I seriously doubt GOG will give any sort of explanation for how this happened. I'll save my outrage for a future "Hitman"-like situation, but if some people want to continue demanding one, best of luck.

I don't want to but unfortunately I have to since we got no proper explanation yet

Bump the thread, you mean?
And what explanation do you want? How it was greenlit for release?

I'm more interested in the current status, and if iOi actually have any intention to put together a proper DRM-free version that can be put up on and sold through GoG again.

Chances are we won't get answers to any of those questions, and just have to wait until its return one of these days.

This thread is worth bumping occasionally to remind people that this happened (try to prevent history repeating itself too much), but I'm quite sure you aren't going to get an explanation, I guess GOG aren't willing to make themselves "vulnerable" like they used to or they won't take the time to explain or it would be bad PR - "yeah we don't check games out like we used to".

Perhaps new GOG higher-ups / shareholders /profit-seekers told the staff to bring it despite the staff (at least any staff who've worked at GOG for some time) knowing the backlash that'd likely occur, and only once the gaming press did reporting on it and negative PR occurred (I'm sure the rioting in the comments and the reviews did help get their attention) were the people who control GOG willing to remove it? *shrug*

I'm going to guess "no" unfortunately. GOG's tiny marketshare probably won't make spending time and money to make significant changes worthwhile to a big dev/pub like IOI. Unless IOI are willing to go the simplist route and just unlock everything at the start (iirc in this thread that's what some people have said is the simplest thing to do?)

I want explanations on all of the above :)

to keep demanding as the explanation should have been handed to us already, but as it wasn't someone has to

and what explanation you ask: how was that allowed to happen and how are they making sure it won't happen again, depending on that I'll decide if I can trust them again

mistakes happen and not all of them require such level of transparency, but breaking the fundamental part of stores identity, breach of trust people put in them definitely deserves one

Why is EVERY SINGLE POST in the last 5 pages downvoted?

I want that question answered as well as the questions mentioned by @Zakius above.

I'm not replying here to demand an answer... just too bad this whole situation hasn't been wrapped up by now... or at least in a state of development or negotiations where intentions could be related. But all of that is tricky business.

Still have some hope, but my gut says we've heard the last of Hitman GOTY on GOG.

I'm sure there's some kind of bot doing it, some users have the same issue whenever they make a post.

Definitely a bot. The user can also obviously configure it to target either a specific user or entire threads. Makes me wonder why someone this capable at writing software would waste time making red words appear on posts on GOG forums, but here we are. Automation experts are in high demand pretty much everywhere in the IT industry.

I would assume the intention would be to discourage further posting in the thread.

But who cares about a number next to their handle. To me, it’s just another affirmation that GOG doesn’t care about, nor pays much attention to its users or what goes on in the forums anymore.

Not going to happen. "Over my dead account", lol. If according to other topics, GOG may be served by focusing on DRM-free, offering a detailed explanation of the events surrounding this Hitman Online Lame of the Year release would be a fantastic place to begin.

Thank you for the transparency and honesty. Hopefully, this can be resolved quickly as this is quite obviously something the people want and we are willing to wait for it to be done right. Thank you GOG Team

Patiently waiting for new information. Thank you very much GOG for all that you're doing to bring this fantastic title to us! It is much appreciated.

Yo Chandra, when are you going to tell us how this mess slipped through the cracks?