The "niche" explanation has never been proven. It's just what the devs stated and maybe it's all they were allowed to say.

They still never admitted that their general curation method or standards are wrong. They just misjudged the game in this case. As they said - it happens.

Did you miss the sh in the post?

~~My mistake~~

Are you sure you posted in the correct thread?

Oh crap! Lesson learnt: don't open too many tabs...

Imo, this curation debate is a misguided debate on both ends (though count me on the pro-curation side). The energy should be used trying to fight to get BIGGER-SCALE games here instead of fussing about which indies are worthy and which aren't. I want GTA IV, Just Cause 2...epic singleplayer experiences. There is next to zero fight for games like this to be here, yet heaven forbid that Pixel Novelwalk #4232094$ doesn't make it here, because then all hell breaks loose on the forum. It's odd and almost makes me think there are plants from the industry skewing the debate this way (I share Sean Malstrom's view that game developers in this day and age do not like to work and instead like to consider themselves as "game gods"; so, this would be conceivable).

GOG is analogous to a family-owned store while Scheme is analogous to Walmart. It is false to imply that they can compete on the same ground, even though technically they are business competitors. Scheme has a virtual monopoly and will not be unseated, so I would contend that the solution is to offer something they don't. I say let the low-effort indie games and mobile games go to Scheme. The future of gaming, quality gaming at least, is not in low-effort pixel games, low-effort visual novels, and low-effort walking simulators that tell supposedly deep story. I'm reminded of how PS4 games all revolve what it is like to be a new father. Pass. Avoid fatherhood and avoid game developers, who, even if they themselves are not lazy, are making very lazy product.

While of course there are clear exceptions and some of my fav games are larger-scale indie games, I would go so far as to say I find the vast majority of indie games are otherwise missable, as well as vastly overrated in terms of quality and importance. Why do people keep accepting pixel graphics as the norm? Why can't the majority of indie devs move to something like PS1/N64 graphics at least? And I say this as someone who is currently playing Slain! It is not as though I cannot accept pixel graphics (grew up on them, after all). I just want better products. That is my right as a consumer. Heck, it's why I support this site instead of DRM-garbage. I've said it many times on here already; if it weren't for GOG, I would not be gaming.

I forgot if I've posted in this thread already, but partially agreed with OP - inclusion criterias are more than weird and should be available publically, Imho. Like "X amount of sales, no prom, pixel visuals"

Well, I wish you the best of luck in trying to convince Take-Two, of all people to release that houseboat of a game here on GOG, when they have their own entire microcosm and a known affinity for DRM. As for Just Cause Two, that's a far more complicate matter, as not only would you have to get Avalance and Eidos Interactive to agree, but also Square Enix Co., Ltd., Eidos Interactive, Square Enix Europe, and WarnerMedia to agree on publishing rights.

Bethesda is NOT releasing Fallout 76 on Steam. Origin is a thing etc You might not be seeing the big picture here in relation to AAA titles and what their revenues can now offer them in terms of self publishing (with DRM) online and not having to give Steam/GOG/whomever 30% of the pie.

We are lucky to have The Witcher series (one of the top AAA quality games of recent years) here on GOG, most titles of that scope would not even consider GOG, and that is just because of the relationship involved.

We are never going to see the biggest AAA titles because those publishers don't want to give GOG it's cut when they don't have too. Steam is a little harder to ignore just because it is so huge that even it's 30% still leaves plenty of profit for the publisher, although the wind might be changing here with Fallout 76 leading the way?

Thanks for the well-wishes, I'm sure it would be much easier to not want massive games, but what can I say. Are you aware that GOG *does* have Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 3, Oblivion, The Saboteur, Dead Space, Assassin's Creed......massive games from equally scummy DRM-loving publishers? Am I unrealistic for wanting something like Dead Space 2?

Edit: forgot to give the example of the excellent Mafia series, including the newest one, all here! More games like this please!

