A new GOG interview is up for the anniversary with an interesting bit of news:
"There is one last thing coming up hopefully before the end of the year. This is at the top of my to-do list right now. I have a pretty substantial deal in my inbox right now, which I need to finalize. It's going to be a deal for classic games on GOG with a major publisher, and that publisher has many games which are at the very top or in the middle of GOG's wish list. So if we sign that one, we will fulfill many wishes in the coming months."
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gog-celebrates-six-years-of-advancing-the-drm-free/1100-6422150/

Also: "GOG is close to reaching a deal with either Microsoft, Disney, or Take-Two (he wouldn't say which!) to bring a whole host of classic games to the platform."

Now I'm excited.

Edit : Regarding the interview one thing really annoys me (it's not the first time). When asked "Over the past six years of GOG, what are some of the areas you think you've done well in ?"
'Games revival', 'drm-free enforcement', 'honnesty and fairness' are mentionned .... but it never says something like "We attracted a wide bunch of people, and a great part (and I honestly think almost all) of them were unconditionally happy about the service they paid for".

This is an achievement steam doesn't have.

What are the odds of the deal NOT having suddenly become possible because of their new stance on regional pricing? :/

PS: "Rambourg also essentially confirms that Early Access-style games are coming to GOG in the future" *grumbles*

PPS: "I'm quite happy with the pricing policy we just established in non-USD regions, such as Europe, Great Britain, and Australia. Because one of the challenges we faced was when it comes to signing brand new titles, regional prices have become a standard on the market, unfortunately. We believe that one dollar is not one pound or one Euro and we came up with a fair pricing model whereby if you live in the UK, Australia, or Europe, we give back or pay back the price difference so that they benefit from the same value of money and are treated properly. So that's one of the biggest changes we've had recently, in the past few years. I'm quite proud of it."

I'm not. DRM was the standard too, and it still is.

PPPS: "Going back to what we talked about before, the GOG Way, and CD Projekt's culture, is very unique and I just think about...because GOG is obviously very popular and it's growing...are you confident you're going to be able to stay true to these original tenets and values?

Totally. I can tell you with my whole heart, 101 percent sure, that yes, we can stick to our values. This is what we have done so far."

Excuse me while I laugh. Over the course of the year I went from a rather cape-wearing GOG crusader to a resistance fighter (call to full boycott and all) to a wary supporter (after their clarifications and announced changes then) to a rather staunch critic now. All of it over one of those values.
Still is the only place I'd buy from, but going from "would even buy something just to support them" (once I could, of course) to having major reservations about any purchase and feeling pretty darn embarrassed to have shown that level of support in the past.

As I think Take-Two is the least interesting of those options, I'm guessing it will be them (I hope I'm mistaken) ;)

My guess would be Microsoft, but in any case we seem to agree that we should not get our hopes up for Disney. ;)

What pre-2000 games do Take-Two & Microsoft own anyway ? I'm not up to date with who owns what.
Disney is code for LucasArts, correct ? Who owns the SSI catalog ?

Wow, that is one of the greatest bits of news all year, though of course it could turn out poorly.

My guess is indeed 2K/Take 2 because previous signs are pointing to them, but maybe ZeniMax (or a "child" - Bethesda, id, etc.) took notice of the interest.

In either case, it will be fantastic to hopefully see so many classics high up on the wishlist appear. Maybe it will make up for the lose of Nordic, though things would be even better if Nordic came back too by the end of the year!

My continued understanding (which I think another GOGger told me :P) is that Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast owns the trademark/"AD&D" name, whereas Ubisoft owns the actual SSI content.

Not the best answer for you, as if it's the case, the subsequent question happens to be "where the fuck are the Phantasie series, Wizard's Crown, Steel Empire, Dark Legions, Veil Of Darkness ?".
I get that Dungeons & Dragons might be a tricky licensing swamp, but what about the rest of the hoard ?

I can't think of that many either, apart from the first Grand Theft Auto (Take Two) and Age of Empires (Microsoft). But then again, he only said "classics" and that's open to interpretation and does not explicitly mean pre-2000 games. And I still don't believe it's Disney with the LucasArts and Star Wars stuff.

Another opportunity to share these threads:

http://community.wizards.com/forum/product-and-general-dd-discussions/threads/4127396

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/908995-Ubisoft-please-bring-more-games-to-GOG-com-and-let-Cyan-buy-the-rights-to-Myst-3-amp-4?p=10152417#post10152417

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fake sig: help bring publishers

Just saying : I would be buying these from GOG, am probably not the only one, and I know where to find them on the high seas anyway.
If GOG doesn't need the cash, that's fine by me. More whiskey in the cupboard, more books on the shelf.