It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
All-new Witcher 3 gameplay trailer, pre-orders launch; GOG.com unveils GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free Online Gaming platform!

All-new The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt gameplay footage, pre-order details, and a look at the exclusive content of the collector's edition. GOG.com unveils its upcoming new project taking a next step in the DRM-Free gaming revolution. All that and more in the CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Summer Conference. Watch it right here!
Post edited June 04, 2014 by G-Doc
avatar
Greywolf2001ca: GOG should do what they originally did, get Good Old Games and stay away from new ones, especially today since most are made in a haste.
avatar
Vainamoinen: Right now, gog is putting a lot of "new" games on their site. Programmed by four people in a garage. While I do like that occasionally, it isn't too helpful to advance gog.com. I guess that most people who just wish for "old" stuff on GOG satisfy their modern gaming needs via Steam. Valve gets the money, GOG gets pennies. That platform concept won't fly.

GOG doesn't have a "winning recipe", they have a set of morals and a small fanbase with a brain.
Which means that stagnation is inevitable when growth is desperately needed.

To survive, GOG must naturally get fairly recent multi million dollar productions on their platform DRM free. The problem is: they simply don't. We will e.g. probably not see a product originally released via Uplay or Origin for at least a decade, and the other larger publishers seem to be extreeeeeemely happy with the PC = Steam equation.

GOG recently really tried to make releases more attractive to those larger publishers - with international pricing. That seems to have not worked at all, so they rescinded the idea. The question remains: What (besides the non negotiable DRM) could GOG offer the industry to take renewed interest in the platform?
Amen to that.
Like you I also want those more recent games.

Sure... I don't care about COD: Ghosts and such stuff. But I sure would like some Assassin's Creed 2. Some Oblivion and some Modern Warfare among other things.

I admit I hate Steam. I don't want no intrusive software in my PC. I don't want to be forced to have an internet connection to play a bloody game.

And, to be honest, I don't care about the bloody regional pricing stuff. Even that sort of thing is required for GOG to sell more recent games, then so be it. I don't want this project and business to fall just because of some irate fanboys who almost act like spoiled trolls.

Regional pricing will cause some games to be more expensive. Well, if that is the price to pay to have more games, so be it. There are some games on GOG that I just can't buy because I don't have the money. But I'd rather have more recent and expensive games here, so that other people can afford them, than not have them at all!
avatar
karnak1: Regional pricing will cause some games to be more expensive. Well, if that is the price to pay to have more games, so be it. There are some games on GOG that I just can't buy because I don't have the money. But I'd rather have more recent and expensive games here, so that other people can afford them, than not have them at all!
Regional pricing stinks for Australia and others. So many games end up costing double. its almost allways the big releases that do it, the ones that wouldn't let there games go DRM free. IF regional pricing was to stay it at least needs boundaries. No more 70% mark up. GOG letting publishers crap all over people with regional pricing is as lame as DRM.
avatar
Ebany: It's degrading for my Extremely expensive gaming rig to run such an archaic piece of software, couldn't even slow the system enough to run one of those Amiga games. It would be like hitching a horse drawn carriage to a Ferrari.
Technofetishism is the province of insecure males who think shiny objects will help them get laid. :)

But really, I hope you don't actually equate "more hardware" with "more fun". That just as absurd as saying that movies with bigger special effects budgets are always better than those with less. Personally I've seen enough CGI-and-explosion films (and played enough AAA console titles) to know that these tend to be hollow inside when compared to games made on a smaller budget but with more affection and talent.

Most of the other posters have already covered what I would say about Amiga games, namely that they are fantastic fun, and many are still beautiful to behold. It was also a very successful system and has an appreciable audience who would buy the games again, which doesn't even factor in the players who had never experienced it but would love those games once they did. That's what most folks are here on GOG for, classic gaming that stands the test of time.
avatar
karnak1: Regional pricing will cause some games to be more expensive. Well, if that is the price to pay to have more games, so be it. There are some games on GOG that I just can't buy because I don't have the money. But I'd rather have more recent and expensive games here, so that other people can afford them, than not have them at all!
avatar
jalex3: Regional pricing stinks for Australia and others. So many games end up costing double. its almost allways the big releases that do it, the ones that wouldn't let there games go DRM free. IF regional pricing was to stay it at least needs boundaries. No more 70% mark up. GOG letting publishers crap all over people with regional pricing is as lame as DRM.
You are right in what you say. But the publishers always have the last voice. It's their games, after all.
And, if GOG doesn't accept their price policies Steam will always "open their legs" to whatever policies the publishers demand.

But, in the end, GOG will have to make some compromise, otherwise it will face the end of business.
Evolution is part of survival. To stop adapting to the world is to face extinction in the end.

