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General discussion (archive)Future of GOG: Lack of big publishers interest?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 30, 2014
Till a few days earlier, I haven´t give a single though to this problem. But the current lack of rereleases of real classics---some might call them GOGs---has brought


There hasn´t been any game from Ubi or EA rereleased on GOG.com for a long time.
EA hasn´t rereleased anything this year; and Ubi hasn´t rereleased anything since July last year!
Activision is "gone" for more than one year and Sqare...Square...Square...

...well ironically Square has done a rerelease this year, Hitman Contracts. But it was a few days before their "Hail DRM"-statement!

Proberbly the OneWorldPricement-Turn wasn´t just caused by the overwhelming dislike in the community.
It was proberbly more because this turn wasn´t able to convince those publishers to come back on board!

We´ll have to face the truth: Most real classics that aren´t already on GOG are in the hands of those publishers---and in those of the company formally known as LucasArts. But it actually doesn´t look like Disney got any plans to change that LucasArts-Problem...
So yes: If nothings gonna happen the GoodOldGames-Sector of GOG.com will dying---OK, the ones already here won´t be removed (hopefully)---but there won´t be many additions anymore.
Posted April 30, 2014
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RadonGOG: Till a few days earlier, I haven´t give a single though to this problem. But the current lack of rereleases of real classics---some might call them GOGs---has brought

There hasn´t been any game from Ubi or EA rereleased on GOG.com for a long time.
EA hasn´t rereleased anything this year; and Ubi hasn´t rereleased anything since July last year!
Activision is "gone" for more than one year and Sqare...Square...Square...

...well ironically Square has done a rerelease this year, Hitman Contracts. But it was a few days before their "Hail DRM"-statement!

Proberbly the OneWorldPricement-Turn wasn´t just caused by the overwhelming dislike in the community.
It was proberbly more because this turn wasn´t able to convince those publishers to come back on board!

We´ll have to face the truth: Most real classics that aren´t already on GOG are in the hands of those publishers---and in those of the company formally known as LucasArts. But it actually doesn´t look like Disney got any plans to change that LucasArts-Problem...
So yes: If nothings gonna happen the GoodOldGames-Sector of GOG.com will dying---OK, the ones already here won´t be removed (hopefully)---but there won´t be many additions anymore.
not all old games are activion, ubisoft, square and EA
Posted April 30, 2014
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RadonGOG: Till a few days earlier, I haven´t give a single though to this problem. But the current lack of rereleases of real classics---some might call them GOGs---has brought

There hasn´t been any game from Ubi or EA rereleased on GOG.com for a long time.
EA hasn´t rereleased anything this year; and Ubi hasn´t rereleased anything since July last year!
Activision is "gone" for more than one year and Sqare...Square...Square...

...well ironically Square has done a rerelease this year, Hitman Contracts. But it was a few days before their "Hail DRM"-statement!

Proberbly the OneWorldPricement-Turn wasn´t just caused by the overwhelming dislike in the community.
It was proberbly more because this turn wasn´t able to convince those publishers to come back on board!

We´ll have to face the truth: Most real classics that aren´t already on GOG are in the hands of those publishers---and in those of the company formally known as LucasArts. But it actually doesn´t look like Disney got any plans to change that LucasArts-Problem...
So yes: If nothings gonna happen the GoodOldGames-Sector of GOG.com will dying---OK, the ones already here won´t be removed (hopefully)---but there won´t be many additions anymore.
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XYCat: not all old games are activion, ubisoft, square and EA
I didn´t say this. But most "GOGs" that aren´t on GOG yet and could possibly ever landing here (so Microsoft, Blizzard and LucasArts can be excluded for a chance of each aroud 75%) are actually controlled by them!
Posted April 30, 2014
It makes sense that the pursuit of classic old games will result in diminished returns as time goes by exhausting the supply of available classics. I don't see that as making DRM-free or GOG any less relevent. Even if we see 80% new indie titles; those add revenue that will support continued old game research/release and have value on their own.

