The PC gaming scene is in a state of upheaval right now due to the actions of Epic Games and how they’ve conducted their business. It’s been a firestorm of controversy that seems to never end, with most of that aimed at the company’s buying of exclusive rights to third party games for their storefront (though it’s not the only criticism the store has levied at it). Whether or not one agrees with it, in the end it’s the way Epic has seen to try and create market share against Steam. Another company that’s been doing that for much longer is CD Projekt RED with GOG (Good Old Games), and they are seemingly taking a different path.
In an interview with PCGamesN, Global Communications Manager Marcin Traczyk talked about the company’s strategy with the storefront, saying the company won’t be employing exclusives in the same way that Epic has, instead wanting to convince customers their service is a good choice by what makes their store unique.
“We always welcome competition, and as with every business, we are adapting on the go to the market situation, But at the same time with the solutions that we’re offering, we’re giving players the ability to choose.”
Traczyk also doesn’t shy away from a truth that undoubtedly informed this discussion, and that was the company had gotten burned once by trying the exclusive thing with Thronebreaker, a spinoff from the popular The Witcher series, that CDPR released on PC exclusively to the GOG storefront. While not the same situation as Epic Games, since the game was published and developed by CDPR, the game being exclusive to only one storefront did it no favors.
“With Thronebreaker, we started with an exclusive, and decided to share it with a wider audience,” Traczyk said. “It proved to us that exclusives maybe don’t work for us, because we don’t want to limit the number of people who can access the game.”
While it remains to be seen how successful Epic will be in their attempts with exclusivity, it seems GOG is going a different path. The company’s next game, Cyberpunk 2077, is doing well on their storefront, but it also will launch day and date on various others such as Steam and the Epic Games Store next year.
