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General discussionIntroducing GOG.com DRM-Free Movies(632 posts)(632 posts)
(632 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 27, 2014
Cause there's no business like show-business!

Our DRM-Free approach to digital distribution has been the foundation of GOG.com since day one and we're convinced it is now firmly rooted in the gaming industry landscape. More and more users start to expect and demand the digital content they paid for to be free from any kind of restrictive mechanisms that limit access to their collections and get in the way of enjoyment. We think this is a good time to take the next step in our quest to make digital entertainment better for everyone. Today we set out to spread our DRM-Free ideas across the movie industry! That's right: GOG.com now offers DRM-Free movies.

Our goal is to offer you cinema classics as well as some all-time favorite TV series with no DRM whatsoever, for you to download and keep on your hard drive or stream online whenever you feel like it. We talked to most of the big players in the movie industry and we often got a similar answer: "We love your ideas, but … we do not want to be the first ones. We will gladly follow, but until somebody else does it first, we do not want to take the risk". DRM-Free distribution is not a concept their lawyers would accept without hesitation. We kind of felt that would be the case and that it's gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right. That's quite a journey ahead of us, but every gamer knows very well that great adventures start with one small step. So why not start with something that feels very familiar? We offer you a number of gaming and internet culture documentaries - all of them DRM-Free, very reasonably priced, and presenting some fascinating insight into topics close to a gamer's heart. Now, what do we have in store for you?

- There's a whole new Movie Catalog for you to browse!
- All the movies we sell are priced at $5.99 (that's a launch promo price for a few of them), and we aim to have that as the main price point for most of our future releases
- Two of the movies - The Art of Playing and TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard are available for FREE, so that you can test our new movie distribution features
- Most of our movies are in Full HD 1080p quality, some in 720p. With those of you with limited bandwidth or download quota in mind, we also supply much lighter 576p versions.
- Apart from downloading your movies you have the option to watch them streaming online, right here on GOG.com
- GOG.com is famous for its bonus goodies - each movie will come with as many of them as we can muster
- You can expect subsequent movie releases each week

That's it. GOG.com Movies is a go, time to get some popcorn!
Posted September 01, 2014
When is movies release planned?
I'm quite curious, even if I shouldn't expect much this soon..
Posted September 01, 2014
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phaolo: When is movies release planned?
I'm quite curious, even if I shouldn't expect much this soon..
Soon :)
Posted September 01, 2014
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phaolo: When is movies release planned?
I'm quite curious, even if I shouldn't expect much this soon..
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JudasIscariot: Soon :)
Argh.. that word XD
Posted September 01, 2014
high rated
Hi guys,

We've been reading all your comments and I'd like to reply to 3 key questions that have been regularly coming up for the last few days :)

1. Why did GOG decide to launch DRM-free video content?

Releasing video content on GOG is something we always wanted to do, because we are not only games freaks, but we also love watching tons of movies and TV-series. Our initial intent was to give a 2nd youth to classic movies and tv-series. X-Files, Mac Gyver, Star Trek, wouldn'it it be cool to have them all in a digital curated collection of yours? 100% DRM-free, with the possibility to watch them anywhere, anytime, on any device you own? We'd love that. Exactly like we used to collect and enjoy DVDs, but with nowadays' digital convenience (no need to have a heavy massive shelf in your living room :)

IWI and myself spoke to most of the major studios in the U.S. and Europe. We spoke to 8 out of the 10 most famous studios out there. Our pitch? Pragmatic and based on GOG's history --> "Our approach to digital distribution (DRM-free, fair regional pricing, free goodies) encouraged millions of nostalgic passionate people to buy classic games from us rather than pirate them. We know it does work, here is evidence (*) . We distribute 800+ games for 200+ partners, including major publishers and smaller independent studios alike. We can even take the financial risk on us. Just give us a try".

