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GOG seemingly declines to sell Opus Magnum due to it looking "too much like a mobile game"

Deleted member 1849

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For those who are not familiar with Opus Magnum. It is an amazing puzzle game, the latest by well established developer Zachtronics. Developer of Spacechem, Infinifactory, TIS-100, and Shenzhen I/O. Games which have all found success and are all available on GOG: https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=zachtronics&sort=popularity&page=1

This is what they have to say for Opus Magnum:



GOG's overly strict curation has in the past prevented STG's and other niche games from being able to be on the platform. Even excellent ones with widespread acclaim elsewhere. This is not new, just the latest example.

Here is Opus Magnum on Steam so you can judge for yourself: http://store.steampowered.com/app/558990/Opus_Magnum/



Having played it, I really think it is up there with the best puzzle games on PC right now. It's right up there with Zachtronics' best.

EDIT:

It's on GOG Wishlist. Currently the 5th most requested game this week: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/opus_magnum
 
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Error 52

Error 52

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That is incredibly stupid.

I feel like digital stores seem to have a trouble differentiating between "Not strict enough" and "way too strict"
 
diablogg

diablogg

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Oct 31, 2017
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I'd rather them be way to strict then what Steam has become. At least it means a human is trying to curate the store regardless if we like there decision or not.
 
lowmelody

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That's a shame, it looks pretty cool. I'll give it a shot on steam after my wallet recovers from the holidays.
 
Paul

Paul

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That sounds like GOG hired some ignorant intern to handle the submissions or something. Really bizzare and would not surprise me if they reversed it, I hope they do.
 

Deleted member 15476

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Almost copy paste from the other thread:
Really weird, you would think Zachtronics would be considered an established entity in the puzzle game market by now .
 
molnizzle

molnizzle

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diablogg said:
I'd rather them be way to strict then what Steam has become. At least it means a human is trying to curate the store regardless if we like there decision or not.
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Same.

Steam exists if you want to be flooded with garbage. I'll take more active curation any day, even if it means some stuff not making it in.
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

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Oct 25, 2017
9,381
Thank gaben steam exists. The problem with games on steam is overblown by reactionaries who make money from clickbait (like Sterling) anyway, and without Steam we wouldn't have been able to have all the amazing Zachtronics games.
 
Kalor

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That's a real dumb reason. Especially when the game is coming from an established developer.
 

Deleted member 13148

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I really wish that GOG.com would either have less strict curation, or go back to curated specifically for good, old games. itch.io is quickly becoming my first choice for where I buy my games.
 
Hektor

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Isn't curation great?

Now we don't need to endure this garbage shovelware anymore.

God bless Jim Sterling
 
OP
OP

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Error 52 said:
That is incredibly stupid.

I feel like digital stores seem to have a trouble differentiating between "Not strict enough" and "way too strict"
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And here is the fundamental problem of curation: It is incredibly difficult to get right, and any even slightly strict approach will cause many good games to be blocked from sale.

Despite all the criticism it rightly gets, Steam is the closest we have right now to a functioning approach to curation. I feel like an extra person or two just checking games function would do the platform a lot of good, but the basic idea of having a relatively open ecosystem that then tries to detect the garbage and hide it from all consumers except those who tend to look for that kind of thing is a good one.

That being said, GOG have never even gotten close to having a moderate approach to curation. It's a shame, because I love what they are about otherwise and would prefer to support them ahead of Steam.
 
KazuchikaOkada

KazuchikaOkada

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I'm for strict curation like this but Zachtronics is a established developer who've put out acclaimed games in the past. Someone at GOG didn't do their research.
 
Doskoi Panda

Doskoi Panda

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Opus Magnum most certainly does not look like a mobile phone game. I'm at a loss. The fuck, GOG?
 
Dreenk

Dreenk

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Oct 27, 2017
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KazuchikaOkada said:
I'm for strict curation like this but Zachtronics is a established developer who've put out acclaimed games in the past. Someone at GOG didn't do their research.
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Yeah, and GOG already carries Shenzhen I/O, TIS-100, Infinifactory, and Spacechem. Someone didn't even bother to check the rest of their store, I guess?
 
