What data are you basing that on?
Duh. Hence Sea of Stars is in the JRPG genre. Where you are in the world doesn't matter. If you make a horror game its a horror game.

FWIW it's not listed as a JRPG on Steam either. My first reaction to the screenshots was it looks like a JRPG to me. Maybe it does mean literally an RPG made in Japan? I dunno. I know I too thought JRPG when I saw it.

It's silly to get hung up on location for trying to describe the type of game it is. You don't have to move to Japan to make RPGs in that style and you don't have to move to Belgium to make a game like Baldurs Gate 3.

If you tag it RPG that tells no one anything. Borderlands is tagged RPG. Sea of Stars is nothing like Borderlands. JRPG actually gives an idea about what the game is like regardless of studio geography.

The Brits, Belgium or whatelse does not have a "own style" which is remarkable enough in order to become justified as a "own genre". A genre is a certain mile or league which has been reached by the JRPGs or for example something like Anime.

Just go play Tales of Destiny or Lunar for example, to get a glimpse of a "real JRPG" and you will not try to call Sea of Star a JRPG anymore. It is different and not able to become "a part of it"... yet it surely is a great game with a comparable style.

Let me rephrase that. I'm not saying PC gaming is already doomed. But gaming -- in general -- got a lot more diverse.
Funny thing is that I myself, when listing major platforms (Xbox, PS, ...), forget the most important of them all: MOBILE.
If you google for market share by platform, you can see that ~50% is already taken by mobile gaming. And that console gaming is larger than PC gaming.

That's where the hard data ends. But my gut feeling says that this trend will continue, i.e. with new / other platforms growing and PC gaming shrinking.

Mobile is a great way to make money but it's not a good platform for games. So who cares? Anyone who'd actually wanted to make a good game would not target mobile. So whatever goes there is nothing lost IMO.

The problem with pie charts is they only show percentages. They don't show growth or shrinkage. A pie is not fixed, it can grow.

For example in 2014, 1676 games released on Steam. In 2019, 8290 games released. The # of PC games is trending upwards, and so are player counts. (I don't have the more recent year data) So yeah, more people have phones than PCs. But that doesn't mean PC gaming is declining, it's clearly increasing.

Sea of Stars could actually be run on a average phone already; although those devs does not seem to enjoy bringing it over to a phone.

The hardest truck, i recently experienced, is not even Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk: It seems to be the updated Metro Exodus at full setting. Over 450 W was drained from my GPU,... you can leave your smart-phone below your desk... no use here. It is kinda remembering me at the old days... when there was a stubborn nut known as Crysis.

Of course PC is the most capable gamer system, no one is in doubt: However, it is expensive and only few users got a really good PC, this will never change.

Once upon a time, to be a video gamer was not the norm.

Now every dog and his person is a gamer.

But are they truly the real deal as a gamer ... maybe, if the definition of gamer has changed.

Personally, if you are someone who only plays games on your mobile, I cannot think of you as a true gamer. You are just someone playing games to fill your time it seems to me.

A true gamer to my mind, would want better control and better conditions.

So bearing all that in mind, video gamers were quite the minority once. And so true gamers no doubt still are. So of course you are going to get a lot more general type gamers playing on their mobiles ... just stands to reason. For many folk, simple is best, and mobile games are more simplistic in nature ... though not in every case.

And PC gamers have of course been watered down by Console Gamers, by a different level of control and simplicity.

Though there are of course, those who play games on any medium they can. Perhaps they are the true gamers ... addicted to the max.

The March 6th statement on Discord from the developer in full:

Hi @Vainamoinen! We can't confirm a Sea of Stars release on GOG.com at the moment.
We're always monitoring demand though, so thanks for expressing your preference

I'm actually fairly hopeful that there will be a GOG release eventually. We have a great surge in wishlist votes right now, that's always a good signal for the developer.
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sea_of_stars

The idea will also not wither and die in Sabotage's Discord channel. Those are basically the two options we have in expressing our interest, and I'd suggest using both.

It definitely did change. These days, anyone launching a mobile game once a week in a subway on their way home from work to claim activity rewards counts the same as someone playing 6+hours a day on a PC, as far as statistics is concerned. A gamer.

As the saying goes - "Mainstream is where things go to die".

...with missing Achievements, which the devs still have never bothered to add during all those years since it was released on GOG, which is a shameful act of them treating their GOG customers like second-class citizens.

So if they are going to keep up those shady attitudes & behaviors, then it's a great thing that their newer game(s) are not here.

I really wish the 'achievement' fad finally went away forever. To me, it feels like buying cereal for the sole reason that there's a cutout police badge on the back of the carton. If you don't enjoy games any longer because you're not getting any virtual badges and fake pats on the back, something is horribly wrong.

It's not a fad. It's here to stay because it's fun to have goals and see them visually checked off as you accomplish them. Maybe that's not fun to you, but it is fun for some of us.

It's not something I use in every game. But for games I really like where I'm happy to have excuses to play them more it gives me ready made additional goals to shoot for instead of just "beat the game".

Yeah, I'm not into achievements at all, but many folks do like them, and some like them a lot. I'd hope for their sake that if/when Gog gets games, they get ALL of the games, meaning achievements, the same level of support (updates), etc. as any other seller (Steam).

I think achievements are silly, but many people think they add an element to a game they're playing that enhances their overall enjoyment of the game. I say go for it. No different than anyone who mods their game in any other way to enhance their enjoyment.

I have no problem with that at all. As long as GOG supplies the game in an .exe variant without achievements overlays or popups, I am wholly content. I do see achievements as a fad, I won't lie, because it's the extrinsic reward scheme par excellence, and I'd rather be immersed in a game and play it because it's fun in itself, not because some virtual medals and checked boxes are looming. It's also kind of giving single player games a competitive element, something that lets you compare yourself to other gamers, and I find that intrusive and off-putting.

However, I was only speaking up because a user tried to brand a developer 'generally unwanted' because the dev was, from my point of view, infantilizing GOG users less than Steam users. JRPGs especially have plenty of intrinsic and extrinsic reward schemes already, so the question whether they need additional tacked on reward schemes (that are very standardized and repetitive to boot) is even more debatable.

If Sea of Stars lands here sooner, but without achievements, I can say with absolute certainty that I'll buy.