That's not really the point, though, right? If the uncertainty surrounding your GOG collection is so high that you feel obligated to download and save a backup of everything you own, that seems like a problem to me. And the events described by the OP increase that uncertainty.

If you do it out of habit or for fun, that's your own thing. But if it becomes required (or if it feels required because you're not sure if you'll own something tomorrow) that's bad.

On the contrary, this seems to be spoken like someone with a really good internet connection. Use case: you bought a bunch of games in a sale, and have neither the speed nor the unlimited bandwidth to download everything at once. Not to mention the fact that GOG *does* offer a library, and unfortunately you're right simply because we know that one's GOG library is not safe from issues like this.

What the hell? Whenever games have been completely pulled due to licencing issues they've remained downloadable, I don't see why this should be different.

Yeah that does bother me too that they pulled the game from the shelf - especially considering that they gave absolutely no warning about it (and still haven't put it up on the forum or the GOG news after the fact). I can understand that they themselves might get little to no warning about losing the ability to sell a game, but there is no news story or forum post about this. In the past when they have had a game threatened to be taken off gamer's shelves they have issued warnings over it (though I can't remember a time it actually happened before).

I agree that backups should always be made and I am glad that GOG is offering a refund or another game, but this situation is still not good. I wonder why they pulled the game from the shelf? That seems extreme.
Maybe GOG never had the right to sell the Mac version of the game? I dunno, I agree it's very odd.

I read this post and thought maybe I should do the same even though I have no plans to get a Mac any time soon. Then I saw the Witcher 2 OS X is 19.7 gigs and let the idea fade away.

I've read before about companies that make Mac ports having an exclusive license agreement to distribute the games to make money off their efforts. Aspyr seem to be one that do a lot, especially steamworks games. When they do a port they take out steam functionality as they want the revenue to goto them. The Windows version of Imperial Glory was published by Eidos. Where as the Mac one was published by Feral Interactive. I'd imagine a similar situation happened here where the money for the sale was in dispute over which publisher it would go to.

Hmm, I guess this isn't a case of GOG losing the rights to sell the Mac version (like various games removed from the store), but that they never had the rights to sell it and thus the sale has 'been annulled'. I suppose it makes sense.

I hope they do get around to making an announcement over this. I'm sure they can do it in a way as not to embarrass their partners. Getting a refund is a bit of a consolation, but it's a precedent that's been set and should be explained so people don't start getting over a tizzy the next time this happens.

That was something I was not happy about, that I was not notified about this at all. I had to find it on my own. I could not tell you for example when this got yanked off my shelf. I just happened to discover it on my own. GOG should have communicated this to people who had purchased the game, particularly since it was made available for Mac.

Games should not randomly disappear from the shelf after purchase without a word from GOG in my opinion.

Thanks for sharing that information. I typically immediately download and backup every game a buy from here, although I've been a bit remiss on that batch of games I bought during the holiday say. That oversight is being rectified as a type this.

As for the game being pulled from a shelf (a first here), while it's nice that GOG offered a refund the rest of how it was handled doesn't inspire much confidence. The Mac versions of games were a fairly recent addition, so it wasn't like the contract came up for review after running it's course over several years. Rather, it seems to indicate that GOG didn't fully do their homework when arranging the contract, to be bit by it so quickly. Additionally, simply pulling it silently without any kind of notification to users is just bad form however you look at it. Lately I've been getting the impression that in their efforts to expand the GOG staff have been stretching themselves too thin, and as a result we're seeing an increase in things being half-assed or being handled like it's amateur hour. I hope GOG take stock of the direction they're heading and make an effort to improve things.

I do that with every gaming service and every media service I buy from. I've been burned by not doing so in the past.

EDIT: It's naive to the point of ignorance to not acknowledge the point. It's unlikely that we'll be given any advance notice on any site that goes under.
This doesn't really address the notion that one should retain copies on hand of all the games one buys. In fact it really reinforces the notion as if ones connection is that slow, one shouldn't be deleting games one buys.

But, it's ultimately a moot point as anybody who has a connection so slow as to make it impossible to download what their buying either needs to buy fewer games or find a way of getting a better connection. Probably the former as the latter would probably have already been chose.

GOG does have one, but ones internet can go out at any time, in the developed world that's usually rare, but who knows. Plus, if ones power goes out, one can still play on a laptop without prior knowledge that power is going out. I think playing Zork in the dark is awesome.

but like I said, that's not... ug nevermind

One of these days I'll have to get around to it.

If we get lucky, it's probably just an issue that they're having with the Mac expansion.

I skipped backing up the Witcher 1, due to not having the space for it atm but backed everything else up. Since gog and CDProject are under the same banner, I don't think either of the Witcher game's Mac ports are going to pulled anytime soon.

Thanks for posting this. Disappointing that they didn't warn people who bought the game before removing it but there may be a reason for that, particularly if it should never have been there. In the circumstances offering a full refund (putting you back in the position you would have been had you not bought the game) seems the most reasonable option.

I guess it is always best to back up everything, if possible, in case of any kind of issues, zombie apocalypse included.

This is a troubling change of policy, and I question its legality. You purchased the game, and the product purchased was changed without your permission. I doubt you will sue CDP over a game, but this sets a bad precedent. And I suppose that anyone that bought Imperial Glory before the mac port was removed is entitled to a refund now, which will hurt gog significantly.