(*) sales numbers here, I cannot share them with you guys, I'd have to kill you :)

We met lots of interesting studio executives, who totally understood our pragmatic arguments. Many of them even admitted that there is no DRM that can prevent a title from being pirated and that some of their movies sometimes even got pirated before release, just like games unfortunately.

We even got one offer approved by the business folks of a major studio, but the deal eventually got cancelled because lawyers were worried that it would give the impression that majors are giving up the fight against piracy.

Also, most of the major studios told us, each with almost the very same words: "we like your ideas, but we neither want to the first studio to say yes, nor the last one. Please let us know when one of the other major studios says yes, we will then probably consider following".

We had a B plan up our sleeves though: launching our DRM-free video section with documentaries instead. The world is becoming (has become?) digital, so it was natural for us to start with documentaries dealing mostly with the gaming, geek and internet cultures. We know that many of you are interested in these themes, and so are we. Also, the companies owning rights for documentaries are usually well aware of the ineffectiveness of DRM and we almost instantly agreed with them to give DRM-free digital distribution a try on GOG (which we'd like to thank them for).

2. Will GOG only distribute DRM-free video documentaries then?

No. Life is full of colours and that's why we would like to diversify our offer, as long as it suits your tastes of course.

We will run some experiments from time to time. Talking of which, many of you requested movies in this discussion thread and we have signed a handful of these already. We will release one this week actually. We want to find out what's the kind of video content you guys like or dislike; which helps us shape the future of our video activities accordingly. Don't forget you can vote with your wallets, so if you want to support our initiative and like what we release, you can help GOG and its current/future video partners to develop our DRM-free initiative :) We really would love to free videos from the chain of DRM.

Our ultimate goal? Convincing someday movie majors to give a second youth to their classic tv-series and movies, to start with. And until we get there, convincing more & more partners of various size to join GOG.com and let us curate their video content ! We know it is a tough challenge, but "impossible is not GOG" as the saying goes :) We'll do our best.

3. Is GOG forgetting its gaming roots?

Let me say it loud & clear: no, we are definitely not!

We remain gamers at heart. This has been, still is and will always be our main hobby and passion in life. We just believe games are not the only kind of content that deserves to be DRM-free. We believe entertainment as a whole should be DRM-free, hence the fact we launched video content on GOG.

Don't worry -- we have several major gaming-related announcements and surprises for all the gamers out there until the end of the year and we remain totally focused on that. You have my word on it guys. Not only mine actually: you've got everybody's word at GOG, seriously. (well, apart from our business development manager for movies, whose full-time role is to help us make that section of GOG grow of course. Please excuse her :p)

--------------------

Thanks a lot for your feedback (whether positive or negative) guys about the launch of our video content. Please keep on commenting upcoming video releases on GOG. I cannot guarantee we will be regularly posting answers as long as this one (congrats if you reached this part -> achievement unlocked!), but I can guarantee we'll read your feedback carefully.

Best DRM-free wishes,

Guillaume and everybody at GOG.
Post edited September 01, 2014 by TheFrenchMonk
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: "we like your ideas, but we neither want to the first studio to say yes, nor the last one. Please let us know when one of the other major studios says yes, we will then probably consider following".
This is the problem: Instead of seeing it as "giving your customers what they want", they see it as "giving up the fight against piracy". What is wrong with those people?

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TheFrenchMonk: classic movies and tv-series. X-Files
Guillaume, my sphincter just pulsated. :)

Best of luck with the endeavour (I've bought a couple of the docos), hopefully some studio will be brave enough to jump into the modern world.
Post edited September 01, 2014 by ashleyarnold
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: classic movies and tv-series. X-Files
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ashleyarnold: Guillaume, my sphincter just pulsated. :)

Best of luck with the endeavour (I've bought a couple of the docos), hopefully some studio will be brave enough to jump into the modern world.
Mine too. :)
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: [..]
Woo, first GOG Galaxy achievement? ;P
Thanks for the info and I hope for some tasty entry soon(er).

