Well, then...

;o)

When exactly was this?

GOG from all I have seen have never taken on Steam in any manner.

GOG just sell DRM-Free games, which is a rather small collection of games compared to what Steam has on offer, and it has never been any other way, certainly for AAA and AA quality games, which in GOG's case are mostly old ones.

Even the Indie games at GOG are a small collection compared to the likes of what Steam and Itch.io have.

Aside from a few exclusives at GOG, there is no point to buying a game at GOG that is also available at Steam or Epic etc, unless you want a DRM-Free version, and in many cases those stores have a DRM-Free Lite version anyway, if more painful to obtain as a good DRM-Free installer type backup.

I love GOG to bits, but if you are serious gamer who cares more about the game, you would buy from whoever has it, and often price isn't even a major factor. I'm not that kind of gamer, and I have such a huge collection of games now, a great number of them free and DRM-Free, such that I can ignore most of what is on offer from Steam and Epic etc. I can certainly do that in the sense, that I will play what I have first before bothering with those stores ... which in my case, is going to be never. In fact I will likely leave this mortal coil before I deal with my backlog.

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Anyway getting back to the premise of this thread.

Did something change, because GOG have always been the underdog, and certainly from where I am looking, GOG have more games now than ever before, a huge number of them great, if somewhat old.

So I really don't know where the concern by OP and others is. Business as usual from what I can tell.

Game providers are in the habit of making money ... have always been that way. For many that means avoiding GOG in most cases, until it becomes financially beneficial to bother. And some never bother because they either don't like GOG or don't want to support DRM-Free or whatever.

All that said though, if GOG stick to DRM-Free, then eventually they will go the way of the Dodo, unless they can pull a rabbit out of their hat. DRM-Free is certainly not where the world is heading, and GOG have had enough time now to make significant change if there was ever going to be any. But meanwhile things have moved on, and gamers and the gaming industry model are changing, and ownership is going to become less relevant over service and features etc ... sad but true.
.

My limited understanding is that Epic requires developers implement crossplay between all PC platforms for multiplayer games released on EGS, while Steam's multiplayer is designed to only be used by Steam customers, effectively splintering the online base if not preventing non-Steam customers from accessing it at al.

Egs is ages younger than Steam, so it doesn't surprise me that they go for crossplay. It's not charity here though, they know if they offer MP-focused game without crossplay to steam, it will be dead on arrival with just a handful buying/playing. When Valve made steamworks, nobody else was around much, unless you count gfwl or then already dying gamespy or whatever came before, so they made their own framework.

Devs can go for crossplay though if they want even here, some games here on gog have it with steam, like Shadow warrior 2, Rise of the triad reboot, and some others. It's not like Valve locked the Steamworks, it being a mystery black box of sorts or something. But I agree, if those devs go for epic grants etc, they should at least implement crossplay or other features so those who buy games there won't feel like 2nd class users. I just find articles like that funny, is all.

It has sweet FA to do with benevolence

EA went "We want to keep 100% of micro-transactations"
Gabe went, "No way, we're taking 30% cut of that too"

So EA, thought for a moment then replied "100% of micro transactions or we ditch this gin joint"
Gabe chuckled "I dare you, I double dare you mother flumper"

So EA made Origin and left

"Bugger" went Gabe

"Ah-hem!" coughed Ubisoft, "About these micro transactions"

"30%!" shouted Gabe

"We call this uPlay" replied Ubisoft

"Feck!" signs Gabe

"Ah-hem!!" Cough Square-Enix, 2K and Bethesda all together

"Fine.... you keep all micro transactions you process via your own systems"


Valve lost 2 of the biggest publishers in the world because it wanted total control of the platform, there was no "benevolence" there was a threat of loosing more big names.

Personally, I'd prefer games didn't have micro-transactions full stop. Sell me the whole game, I don't like the whole concept of "pay to win".

I like the storytelling! Heck, if I was Gaben, I would tell em to pack that "3rd party drm/account requirement" along too. But I'm just a guy and not as benevolent as he is.

Are origin and uplay doing well btw? I dunno much about them. I remember seeing they released some new-ish batches of their games on steam though, so maybe they don't sulk that much anymore. And isn't bathesda selling mods, their masterplan finally realized? O man I remember that... better than microtransactions.

I dunno how to tell you that Odd Realm, Hidden Folks, and a handful of other games were on itch before they were on GOG.
Just gotta develop a sense of taste.

Or would you rather get into a tautological argument over the definition of shovelware, because boy are there some titles on GOG I'd stop selling immediately.

GOG embracing DRM isn't going to fix anything like some here naively think. Take a look at the Epic Store. Some AAA's on there like the Batman Arkham trilogy were DRM-Free for ages before they came to GOG. Other games like ARK: Survival Evolved, Axiom Verge, City of Brass, Death Stranding, etc, are all DRM-Free on Epic and still not on GOG. Bioshock 1 was DRM-Free on Humble for years before it came here. Costume Quest 2 is still DRM-Free on both Steam & Epic but not on GOG. What held up DOS games like Heretic / Hexen that were on Steam DRM-Free for years before they came to GOG? Clearly not DRM. And what about games removed from GOG? If many games like A Vampyre Story, ARMA 2, Duke Nukem, Gray Matter, The Long Dark, Windforge, etc, all left GOG but remain DRM-Free elsewhere then "we want to add DRM but you won't let us" clearly wasn't the cause of removal.

Nor is the growth of the Epic Store successful because of allowing DRM (which many games don't even use), it's successful due to throwing a sh*tload of Fortnite money at publishers. And that's far closer to the truth - game developers just plain don't want to be on more than 1-2 PC stores (DRM or not). Naturally Steam wins by default due to the artificial fragmentation crap, sorry I meant "Steamworks features (tm)", they normalized for PC games in the first place. And all the other not-Steam PC game stores other than GOG are all subsidised by something else (Epic = Fortnite Money, Microsoft = Azure Money, Origin & Uplay = EA / Ubisoft mega-publishing companies, etc, and they all have the financial ability to offer incentives to do a Not-Steam version. GOG does not. MS, EA & Ubisoft also all have a large stable of subsidiaries (Bioware, Red Storm, Activision, Zenimax, etc) that they can 'order' to be on their stores to force increased popularity if it came to it. CDPR does not.

And GOG welcoming DRM won't do a thing for the bottom line financial situation, they still wouldn't have a pile of Fortnite money and there would still be DRM-Free games sold elsewhere but not on GOG. Plenty of Steam-only DRM'd games would also remain Steam-only for the same reason they aren't on "we love DRM!" Microsoft Store or Epic or Origin. That would however 'succeed' in driving many of their existing DRM-Free customers away (who've bought the most games here and aren't just 'one-hit wonders' who only signed up to redeem a Witcher 3 code) and they still won't be replaced by the "No Steam, No Buy" crowd...

Just to be clear, no one in charge of a billion dollar corporation is "Benevolent". If you remember paid mods, then you should also remember why Beth and Valve backed down the first time. It wasn't because it was a bad choice, or that consumers didn't like it, but that gamers actually cost Valve money cleaning up the support tickets

I think those of us who support DRM Free game stores like to think that some companies have our interests at heart, and some might more than others, but none are "on our side".

Okay, Itch.io is missing tons games that are on GOG.

I know there are games on GOG that could be called shovelware . That's why I do not want GOG more like Itch.io. Lol

Isn't that what all companies want? To be personified in the minds of their users?

Creating a client, selling modern games, Galaxy 2.0 with the "one library for everything" promotion, 30 day returns, etc. etc... they've put a lot of money into trying to go past their original concept, and none of it ever got them much market share beyond what they already had.