Posted March 16, 2023

What I mean by "negotiating leverage" is that, in theory, GOG tells a publisher "we want your game here", the publisher says "Hmm, I don't know, I like my DRM and just being only on Scheme", at which GOG has to counter with reasons to make the game available on GOG DRM-free. However, when GOG has titles by "their own"(read: CDPR's) company on the store with online/client-locked content, the publisher can point back at GOG and say "what do you care about me removing DRM for? You guys institute DRM yourselves". Making it harder for GOG to get games here DRM-free.
A related issue with the self-erosion of their negotiating leverage is GOG selling DRMed Epic games through the app on Galaxy 2.0 (or whatever their phrasing was). Why should those publishers make the game available on GOG when GOG themselves are constantly acting as though "GOG = Galaxy client" and thus the publishers feel they can reach "the GOG audience" just fine with the DRMed Epic games on Galaxy, leaving no reason (in their minds) to bring the game here to the website in an actually DRM-free form.