dirtyharry50: All the marketing spin about core values, loving gamers, fighting the good fight, etc. was always bullshit. It was always marketing spin. People actually bought into the idea that this business which exists primarily to make money more than anything else by far was on some holy crusade just for them. They never were. They still aren't. Maybe employees of GOG even bought into this but top management is clearly all about the money, as actually is normal for any business. So you can expect GOG going forward to ALWAYS do whatever makes the most money over the long haul. That's right. They will ALWAYS do whatever makes the most money. They will do this in stages of course. Right now, they'll deal with this test of the waters and see how sales are impacted and go from there. But the march to more money will continue unrelenting.
You can forget about "principles" right now. The principle goal is to make money. Period.
We are not particularly important. Our money is and whatever means earns the most money possible is what is going to happen. That is why I say with confidence that DRM games on this store are simply a matter of time. You are never going to see a steady parade of AAA games DRM free. They sell like hotcakes on Steam already. They don't need to sell them DRM free. Publishers are not in any way compelled to sell DRM free. They lose very little if anything with relatively painless DRM as Steam proves without any room for argument. That's why Bethesda isn't here. They don't care. They don't need GOG. No major player needs any particular retailer. That's why EA blew off Steam on some titles with Origin. Those titles were big enough AAA fare that they could do that. And they all have DRM.
I hate to be the one who proclaims the emperor has no clothes and take the hit for it but I will. THERE IS NO DRM-FREE REVOLUTION. You've all been duped.
The only time there is no DRM is when the publisher doesn't care or values the spin for DRM-free at someplace like GOG.
I hate to break it to some of you folks but the revolution was over before it started. Steam won. DRM won. Game over. Look at always on Diablo III. 15 million copies folks. If you make a game people want to play in large numbers you can do whatever the hell you want pretty much and people will still buy it. Some of you may not but the DRM-free requiring crowd are in fact a minority. DRM-free here is just marketing spin most of the time for a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't have it anyway:
All the old classics? Who would spend money to DRM these? Nobody which is why they don't. Sure, they crack the CD checks. Why? THEY HAVE TO SELL THE THING DIGITALLY. It has nothing to do with some holy cause.
All the indies? THEY ARE DRM FREE EVERYWHERE!
So, how much modern AAA do we have here that this "good fight" I've heard about has resulted in? Yeah, that's right. Zero.
But now thanks to regional pricing concessions on three unknown titles the floodgates will open? Seriously? Are people really going to buy into the marketing spin and bullshit yet again? Really?
I'm sorry but I am just tired of reading the same old crap over and over and over. GOG is not a church. There is no holy crusade.
Personally, I never thought there was a DRM-free 'revolution'. But I did think that if GOG were to grow and gain a good customer base, it would demonstrate, to some publishers at least, that DRM is not necessary nor does it help sales. Is this the effect it's having? I don't know, but if the regional-priced DRM-free games soon to be released here are truly AAA fare, then I think it wouldn't be too big a stretch to think GOG's business model may have had some influence on that.
But as far as your prediction about future DRM on GOG's offerings goes, unfortunately I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Time will tell. But if they do cave on the DRM, then I'll move on and shop elsewhere. To me, DRM-free games is
core value of GOG. If they ditch that, I'll tuck my DRM-free GOG collection under my arm and run.