I do think Disney will license out the LucasArt games; Disney has publically commented they see licensing brands as a low risk high return investment for them so I don't see any reason for sitting on them.
Post edited April 30, 2014 by undeadcow
Posted April 30, 2014
Er there is helluva lot more classic old games out there which dont belong to any of the *big* publishers.....
Posted April 30, 2014
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Niggles: Er there is helluva lot more classic old games out there which dont belong to any of the *big* publishers.....
codeword "out there" as opposed to "here"
Posted April 30, 2014
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Niggles: Er there is helluva lot more classic old games out there which dont belong to any of the *big* publishers.....
But are their enough that forfill the "Good" part or is just retroperspective blur?

The first sites of the wishlist is full with games that are owned by those four publishers, (like Final Fantasy, KOTOR C&C, Black and White, Prince Of Persia, ...) owned by someone that won´t enter GOG at all (LucasArts, Take II, ...) or are just completly lost in license limbo!

Only think about masses of SierraTitles...
Post edited April 30, 2014 by RadonGOG
Posted April 30, 2014
I think the most realistic of scenarios is more of what your used to; more classics trinkling over to GOG's shelves every now and then, sometimes in batches like with Red Faction 1 and 2, or the STALKER series (somewhat classic), and sometimes weeks or a month or more apart in release. Some games the rights holders become lost, and some are found, such as with Heretic Kingdoms (found by a GOG member) and Harvester, among many others. There are so many SSI games out there that deserve to be here, but it's been scattered at best and many are lost at worst. Many here wish to see the SSI Gold Box AD&D titles here, and hopefully the rights holders and all the other details that would need to take place can and will happen, even if it's years from now. That also goes for other titles like Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom, Cyberstorm, Homeworld, the first FIVE Wizardry games, Myst 3 and 4, and more. Some of those and others need the signing of big publishers, notably Microsoft for Myst (which would also be Mechwarrior I believe). I could make an endless list, but that's been done time and again.

If every classic came here at once it would be a good and a bad thing, because while we'd all be able to play every single classic we want to grab, there would be nothing else for GOG to release until newer games become more dated. In some ways, the idea of excitement behind a never-ending supply of classics is what keeps this community brain storming and theorizing so much. Even after GOG hits 1,000 games, which will happen probably by sometime in 2016, and probably dozens to a 100+ more classics get added to the catalog, it won't even put a dent into what could be added here for the future.
Posted April 30, 2014
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JinseiNGC224: I think the most realistic of scenarios is more of what your used to; more classics trinkling over to GOG's shelves every now and then, sometimes in batches like with Red Faction 1 and 2, or the STALKER series (somewhat classic), and sometimes weeks or a month or more apart in release. Some games the rights holders become lost, and some are found, such as with Heretic Kingdoms (found by a GOG member) and Harvester, among many others. There are so many SSI games out there that deserve to be here, but it's been scattered at best and many are lost at worst. Many here wish to see the SSI Gold Box AD&D titles here, and hopefully the rights holders and all the other details that would need to take place can and will happen, even if it's years from now. That also goes for other titles like Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom, Cyberstorm, Homeworld, the first FIVE Wizardry games, Myst 3 and 4, and more. Some of those and others need the signing of big publishers, notably Microsoft for Myst (which would also be Mechwarrior I believe). I could make an endless list, but that's been done time and again.

If every classic came here at once it would be a good and a bad thing, because while we'd all be able to play every single classic we want to grab, there would be nothing else for GOG to release until newer games become more dated. In some ways, the idea of excitement behind a never-ending supply of classics is what keeps this community brain storming and theorizing so much. Even after GOG hits 1,000 games, which will happen probably by sometime in 2016, and probably dozens to a 100+ more classics get added to the catalog, it won't even put a dent into what could be added here for the future.
Would be nice. But one part of the games catalog, the modern classic era, will definitivly be hitted hard if Ubisoft, EA, Activision and perhabs even Square pulls of their support. Yes, of course even in that their are many titles of that era that aren´t bound to one of them or to the "will never on GOG"-party.

Oh, and thanks for that SSI-Reminder! You are right, there can be a mass of games be drawn out in that direction!
Posted April 30, 2014
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JinseiNGC224: <snip>
Well put.