Dineren

Dineren

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I don't get these posts saying they'd rather have a great game not on their store as long as shovelware stays off. I use Steam all the time and I very rarely even see the garbage people talk about. It feels like you have to go out of your way to even see it.
 
molnizzle

molnizzle

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MisterShine said:
Agreed, but it should focus on quality not looks. I haven't played the game myself but it has stupidly high reviews on Steam, why sholdn't gog allow it?
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Right, in this specific case I think they should walk back on it.

I don't think the curation should go away or be toned down, though. I really appreciate it.
 
OP
OP

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Blabadon said:
I'm okay with this. Keep mobile trash where it belongs.
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Except Opus Magnum is not even close to being mobile trash - despite what some idiot at GOG thinks.

Zachtronics have been a PC first developer for nearly a decade, releasing some of the best puzzle games on the platform. This is their newest release and it is as good as anything they have ever made. To reject it because it looks a bit like a phone game (which it doesn't, but whatever) is completely absurd.

You have missed the point entirely.
 
Panther2103

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Oct 27, 2017
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It's weird because what I think of when I think of mobile games is definitely not what this game looks like. I think of flashy gatcha opening, and anime characters, or naked ladies. Not well made puzzle games.
 
GhostTrick

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Oct 25, 2017
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I totally agree with GOG. Why would people choose which game they want to buy ?

I prefer a curated environnement where I skip half of the games I'd want to play instead of the floodgates that is Steam because I may encounter a shovelware deep down the new release list.
 
low-G

low-G

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Oct 25, 2017
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GoG will sell games that won't even work properly in modern versions of Windows, yet they can't sell one of the best games of the year.
 
MrFortyFive

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The game has an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam with over 500 reviews behind it. This is ridiculous no matter what the game looks like. I love GOG but their curation decisions fucking baffle me sometimes.
 
Derrick01

Derrick01

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Oct 25, 2017
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I'm ok with this. Unfortunately the bad part of actually keeping trash off your store is every now and then a solid game is going to get sacrificed. But the good of filtering all the trash means that everyone else who's on there benefits more, as we see with the declining sales of indie games on Steam. No one can find anything good so they likely don't bother trying anymore.
 

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Derrick01 said:
I'm ok with this. Unfortunately the bad part of actually keeping trash off your store is every now and then a solid game is going to get sacrificed. But the good of filtering all the trash means that everyone else who's on there benefits more, as we see with the declining sales of indie games on Steam. No one can find anything good so they likely don't bother trying anymore.
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The declining sales of indie games on Steam is mostly due to the increasing number of quality games on Steam, not the trash games no one ever sees unless they go completely out of their way to find it.
 
molnizzle

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Derrick01 said:
I'm ok with this. Unfortunately the bad part of actually keeping trash off your store is every now and then a solid game is going to get sacrificed. But the good of filtering all the trash means that everyone else who's on there benefits more, as we see with the declining sales of indie games on Steam. No one can find anything good so they likely don't bother trying anymore.
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Yep.

Steam indies are basically invisible to me now. If a game doesn't come in a Humble Bundle I'll never even see it. The Steam store is a disaster that I now actively avoid if I can.

Loadout said:
Steam is a DRM. Humble and GOG allow DRM free downloads. Unless you meant something else?
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Some Steam games are DRM-free. Meaning once you download it, you don't need to run Steam to play. I think even Th Witcher 3 was like this, but I might be remembering wrong.
 
Oreiller

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Paul said:
That sounds like GOG hired some ignorant intern to handle the submissions or something. Really bizzare and would not surprise me if they reversed it, I hope they do.
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They've been doing that for ages . They refused to let Ikaruga on their site because it's too niche or something.
 
Vorador

Vorador

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Oct 28, 2017
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I don't really understand why GoG did this. There's plenty of games on GoG that are actually mobile ports like Reigns.

Some curator really woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day.
 

danGlokta

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Nov 1, 2017
277
diablogg said:
I'd rather them be way to strict then what Steam has become. At least it means a human is trying to curate the store regardless if we like there decision or not.
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It's the other way for me. I'd rather get games I'd be interested in and ignore the rest than having to miss on them because someone with different taste decided they are not interested in it.
 
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