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[Kotaku] Facing Financial Pressures, GOG Quietly Lays Off At Least A Dozen Staff
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
That sucks, I hope they can find employment soon.
I guess this is CDPR putting all hands on deck with Cyberpunk?
I guess this is CDPR putting all hands on deck with Cyberpunk?
Being fired indicates you did something wrong. Being "let go" is usually a financial decision.
Sounds like GOG store might be in trouble. I mean I haven't really bought anything from them in a while, because I just tend to go to Steam.
I'm not terribly surprised. Selection has just never been able to keep up, and it feels like they really shit the bed on that front last year. I haven't bought a game from there since August, and I used to be a huge supporter. Epic opening their store definitely doesn't help -- if you're a developer deciding to support an alternative storefront, why wouldn't you focus on Epic, where you get a better rev-share?
Laid off means you weren't fired and might get a financial package of some sort since you're being let go due to financial reasons.
Fired would imply you were doing a poor job. Under the eyes of the government in the US for getting unemployment benefits, being laid off makes a difference.
And that's why you don't hire openly those gatery folks to run your social media accounts. I would be very surprised if that wasn't connected to their loss of revenue. Certainly I haven't bought anything from them since learning about that despite having a substantial wishlist.
Because selection as you said.
But yeah, people saying the 12% cut is sustainable. When I see that GOG with a 30% cut is struggling or that Itch.io is barely breaking even...
If it turns out that actually dropping below the 30% cut digital storefronts were getting isn't sustainable without Tencent-level backing or Steam-level monopolies, then we're probably going to see a lot more of this kind of thing.
That said, we don't know why GOG's revenue isn't keeping up with growth. I can't remember from the Noclip documentary on GOG if CD Projekt Red tapped some GOG resources to help with Gwent or The Witcher (I think it's the former, to help with store-related UI?) but Gwent's failure and any potential GOG expansion due to Gwent could've been an issue. Or maybe GOG Galaxy development is costing too much. Or maybe GOG's just been pushed too close to the red due to market factors that have always existed but are slowly getting worse (Steam market share, for example).
Though it might be nice to think that this is true, I very much doubt it. Play-Asia arguably did worse with their social media account and it doesn't seem to have affected their business at all.
That said, we don't know why GOG's revenue isn't keeping up with growth. I can't remember from the Noclip documentary on GOG if CD Projekt Red tapped some GOG resources to help with Gwent or The Witcher (I think it's the former, to help with store-related UI?) but Gwent's failure and any potential GOG expansion due to Gwent could've been an issue. Or maybe GOG Galaxy development is costing too much. Or maybe GOG's just been pushed too close to the red due to market factors that have always existed but are slowly getting worse (Steam market share, for example).
Though it might be nice to think that this is true, I very much doubt it. Play-Asia arguably did worse with their social media account and it doesn't seem to have affected their business at all.
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That's also kinda the problem though. Once I bought every old game I wanted, I never bought anything else from them again.
I would rather be "let go" than "fired". But I would rather be working than "let go".
Large majority of consumers don't care and extremely unlikely those social media fucks up have anything to do with GOG's financial situation.
That, or not enough customers want their games to be DRM-free. Frankly, I always used Steam for convenience, but I think I would've supported GOG more had they not pulled that stupid publicity stunt years ago. In recent years, I only bothered with GOG when a game that wasn't available anywhere else digitally was available through GOG or when I got one of those emails reminding me about GOG Connect.
Unfortunately no matter how much I wish this was true the majority of gamers have proven time and time again that they don't give a shit about stuff like that. The real reason is probably something more mundane like "I don't want to open another launcher on my PC!".
That's really ironic because I think Galaxy went a long way to me liking the way things worked. The old system they had wasn't terrible, but since the downloader didn't automatically extract and install there were a lot of unnecessary manual steps (the above steps, and of course deleting the zip file once it was no longer necessary)
Sucks for those effected, but I think they've not really been doing much to draw customers into their store for a while now.
PR blunders like their awful social media stuff a while back can't have helped, either.
I hope they are able to find some direction. I think having a major store with a hard line stance on being DRM free is good for the industry.
Edit: I could see Cyberpunk doing GOG + Epic store only at this point.
PR blunders like their awful social media stuff a while back can't have helped, either.
I hope they are able to find some direction. I think having a major store with a hard line stance on being DRM free is good for the industry.
Edit: I could see Cyberpunk doing GOG + Epic store only at this point.
How can it have an effect considering they have no overlapping games ?
How is that wonderful that another storefront is struggling and people are being laid off ?
That is a massive doubt with connection to firing staff. As much as it was disgusting it was a fleeting moment and with today's 24/7 set and forget media it was forgotten very quickly.
Sure let's just ignore all the bad shit Epic is doing because yay not a "monopoly" anymore and fuck staff.
Very true, and admittedly many of the most requested games ended up making their way to Steam anyway.
I'm surprised they never tried becoming a small indie publisher frankly.
Any speculation that GOG being in trouble could be in any way a consequence of the existence of Epic store is (I think) wildly misguided. Maybe if there was any data to back it up...
Edit: I was also referring to the speculation in the article, not just (sarcastic) to your post.
What they would have to gain from that if they really are financially in hole? How cutting out Steam audience would benefit them in that situation?
They aren't. That person was replaced as far as I read here on Era.
more proof that Epic's cut being "sustainable" is a complete bold faced lie.
I think maybe more than any other game, Epic would pay a huge amount to prevent Cyberpunk from being on Steam.
I don't think this is a good thing, but it could happen.
Amount would need to be quite staggering for CDPR to anger a lot of people and gamble with longterm sales of the game. It also could end up harming them more in long term than short term benefit would be.
OP
OP
And by doing that they would loose pro-consumer image that they are building since day they were founded.
Agreed on both counts. It's not an outcome I would desire, but I imagine Epic are putting together a greasy pitch to them right now. Might end up being an offer they can't refuse.
I'd guess when it was a thread based on an article that discussed Epic Game Store.
"the fact that we're dangerously close to being in the red has come up in the past few months, and the market's move towards higher [developer] revenue shares has "
