I'd say an optional client is almost a question of when, not if. Personally I don't care much for clients...

Virtual goods is a possibility. They often market themselves as being in the "drm free revolution" and drm is certainly a problem in other mediums as well. I'd be more than happy to buy soundtracks and other stuff from this site. They have shown that they care about customers. However, if they do go for this let's just hope that it doesn't affect the gaming side.

New publishers? Possible... But who?

I'm skeptical about the other two and don't think it would help gog if they went with that. Honestly, I don't like thinking about this... because I'm worried that they will completely derail. But knowing gog, I shouldn't be. I haven't seen any bad signs.

Were you here for the big hullaballo (in late 2012 I believe) over the PCGamer article that said GOG was close to signing LucasArts, Microsoft, or Take 2? (The "Big 3"?) It's possible progress is still being made with one of those companies, although there's very little evidence of that.

It's also possible ZeniMax has reached a deal with GOG to bring back the Fallout games, and maybe even some of Bethesda's and iD's classics.

I have no recent evidence to support any of these, though. I do hope the release of STALKER encourages companies to release more big-name titles here. (Frankly, I'd just be happy if some current publishers continued releasing here, as we haven't seen anything new from Activision or Ubisoft in a while.)

I think it's a little late to get into the Porn video business, but I will support them no matter what. DRM-Free porn is a very noble business to support.

I think ebooks is a good market to get into given what points earlier posters mentioned, but if they did that, they wouldn't be just GOG any more...they'd either have to:

1.) Change the site name to facilitate the ebooks to make it more accepting. If GOG still stood for "good old games", but you could score a New York Times beststeller novel, it just doesn't fit for the business model.

OR

2.) Launch some sort of sister site that's solely owned by CD Projekt Red, but have it specific to ebooks, or even movies (or both).

OR

3.) The books would only be gaming books, so RPG supplements. But that wouldn't be too far of a stretch, though it would be cool. It would just be a very narrow market and it's not new (Drivethrurpg.com for instance), which even print on demand many books.

It could be that they will just start to greatly speed up how much they release. One idea is to have classic releases and indie releases come out side by side, as in no more indie only or classic only days. For instance, the main page splash would have the left as the new classic releases, while the right are indies. Or something entirely different. But in any case, more games to the catalog is the point being made, and from all genres.

All ideas. I could be wrong on all accounts

GOG isn't short for Good Old Games, and hasn't been since they started adding new games, It's just GOG or GOG.com. There was an official statement about that.

I think going near-app store is the most likely.

There us already quite a market for DRM-free Ebooks and Music but the major distribution stores don't like to make a big deal about it as a browsing option; Humble Bundle has already had several DRM free specials for Soundtracks and books, with variable success.

I think GOG could knock it out of the park if there were to expand into a full on store for all kinds of Books and Music, not just game related or indie titles.

as long as they don't get into the mobile game business ill be happy.... theres enuf shovelware out there already

The optional client must remain optional if we're going to continue being friends...

Nah, GOG is neither suicidal nor stupid :) My guesses would be:
- Optional client,
- Linux support (actually, SteamOS - as our new 'gaming Linux' - wouldn't surprise as their choice... and a friendly move thowards Valve would look nice),
- Site and forum overhaul.

It may be a coincidence but GOG did mention about it and rumours were at their peak few months before Disney up and grabbed LucasArts. And, all of he sudden, all rumors stopped and GOG went silent about it. So it's entirely plausible that GOG WAS in talks with or even near an agreement with LucasArts and change of ownership threw them back into square one.

The name is reliant on games...that's the point I tried to make. I know about the official statement too. That's when they began releasing newer indie games as well as classics, which is why they changed the name. In any case this site was forged by and for "good old games".

Yes, that's entirely possible. And REALLY sucks if it's true.

But at the same time, it's my understanding that CDP have a prior or current relationship with Disney, being the official European translator or distributor for their games, or something like that, so I can't help but think they might be able to come up with some deal still.

I believe they're both the translator and retail distributor (thru CDP.pl) for much of eastern europe. Do remember that despite all of them (GOG.com, CDP RED and CDP.pl) being subsidiaries of CD Projekt Group, they are independently managed corporate entities. While being part of larger group certainly help in negotiations, contract with one subsidiary does mean there's contract with the rest. Each subsidiary has to negotiate their contracts alone. Do remember that CD Projekt has been retailer for long time, years before GOG came to be. Despite this, lot of devs and distributors who have distributed retail version thru CDP are not on GOG.

Linux support will certainly please GOG's user-base the most. :D