GOG (previously referred to as Good Old Games) is likely one of the hottest spots to purchase, obtain, and curate PC sport collections. It competes immediately in opposition to the behemoth Steam, the oft-maligned Epic Games, and loads of different PC sport storefronts, and through the years it has garnered fairly a constructive status amongst avid gamers.
Why? It’s all about GOG’s give attention to client rights and precise sport possession, which in 2026 is turning into more and more uncommon.
GOG’s video games do not include DRM. Older titles are sometimes fastened, patched, and up to date to run on new {hardware}. There’s a reasonably beneficiant 30-day return coverage, and there are frequent gross sales with huge reductions.
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Yeah, all of it seems to be nice, and I’m an enormous fan of GOG.
So the place is that this going? I not too long ago got here throughout a user-maintained catalog of “Games that treat GOG customers as 2nd Class.” It was simply up to date on August 11, 2026, and I’m shocked at what number of titles are listed as having some kind of disparity in comparison with different digital storefronts.
GOG’s sport model disparity is quite a bit worse than I ever anticipated
I was aware that some GOG games weren’t the same as the versions found in other stores, but I never knew the problem was this widespread.
This effort to track issues with GOG versions of games actually got started in 2018 in a GOG forum thread that is nonetheless alive at this time, now reaching 400+ pages with hundreds of replies.
The spreadsheet catalog comprises a listing of 1,140 video games with a minimum of one difficulty. There are 1,531 points in complete. Those numbers will not be typos. Sure, a few of the points are much less extreme than others, however that does not imply GOG clients ought to obtain an inferior product.
The catalog tracks the next points:
- Missing updates (308 complete points)
- Missing languages (100 complete points)
- Missing free DLC (51 complete points)
- Missing paid DLC (200 complete points)
- Missing options (111 complete points)
- Missing soundtrack (439 complete points)
- Missing builds (278 complete points)
- Region locking (12 complete points)
Sources are offered for lots of the video games listed as having points, and others are sourced immediately from first-hand experiences.
Out of all of the 1,140 video games on the listing, there are 17 particular mentions. The sport The Messenger from Devolver Digital, one in all my favourite publishers, is flagged as particular. Why? The GOG model is lacking a Unity safety replace, and the soundtrack information are of a “lower quality than on Steam.”
Another particular point out is given to the sport Nuclear Throne for its 5 points, together with a lacking 10-year anniversary replace, lacking languages, lacking challenges, lacking soundtrack, and lacking Linux version.
I could go on with plenty more examples, but I’m sure you get the idea. Missing soundtracks seem to be the most frequent offender with 439 total issues, while missing updates place second with 308 total issues.
Why do some developers seem to give GOG less attention?
GOG’s disparity with other storefronts isn’t really GOG’s fault. It’s ultimately up to the developers and publishers what to include in their games when they’re sent to GOG, and what to update thereafter.
Devolver Digital and THQ Nordic GmbH are both at the top of the list with 29 issues each in total across their published games.
Correct me in the comments section below if I’m wrong, but Steam’s far larger user base and its savvy workshop integration make it the go-to spot for most game companies. Much more attention is paid to Steam, and GOG seems often to be treated as “we’ll get to it when we can.”
And because GOG requires games to be DRM-free, there’s definitely extra work to be done in many scenarios. For older games that may or may not have a dedicated development team, this is especially painful.
GOG is a great place to shop if you care about game preservation and proper functioning of classic titles, but you’re still paying for the games. There’s a certain irony here in buying a game to preserve it properly, only to find out that it’s missing one or several features that you could have received if you’d purchased it, say, on Steam.
My advice for the next time you’re buying a game on GOG
Like I said, I support GOG and its mission to deliver DRM-free games. However, I was not aware of how many titles have issues.
From now on, I’ll be checking the spreadsheet carefully any time I head over to GOG and pick up a new game. I suggest you do the same, lest you end up with a DRM-free version that’s missing the content you bought it for in the first place.
Were you aware of how many games on GOG have missing content and issues compared to other storefronts? Has it tainted your opinion of GOG? Is there any hope to solve the major issues that some of these games have? Let me know in the comments section below!
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