Any good business knows its target demographic.

This is the only wish I could find regarding this: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/be_able_to_buy_games_from_other_platforms

A whopping 3 people (at the time of writing) want this.
^This.

@GameN16bit/BKGaming

I appreciate your taking the time to engage with the rest of us here, and this is a fast-moving topic so please allow me to ask if I have missed this:

Multiple users have brought up the point that if customers are able to buy an Epic game via Galaxy 2.0, that there is then no incentive (or a very very weak incentive) for the developer/publisher of that game to also create a DRM-free version with offline installer, the whole nine yards.

What is your response specifically to this point?

keep in mind that no developer makes the installers, it is gOg who does so and put own wrappers on them, and there are already many DRM free games sold on Epic Store.

edit -basically, for those developers, nothing really changes

I agree - there could be little incentive to put a game on GOG, if it's selling on Epic...whether selling well via their store and/or the round-about way through GOG Galaxy.

I guess the best thing that could happen is: said developer/publisher releases game on Epic Store with or without DRM attached but not released initially DRM-FREE directly to GOG; noticed a bunch of GOG Galaxy users bought the game for Epic Store; and maybe dev/pub decides to later do a DRM-FREE release on GOG (i.e. when the game's often on sale more, cheaper, and likely everyone owns it by then)?

That's probably also a possibility - a dev/pub releases game on Epic Store w/out any DRM attached and without the Epic Store running in the background to boot the game requirement. Epic's usually pretty quiet about DRM in their games, but users can easily find out if DRM's there or not (see GOG Threads on her about what games are really DRM-FREE there, after you download something from EGS). Then, the dev's just bring the game over to GOG later, noticing GOG Galaxy users bought the Epic Version through GOG.

Doesn't mean this will happen a lot, a little, often, or whatever - but maybe in could happen in certain cases? Who knows. [shrug]

There's no direct short-term impact. I think the longer-term question rjbuffchix is referring to is - given how many games are already on the 2nd class citizen list for being outdated:-
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zjwUN1mtJdCkgtTDRB2IoFp7PP41fraY-oFNY00fEkI/edit?usp=sharing

...and given how many more games are here for lack of developer willingness to rewrite achievements for a GOG-specific version...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pDO6WTHLHyrrtidQ1MAxW6u8j3BxUaGcFaJsVyWj2QY

...etc, then Steam / Epic -> played through Galaxy = devs only have to upload 2x "branches" of each build, only 2x sets of patches, 2x sets of achievements, etc, whilst Steam / Epic / GOG releases = devs have to upload 3x "branches" of each build, 3x sets of achievements, etc (which does negatively affect how much time spent 'upstreaming' each build / patch to all stores). The concern is there that if buying Epic games via Galaxy becomes accepted, then in the long term some devs may well decide we are "better off" having a more updated Epic version "bought through Galaxy" than an outdated actual GOG release. (Look at what happened to Humble Store's DRM-Free installers...)

to be honest, if the game is DRM free, then I do not care very much at all if the games comes from gOg or Epic.... if nothing else, maybe the list of games dealing with the DRM free versions as 'second class citizens' will get smaller if it is Epic dealing with them.... and then maybe having only one channel would improve this, and if that channel is gOg or Epic - the end result is the same

Can we at least get a DRM-free release of Epic's One Must Fall 2097 out of this?
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/one_must_fall_2097
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fGM1cvUQv8

Until a few weeks ago I would have bet that this is a joke. Sadly it now looks like the inevitable continuation of the Galaxy strategy...

What's the point of this? If I want games that require a connection to Epic, I'll just buy them from Epic. Why not skip the middle man and have the games in question sold here?

Maybe.... it was/is very high on the Epic wishlist, because their store is so bad? ;-)

Who am I kidding, GOG management have lost their mind. I can literally see no gain by this.
Who wants to buy games from Epic, can do so there, esp. since their client has to run anyways to install and run the games.
Who wants to buy games from Epic will also want to see all they have, not just a "few select" titles.

What "strategy"? I could understand the unified library - esp. with the good timing when many Steam users were unhappy with the redesign. Brings more Non-GOG-users to GOG, makes them aware, that GOG is an option too to buy games. Maybe teaches them a thing about what DRM-free is about, and why it's preferable. Made a lot of sense.
And now they essentially put the axe to that.

If GOG becomes another Steam/Epic/Whatnot reseller, I'm out.

AB2012 expressed my concern better than I could.

Amok, the issue for me isn't with the "second class citizen" list (which AB2012 discussed elsewhere in his post) but rather the fact that non-Galaxy users may miss out entirely on new releases going forward in this partnership. It's a bit of a tricky point but the argument is basically that now developers have very little, if any, incentive to provide DRM-free games to the non-Galaxy users. Prior to getting in bed with Epic, GOG had negotiating power with such developers which has now evaporated. That is, for a developer's game to be listed on GOG, a game had to be DRM-free (well, leaving aside problem of DRMed multiplayer releases). So a developer wanting to reach the GOG audience had to compromise on their (typical) love of DRM. Now, that is gone. The developer can put the game on Epic, agree with GOG that they can also sell it through the client, and call it a day..."who cares if it has DRM...GOG users can just buy it through GOG Galaxy".

That is cool news

It is apparent that GOG is turning their backs on drm-free and the customers that made it what it is. If they do not change their course of action perhaps we should leave them before things erode further. Mass exodus will speak volumes.