Michal Kicinski has commented on the GOG forums that there were several parties interested in buying GOG and he had to outbid all of them.
I don't know for sure, but maybe one of them was Epic. Epic has already bought several companies that could benefit their business, and buying GOG would have given them a bigger percentage of PC players to compete against Steam.
Thank God GOG stayed independent...
I don't think Epic knew, unless they didn't care, because Epic doesn't care if GoG dies. If Epic had buy out GoG I wouldn't be shocked if they shut get GoG shutdown just to integrate all games, and customers to Epic client a year, or so later.
Epic all they care about is building customers numbers, investors, and marketing Fortnite.
Which is why op posted. The less Timmy gets hit dirty hands on, the better
if not outright destroyed so much would be changed within 10 minutes of epic buying gog. like offline installer files would be the absolute first thing to go
Mmm, I don't think so. In the first few years, Epic wanted to surpass Steam and become the dominant store. When they realized it was an impossible target, they changed their objective to destroying Steam's dominance by making a more homogeneous store-share ecosystem.
You can notice that when common shills started advocating for Playnite and similar launchers, spreading messages like 'I don't care about the store, every game is the same anywhere, I just buy wherever it is cheaper.'
Epic needs GOG players percentage to exist, owned by them or independently.
Maybe you're right, this just a theory I had.
I could see them trying to integrate GoG into the EGS, but there are probably contractual reasons they can't get basically any of the games to actually be on the EGS initially.
The only possible reason for Epic to lay their hands on GOG is getting to own a more respected video game store. Because currently, they've got the reputation of the biggest fuckups in the video game industry.
What is Epic known for? Their bloated video game engine? Their funny little brainrot game? Their lousy excuse for a video game store that has NFT shovelware on the very first page and zero community? If they acquired GOG, they'd likely kill its whole purpose.
>>the reputation of the biggest fuckups in the video game industry.
this bears repeating, for the ones in the back that have been DLC apologists since the skyrim horse armor scam
On the contrary, if Epic bought GoG, I think most GoG customers are savvy enough to know how bad Epic is. That would have resulted in Epic wasting money and driving more people to Steam as any factor that made GoG someone's choice over Steam would have vanished overnight.
GoG has two big reasons to exist: no DRM, and old games. If it lost those two qualities (either at the hands of an Epic buyout, or something else), than Steam becomes the next best option, with non-intrusive DRM (any external DRM added by publishers is a different beast) and games that generally stay up forever unless someone explicitly delists them (usually due to music / car licensing).
Some games also don't have any DRM at on steam.
I always recoil a little when people say this. The Steam client itself is the DRM. You can't play the game without being logged into your account or having a handshake with the server after x days. Even game 'without' DRM, by nature of just being on the store (Epic too), absolutely have DRM.
If you have download it, some you can start without starting steam. Stardew valley, stellaris and rimworld for example.
Oh really? I see. Well, how long do they work without an internet connection?
Infinite. You just need to not start them via steam.
They also work if you copy them elsewhere, to a user that doesn't have steam installed/logged in.
That's very true. I would imagine that a decently large share of GoG customers are there to avoid Steam's DRM and "monopoly", if they don't like Steam's "light" requirements there is no way they would accept EGS even more restrictive requirements.
If Epig bought GOG, then it would have been the end of GOG since the majority of GOG players would have flocked to Steam.
All those talented people who make sure old games work on modern hardware are either fired or sent to the fortnite grinder, never to work passionately ever again.
If they had that would’ve killed any competition out there against Steam.
Wish they actually named these companies instead of always be very ambiguous about it. There's probably laws around it, which would be fair from what I assume. But I really want to put a name to these to effectively build my shit list better.
He said that each party did not know the identity of the others.
Fair. Though I feel like they have to at least identify themselves when asked or just be completely ignored if they don't provide anything other than how much money they are paying. Under-the-table shit like this specifically shouldn't be happening between regular businesses of this scale.
More likely that it's NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements).
I had thought on Amazon instead of Epic, because of their Prime Gaming giveaways of GOG keys.
Honestly, it can also be Amazon considering they are actively collaborating with them through Prime Gaming/Luna. They even have GOG games through that service afaik.
Didn't Amazon admit their gaming business came to nothing, which is why they're sunsetting New World (one of their very few successes)? Buying out GoG's market share and inevitably running it into the ground would be a MASSIVE step back in ambitions.
I guess so, though it doesn't stop them from collaborating with Crystal Dynamics with their new Tomb Raider games, nor collaborating with GOG for their Luna service.
Though I do see that one as well.
Oh god, that would have been horrible.
There is no way Epic would allow DRM-free games, not even close.
I doubt Epic would care.
Epic's MO is to make the young uns invested in EGS back in 2018 with Fortnite, and free games to build up their libraries.
Fortunately, those kids weren't as retarded as EGS thought. When they got jobs, they wanted to get the value for their money which is what Steam provides.
The games in GoG are twice/thrice the age of the demographic that EGS is after.
That is what I was afraid of. Epic would not be interested in GOG, but on their customer base to move them to an Epic account.
That's what they bought when buying Fall Guys or Rocket League. Accounts, not games.
And GOG customers are definitely the ones they still don't have.
I doubt that many GOG customers would want to move to Epic. Essentially, GOG would die, and we'd move to Steam.
But would competition regulators have cleared it?
Yes they would have: Lina Khan isn’t at the FTC and Trump is very big business friendly.
Trump approved a Saudi sportswashing firm buying out EA. For some inexplicable reason, that Saudi firm had his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as part of its board of directors.
You know, not every company goes through regulation; unless GOG was worth 3 billion, it wouldn't go through regulation.
If Amazon truly wanted to be something akin to Steam, this would’ve been the partnership they should’ve gone forZ. Instead, they became a fart in church and bailed.