies).

This is not to say I like this type of choice, but I can understand it. Once again though, GOG SHOULD NOT have blamed the gamers for it's decision, just state that they are not able to release the game at this time or something like that.

And it puts a foul taste in my mouth as well, being dictated by an overwrought bully of a Nation like China is not a good indication of how things are going in the world. We need more pushback by our governments to defend companies against things like this.

This time China says pull Devotion or I'll destroy you. Next time China says give me some of that juicy personal information, or I'll destroy you.

Did China say CDPR must release a broken game and watch CDP, CDPR and GOG unravel?
No, that was the company's management. It all is the company's management. It's not China's fault I got scammed here.

very likely , once it gave in it will give in again

I think the main difference here is that you are not boycotting China, but a company who got scared about getting in a middle of a political "crisis", and would rather keep political issues outside of gaming. I don't see this as GOG's statement "we approve and promote what China is doing", rather than "umm no, better stay the hell out of this". Maybe "cowardly", but at the same time understandable.

Similarly, I am not boycotting Norwegian salmon just because they keep pumping and selling oil to the rest of the world, neither am I boycotting German cars because Germany is not blocking Nord Stream 2. Since I understand their decisions, I don't feel like boycotting them, even if deep inside me I might be wishing they decided the opposite. Heck I think even the Finnish government is also taking part in Nord Stream 2 through the Fortum energy company, and you don't see me boycotting Finnish products, do you?

(Well, for Norway selling oil, I don't really have any issue with that, heck if they didn't do that it would just rise the price of oil which is never good; climate change schlimate schange, Greta Thunberg is an autistic lost child whose activist parents are using her for their political ends)

I think I know pretty well what happened, without any statements:

1. GOG was like "Ok some Taiwanese horror game, sounds cool, sure we can release it".

2. Later they were contacted by 200 million angry Chinese patriots that wrote "我们不同意您发布的游戏嘲笑我们亲爱的领导者" which roughly translates to "we don't approve that you are releasing a game which ridiculates our dear leader".

3. GOG be like "Oh shit what are we getting into? Why does this game make Chinese so angry? Backpedalling now!".

4. They sent their new PR intern who had been working for GOG only for two days to write a statement about not releasing the game after all.

The only way to keep politics out of gaming is to stand up to China's demand for censorship.

Do you know who does boycott Norwegian salmon? The Chinese government when the Nobel committee gave the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident who was jailed at the time.

Each time we let the Chinese government succeed with their bullying tactics, we're only making it worse for ourselves.

You're right, this is probably what happened.

The problem is, if this wasn't in the context of China and Taiwan, this would have gone quite differently, I am sure.

Imagine GOG was about to release a game made by Russians, let's say. And let's say the Russian game had some anti-Biden meme in there or something. A bunch of angry American patriots write GOG a message, saying that they are incredibly upset that GOG would sell this problematic Russian game.

Would GOG have reacted this way and said "Oh God, controversy? Better back out of that one!"

Never.

Not only would the game not have been removed, but GOG's PR would have a field day posting on Twitter about how virtuous they are for not censoring games and bowing to this group of people, even though that's common sense: Racism bad, censorship bad, extreme nationalism bad, no matter the money.

But now it's a game by a Taiwanese company.
And the people complaining are Chinese.
GOG says "Sorry about that please don't stop doing business with us, we don't care about anything but your money"
There is no tweet boasting about doing the right thing, but the complete opposite. A tweet lying to the rest of the world.

That's not going to fly. I know you think boycotting is a worthless gesture since all companies are to some extent guilty for doing business with China. But I am fine with that. What I am not fine with is when China says "Jump" and they jump.

You aren't wrong about anything, but this comes down to simple human nature. If someone does bad, I want them punished and I want justice carried out in some way. I'd rather stop playing computer games than make this our new reality.

They are capable of region locking, you know making a game available on in certain regions and not in other.

I dont understandy why they dont just leave it unavaialble to China and make it avaialble to everyone else.

Agreed. Blizzard and many other media companies do the exact same two-faced parading: at least pretend to stand up for consumers, uphold progressive values (many even censor for these reasons, which I find inexcusable as well) and usually weather off criticism - from players, media and politicians - just fine.

But once China gets brought into the mix in any way they instantly drop all pretenses, offer vague half-hearted response or outright lies to the non-Chinese audience while profusely apologizing on Chinese social media for daring to hurt the nation's integrity or some bullshit. China always takes absolutely priority in these situations.

Hopefully the combination of Cyberpunk debacle and this one manage to somehow rough them up. I've gradually gotten disillusioned with GOG anyways over the years - removing region fair pricing, slowly insinuating they're reneging on DRM free content - and now with both the manipulation of review process and right after that kowtowing to Chinese censorship demands we know that they really have decided to drop nearly everything that originally garnered them their goodwill.

Say you're right about this.

What is/are the excuse(s) for Hatred?

What about the complete lack of transparency for curation and complete lack of any reasoning not provided to developers?

Are you also ok with lies of "Galaxy optional only and will never be required" and "DRM-free only" except when they aren't?

Are you ok with the outright fraud CDPR committed with CP2077 on PS4 and Xbox One?
- And it is fraud. CDPR prevented anybody from reviewing these versions after openly stating that CP2077 performed very well and much better than anticipated on these systems - only to openly admit in a conference call that CDPR was fully aware the PS4 and XB1 versions of the game are defective and do not work. They have stolen money and defrauded from everybody who bought a physical copy they can't return. If I bought a physical copy (or any copy for that matter) I would already have a lawyer and be going class-action.

I WOULD prefer for them to have more transparency in these matters. If what was written in another thread is right, they did get a LOT of emails from Chinese individuals regarding the game...instead of blaming gamers, they should have been open about exactly what they were basing their comments upon.

If it was a bunch of messaging from supposed "Chinese Gamers" (and how many really think it was a bunch of them in reality rather than CCP stooges???), they should be more open about the actual threats and statements written against the release of the game.

I'm not sure what I feel about the Galaxy/DRM thing yet. I prefer no DRM, it's one of the reasons I support GOG. That's probably a BIGGER facet to me than most other items. I am anti-DRM. It's one of the SOLE reasons that I keep supporting GOG, despite anything else they may have done thus far. To me, DRM is a bigger issue and a core issue in gaming today. It has yet to affect me, so that's a good thing, but I would hate to see GOG turn over and start selling a lot of DRM games and such.

In regards to Cyberpunk 2077, I'm not that concerned. I think it is unfortunate for those who have gotten it, but it's not the first game that has had serious problems (anyone remember Fallout: New Vegas? People couldn't play that game for over an hour without it freezing or glitiching or numerous other game stopping bugs...but it was still a game worth playing). I think people kicked themselves in their own arses. It's like this situation...people talk about GoG not releasing the game over a threat of CCP interference...BUT if GOG was hacked those same people would complain even more about their information being gained by the Chinese. In that same light...people BEGGED and PLED and THREATENED for them to release Cyberpunk 2077. When they delayed it...there were so many people that were angry and were saying they were ready no matter what state it was in...

Cyberpunk really is convoluted. People wanted it out NOW and didn't want to wait. Finally, they got what they wanted...but many of those same people are now those complaining about the state it's in.

So...I can see why some may be unhappy, but considering a LOT of those same people's attitudes in pushing for a release as soon as possible, I'm not really amused in their response.

It still is a serious blow to CDPR's reputation and CDPs.

CDPR seems to be trying to make a focus on patching these issues (no idea if they will be able to or not) over the next few months. Let's hope that they will be able to.