GOG and future Mac downloads

[Psychomorph]

Why no GOG pre-order? No good business? I take it you get the most money from your own store which runs through Humble?

Is GOG so uneconomical for you during the pre-order phase? Or you not like Poles? :p

[juho]

We love gog.com and they're really nice to us. The current pre-order setup is easiest for us and channels all the traffic to our website.

[Psychomorph]

I see and by the way, I just got my key for Wasteland 2, as an original backer, and it is one that I could redeem on both platforms, Steam or GOG. I chose GOG.

Can you do it likewise? So I pre-order at your site, but get a key that I can redeem as I choose? Or would that interrupt the desired traffic channeling?

[juho]

I don't think that's possible with our current setup. Sorry.

[Psychomorph]

Your current setup sucks. Sorry.


Kidding, it's all cool. I'll just not pre-order.


Kidding, I will pre-order.





By the way, you say "I don't think that's possible", does it mean you don't know for sure, or are you just being polite?

[jwdenzel]

Thanks for answering my original post. I'll probably just order it from GOG on launch day, even if it means I have to pay a little extra. I just prefer GOG for my online catalog of games. (It's also where I have LG1, and it'll be cool to see them side by side on the shelf)

And FWIW, I understand you make more money on each sale directly via your own store. So in exchange for confessing that I'm using GOG, I'll totally spread the word and help get some new sales. We cool still? Ok, good.

[antti]

Thanks for answering my original post. I'll probably just order it from GOG on launch day, even if it means I have to pay a little extra. I just prefer GOG for my online catalog of games. (It's also where I have LG1, and it'll be cool to see them side by side on the shelf)

And FWIW, I understand you make more money on each sale directly via your own store. So in exchange for confessing that I'm using GOG, I'll totally spread the word and help get some new sales. We cool still? Ok, good.

Oh yeah, totally. Everyone's free to buy the game from wherever it's available and whatever suits them the best. This is why we try to offer different options for buying the game.

[Isaac]

The situation with Wasteland 2 was kind of interesting. What happened was that certain tier backers were entitled to one or more digital copies of the game and beta-access... but by participating in the beta they unknowingly [for some] redeemed a copy of the game on Steam; some didn't like that very much. The Steam copy was setup to auto update to the full game once it was released; it was a neat way to do it. People voiced concerns (some with good reasons). InXile later setup a revoke link on each backer's personal reward page. This allowed beta access backers to revoke their steam key in order to redeem the game from another vendor ~like Gog.

I don't think this was or will be generally available to anyone but WL2 backers. It's clearly a different situation with AH; and AH offers it direct DRM free [AFAIK], and with a bonus Steam key.

[Vainamoinen]

Thanks for answering my original post. I'll probably just order it from GOG on launch day, even if it means I have to pay a little extra.

That will likely be my choice as well.

What I don't support of course is the notion to only buy in one store just to "have my library in one place". Indeed, for this whole PC game distribution thing to not drift off into a monopoly, gamers must be far more ready to diversify their purchase options. They're obviously not willing to support each developer directly, which has led to the industry situation we have now.

I'm not sure if I can still clarify even further as to what the problem with the present Humble setup is, but yeah, I do see Humble as mainly a Steam key reseller and not in the least a 'competitor' to Valve. So being slapped with a Steam key whether I like it or not, even though I don't have to use it, leaves an aftertaste of still having supported the monopoly. Regardless of where the money flows.

And Humble absolutely isn't careful with these concerns, and that - for other games at least - can turn out pretty ugly for the customer. I've recently bought Roundabout directly via widget from the No Goblin site, supposedly a "DRM free download" (which was advertised as such in several places) and sure enough, the game page I claimed says "DRM free" plain and simple. But there's no direct download link of any kind, with a Steam key as the only option. They don't answer to my support request... they were just plain conflating Steam and DRM free in this particular case, without any warning, and have not made an attempt to remedy this situation. Supporting Humble can be... a bit sketchy.

Looking forward to Grimrock 2 on GOG in any case - make sure to add a lot of extras like the orchestral soundrack bits!

[Neutronium Dragon]

I have no idea how feasible this is, but would it be possible to arrange for the Humble store (via the widget or generally) to offer the option of a steam key OR a GoG gift code, as the purchaser prefers? That would solve the concerns here.