To me, no-DRM must ALWAYS be a part of GOG. As for the rest, some compromises can be reached, depending on what sort they are.
avatar
IAmSinistar: Most of the other posters have already covered what I would say about Amiga games, namely that they are fantastic fun, and many are still beautiful to behold. It was also a very successful system and has an appreciable audience who would buy the games again, which doesn't even factor in the players who had never experienced it but would love those games once they did. That's what most folks are here on GOG for, classic gaming that stands the test of time.
Personally, even though I like the old classics, I'm here mostly for the no-DRM policy of GOG.
Post edited June 04, 2014 by karnak1
avatar
karnak1: Personally, even though I like the old classics, I'm here mostly for the no-DRM policy of GOG.
Sure, and that's a major feature for me as well. That's why I said "most folks", which is a purely anecdotal measure on my part going from what people post about. For me it's a combinations of classics, DRM-free, great community, and carefully selected indies that make GOG the clear winner. :)
avatar
karnak1: Regional pricing will cause some games to be more expensive. Well, if that is the price to pay to have more games, so be it.
Well, my money is ready, but in vain. My assessment of the situation those few months ago is that GOG offered regional pricing as a bargaining chip to the larger publishers.

And the larger publishers weren't at all interested in that bargaining chip. :(
avatar
IAmSinistar: Sure, and that's a major feature for me as well. That's why I said "most folks", which is a purely anecdotal measure on my part going from what people post about. For me it's a combinations of classics, DRM-free, great community, and carefully selected indies that make GOG the clear winner. :)
Yes, this. In case of regional pricing the community voices their disagreement very audibly. And GOG did the backflip. Most companies wouldn't have done this (with their own Downfall parody in the midst of the heated debate no less). While I wasn't part of the "outrage" (just voiced some mild disagreement) I was very impressed with how they dealt with it.

I think GOG could be a little more outspoken towards the industry: "See, DRM-free works!". But we don't know what happens behind the doors at the negotiation tables.
avatar
toxicTom: I think GOG could be a little more outspoken towards the industry: "See, DRM-free works!". But we don't know what happens behind the doors at the negotiation tables.
The inertia in the industry is due to most companies being a mixture of equals parts of echo chamber and tribal witchdoctors. Just like individual people they reinforce their own beliefs, however wrong those are, and selectively bias the information they bring in to sustain those prejudices ("throwing virgins into the volcano stops eruptions!", "DRM stops piracy!"). Very few of them want to be first or take a chance, sadly, which makes GOG all the more precious.
I think the bigger publishers aren't that much interested in gog since most of the game sales go over Steam now. Besides gog was always first about good old games and not so much new games. When gog started to sell new games it pushed in to Steam's territory which did not go unnoticed by them. Now you have massive releases of old games on Steam and this way gog is additionaly loosing importance at least for some buyers. Especially since Steam is now releasing several games that were on gog's wishlist for years. The only good side for gog is that Steam does not quarantee compatibility of old games with new OS and is being highly criticised for that. Thats a plus for gog.

Regional pricing on gog is still here as it was when gog was trying to switch over to regional pricing only - at the moment the difference with other digital stores ist that they offer compensation for afflicted customers who have to pay more because of regional pricing. At the end they will with time probably have to switch to real regional pricing or they won't survive. But even introduction of regional pricing doesn't seem to have made any difference. There were no real AAA titles released after the introduction of regional pricing.

But I think that the other question is - Why should the developers/publishers make a drm-free copy of a game that has drm? Obviously removing drm features costs. The question they probably ask themselves is - Will there be enough sales on a drm-free platform to justify drm removal and earn us some money. I think the answer mostly on that is no. Steam user base is several times bigger and therefore a bigger chance to sell more game which is very hard for gog to beat. At the end it always comes down to the question: Where can the publisher gain more revenue?
Post edited June 04, 2014 by Matruchus
Guys, in the fight against DRM-FREE, don't forget the 800 pound gorilla.
The number one in digital sales which is like the big bully of the PC market.
Like it or not Steam has become huge and many games don't sell till they are released there. If Steam says no drm free or we won't sell your game, not much can be done by the publishers unless they are of the EA and Ubisoft size.
avatar
Greywolf2001ca: GOG should do what they originally did, get Good Old Games and stay away from new ones
Nope. I can only speak for myself here, but one of the reasons why I wasn't at all interested in gog for the longest time was that while one of their main draws was DRM-free games, that point was moot to me, since they mostly offered old games that never had any DRM in the first place.

