Hi there

Over the last... let's say year(?) I've been wondering if they are still trying to get old games to this platform. For me, it was the first thing that brought me here. I'm usually more interested in the classic or older games than the new ones because of the gameplay (don't like much of the flashy, instant reward gameplay nowadays).

But the last big addition of old games I can remember are the Blizzard ones (Diablo) and Star Trek games. So: is it just me and don't I see them coming out because of the constant sales on the front page (don't like that either, but that's another topic)? Or is gog going more and more with newer games, independent games and those Manga-erotic-kinda-thingies?

Can we still expect more older games or ist that just not profitable enough and almost gone? Opinions, proof, information?

In February we had 4 classics releases:
https://www.gog.com/en/news/4_amazing_classics_from_bitwave

Plus we have coming in this month (so very soon) 4 another classics:

https://www.gog.com/en/news/coming_soon_4_awesome_classics_from_sneg

And if I read correctly, also Silver box collection should be release in March:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/silver_box_classics

And those are only from last 2 months (quick search, so I could miss something). It's far from "nothing" or "very few".

They also announced these old D&D games to be coming soon:

DeathKeep
Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace
Fantasy Empires
DragonStrike
Silver Box Classics (incl. Heroes of the Lance, Dragons of Flame, War of the Lance, Shadow Sorcerer)

Ok, I might have to be more specific. The only one game of those I was interested in (and pruchased) was Psychonauts. The rest is too old for my taste (yeah, I know how it sounds. Not old enough, too old).

I'm more interested in games between, let's say, the later 90s (1996-) til the mid- or late-2000 (2010 maybe).

The games I kind of grew up with (first game being Settlers 2 from 1996). And I don't see many of those coming. :(



edit: Just to name a few of these games so you know what I mean:

Age of Empires
Max Payne
Hitman
Black & White
Total War Series
Tomb Raider
Splinter Cell
Zoo Tycoon


I know that with some of them there is the problems with the rights to them... But that list ist in no way complete and just there to give you a hint what classics are for me (subjectiv, personally).

Well, I admit that I'm also more keen on 90/early 2000 stuff (ATM I'm craving for such games as Star General)), but it seems like recently GOG dived more into (less explored earlier) area with games from 80'. It's just my guess, but since GOG was initially much more oriented on games from 90 and later, guess at some point it became much harder to obtain more games from that period and this is the reason why recently we have more from 80'.

Other thing is, that games you've listed (aside from those that already are on GOG, like Splinter Cell :)) are belonging to big companies that are either not willing to publish here anything (this or legal issues). I wouldn't count that those games will appear on GOG at all, to be honest.

rip GOG

Taking a look at your list, you want big classic stuff from 90s and onwards, and not just things that were released years ago.

Legal rights are definitely an issue with stuff like the Need for Speed series or sports games, but they haven't stopped other classics from popping up on other stores (such as Age of Empires, Max Payne, Total War, etc.)

The bigger issue is that GOG is not a priority for the big companies that own those games. As a result, notable releases like Diablo are things that happen very sporadically.

Average steam user:
"steam is cool - it sells lots of games of all types and genres"

Average GOG user:
"GOG is shit - it doesn't sell old DOS games anymore"

"GOG is shit - it doesn't sell old windows 95/98 games anymore"

"GOG is shit - it doesn't sell recently released games anymore"

"GOG is shit - it only sells porn games nowadays"

"GOG is shit - it doesn't sell enough games with achievements anymore"

"GOG is shit - it doesn't sell games from AAA publishers anymore"

"GOG is shit - it's turned into a woke store and bends the knee to communist China and leftist and feminist ideologies"

"GOG is shit - it needs more multiplayer/co-op games"

"GOG is shit and sells all sorts of indie crap - it needs to have better curation"

"GOG is shit - it's lacking many indie games and needs to relax on its curation policies"

etc

etc

I personally wouldn't go that far, as in my opinion it's not GoG's fault they lack many titles that a whole swathe of users would love to see here (me included), but for me, the alternative (purchasing from Steam) would have long-term consequences for me and even the on-line games market as a whole, and would only serve to bang another nail into GoG's coffin. If we get them, Great!, if not, then so-be-it.. *shrugs*.

Nailed it.
GOG users in a nut shell. :)

Age of Empires, Zoo Tycoon (had to look it up, a classic, really?!) - Microsoft - non-DRM - yeah, that's not going anywhere.

Total War series:
SEGA are really bad at releasing here. And just really bad in general. Most of the Total War series is region locked for me in Japan even on Steam. Of course, Shogun/Shogun 2, but also Medieval 2:TW and Rome/Rome 2:TW.

The time period you are talking about suggests to me you are talking about the original Medieval: Total War/Viking Invasion - I'm not sure but I don't believe that game is available anywhere. I have it on CD but when I tried to get it working on modern hardware I had a lot of trouble - I think bad programming janked that game out of existence, which is a shame because it was a nice game with a lot of character and the board-game-style mechanics were a lot different to its predecessor Rome:TW and all the ones after.

Black and White: similar story, not available anywhere.

Other games I think are probably due to DRM policy differences.

That period is problematic because it was the peak of DRM/anti-piracy (Safedisc, Starforce, Securom etc.) and also because programming standards were still kind of in flux from the switch from DOS kernels (Win 95/98/Me) to NT kernels (XP, Vista)

edit: never mind, wrote something about derailing but apparently that is also something GOG users do :)

Can't even articulate a good way to explain how hard I laugh with this one.

You earned mt upvote of the day.

Looks like a reset of ye olde timer is in order. As already pointed out, it's more or less entirely up to the respective rights holder if a GoG (re-)release is happening or not.
GoG would sure as shit jump at the opportunity to re-release the Max Payne's, the legacy Age of Empires' or Black & White. If Rockstar, Microsoft and EA would allow it.
At least in case of Black & White it's likely also technical/compatibility issues which prevents a re-release from happening. There are ways to overcome these issues (like virtual machines) but currently are still too unwieldy and overly complicated to implement/realise. On top of that there are likely legal issues with that too.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Looking back at the past years GoG always has been working on something "big" behind the scenes, which eventually saw a re-release, like the already mentioned Diablo or Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, for instance.

Just need to be patient.

As lupineshadow mentioned, Age of Empires, Zoo Tycoon are Microsoft games and they are very GOG unfriendly. They aren't going to release the classic version all the time they are milking Denuvo-style Arxan DRM protected re-releases to death.

There is a Collectors Edition DVD-ROM of Age of Empires 1-2 though (published by Ubisoft of all people) that's DRM-Free. Install uPatch (for AoE1) and UserPatch (AoE2) and they play very well on modern systems.