(edit: I think I made this thread when I was in an extra bad mood, tbh not sure why I did. Apologies for it. Though maybe there has been some meaningful discussion within it)

Possibly getting to the heart of the matter, I think most complaints - many or most of which may well be justified - basically just boil down to the thread title. GOG ecks out a living overall. Unfortunately I don't see a surefire way for GOG to make more. I also don't believe they're spending much on Galaxy, which some people do seem to believe.

If somebody smart could clip here the most significant bits regarding GOG's finances

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/cd_projekt_strategy_and_development_of_the_company_financial_results_suggestions_by_armchair_ceos/page35

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/cd_projekt_strategy_and_development_of_the_company_financial_results_suggestions_by_armchair_ceos/post695

If gog die, wil u crie?

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/cd_projekt_strategy_and_development_of_the_company_financial_results_suggestions_by_armchair_ceos/post697

You want the devil's advocate? Fine. What if they started advertising on the website and on Galaxy? :P Surely that would rake in some cash.

I believe they are sitting on a nice pile of analytics anyway, already shared with "trusted partners". Does that include some monetization? No idea. But if we take general practices these days as an example, I wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out to be the case.

Arguably high margins has never been the business model here, at least one would hope so. I wouldn't overanalyze their book-keeping, mostly because it's common practice to juggle stuff around. The goals of this financial "sleight of hand" would be hitting financial thresholds that would benefit a corporation with a low income. Let's not forget having a parent company allows some headway into how profits are reported and who gets to take credit for what.

It's a store. I buy what I can, I get the games, my part is done. Wasting my time pouring through financial data, sweating over solvency of a business I buy product from is a major waste of my time and extra stress I don't need in my life. I'd prefer to be enjoying my spare time, or at the very least spending it doing other distasteful but necessary things like my taxes.

So I'd be disappointed, but I won't have a meltdown over GOG closing. And I won't be seeking an alternative yet either.

No, because I would lose nothing at all.

That’s the main purpose of buying only DRM-free games: you have no ties to the stores you use.

I might see a change for the future, imagine gog turning into more of a library, depository than an actual store anymore

Ancient Red Dragon would be bawling his eyes out if all his DRM Galaxy achievements went away. And who would pay for that? If it's not a store, it goes bye-bye.

like Steam? :-P

We are not part of Gog board so it is hard to know for sure, but from personal experience being in the "black" even if it is only for 1 cents is usually considered "good" at least not "everybody run to the lifeboat" bad.

Not making profit can be explained by a lot of factor from investing money in different projects or simply financial magic, I worked for a couple of companies that didn't had any financial problem but who loved trying to have a profit as little as possible at the end of the fiscal period (by making advance payments, investments, etc...) as it would greatly lower their taxes.

And it even sometime happens for bigger companies where a department "too profitable" might end up covering costs for others as a way to balance things out.

I am not saying that's what happen here, as I said we don't know, just that as long as they don't fall too badly into the red it might be a little too early to start panicking.

I've got adblock, so I wouldn't really mind :D Sure I will. It's not like DRM-free games are that easy to come by.

+1

This surprises me, i thought you, as in a name i've seen now and then throughout my years on GoG, would know that gog is a subsidiary.

A lot can happen with daughters;) i'm not sure btw if this translates well into english.... Literally translated from Dutch a subsidiary would be daughter company trolololol

A small part of me would crie or cry.

GOG after all, set a new regime and something that is dear to my heart - DRM-Free.
That regime, even after all this time, is still against the standard practice for selling games and beyond.

So GOG opened up a new frontier, and it seems to me that they are still struggling with, despite having grown enormously and successfully dealt with some challenges.

I have a few issues with GOG, no doubt tied to issues of finance and compromise etc on their part, but at the same time I have a lot of respect for them, and what must be around 16 years of existence now, is not to be sneezed at.

So I would indeed be very sad to see them go.

On the other hand, I believe in being a realist, and ultimately I suspect DRM-Free in any big way is doomed.

The important thing for me, is that I have downloaded all my purchases from GOG, and in many cases the updates to many of the games.

Keeping up with updates can be a real challenge, and maybe another aspect to cry over if GOG closed shop too soon.

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I have suspected for a long while now, that GOG often operate on the smell of an oily rag. There seems to be lots of evidence that suggest that when combined.

But then a store that grows too big too quick, can often show similar symptoms.

Long Live GOG!

ADVICE - Download your games from GOG (and updates), while you can. Try to stay on top of it all. Because you just never know.

INTERESTING TO PONDER - If Steam were forced to close shop, which is very unlikely, the backlash on the Gaming Community would be huge, and so others would have to step in. I seriously doubt that would be the case with the GOG store. But perhaps some decent DEVs/PUBs would hand out Steam Key vouchers or similar for Epic store.

To me it feels like it has been a couple of years where GOG did... well, nothing. At all.
No updates, no fixing problems, no effort of any kind.

Might be just my impression, maybe I'm missing something, yet that's what I think.

If I were in GOG's shoes right now, I'd be checking every last cent from weekly or monthly finance reports to figure out where the embezzler is.

GOG is in no position to do so, though.

They really are lacking for skilled staff on account of their hiring policies. Still.

Read: I think GOG is making plenty of money, but uses it wrongly.

GOG recently released the original Resident Evil with fixes so game works fine on new PC, and 2 and 3 are on the way. Alpha Protocol was also released with fixes, if I'm not mistaken. Fallout London mod was released on GOG. I wouldn't say they don't do anything. Other than that, the GOG version of older games almost always works better than other versions, and in some cases even offers more languages ​​than Steam for example. GOG Galaxy, while lacking Steam features, is still a lot better than Epic, Ubisoft Connect, and especially the EA App, which requires me to restart multiple times because games often refuse to show up in the library because they've been "removed for unknown reasons."