Possability of a GOG release?

[verusfossa]

Hello everyone,

I just got done playing the demo and really liked it and am glad there's a DRM-free version available on your website, but I think it would be easier to keep tabs on if I could buy it on GOG. I think a game like this would sell really well there and they have an in-dev[0] system similar to Steam's EA. The vetting process seems to target games more developed than Steam usually allows, but I'm certain Factorio is enough of a sure thing if your release schedule and community have anything to say about it. Almost 800 people have explicitly asked for it[1] too surpassing many of the InDev games already there. I'd like to purchase the game and may break down and buy from your website, but I have little use for a Steam key and would really like keeping all my games on one website if at all possible.

I apologize if this has been asked before, a quick forum search for it returned nothing.

Either way, keep up the good work. As a developer, these types of games are fascinating and there really aren't enough of them. Hell, as a human that still stands. Thanks for releasing a DRM-free option in the first place and secondly thanks for releasing a Linux build! Too often we get forgotten over here.

If you do end up releasing on GOG, I'll be the first positive review of many, I'm sure.

[0]: https://www.gog.com/news/introducing_ga ... evelopment
[1]: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/factorio

[daniel34]

Friday Facts #127 - Steam Status III: Thank You

As for the game, together with Steam launch we have launched the game at Humble Store. Based on how this goes we might add a few other popular retail sites (i.e. GOG, Green Man Gaming).

[Klonan]

We've had some talk with the GOG guys, nothing is moving too fast, and we're seeing if it work with out current plans

[SWSe]

GOG also let's you activate certain products with old keys (usually from when you bought it on disc long ago). I assume, if there will be a GOG release we might even get the option to use the free Steam key there, too.
In this case you could already get it now and have it on GOG when it's ready.

However, giving the customer 3 indipendend versions of the game to activate after only buying it once would also increase the potential for abuse a lot. Don't know whether the developers would do that, but it's something to consider.

[verusfossa]

We've had some talk with the GOG guys, nothing is moving too fast, and we're seeing if it work with out current plans

Thanks for the update. I'll keep checking back.

GOG also let's you activate certain products with old keys (usually from when you bought it on disc long ago). I assume, if there will be a GOG release we might even get the option to use the free Steam key there, too.
In this case you could already get it now and have it on GOG when it's ready.

However, giving the customer 3 indipendend versions of the game to activate after only buying it once would also increase the potential for abuse a lot. Don't know whether the developers would do that, but it's something to consider.

Humblebundle allows you to add a steam key as well as a DRMFree download on humblebundle themselves. I think factorio only has the steam key option on there atm though. For better or worse, Steam is currently the de-facto storefront so I understand giving a key, maybe in a perfect world you could toggle which store you want your second key to go to. Keys do cost developers money after all. Overly complex? probably and I'm not really asking for that. I'm mostly just glad Factorio isn't marrying themselves to any particular storefront. I'd just like to see it on GOG at some point. I can wait /grumble : P

Thanks guys.

[verusfossa]

I decided not to wait, broke and just bought it from Humblebundle, got my steam key and linked my account. Still I hope for a GOG release, just seemed like too neat a game to wait on.

Humblebundle does allow upping a drmfree version along with the steam key which seems to be a common thing if there's a drm free version floating around already. Maybe this'll happen at 1.0?

I'm happy enough for now at least, going to go waste a lot of time.

[verusfossa]

Awesome, glad to see Factorio on GOG https://www.gog.com/game/factorio. Great move you guys.

Sadly, now I have it everywhere except GOG. :/ Damn my impatience.

Just as you give Steam keys to people who purchased on the site, I think you should take advantage of GOG Connect https://www.gog.com/connect. If I have it unlocked on Steam, I can get the key on GOG. People who purchased from you before you were on GOG can get it on their preferred market. It's only for a certain window of time, like 5 days, but then previous purchasers can DRM-free their Steam purchases which is pretty neat. I won't buy it again, but would like to have it on GOG as is now possible. GOG does have key redemption capability too if you don't want to go full GOG connect.

Thanks

[JoaoBernardino]

Awesome, glad to see Factorio on GOG https://www.gog.com/game/factorio. Great move you guys.

Sadly, now I have it everywhere except GOG. :/ Damn my impatience.

