Mmmm... maybe not so easy. Like you were saying earlier, there are financial concerns. If the developers have to go in themselves and mod the art resources in order to change things around, that takes up man hours and such that they'd likely prefer to use on their newer projects. They might just believe they can't generate enough revenue selling their older titles to justify the cost of revamping their older stuff.
As for just, say, releasing the source code and letting fans make the changes themselves, I think that would open them up to a whole big stewpot of legal ramifications. I imagine that if I were one of the car companies and I gave a software developer a license to use my cars in one of their games, I'd put something in the legalese to make sure that said developer kept tight control of all files regarding those images that related to my "property." Meaning that they couldn't just willfully release those to anyone to do with as they pleased. It's one thing for fans to try and hack the code of the finished game to do something like this, it'd be another for the developers of the game to condone it, and to give them tools to do it with.

I hope that means that Dirt is soon to be hitting the GOG shelves. After all, it's only natural that the next in the series replace the older one since it's going away.

I do appreciate gog.com giving us heads up on discontinuations and the discount.

I have a question for those who have played both CMR 2005 and DiRT. Strictly for the physics/driving portion of the game, which one would you say is better? I have DiRT but at times feels a bit too arcadey. I might get CMR 2005 from here, but I have second thoughts for the above reason and the graphics. While I am mainly a strategy games player thus tolerate graphics no matter what, I would prefer something nice and "shiny" for a 3D game.

AlphaMonkey: Well if they open-sourced it they'd have to leave out the car models and maybe provide a generic frame for fans to mod. But it won't happen anyway.
Anyway, again I think your points are all valid. I wasn't being serious in blaming GOG or Codemasters.
It *IS* irritating that the automakers insist on these licenses for games. I mean, Aston-Martin doesn't put a stop date on old James Bond films just because their cars are featured. Maybe they still get small royalties 30+ years later? I don't see what's wrong with that. But just like movies, nobody plays a game from 2005 with the expectation that the cars represent the newest 2010 models. So why do automakers seem to have a problem with games?
And hmmm... DiRT has a metacritic score of 84, where CMR 2005 has 83... damn. I dunno if it would be worth waiting, assuming GOG gets DiRT later!

I already have DiRT so it isn't an either or for me. I am not going to get DiRT again. I am just trying to decide if it is worth buying CMR 2005 when I already have DiRT.

One more question, iWi. If they somehow manage to regain the licensing deal or whatever they need in order to legally sell the game, will GOG be able to sell the game?? And is the removal final until otherwise stated??

Goes to show what we all know: limited licensing stinks. But I do agree with iWi; better to have it up for a limited time than not at all.
At least GOG give us a fair warning and a discount to boot, so here's another 7.98 USD from me: picked up CMR and Screamer. I'm not really all that much into virtual driving, but it is fun to dabble in it from time to time, and no reason to refuse a great discount like that, either.. :)
Thanks again, GOG!

To have the games available for a certain amount of time is better than not at all.Excellent promo again.Games bought.

Hey, I thought exactly the same about Colin McRae Rally 2005 by the time you announced it and the site. So you never know, right? Dirt 2 is almost out there and I'm sure Codemasters wants to get as much people to know the new series as they can.

I'm gonna stop complaining (since it's pointless) and just say...
Thanks, GOG, for the discount :) And thanks iWi for being entirely polite and reasonable.

Under a minute for me as well. Boy, this advertising is really working on me.

Shame about CMR but many thanks for the discount, very customer focused - well done GOG.