GoG Lays off 10% of Workforce

You can read the article Here.

Ana

That is interesting, Ana, as I was just reading this article here that GOG put up today, which goes along with their financial concerns.

Thanks for the info Ana and Marian.

I've used both your links, thanks, BrownEyedTigre and Marian

And I understand what appears to be happening.

I just hope GOG's plans will keep them afloat. They are a "jewel" as far as I'm concerned and I certainly want to continue to buy from them.

[In the "David and Goliath" situations that can open up in the market place they are definitely the "David" and will definitely need support ]

I hope they give us enough time to download everything if they do go under.

Thanks for the additional info, Marian!

Interesting news. I'd say the writing is on the wall. I'm trying to find the prediction I made elsewhere a couple of years ago that GOG is likely going to die in the not so distant future. Behind the scenes, it's kind of a known fact that their management structure is pretty awful, that the arse end doesn't know what the head end is doing and vice versa (or whatever the expression is regarding body parts not knowing what other body parts are doing). I believe they can rescue themselves (for a while at least) if they stop being so petty on the games they take on, they have denied a great number of indie adventure games that WE would all consider to be very nice games.

They have also needed a better financial system (for developers who distribute with them) for years now, they are lagging behind in that department greatly, where most other large distributors use an automated system to make payouts, they do manual payouts which in 2019 is nothing short of archaic. We used to send invoices to one person, now we have to send each invoice to 3 different people... That's not a good sign. That's not good structuring. I don't want to be the doom-sayer but yes, definitely download and backup all your GOG games. I'd say the writing is on the wall, restructuring is almost always the penultimate action before shutting down (think: Telltale).

That said, the glimmer of hope, you would think, would be Cyberpunk 2077, if CD Projekt Red is prepared to filter profits from that down into GOG. And honestly I'd have thought Witcher 3 was still a good place to filter some funds through to GOG, but hey perhaps that settlement with the Witcher writer crippled them (merely speculation..!). Don't get me wrong, I'd like them to survive, but I'd also not like to give praise to something that's clearly broken -- it may not seem like it from a customer perspective but on the back-end, it's pretty borked and in vital need of modernisation. Their model worked well for 2006-2016 perhaps but times have changed, competition is growing stronger and they just aren't keeping up.

From what I can tell, they have a loyal fan base yes, but they are not attracting new users, at least, not at a positive rate. Their business model has become trying to get their existing users to own "all" games that exist on GOG rather than attracting new users. When I noticed that was the case is when I realized their model is ultimately doomed to fail because it's a risky gamble. Set aside growing the customer base in a bid to just get everyone who's already a customer to own their entire catalogue. Maybe it could work, but if they're cutting their workforce, clearly, it isn't working so well right now.

Another note is that their employees seem to move on, I forget the technical term, basically a company that is incapable of holding down the same employees for many years - which is a clear sign that behind the scenes something isn't right. I also feel sorry for some of their lower end staff that have to put up with a lot of top level bad decisions. Regardless, you may deal with "Eric" for 2 months and by month 3 he'll be gone and it's someone else. Almost as bad as retail, tbh. Bottom line is GOG is a company with problems, and it has been that way for a good 2-3 years now, ofc, these problems aren't projected/revealed on the front end but trust me they exist on the backend. Of course, this is just the impression I get trying to distribute games with them.

A good place to learn some insight into their workforce is here:
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/GOG-com-Reviews-E827105.htm

To quote the entry from 1st Feb 2019:

I just received their updated terms they state they will email every user and give them 60 days to download their games if they (GOG) ends. Can I put them on a flash drive?

m0ds, I agree with everything you say! I have lots of developer friends and their sentiments are the same. My biggest pet peeve against them is their refusal of many games I consider to be very good Indie games and giving everyone their standard denial of being "a niche game" and not enough draw. Maybe they should have done a little research and see those "niche games" have plenty of fans.

