We believe the games that shaped us deserve to stay alive: easy to find, buy, download, and play forever. But time is annoyingly good at erasing them. Rights get tangled, compatibility breaks, builds disappear, and a nostalgic evening often turns into a troubleshooting session. That’s the difference between “I’m playing today” (the game lives on) and “I’ll play someday” (the game dies).
As Michał put it: “GOG stands for freedom, independence, and genuine control.”
the vision was simple: bring classic games back to players, and make sure that once you buy a game, it truly belongs to you, forever. In a market increasingly defined by mandatory clients and closed ecosystems, that philosophy feels more relevant than ever.
This new chapter is about doubling down on that vision. We want to do more to preserve the classics of the past, celebrate standout games of today, and help shape the classics of tomorrow, including new games with real retro spirit.
fuck yeah \o/
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This speaks ill of CD Projekt, honestly.
Unloading a profitable game marketplace? A one-time payout instead of consistent returns?
This sounds like a move to please shareholders. Shareholders only care about short-term.
It’s hard to trust CS Projekt as a game company. But it’s good for GOG.
Are they profitable? I thought it was super weird that a game marketplace has been asking me for donations.
Per Michal Kicinski on the GOG forums:
Please also be assured that financially GOG is very stable, and I personally have a quite extensive financial safety net in case of any needs. So while GOG is no longer part of a very big corporation (which actually has some pros too ;-)), it is very safe financially. There is really no need to back up your collections. If such a disaster would ever even theoretically happen, you would be clearly informed well in advance — but honestly, I cannot see any realistic scenario where this kind of danger would appear.
I might be stupid, but what’s the point of downloading offline installers. Isn’t a game installed through Heroic or Gog Galaxy playable offline, which would mean it would still be useable if GOG went bankrupt?
Well, I don’t really see a point in having to download and install another program just to download and install the program I actually want to install… also, I hate launchers.
Yeah, but good luck reinstalling it on your next computer. Having the installer ensures easy installation in various future scenarios.
Through Heroic I think you can just import an already installed game you have on an external hard drive. Wouldn’t this allow you to use your game on every new computer you get?
The downloads are really slow through Heroic, so I’d prefer not having to download offline installers on top of it😅
Some games require more than just the files on disk, at least with older games, they set some properties in the registry or some such. How gog or heroic get around it I don’t know, but ah actual installer is guaranteed to give the same result every time.
For most people with stable internet and using the launcher this isn’t really an issue, but I imagine someone rural, on the ISS, part of the Atlantis expedition, or what have you, would enjoy to have a surefire way of getting their heroes 3 up and running
Not a use case for everyone, but for some it’s invaluable.
Backup. If you lose your Internet connection or GOG goes tits up, you don’t lose access to your installers. Or maybe you buy a new computer or have a hardware failure etc. The principle is that you bought the game and there should be no artificial restrictions as to how many times you choose to install it on your computers, which is greatly aided by having the actual installers.
Not sure what this will mean in the long run, but my immediate reaction is positive. GOG has had taken steps towards enshittification, and if Michał can put it back on track, well, that’s great. We’ll have to watch and wait.
DRM free, forever.
There has been a slow loosening of the “DRM Free” ideal. Off the top of my head, a few years ago there was the Hitman controversy, where a game was released that the community saw as having DRM. There are other games that may have DRM also, depending on your tolerance. Oh, and I think a Witcher game required a separate CDPR account for some extra skins.
GOG has also been pushing their Galaxy client hard for a few years. It’s still optional, but offline installers are relegated to second class status, and they want you to download them with Galaxy also.
Honestly though, you’ll have better luck finding info if you browse the GOG Forum. The users are a miserable and whiny bunch, but that’s also because they see GOG trying to become Steam and are afraid to lose the one good store left. (Well, Zoom Platform may be ok also.) And let’s be clear, I think GOG is still the go to shop for DRM Free games, and they haven’t completely abandoned that - yet. This change in ownership may actually be a boon that protects it from caving to shareholder delusions of competing with Steam while abandoning their main selling point.
GOG is still good, but we must remain vigilant.
