It might simply be lazy inertia. Once a product is released, why bother thinking further about it? There is money to be made from the new thing on the horizon!

It's either:

* ignorance: "GOG is piracy";

* stubborness: "If I remove DRM now I'll confirm adding it in the first place was useless"; or

* indolence: "Why would I release the game DRM-free if the majority of gamers will buy it with DRM?"

Imagine if all reviews included the version number of the game, and all reviews were "shoved to the back" when the devs released a new version, so that only reviews for the current version were front and center.

Not only would that help with PR, but it would encourage devs to send updates to gog to "bury" those early bad reviews. That's something gog could do for their own website that might encourage more devs to come here AND release updates. More business for gog, better versions for gog customers, more sales for devs... win win.

I agree w/ this. If DRM got removed later, most would likely...just wait until it's probably pulled; and some would still buy early b/c they knew it would get pulled.

But, see...then, companies can't double dip on the consumer, if said DRM gets pulled on a version you own already. I know numerous times, I bought a retail copy (XIII) or a Steam copy (Batman: Arkham Collection) - only later to grab it elsewhere where it had NO DRM.

For example, I have Batman Arkham Collection on Steam - but got it on Epic when it was free b/c it was Free; and then only to find out it was also DRM-FREE (score!). i had an old retail copy of XIII - b/c of DRM and disc install issues, re-bought it for a few $ from GOG; and GOG version works fine.

I'd love to see say Mad Max hit GOG and be DRM-FREE there. It's DRM-FREE on Origin, yet still has Denuvo on Steam.

But, let's be real - if DRM got removed from a game, we likely know it's probably going to soon get a full-blown Remaster with some DRM attached to it, right? ;)

The sort of games I'm thinking of:

• The publisher is dead and nobody left a forwarding address to the holdings company or bank. Or worse still, there isn't an actual holder so the rights have lapsed into limbo.

• Even being perfectly aware of the crack, there are enough hoops or steps between publishing as to make the attempt seem foolhardy.

• The studio has moved on and wants nothing to do with said project.

• They're working on a remaster/remake, so diverting resources and audience away from it would be foolhardy.

• The DRM is literally baked in, and to try and remove it would require actual coding.