TinyBuild CEO: GOG Versions Will Be Updated!

Games published by tinyBuild are as numerous as they are popular; both mass hits and cult titles are here. Developed usually by third-party studios, they make their way to the players through platforms where tinyBuild promotes them. But here is the case of something lost in the way.

Who’s Afraid of No DRM?

A successful publisher, tinyBuild must acknowledge that a modern game lives as long as it’s supported and updated. The same title today is different from what it was yesterday; that’s how a game never gets boring, and that’s why updates and DLC are critical. And it’s a problem when they don’t roll out. So it happened on GOG, one of the major online game stores.

It had been noticed that games like Hello Neighbor missed numerous updates, and Party Hard went without DLC and patches. Many games weren’t available in deluxe editions, some lacked soundtracks. And it happened mostly to games published by tinyBuild, though not to all of them.

A Reddit user named Snolus decided to take a minor private investigation, and he contacted a tinyBuild staff member via Discord to find out that the reason was probably DRM policy of GOG. Games on GOG are DRM-free, and it eases the work for pirates that only have to extract and upload the game they purchase for that purpose. That was probably the reason.

As Snolus posted this on Reddit, the issue got loud enough to make Alex Nichiporchik, a tinyBiuld CEO, react. The assumption on Reddit was that tinyBuild deliberately holds the latest updates back to keep them safe from pirates. To deny this, Nichiporchik explained that the reason was in improperly trained managers that didn’t care enough and didn’t bother to keep the games up to date. It didn’t save Nichiporchik from admitting that the result blew up in tinyBuilds face.

Nichiporchik admits that the company hasn’t been serious enough about DRM-free builds for partners like GOG, and, while the partnership had been great, this matter was completely on tinyBuild. Now he says, the publisher will care more about GOG releases being updated in time. As an explanation of the situation, he mentions some platform-specific issues that, for example, level editors bound to Steamworks or other cloud storage services.

For example, Hello Neighbor that hasn’t been updated for long receives updates. The same is with Party Hard, one of the biggest hits, both installments of which will receive the missing updates and DLC as soon as possible.

Solved?

Nichiporchik even bothered to attend the original post on Reddit and comment it. The comment says that tinyBuild schedules the meeting with GOG in order to fix the situation. Party Hard will be the first game to catch up with its DRM-ed version. It’s not sure yet whether tinyBuild plans to roll out updates regularly, or it only concerns those missing as for today.