I'm not really a gamer, so I could be wrong here. However, TBF they're selling games cheaply, but I assume they're having to pay who-knows-what to license them (never mind their own staff to bring the games up to par with today's hardware). Maybe the IP owners have started turning the screws?

I tend to agree. They say it's specifically for the game preservation stuff, and maybe that's true. Most companies would create a separate non-profit with its own funding separate for such a thing (not that all those are necessarily great either). I like what GOG does in general and I think it's important they're there, but I don't have any intention of donating to a for-profit business based on the claims that they'll only do game preservation work with the funds. I'm not spending an era reading through all the terms & conditions, but at a quick glance I can't see anything in the legalese about what they can/can't use GOG Patrons funding for, so it seems like it's just paying the company monthly for a few extra perks and hoping they'll use that cash for something positive.

That seems like a reasonable assertion, given piracy fears that would likely drive up the price, or the lengthy searches needed to find the right IP holder to grant permission for release.

I buy all my games on GOG and I don't understand either.

idk that GoG *does* need to license them that way? I assumed they just operated as a storefront and take a cut of the listed price like Steam or Epic. As for having their own staff, usually these kind of things have a community solution already it just might be a pain in the ass. I assumed they were either getting permission from modders to ship their fixes, or they were basically using them as guidelines to make their own. Either approach would take their development costs down.

Their Game Preservation Program (the thing the subscription is nominally for) is games that they maintain, so they probably do need to license them.