I am more talking about older titles from the current and previous generations. I don't want the so-called "latest and greatest" (like Fallout 76; my interest in that game is "00"). I want larger-scale games instead of indies and if that means more effort and energy trying to obtain them, so be it. The point being I would rather the energy go to trying to obtain the larger-scale games from the past generation or so, than towards getting current indies that sell better on other stores anyway, because for me most indie games are of questionable value. I would be happy with PS2 ports and that level of game content, over the typical indie, as the content difference would be massively in favor of the PS2 game. I am not going to name-and-shame specific games in this topic but a few of the indies on sale this weekend here alone strike me as tech demo more than game. Hence the want for more content and bigger-scale games.

Well we have had some brilliant older AAA titles, stuff like Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 etc. In fact we have quite a lot of those types of titles, so you should be happy (i know i am!).

And yes like you i also want more of those better older AAA titles to come here. Like with Good Old Games, there are only going to be so many of those though, at some point you just run out of them.

Another issue is you have a specific time-line for AAA games like that, a sort of 'before' and 'after' Steam time-line.

Those made before the Steam-era (like the ones above) are much easier to get on GOG. Those after that era (say for example like Skyrim) are going to be harder especially if the game used Steams in-built services (dev-tools, achievements, modding etc). Just look at what happened with No Man's Sky here on GOG vs the Steam version to see just how complicated and messy that can get!

Back to Indies. Just because it is called an Indie does not mean it has to be a poorer quality game, or less interesting or even 'shorter' in play-time offered. Sure many are, but that is where a good supportive curation process comes into it's own.

For example i'd challenge anyone to say a game like King Of Dragon Pass or the one i bought up above, Star Traders: Frontiers, are not games that offer a lot for the gamer to enjoy. Many of us will know about King of Dragon Pass, but maybe not the newer Indie title, so here is an RPS review of it:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/08/09/star-traders-frontiers-review/

That would be a quality indie game to have here on GOG. But the devs are not even considering it due to the current perception (true or not) that is is hard work getting GOG to look at your indie game.

This is the whole point of this thread (i guess) and my own involvement in it, good games are not going to come here because the devs are reluctant to engage in the process with GOG, so they just focus on Steam.

GOG needs to do more to change that, or eventually it will have little new content to arrive on the platform as Steam will have taken all the potential business from them.

That 'new' content won't be coming from Good Old Games (as they will mostly all have been done already), or older AAA titles (same issue, you will run out of them), and definitely not new AAA titles as it seems likely they will move to avoid GOG and even Steam in the future. So in terms of 'new' future content you will be relying on the smaller Indie or 'AA' quality titles, but if they have been trained to only think of Steam, GOG has little to look forward too.

That is really the very heart of the matter.

I am :)

Forgot to mention Dragon Age Origins too. Would be nice to get the sequels someday (at least II). That is a good point. It is why I contend that more energy should go towards getting these games here, implicit is that I do feel it will take effort. Since the amount of energy/resources that anyone has is finite, it becomes a matter of choosing which end the energy gets allocated towards. I agree. I am not trying to paint all indies with a broad brush. Obviously taste is subjective but I do feel there are objective qualities making some indies clearly more larger scale than others. For example, a game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance is "indie" (or at least pseudo-indie). I want more "indie" games in that vein. That sounds like more of an issue on the devs' end. The devs should saddle up and submit it for consideration; if it gets rejected, so be it. They do have an interest to try to submit it, as it is more potential money for them (even if only a small piece of the pie). That their apparent insecurity in trying to put a game on here outweighs ANY potential money imo says more about a developer than it does about GOG. My argument is not to stop having indie games altogether. It is to transfer some of the energy currently being expended on indie games, to put towards larger-scale games (including AA games and bigger indie games).

Also, there is an astounding number of games I would like here from the past generation of games alone. While mathematically it is true that eventually the number of old games dries up, I don't think we are anywhere close to that point. So it shouldn't hurt to try and get some of them here now.

Developers have already been trained to "only think of Steam". All size developers. Scheme is a virtual monopoly. So, all else equal, I would rather have more focus on bigger games and bigger developers than on the majority of indie games.