The digital PC game store GOG has admitted that it “damaged the trust our users have in us” when it suddenly removed the highly praised horror game Devotion from sale just over five years ago.
Managing director Maciej Gołębiewski looked back on this decision after facing questions about a statement he made recently. He had said, “We as a company are always ready to take a stand on the right values,” during an interview on Eurogamer last week. That comment was made while discussing Horses, a controversial indie horror game that GOG decided to sell when other stores like Steam and Epic Games would not. However, those words seemed to contradict the stance GOG took with Devotion back in late 2020.
To understand the situation better, Devotion is a short, clever horror game set in the 1980s and made by a Taiwanese developer. We called it “a genre landmark” in our review of Devotion. It was first released in early 2019 but was quickly pulled from sale after a public outcry over an image that contained unflattering references to China’s president Xi Jinping. This caused major issues in China, where the developer Red Candle had its Weibo social media account shut down, and the game was removed from Steam.
Red Candle insisted that the offending image was only meant to be a temporary placeholder. The company apologized extensively for the mistake and removed the image, so it seemed like things had settled down enough for a possible re-release. This is where GOG stepped in. GOG announced that it would sell the game, but then on the very same day, it reversed that decision, stating: “After receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store.” This raised the question of whether they were truly standing for the right values in that moment.
Maciej Gołębiewski recently said: “That situation remains difficult to reflect on. At the time, we made that decision in the context of very real business constraints, a limited understanding of the complex geopolitical factors at play, and a lack of good options that would both protect GOG and partners and allow the game to be released responsibly. In hindsight, we acknowledge that this decision – and the way we communicated it – understandably damaged the trust our users have in us.
“When I say that we’re ready to take a stand on the right values, I don’t mean that we won’t make mistakes”
“But it’s also important for us to be transparent,” he added. “Keeping a global digital storefront operating means navigating legal, operational, and commercial realities that don’t always allow for ideal outcomes. In 2020, we chose a path we believed was best for GOG, even though it came at a cost to our credibility.”
The situation with Horses, he explained, was different. That game was played by several GOG employees who all agreed that it did not pose any “legal, political, or operational risk to our business or partners.” Gołębiewski remarked, “There was no other concern driving this decision, just a straightforward evaluation of the game itself.”
“When I say that we’re ready to take a stand on the right values,” he continued, “I don’t mean that we won’t make mistakes, or that every decision will be easy, or that we’ll never face trade-offs. I do mean that with every given opportunity, we’re striving to be clearer, more consistent, and more willing to stand behind our choices (including explaining them openly when they’re being questioned).”
Gołębiewski’s willingness to discuss this matter shows a renewed push by GOG to be seen as open and approachable. This comes after its recent independence, when it separated from its parent company CD Projekt, which it had always been a part of. GOG was under CD Projekt ownership when the Devotion situation occurred, so did that add extra pressure? CDP is a publicly traded company answerable to investors and had much bigger concerns to deal with at the time, such as fixing the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
As a private company now, GOG is answerable only to its new owner Michal Kiciński. Coincidentally, Kiciński was one of the original founders of CD Projekt and one of the people who launched GOG. He remains a major shareholder at CD Projekt but has not actively worked there since 2012. Under his ownership, GOG is now autonomous, and he is apparently not afraid of taking a risk. Nothing major is set to change, but the company is looking into the possibility of branching into indie game publishing. A new era has begun.