I for one really, REALLY appreciate being able to buy new games without getting a serious headache from worrying whether a release might be DRMed. One of the reasons why I buy pretty much all my games from gog is that I don't have to worry about DRM, no matter how new or old the game is. Retail copies are usually contaminated with the steaming pile. Only a few years ago, you could at least count on 1-star reviews on amazon to warn you of a DRMed release, but that's unfortunately no longer the case. Having at least one reliable bastion of DRM-free games is absolutely vital in this toxic market situation.

avatar
Greywolf2001ca: All this to say that I don't want GOG.com to become another Steam.
Neither do I. And as long as they stay true to their DRM-free and fair pricing principles, as well as retaining the excellent standard of their customer service and don't start putting spyware under the guise of "social networking features" into their games (just say NO! to a gog client), I have no worries whatsoever of gog ever becoming anything like Steam. In my relatively short time on this site, I got the impression that gog has respect for their customers. Steam on the other hand treats their customers like cattle. That's the fundamental difference between the two.
Post edited June 04, 2014 by fronzelneekburm
Gaaah! Why am I going to miss this! Maybe I can catch the last part from my smartphone.
avatar
Malek86: Gaaah! Why am I going to miss this! Maybe I can catch the last part from my smartphone.
There will probably be a video of that posted on gog or at least a link to gog's youtube site so you can watch it later in whole. Thats what they did with the last Twitch TV stream.
Post edited June 04, 2014 by Matruchus
avatar
Greywolf2001ca: GOG should do what they originally did, get Good Old Games and stay away from new ones
avatar
fronzelneekburm: Nope. I can only speak for myself here, but one of the reasons why I wasn't at all interested in gog for the longest time was that while one of their main draws was DRM-free games, that point was moot to me, since they mostly offered old games that never had any DRM in the first place.

I for one really, REALLY appreciate being able to buy new games without getting a serious headache from worrying whether a release might be DRMed. One of the reasons why I buy pretty much all my games from gog is that I don't have to worry about DRM, no matter how new or old the game is. Retail copies are usually contaminated with the steaming pile. Only a few years ago, you could at least count on 1-star reviews on amazon to warn you of a DRMed release, but that's unfortunately no longer the case. Having at least one reliable bastion of DRM-free games is absolutely vital in this toxic market situation.

avatar
Greywolf2001ca: All this to say that I don't want GOG.com to become another Steam.
avatar
fronzelneekburm: Neither do I. And as long as they stay true to their DRM-free and fair pricing principles, as well as retaining the excellent standard of their customer service and don't start putting spyware under the guise of "social networking features" into their games (just say NO! to a gog client), I have no worries whatsoever of gog ever becoming anything like Steam. In my relatively short time on this site, I got the impression that gog has respect for their customers. Steam on the other hand treats their customers like cattle. That's the fundamental difference between the two.
Why say no to a client? There is no reason for why a client would have to report any information to anybody. There is no reason that GOG should cripple their downloader and not implement certain features that are completely unrelated to either spyware or DRM.
avatar
fronzelneekburm: Nope. I can only speak for myself here, but one of the reasons why I wasn't at all interested in gog for the longest time was that while one of their main draws was DRM-free games, that point was moot to me, since they mostly offered old games that never had any DRM in the first place.

I for one really, REALLY appreciate being able to buy new games without getting a serious headache from worrying whether a release might be DRMed. One of the reasons why I buy pretty much all my games from gog is that I don't have to worry about DRM, no matter how new or old the game is. Retail copies are usually contaminated with the steaming pile. Only a few years ago, you could at least count on 1-star reviews on amazon to warn you of a DRMed release, but that's unfortunately no longer the case. Having at least one reliable bastion of DRM-free games is absolutely vital in this toxic market situation.

Neither do I. And as long as they stay true to their DRM-free and fair pricing principles, as well as retaining the excellent standard of their customer service and don't start putting spyware under the guise of "social networking features" into their games (just say NO! to a gog client), I have no worries whatsoever of gog ever becoming anything like Steam. In my relatively short time on this site, I got the impression that gog has respect for their customers. Steam on the other hand treats their customers like cattle. That's the fundamental difference between the two.
avatar
Kristian: Why say no to a client? There is no reason for why a client would have to report any information to anybody. There is no reason that GOG should cripple their downloader and not implement certain features that are completely unrelated to either spyware or DRM.
Hm, besides to sell the statistical data about games played to publishers like every other digital store does? Developers and publishers buy that data now and include it in their game making process. That's why the games are so story and feature poor today. That is the affect that the clients have on the game market and that is why they mostly are not wanted by those who know what they are. You can never know if gog is using the client like Steam to see what hardware are you using, which game are you playing, how long, etc. This data is then sold to game developers - especially big ones.
Post edited June 04, 2014 by Matruchus