Well, bravo GOG

I was really stunned to see this game with DRM, to the point of not wanting to buy from you anymore, waiting to see how it evolves

I can't explain how you let the game go in the first place, but at least you went back on your decision

I'm glad you did, although I'm still suspicious of it until you show in the long run that you won't do it again, but I'm going to go back to buying on GOG from now on, and make it my main platform again
As much as I stopped my purchases as a protest, I will resume them because you finally caught up, and I'm glad ^^

Now, if the dialogue with IOI continues it could end in a hypoheical fix of the game without the pressure of time, when it is ready and possible, which could bring here the best Hitman release in the market. At least the most unique. Truly fitting the store standards.

So it can be perceived as a hard but pragmatic decission. If the dialogue does not fructify, well, the game should need to be delisted after all.

I'll just parrot the others and say thank you!

This release should not have made its way to this store, not in this form. Or at least with a clearer statement of what is locked behind the online authentication, I still wouldn't have liked that but at least people wouldn't have been surprised after their purchase.
But enough of that, again, thank you for removing this game from your store! :)

DRM is like a Black Hole in the center of Galaxy.
It takes away from you whatever it touches, and it don't let you make a preservation of your possession forever.

So, thank you, GOG, for listening to the community :)

The Star of Hope is shining again :D

Thank you for removing this game as many of us have explained why it has no place on a DRM-free gaming store. I appreciate your response, Chandra. That said, unfortunately despite your good response here so far, I feel this whole situation still begs more questions that we as customers deserve to have answered. In particular, I am really curious as to why this game came here in the first place in the state it was in.

I feel that, either way, it reflects quite poorly on GOG. That is, it seems to me that either GOG knew about how much content was online-gated, and decided to try to push through this release anyway, or, GOG didn't know/were somehow misled(?) about the amount of online-gated content (really, I would say ANY percentage is too much and NOT DRM-FREE, but I digress...), in which case this reflects very poorly on the "hand-picked curation" as how would they not be aware of the "live service" nature of this game?

I wonder if perhaps the game was only tested on a machine connected to Galaxy/the internet. Could whoever tests games here please do so on an entirely offline machine (yes, that means WITHOUT the Galaxy client!) to make sure that they indeed work DRM-free without any sort of "hidden" connection requirement? If any of you are having trouble finding the offline installers, they are hidden on the game pages using the browser, you have to select "offline backup installers" to find the download links for them. :)

I am passionate towards GOG, yes, but ONLY as a byproduct of being passionate about DRM-free gaming. If GOG keeps going in the DRM direction, I have no reason to stay here. And, no, unlike others, that doesn't mean I'll buy DRMed games somewhere else. I don't want to buy DRMed games anywhere! I want to buy DRM-free games. If I can't do it here, then there are smaller stores and developers who will at least give me that option. DRM-free gaming is what's important, not a corporation that I see as increasingly "corporate" (read: not a good thing).

Edited typo: had originally said "Galaxy the internet" without the "/" separating them. As much as GOG might like Galaxy to literally be the internet, we are fortunately not there yet :D

GOG blatantly support malware and employ dishonest moderators who abuse their authority.

Chandra,

This is a start. Thank you. But I think many of us feel that we need more than your post here. At least a new top-level forum post (if not site news post) explaining what went wrong, how you're changing to prevent it happening again, and a reaffirmation of GOG's DRM-free values, et cetera.

Thank you GOG. This solves the issue for now, though I fear rebuilding trust will take time. I do however apologize for some of the harsh words in my last message.

I hope Hitman will make its way back to GOG in a more acceptable state.

Wow. I have to say, I am seriously surprised. I did not expect GOG would actually remove it. I'm happy to admit I was wrong, and I'm happy to see the community reaction can still overturn at least some of GOG's bad decisions.

Good call.

If it shows up here again and the online bullshit for unlockable weapons etc. is no longer required, I'll pick it up.

In the meantime, it would be cool if you could release some of IOI's older games (published by Squeenix IIRC, but they've been good to gog lately anyway). Mini Ninjas would be an instabuy, I'd also love to see the Kane & Lynch series.

I have to echo the sentiments brought forward by rjbuffchix and mqstout. This would be a good time to go a bit into detail, legalities permitting, on how this happened and what this means for the future, i.e. how we can assure games are correctly labeled with regards to their online features or whether we can expect this kind of response to the community again.

That said, I'm very pleasantly surprised. This is more than I had expected. This response goes a long way and it would be cool, if we can continue like that. Chapeau, GOG!

Great news! Hope it returns sans the pointless online junk.

Brave decision, a store without its customers is nothing. If it is drm-free that is so.

The Scummvm sale is nice.

I doubt that the game returns to the store. I believe that interactive io's relationship with gog is over.