heartburnron: So what's the story as to why all these games were removed. I know about Alan Wake and the music licensing thing but what about the others? Generally...
It's all a bit sad isn't it?
Well...
Racing games tend to use real cars and brand names. Renewing these can be expensive, publishers don't find it worth it, thus
TOCA Race Driver 3,
Colin McRae Rally 2005 and
Race Driver: GRID get yanked forever and effectively become abandonware.
In the case of the
Duke Nukem games, the IP switched hands from 3D Realms to Gearbox.
Balls of Steel went with it because it features the character.
In the case of the
ArmA games, one of the first games on GOG was
Operation Flashpoint, it got taken down due to an IP dispute between Codemasters and the creator Bohemia. Years later Bohemia Interactive got the rights to the game back but not the name, so they called it
ArmA: Cold War Assault and it came back to GOG and went up on Steam. Eventually however, Bohemia decided they didn't like how GOG delivered their games/DLC/patches and decided to pull support and be Steam exclusive. All ArmA games are still available on Steam.
Original War was bought by Bohemia and pulled from GOG, it's still available on Steam.
In the case of the
Descent games, the developer Parallax is currently in a dispute with the publisher Interplay over unpayed royalties. Descent 1-3 were pulled from GOG and Steam. Interplay is currently a sinking ship so perhaps Parallax will one day fully own their own creation? Descent was on the list of things Interplay wants to sell off.
In the case of
ObsCure, I believe it was a licensed music expiring. ObsCure and its sequel are available on Steam with said music ripped out I believe (could be wrong on that).
In the case of
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, the movie license probably expired. This game actually lasted much longer on GOG then it did on Steam.
In the case of
Armello, somewhat similar to ArmA, they didn't like how GOG operated, offered a "DRM-Free version", and then pulled out to be Steam exclusive.
In the case of the
Guilty Gear games, from what I understand the original developer got the rights back to them, they're currently available on Steam.
In the case of
Re-Volt, this is an interesting one. Apparently the build GOG was given had parts of code owned by the Re-Volt community members who were never notified of it being sold nor credited for their work. This was supposed to be a temporary de-listing, but I suppose it never went anywhere and remains unsold.
In the case of the
Space Rangers games, I think these got fused together as Space Rangers HD?
For
Superfrog, I honestly have no idea.
For
Dark Matter, I believe this game was actually incomplete? It's still available on Steam however so I'm not clear why it was removed here.
For
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, most likely show/character license expiring.
For
Pony Island, I think the guy that made it didn't know it was on GOG and wasn't receiving any money from it?
For
Cryostasis,
XIII,
Second Sight,
Chessmaster 9000,
Blade of Darkness,
Republic: The Revolution,
Scratches Director's Cut,
Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943, and
UFO Afterlight all I know is "license issues" so probably a mixture of IP trading hands or things expiring.
In the case of
Simon the Sorcerer 4, no idea. I didn't even know they made a fourth...
