Is GOG losing it's war of attrition ?

nashathedog · 29 Mar 2019 at 09:25

Here's a Tweaktown article that was in my inbox this morning.

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/65367/gog-com-barely-making-profit/index.html

Although Steam & a couple of others are more rounded platforms losing GOG would be a crying shame, I think it plays an important role among all the game platforms that's good for us the gamers.

CaptainRAVE · 29 Mar 2019 at 09:31

Would definitely be a loss. The digital market is becoming increasingly crowded though.

MonkeyBasher · 29 Mar 2019 at 09:44

The article answers your questions for you.

They did not make a profit but have massive revenue. The reason they did not make a profit is because they pumped all that cash into 3 new games. Thronebreaker, cyberpunk and an unannounced witcher game. You cant make games for free, especialy AAA games that have been years in development with massive teams.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Mar 2019 at 10:10

MonkeyBasher said:
The article answers your questions for you.

They did not make a profit but have massive revenue. The reason they did not make a profit is because they pumped all that cash into 3 new games. Thronebreaker, cyberpunk and an unannounced witcher game. You cant make games for free, especialy AAA games that have been years in development with massive teams.

The issue is how much it costs to keep GOG up and running across multiple territories: it spent 73% of the revenues it made during the year to deliver those games to consumers, or about 95.8 million PLN ($25 million). After operating costs are factored in (another 46 million PLN or $12 million) and taxes, GOG profits sat at a rather small 30,000 PLN.

GOG is a separate unit of CDPR to the part which develops games.

Their model is not cheap to run,and they recently dropped their profit share to match Epic and dumped regional pricing.

I can see them long-term not surviving unless CDPR runs them as a loss leader. It's more likely they might try things like timed exclusivity of their future titles after Cyberpunk 2077 on the platform to drive more people to it.

Gimpymoo · 29 Mar 2019 at 11:33

Good Old Games - There is the problem.

Sure, they rebranded to GOG but at its heart, it will always be "GOOD OLD GAMES w/ some new Indie games".

Their initial offering involved "fixing" old games to make them bootable on mondern OS's.

Thing is, most games released in the last decade for the most part, run fine so loss of market there.

For example, Bioshock released in 2007.

I purchased that on Steam. That version still boots and works on Windows 10. Why would I buy it on GOG?

And no AAA Publisher (Apart from CDPR) is going to stick their next multi million dollar franchise on GOG, DRM free, not happening.

They started with a niche, they are still a niche offering.

I did post this in 2010 on the back of their ill received "rebranding" (shutting down) exercise which I think points to the issues I also raised above...

Gimpymoo said:
That is a MASSIVE shame and very sad.

Although, what did the future hold for them?

With people purchasing their "new" games on Steam and the like with unlimited downloads, they would not need to goto GOG to purchase the same "Old" games in 5 years time, if that makes sense?

Maybe that was part of the problem?

Maybe it was difficult getting "new" games on the service as these "old" games were allready on other digital download services.

What happens with peoples accounts will be watched VERY carefully I would assume.

Undesirable · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:03

For me they seemed to be a company that was created to stick it to the system and say "Games that are DRM free can still be profitable" whilst making a modest amount of profit. I used to enjoy that sentiment. Now they're a massive company that downgraded The Witcher III for console parity and lied about it right up until just after release date, I have little sympathy for them.

Ooh, they had a massive marketing budget for Thronebreaker whilst trying to pull the wool over people's eyes that it was a AAA release and not some el-cheapo game that can could run on mobile devices. My heart bleeds for them as much as it does Blizzard for the Diablo scam.

nashathedog · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:05

@CAT-THE-FIFTH

I don't know anything legal wise but I imagine GOG Connect costs them a pretty penny so there's a good chance we won't see that for much longer, the last three sales have seen the number of Connect games drop significantly.

@Gimpymoo

Maybe but they do get newer titles all be it years after release, Personally I like have drm free copies of my favourite games so I do often buy them again once their showing a sizable discount during a GOG sale. Dying Light for example, Metro 2033 & Last Light, The STALKER Trilogy's another, Even though I still haven't played the Witcher 3 on Steam yet I bought the Game of the year version on GOG when it was only £15 in a sale last year.

chrcoluk · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:11

I will be even more angry at Epic if GOG dies, as they seemed to be managing fine up until they showed up.

But yeah if GOG survives it will be because they willing to subsidise it from game revenue as now under the new PC gaming market its barely viable. The same reason that the only way Epic store is viable is subsidies from fortnite money.

Now they also trapped, sales will dry up with these stories as people will be worried they lose access to their games if GOG goes bankrupt.

8myers8 · 29 Mar 2019 at 12:49

i really hope not as its my go to store for older PC games ..

nashathedog · 29 Mar 2019 at 13:11

chrcoluk said:
I will be even more angry at Epic if GOG dies, as they seemed to be managing fine up until they showed up.

But yeah if GOG survives it will be because they willing to subsidise it from game revenue as now under the new PC gaming market its barely viable. The same reason that the only way Epic store is viable is subsidies from fortnite money.

Now they also trapped, sales will dry up with these stories as people will be worried they lose access to their games if GOG goes bankrupt.

8myers8 said:
i really hope not as its my go to store for older PC games ..

I think the best bet is to download and make back-up copies, At the moment I've got my best GOG games on an SSD in the PC, I have the same ones & more on an external hard drive and again on a hard drive that's sat in a cupboard so if GOG does eventually go down I'm covered with back-ups. It will be a shame though.

8myers8 · 29 Mar 2019 at 16:08

nashathedog said:
I think the best bet is to download and make back-up copies, At the moment I've got my best GOG games on an SSD in the PC, I have the same ones & more on an external hard drive and again on a hard drive that's sat in a cupboard so if GOG does eventually go down I'm covered with back-ups. It will be a shame though.

Good idea i think looks best to back up my GOG games this weekend thanks for idea

chrcoluk · 29 Mar 2019 at 17:18

Will be doing that yeah as it doesnt look good, but at least these games should run without the launcher as there is no DRM.

Evian · 29 Mar 2019 at 17:43

Never used it, Never needed to.

nashathedog · 29 Mar 2019 at 19:35

8myers8 said:
Good idea i think looks best to back up my GOG games this weekend thanks for idea

chrcoluk said:
Will be doing that yeah as it doesnt look good, but at least these games should run without the launcher as there is no DRM.

I don't think GOG will be disappearing anytime soon but it's something to keep an eye on.

Omaeka · 29 Mar 2019 at 23:48

Undesirable said:
For me they seemed to be a company that was created to stick it to the system and say "Games that are DRM free can still be profitable" whilst making a modest amount of profit. I used to enjoy that sentiment. Now they're a massive company that downgraded The Witcher III for console parity and lied about it right up until just after release date, I have little sympathy for them.

Ooh, they had a massive marketing budget for Thronebreaker whilst trying to pull the wool over people's eyes that it was a AAA release and not some el-cheapo game that can could run on mobile devices. My heart bleeds for them as much as it does Blizzard for the Diablo scam.

Pretty spot on, but they're still the sweethearts of the gaming industry (a sentiment I share), but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it wasn't based off of the merits (or lack-of) of their competition, which speaks volumes for the state of the industry when it's 'heroes' are such simply for not being filth.

Capcom and Ubisoft are looking good these days, though.

Souness · 30 Mar 2019 at 13:34

GOG shows up quite often for me when I search on isthereanydeal. It's a good option to have outside of the steam sale windows. If you're not using them you're probably wasting money.