Just as you give Steam keys to people who purchased on the site, I think you should take advantage of GOG Connect https://www.gog.com/connect. If I have it unlocked on Steam, I can get the key on GOG. People who purchased from you before you were on GOG can get it on their preferred market. It's only for a certain window of time, like 5 days, but then previous purchasers can DRM-free their Steam purchases which is pretty neat. I won't buy it again, but would like to have it on GOG as is now possible. GOG does have key redemption capability too if you don't want to go full GOG connect.

Thanks

+1

[taiiat]

Keys do cost developers money after all.

actually, this is one of the biggest beauties of Digital Products - it's technically worth nothing at all.
the Key itself, is technically worthless. Companies which for example, give Keys to Youtubers or whatnot for publicity - are literally getting free Advertising. because it cost them zilch to get it.

in some small factor of cases, sure technically a sale can be lost. but the loss of a potential sale, is a very different animal from an actual loss taken. it's still important to keep under control, but it is not the same as paying someone else, you only did not get paid. it's a neutral situation rather than a red situation.

okay that's enough off topic for me.

[patmo98]

Keys do cost developers money after all.

actually, this is one of the biggest beauties of Digital Products - it's technically worth nothing at all.
the Key itself, is technically worthless. Companies which for example, give Keys to Youtubers or whatnot for publicity - are literally getting free Advertising. because it cost them zilch to get it.

in some small factor of cases, sure technically a sale can be lost. but the loss of a potential sale, is a very different animal from an actual loss taken. it's still important to keep under control, but it is not the same as paying someone else, you only did not get paid. it's a neutral situation rather than a red situation.

okay that's enough off topic for me.

Actually, I think that verusfossa might have meant that more literally. That in order to get to get 10,000 keys to give away to everyone who bought the game through factorio.com, they have to pay GOG money. I'm not positive that's how it works, but if I was GOG, I might give the company something like 1,000 free keys for promotions, but charge for more, since users will be using up GOG's bandwidth, and paying GOG nothing. After all, the purpose of GOG is to sell games through GOG, not to let people sell games through an external site, and download them through GOG for free.

[taiiat]

business costs

certainly, not something unlikely to happen.

[patmo98]

business costs

certainly, not something unlikely to happen.

I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you agreeing that GOG would probably charge Wube Software for keys?

Or are you saying that it might cost money, but that Wube Software should provide keys for GOG anyway? I think providing keys is nice, but I worry about the idea that they are expected to provide keys for each and every service they start supporting, or that they should retroactively pay for every customer who's ever bought Factorio from their site for a key. There's also the problem Humble Bundle ran into, where people would buy 1 copy, then sell the keys for Steam and the other service as two seperate copies.

[taiiat]

Are you agreeing that GOG would probably charge Wube Software for keys?

yes. if volume is high.

[verusfossa]

So just to be clear then, there's no way for me to get a GOG key for this without buying it again, correct? GOG was always where I wanted the game originally anyway and I haven't heard anything from anyone about it. I understand buying from the wrong store today when the game is available would be on me, but I was under the impression that the GOG release was 'far off' not within a month. I also inquired about it before my purchase. A one time key or something would be sufficient, but a "No that's not possible" would also suffice, although it would be disappointing.

Thanks

[Koub]

This is typically the kind of subject you'll need to wait for a dev to answer. I would find strange that people would be granted steam key if bought on the site, but not GOG key, but ... I'm not a dev.

[Klonan]

At the moment we are only going to offer steam keys to our website purchasers, this was always the deal we had with early access and our supporters. GOG keys were never 'on the table', and we can't retroactively issue GOG keys to all the purchasers, this wouldn't bring us much benefit and would only flood the secondary market with GOG keys.

We are also not currently looking at bringing GOG keys to our website, as we have a lot more pressing concerns with regards to the website,
But we are in contact with GOG about their GOG connect feature.

In the future this may change, and anybody who didn't redeem a steam key may be able to redeem a GOG key, but until then if you want the game on GOG, then you will have to purchase it on GOG.

Regarding the future of other 3rd party retailers, I feel it is unreasonable for us to offer keys to any and all websites that users want, only Steam (and maybe GOG) is an exception to this.

[verusfossa]

It's disappointing that an exception can't be made, but whatever. I'll keep an eye out for Factorio to pop up on GOG connect then. Thanks.