Ana

Much as I like GOG, this has been a part of their modus operandi that I really don't understand.

Thanks for your thoughts/knowledge on this m0ds. Those "cons" in your quote are all cons that were at my previous job which is also practically out of business.

I also received the updated terms and read as much as I could of that but did not see anything about the 60 day notice Winfrey. I, personally, don't trust flash drives as twice I have lost information from them when they don't work the next time I try to use them. I used one for my Shiny Loot games and now I can't access them on there. Fortunately, I also have them on an external drive and Shiny Loot gave "keys" for a lot of them to be redeemed at Steam.

Am I the ONLY person to feel SAD about this news ??

So much criticism and condemnation but no mention of all the good !!

I can’t stress enough how much pleasure GOG has given, to me anyway, in enabling the playing of classic gems on modern machines

By their offering of hundreds of magnificent games DRM Free and at very affordable prices.

And by their fantastic customer service. Which, until more recently, was a “fabulous one to one - staff member to customer” based affair.

I am fervently hoping GOG will overcome their current difficulties - maybe by modernising both their outlook and management - and continue to provide what they have so wonderfully provided until now.

"I am fervently hoping GOG will overcome their current difficulties - maybe by modernising both their outlook and management - and continue to provide what they have so wonderfully provided until now."

Mad, I am with you on this, and do not believe that re-organizing always means you're going down. Hopefully, this will be a good thing for GOG!

I hope my comments didn't make it sound like I think this is the end and that I wouldn't care.

Oh, I *definitely* care about what happens to GOG, Mad, and certainly wasn't trying to convey otherwise. They have been my primary digital download source now for many years.

GOG is far from perfect, but we need more DRM-free options, not fewer.
I hope they are able to stay in business.


They don't send me anything but ads. They don't even send me receipts any more. It happened after they "updated" their website to be less functional.


You can put them anywhere they'll fit. (You're not going to fit a 25 GB game on an 8 GB USB flash drive) But it's usually best to back up to at least two different locations. Hard drive and DVD's, or hard drive and USB stick, or USB stick and DVD's. If you only have really small games you might be able to use online storage. But if you have over a TB of game files, that's going to be expensive for online storage.


And when they do get them in stock, it can be years after you stopped caring. Eventually they got Tormentum, but look how long it took them. I'd gotten it DRM-free from another DRM-free web shop years before GOG started offering it. And I think most people who were interested in it did the same. So GOG lost out on most of the sales.

Oh geesh...upon first glance I thought the title of this Thread was...

'GoD Lays off 10% of Workforce' You had me worried there!

oldbroad, under

Termination
17.3 It seems very unlikely, but if we have to stop providing access to GOG services and GOG content permanently (not because of any breach by you), we will try to give you at least sixty (60) days advance notice by posting a note on www.gog.com and sending an email to every registered users – during that time you should be able to download any GOG content you purchased.

In the very unlikely situation that we have to stop running GOG we'll do our best to give you advance notice, so that you can download and safely store all your DRM-free content.

And I like GOG will be very unhappy if they go away. But this has always been my fear with digital downloads.

Thanks Winfrey. It was pretty late last night when I was reading the stuff (the email came in at 10:16 pm and I don't know what time I saw it). And after awhile of looking at stuff like that, I start to not see things. I think by that point I was just reading the "highlights" on the right side of the page and while it does mention trying to give us notice, it doesn't say the 60 days part there. Hopefully, it will not come to that but it may be time to back some of the games up anyway.

This is a bit distressing news. I also hope GOG can hang in there, as it is my main source for DRM-free titles. Interestingly enough, the magazing Game Informer just had a very positive article on GOG and CD Projekt in their Dec 2018 issue I think it was.

No, you're not. IMO, GoG has been a bigger revolution for digital game purchases than Steam, by making older games playable on modern systems AND keeping them DRM free. Let's hope they will stay in business.

That's my opinion too, Mikael