For me, it always comes back to looking at my backlog. The games could show up, I'd still buy them because I'm dumb that way, and they'd collect digital dust along with so many other titles I have yet to install, let alone play. But I still want a bunch of them.



But hey - Publishers: we'll buy them, so get off your asses and work out those deals!
Posted April 30, 2014
I'm not sure how really committed to GOG are those publishers, their strategy is seem to release a title with DRM, then when it get old re-release him as low budget retail and only then, as the last option, release it on GOG DRM free, I remember buying a copy of HoMM V as a low budget DRM free release, a few years after the publishing of the game but before it came to GOG, and I saw a similar deal on the original Assassin's Creed, again before it came to GOG. The only exception to this pattern is Rayman Origins which was release on GOG a year after it came out.
Posted May 01, 2014
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Ingsoc85: I'm not sure how really committed to GOG are those publishers, their strategy is seem to release a title with DRM, then when it get old re-release him as low budget retail and only then, as the last option, release it on GOG DRM free, I remember buying a copy of HoMM V as a low budget DRM free release, a few years after the publishing of the game but before it came to GOG, and I saw a similar deal on the original Assassin's Creed, again before it came to GOG. The only exception to this pattern is Rayman Origins which was release on GOG a year after it came out.
Hmm, this way would definitvly lead to the question whether you consider DVD-DRM as DRM or not; as e.g. Jade Empire always had this before it was rereleased.
And, on top of that, both Ubi and EA have tons of titels left that would forfill that requirements.
For example, on EAs site: Nearly the entire C&C-Collection, or in simple nearly everthing from Westwood!
From Ubi would be Dark Messiah, there´d be the whole missing TomClancys (SplinterCell, Ghost Reacon AND Rainbow Six, espacially Rouge Spear), tons of Settlers, and so on...
Square could have easyly made FF VII availible on GOG, but instead of that they´ve chosen to add CloudSaves ...*HeadHitsWallAndSmashsThrough*
And Activision got games like S.W.A.T. IV...oh, I should not start with Activision; TONS of Sierra Titles again ;)

In general: As long as we are only talking about the addition of GoodOldGames and ModernClassics, they´d have masses that could be simply add because they never featured exessive DRM and are sold on other plattforms, too.

As you saying, we can´t be "sure how really committed to GOG are those publishers".
That´s sad and the hit would be hard if they´d leave; GOG in my eyes also always had an archivival function...
And this cannot be really fullfilled in deep if they are leaving...
Posted May 01, 2014
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RadonGOG: Proberbly the OneWorldPricement-Turn wasn´t just caused by the overwhelming dislike in the community.
It was proberbly more because this turn wasn´t able to convince those publishers to come back on board!
You can't really come to a conclusion that something will fail when you haven't even tried it. It's obvious that many GOG customers prefer a single price over the chance of more games. If that doesn't change we will never know if this could have helped.
Posted May 01, 2014
I know folks keep talking about other GOG's out there besides EA and Ubisoft, but that doesn't interest me. I want to see more EA and Ubisoft games on here, drm free. I want to see Westwood and more Bioware games and EA holds the rights. I want to see more Tom Clancy games. I want to buy Far Cry 3, the later Assassin's Creed games, Watch_Dogs and South Park on GOG to play DRM-free. I'm really not interested if your opinion is that these games are not worth playing-these are the games I want to play and I want to know how things are going with getting these two publishers.
Posted May 01, 2014
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ET3D: You can't really come to a conclusion that something will fail when you haven't even tried it. It's obvious that many GOG customers prefer a single price over the chance of more games. If that doesn't change we will never know if this could have helped.
Yes, I don't think GOG was able to contact everyone and get a reply in a few weeks. But, in their 'getting back to our roots' thread, they said that they would make up the price difference if they tried to get a game with flat worldwide pricing and failed. I think that means the door is still open for other regional-priced games, so I hope that GOG are still trying. But I wish I knew what's keeping Take-Two's stuff like the classic X-Com games, which are already DRM-free, and so inexpensive that regional pricing cannot be a problem. Zenimax also has the old id Software games, but I wonder if there's regional restrictions in their case.
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General discussion (archive)Future of GOG: Lack of big publishers interest?(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)