CD PROJEKT Losing Money on GOG, Its DRM-Free Digital Storefront

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The concept of a digital storefront that only serves DRM-free titles isn’t as lucrative as one might think. That’s according to CD PROJEKT’s latest financials, which reveal that the company’s DRM-free storefront, GOG, is actually losing money. GOG suffered losses of more than $1 million for the recent quarter, as pointed out in a GamesIndustry.biz report.



From GamesIndustry.biz:



[…] Despite the addition during the quarter of older Star Trek games, Myst, and new titles like Psychonauts 2, GOG only saw revenues inch upward 3% to PLN 41.8 million ($10.1 million).At the same time, GOG posted a segment net loss of PLN 4.75 million ($1.14 million) compared to the 130,000 PLN ($31,000) it realized in the year-ago quarter.Year-to-date, GOG has posted net losses of 9.21 million PLN ($2.21 million) compared to a cumulative 5.7 million PLN ($1.37 million) gain through the...
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I'd say the concept is still sound but the problem is that so few publishers are willing to release games without DRM at launch and by the time a deal is brokered to get it on GOG the majority of sales have already happened. I spent some time perusing the site on BF and CM and sadly was unable to find deals on anything new that I didn't already have. It also doesn't help that the majority of their catalog looks like games dating back to the 80s. Their teams need to work on brokering deals to get more new AAA titles at launch, or close to it, if the really want to turn the tide. I know they're 1st on my list I want to buy from but that is so rarely a choice.
 
Unfortunatelly it is not new for them to be in trouble https://kotaku.com/facing-financial-pressures-gog-quietly-lays-off-at-lea-1832879826

Epic has tons of money to broker exclusive deals, steam is for a lot of companies the default go to if they don't have their own launcher to begin with.

Their old method of getting old games to run on a new OS seems to have somehwat out of favor and I don't think that that is that profitable to begin with. It's fine for some nostalgia nerds but I think that market is pretty small.

What they could do is try to get some deals with indie developpers who release these retro style games like Ion fury etc..
 
That's sad.

Ideally I would buy everything from there, but in reality, most of th etime I forget to even check GOG. The catalog is too small so I usually check Steam first.

GOG really should be rewarded fro their more consumer friendly user model. I am going to have to try to remember to do that going forward.
 
Yeah, gamers that are still PO for your CP2077 debacle, or your unfair ban hammer towards gamers for your Hitman 2 false claims, or your sad decision to freeze all CP2077 update fixes to an unknown date in 2022, etc. are not the reason for your poor performance, eh?! 😏
 
GunShot said:
Yeah, gamers that are still PO for your CP2077 debacle, or your unfair ban hammer towards gamers for your Hitman 2 false claims, or your sad decision to freeze all CP2077 update fixes to an unknown date in 2022, etc. are not the reason for your poor performance, eh?! 😏
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Actually no I don't think that has anything to do with it. They simply don't have the cash reserves to forge ahead and get titles especially without DRM. People want to protect their IP's.
 
Well this is f*cking depressing. The one storefront that should be doing the best is suffering financially. Ain't that about a b*tch.
 
Ultimately the people who are all about No DRM are very few. I don't care that a game has DRM, as long as it is not obtrusive.
 
Stoly said:
That's an oxymoron :D :giggle:
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The games where DRM causes issues are the exception, not the rule.

I'm not pro DRM, I think it's stupid and doesn't actually result in any meaningful increase in sales. But as long as it doesn't annoy me, it won't stop me from playing games.
 
DrezKill said:
Well this is f*cking depressing. The one storefront that should be doing the best is suffering financially. Ain't that about a b*tch.
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It's because the mass market has no principals.

They want their games and they want them now, and they don't care what strings are attached.

Is it full of spyware, or DRM, or forced always online ****, or micro-transactions, ****ty DRM, etc. etc.?

Shut up and take my money.

If people cared about anything at all other than instant gratification, a company trying to do the right thing and eliminate DRM should own the market, but kids just don't care about anything at all other than their instant satisfaction.

It's really goddamn depressing.
 
Zarathustra said:
It's because the mass market has no principals.

They want their games and they want them now, and they don't care what strings are attached.

Is it full of spyware, or DRM, or forced always online ****, or micro-transactions, ****ty DRM, etc. etc.?

Shut up and take my money.

If people cared about anything at all other than instant gratification, a company trying to do the right thing and eliminate DRM should own the market, but kids just don't care about anything at all other than their instant satisfaction.

It's really goddamn depressing.
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I will admit to being a part of that problem as I do buy games on Steam or Epic at launch but then again I try to support GOG and re-buy if/when they show up there.
 
The o in GoG is hurting them, they don't have anywhere near the selection on newer titles as their competitors.

The great thing about GoG is that they go the extra mile and make their vintage titles to work on modern systems.

Also, no DRM means pretty much all their library is available on .torrents even recent releases, like Cyberpunk
 
Stoly said:
Also, no DRM means pretty much all their library is available on .torrents even recent releases, like Cyberpunk
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Yeah but that doesn't completely hold water either. Sure the companies get that extra boost of sales(which may or may not even cover the cost of DRM implementation) from the games with it at launch from those who don't care but stuff shows up on torrents often within days, or weeks of release. Heck, sometimes there's even pre-release versions that pop up before launch. There's also often a race to see who can break Denuvo the quickest just for the bragging rights alone and after a time DRM becomes completely hacked by everyone and their dog.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Yeah but that doesn't completely hold water either. Sure the companies get that extra boost of sales(which may or may not even cover the cost of DRM implementation) from the games with it at launch from those who don't care but stuff shows up on torrents often within days, or weeks of release. Heck, sometimes there's even pre-release versions that pop up before launch. There's also often a race to see who can break Denuvo the quickest just for the bragging rights alone and after a time DRM becomes completely hacked by everyone and their dog.
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Except, you don't have to crack GoG games as they don't have any DRM
 
Stoly said:
Except, you don't have to crack GoG games as they don't have any DRM
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Except your comment was about games showing up on torrent sites because GoG had them without DRM so why does that matter if they still show up when they do have it?
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Except your comment was about games showing up on torrent sites because GoG had them without DRM so why does that matter if they still show up when they do have it?
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In most cases DRM only buys them a few days.

I'll mention right now though that the Denuvo in Far Cry 6 sill has not been cracked.

Kids with lack of patience don't want to wait.

They don't need DRM to permanently keep titles off of torrent sites, they just need it to keep it off those sites so they can capitalize on launch sales.
 
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