Please elaborate. Do you think that, since very few users visit the forum and won't see the negative feedback, the sales were likely strong enough for GOG to bring the other games? The dozens of pages of bad reviews probably won't be considered by most people?

Аctually, I suspect it would be very easy to argue but that's the thing - it would HAVE to be argued, in court. Which is probably what IO and GOG want to avoid.

Also, while I suspect GOG *could* theoretically be prevented from altering the online warning or delisting the game on their own by contract language - those contracts must be so grossly incompetent that only GOG is to blame from what they're getting.

Right now, in this moment, Hitman on the store in its current condition IS dealing (possibly irreparable) damage to the GOG brand - and if they have tied their own hands and allowed IO to hold them hostage - they should probably start with firing their own legal team first.

I thought a user on these forums had pointed out that GOG is evidently not able to alter the "game description" as that is dictated by dev/pub; however, I don't understand what would stop them from altering the little "post-it note" warning that they do at the top or bottom of the description...seems to me that part is in GOG's control and has already been altered from the original release where the warning at the top was in a different spot or not present.

If it is possible for GOG to alter the warning part at least, what is stopping them?

Hitman 2 and 3 are certainly not going to come out on gog. But hitman 2016 is not going to be retired on gog. He will stay, it's almost on his too.

But wiat, „many gamers“ insisted on not releasing Devotion. That‘s something completely different. ;)

Unlike others, I don't see this as an isolated case, a mistake, but rather as one more step in a fairly clear trajectory that has begun quite a while ago. As such, I think GOG should have been able to expect the reaction, which in my opinion was probably milder than they could have hoped.

The forum reaction was smaller than past debacles (e.g. regional pricing), probably not because people are less invested in this issue, but because there are less active people on the forum than there were in the past, many committed ones having already left GOG for its past transgressions. And the forum really matters little, as it is seen by few.

The game page reviews were, I believe, unique in GOG history, but at the end of the day, it's just 300+ negative reviews, not even a drop in the sea. And the online news articles --- well, CDP has survived much worse (see CP2077).

The image of IOI has been slightly tarnished (e.g. 1.3/5 rating), but most everyone --- justly --- blames GOG (if one is anti-DRM) or the "review bombers" (if one is pro-DRM or pro-new-definition-of-DRM-free).

These kind of bumps are par for the course for serious video gaming companies, so GOG and IOI should be able to patch thing up and find a way to cooperate again. Remember Sony temporarily delisting CP2077 from it PS store? Does anyone believe no other CDP game will be sold by Sony because of this?

I still believe GOG could have something up its sleeve, to perform its two-step-forward-one-step-back dance. It might not be a rabbit (fully DRM-free Hitman) --- it could be a shrew (DRM-free but everything unlocked at game start) or a dove (remove the game and compensate IOI) or a peacock (leave the game as is and compensate IOI).

From GOG's POV, I believe what's more important than Hitman sales is how this has affected other sales (e.g. Blood Omen, etc.). I suspect the effect has been minimal, which is what really matters for GOG's accountants and shareholders.

Now, if GOG could land a day-one pseudo-DRM-free game (i.e. DRM-free more or less like H1 currently is), that could be a great move for them. It probably won't be an IOI game, but these should follow, when the GOG clientele has become more accustomed to these types of releases.

i think this is wishful thinking.

if the plan is to hunker down and just wait through the controversy, then i think gog [and ioi in turn] have the stomach to sit through the backlash of 2 and 3 being here.

the days of gog being a drm free store are over.

the best thing gog can do - but they won't - is just to be frank and honest with it's userbase.

I don't think that's quite right, as given GOG's small size, 300+ negative reviews amounts to a ton, when it is viewed in the context of, and in proportion to GOG's small size.

If they sold even 10,000 copies (they probably sold a few more than that) 300 is 3%. That's not too significant. It's also possible that many reviewers didn't buy the game. I don't know if we're talking just verified owners or not here.

Cheers for the explanation.

This is an ubiquitous but completely absurd argument, the same made by people when there is a shitstorm on a forum and "but people on forum are only a tiny percentage of all users !".
Yeah, that's the whole principle of "sample". 300 negative reviews is A LOT for a somewhat small retailed as GOG, the same as 1000 people posting in anger on WOW forums is A LOT despite the game having literally millions of players.
Do you expect actually 1,5 million people posting on WoW forums when a change displease them ?
Doh.

Do you see the rating from verified users? Most of them are negative and will or already requested a refund. You can count the positive one on 1 hand...
Most of the reviews are from people like me that saw the previous reviews and stopped to make another review to warn more people and warn that gog is lying on the store page.
1814 of 1896 users found the most voted the most helpfull review in a positive way.
I don't think they sold more than 100 copy of the game (even less if you count refund).
They could sold about 2000 copies of the game on release if it was really drm-free.
I don't really think 10k copies can be really sold on gog, this is not steam, this is a small store, where most active user buy a lot of games that's why gog is still alive.

Are you talking about 10k copies selling of any GOG game basically impossible or Hitman specifically?

I think only rare case will sell 10k copies on the first few days on gog...
at least based on the forum and review... if there are like 10x more users that buy without even vote a review I'm not sure, but I don't really think there are that many people here on gog that buy on this shot amount of time.

I agree with this.