Within GOG Galaxy usually the current release and previous release of a game are available, sometimes maybe a couple of previous releases. For the downloadable installers it varies from game to game. If a game's latest update is in the form of patches on top of a n older version then you can download both and just not install the patches, however if the main installer gets updated then they remove the old installer and there's no way to get older versions by default.

Having said that, they do still keep old versions around on their servers so if you contact GOG support and ask them nicely for access to an older version of a game and explain why... such as a mod you want to use requires it, or some other reason they have in the past often honoured such requests and provide a link or some such to obtain the older version.

With the heightened load on support due to the COVID lockdown and people working from home, their support request queue is perpetually overburdened however and they do not respond to support requests within their previously advertised 24-48 hour support window anymore and I don't think that will change any time soon. Also, they give priority to the most critical customer support issues first so non-critical requests like downloading an older version of a game might get a super low priority or even get refused or ignored due to the support load. This sucks, but is understandable to a degree due to the current pandemic situation at least.

I really hope GOG hires a bunch more people for their support team so they can return to having a good support experience again as it was in years past, because the current support situation is bordering on terrible even if there are good reasons to explain it. Time for the parent company CDP SA to spend some of those eddies they made from Cyberpunk on hiring new staff... #JustSaying :)

Anyhow, if you make a polite request to support hopefully you'll get lucky and they'll send you a link for your game.

Pretty sure that those who asked for the older D:OS have been told for quite some time now that it's not something that's still offered for offline installers.

Like I said, I would be surprised if GOG don't keep a back up of everything, so it is highly probable older versions do exist on at least their main servers in an archive somewhere.

With that in mind, you then have the notion that requiring an older version would only be a somewhat rare occasional thing, so not much download demand on a server, so just having an archive they give us access to should not be that hard, and they can remain where they are now, no need to use up other valuable server space.

------------------------------------------------------

As for where I think GOG are heading, which ties into other aspects you raise, is a DRM-Free (Steam & Epic) model, where you can copy or zip up an install folder and it will (mostly) work on another PC without needing to authenticate. It would certainly make life simpler for them, obviously with Galaxy being mandatory at the point of initial download. If they also ensured that other requirements (i.e. Registry entries and other dependencies) were included in the folder and implemented on every startup if missing, then they have covered their bases, and can claim they are still DRM-Free, just not an Offline Installer DRM-Free.

P.S. The elephant in the room though, is patches or full rollback. If GOG every disappear, then Galaxy won't be able to do that. So updating and backup just in case would be terribly painful, likely repeated a few times in some cases.

P.S.S. We are where we are at now, because GOG have gone from something fairly simple to something downright complex. Galaxy should only have ever been an install assistant, using the exact same files (with a few others thrown in for Galaxy specific monitoring etc) as what the Offline Installer files are.

Yes, that's exactly the long-term issue with "just use Galaxy". If GOG ever disappear then Galaxy will become the world's biggest digital paperweight overnight, ability to re-download games, rollback, all those achievements & cloud saves, *poof* all gone. So they definitely need to fix games like Divinity Original Sin where you literally cannot download a non-buggy "last good version" of an offline installer, rather than keep tap-dancing around the issue with more Galaxy over-marketing.

I only got around to contact them today. But I surely will post any response i might get.

The problem persists. Every time Northgard gets an upgrade to introduce a new feature like Miklagard or the clan of the Turtle, the game breaks. Before Miklagard games could stop right after year 2. Now that the Turtle is available, all kind of games stop after reaching year 3 or 802 AD. Try to load the saved or autosaved game and you'll only get a send report screen and a big black nothing.

Really, the Shiro games devs & GOG should seriously consider letting us downgrade the game if needed.

EDIT

I double checked and noticed that the Windows version does have patches but not full versions of older releases. Linux has no such thing. :( I like playing on my Linux box.

You really should have started a new thread, rather than necro this one.

And yes, GOG should give us access to an archive of older versions, certainly for those of us who might buy a game later in its life. Hell, even a link in our library to the Dev repository would be good enough.

It pays to keep older versions, even if you rarely use them.