P.S: will you ever switch to h265 in the future? I'd prefer smaller file sizes for 720p
Posted September 01, 2014
Go for X-Files! :D

And everything else of course :)
Post edited September 01, 2014 by Miljac
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: Thanks a lot for your feedback (whether positive or negative) guys about the launch of our video content. Please keep on commenting upcoming video releases on GOG. I cannot guarantee we will be regularly posting answers as long as this one (congrats if you reached this part -> achievement unlocked!), but I can guarantee we'll read your feedback carefully.
Why thank you, it wasn't easy to get to that point, with so many words that contradict several of the last actions from GOG, such as the fair pricing or the bonus goodies. You may also want to re-count the nº of games (just single titles, not special editions and DLC) tomorrow after the Last Chance ones have been removed. But nevertheless, there are no words, no memes, no videos to describe how much I lost it at this point:

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TheFrenchMonk: 2. Will GOG only distribute DRM-free video documentaries then?

No. Life is full of colours
Anyway, excuse my bitterness, I sincerely hope you guys get more publishers, games and movies, and that GOG succeeds in the long term without dropping more of your essential characteristics along the way. I'm gonna guess that the next videos we can expect are those from indie studios and internet producers that have been mentioned in this and other threads. That'd be indeed good news.
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: ...many of you requested movies in this discussion thread and we have signed a handful of these already. We will release one this week actually.
Quick progress - how exciting!

One that you may be interested in (I've just added it to the wishlist but I may as well mention it here - apologies if someone else already has, I haven't time to read the whole thread) is Micro Men, an excellent BBC drama about the British home computer market in the 1980s, focusing on Sinclair and Acorn, and starring Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman. Sounds pretty much exactly the sort of thing GOG's customers would like - well, it's about old computers rather than specifically old games (though games do feature), but near enough.
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: ...many of you requested movies in this discussion thread and we have signed a handful of these already. We will release one this week actually.
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ydobemos: Quick progress - how exciting!

One that you may be interested in (I've just added it to the wishlist but I may as well mention it here - apologies if someone else already has, I haven't time to read the whole thread) is Micro Men, an excellent BBC drama about the British home computer market in the 1980s, focusing on Sinclair and Acorn, and starring Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman. Sounds pretty much exactly the sort of thing GOG's customers would like - well, it's about old computers rather than specifically old games (though games do feature), but near enough.
I saw that when it was on iPlayer, and I expect some of our compatriots would be interested in it, at least.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men it 'was created by independent production company Darlow Smithson and... was produced as a BBC Drama'. I wonder how co-operative BBC Worldwide would be.
Posted September 01, 2014
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TheFrenchMonk: No. Life is full of colours ...
Sorry, I could not resist. I don't even mind it.
Attachments:
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Posted September 01, 2014
"Well, we couldn't get any real studios, so here are a bunch of shitty gaming documentaries" is a "B plan" in the same way that "Well, I got kicked out of college and fired from my job and dumped by my girlfriend and diagnosed with terminal cancer, but I can always spend the rest of my shortened life working at McDonald's and listlessly masturbating" is a "B plan."

Maybe I'd find your post more convincing if you hadn't talked in the exact same gushing terms over your regional pricing policy that caused thirty-five games to be removed from GOG.
Post edited September 01, 2014 by BadDecissions
Posted September 01, 2014
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phaolo: P.S: will you ever switch to h265 in the future? I'd prefer smaller file sizes for 720p
I hope Daala comes before that which will be even smaller than H.265 and won't require GOG paying anything to the patent trolls ;)
Post edited September 01, 2014 by shmerl
Posted September 01, 2014
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phaolo: P.S: will you ever switch to h265 in the future? I'd prefer smaller file sizes for 720p
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shmerl: I hope Daala comes before that which will be even smaller than H.265 and won't require GOG paying anything to the patent trolls ;)
I didn't even know about it. I was just hyped about x265.

May the best supported codec win and come here to GOG, then ; )
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General discussionIntroducing GOG.com DRM-Free Movies(632 posts)(632 posts)
(632 posts)