I apologize if this was posted elsewhere, but just in case it has not...

GOG director explains the distributor’s new direction, how “good old” principles still apply

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/gog-director-explains-the-distributors-new-direction-how-good-old-principles-still-apply/

Great interview, thanks for posting!

I know there are a number of people that say "HOw can it be Good OLD Games if they release newer titles?", but I'm personally quite excited about this quote: 20 'newer' titles, DRM-free? Yeah, baby! Bring it on.

Yeah, 20 'newer' titles, and the promise of continuous older titles and their core values. Everything will turn out fine.

GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE!

I was amused by the commenter in the link who couldn't understand why Steam was DRM. This is not to start a Steam-bashing session in the thread, I was just amused by the comment. Though this does show GOG might have a hard time marketing DRM-free newish games to gain new customers if some fraction of the customer pool don't even realize what DRM is - never mind caring. Even so, I hope GOG will gain new customers from this and Rambourg hit a lot of great points. I still like the idea of a sister-site with unified accounts to sell brand new games, but then they really would be competition for Steam/Origin/MS/etc .... and that could get nasty for GOG's business model. Selling 1 year and up games on GOG seems like a good way to continue to grow the user base, push DRM-free principles, and also support old games by the attraction of new customers without getting the evil eye of the big players in the market or alienating its base.

People just need to have a little faith. GOG would not do anything so crazy as to destroy their fan base. They know what they need in order to continue to be successful and it is.....us.

True, but if I may, I think I can present both sides. I think the people who are against GOG moving towards newer games tend to be actually the newer customers - like me and more recent. Comparatively, they've only just found this site and its emphasis on classic gaming and would hate to see GOG lose part of its identity so soon nor do they feel it's ready to take on the behemoth that is Steam (which from the interview the French Monk has flat-out stated they aren't planning on doing with this move). Conversely people who have been on this site for awhile, who have seen GOG grow, are ready to see GOG take DRM-free, customer-friendly gaming to the next stage - newer games. Now obviously there are older and younger site-members on both sides of the issue, but this is the trend as I see it from reading the posts on the topic.

Regardless of the longevity of the poster, both sides each have a point: GOG is special partly because of its boutique nature with its emphasis on reviving classic games. But a healthy business needs to grow and, especially as time goes by, GOG will only be able to grow so fast on offering games 4+ years old. Further, showing that DRM-free gaming works in general and not just for old games is an important step to take for the game industry - the taking of which GOG is ideal for. I don't think they'll alienate anybody really, but I understand the reticence of some people with respect to GOG offering newer games. It's very much part of GOG's identity and specialness and not just because "Old" is in its name. :)

You put it so well. My view? Let's face it GoG needs to grow. While it's a milestone, it took quite a long time to hit 6 million sales. Hopefully the ability to feel like you own a game is important to people and they will choose to buy their new titles here rather than competitors. Unfortunately, I think most big name titles will not show up here because companies are so afraid that if they don't use DRM, they will lose millions in piracy.

Interesting interview. Can't really think of what games these could be, but we'll see it soon enough I suppose.

Hi Gog,

Just wanted to check if you have any plans to host a couple of servers around the globe?

To really just allow quicker and more "close to home" downloads?

Thanks
Justin

Maybe things like the recent Origin "get banned from a forum, and your games" debacle will teach them, and slowly they are able to connect the dots. But I am sure even then there will be people who just say "So just don't post stupid things so you don't get banned from your games. Where's the actual problem? Look at me, I've never been banned from any web forum. If this is no problem to me, it can't be a problem to anyone else either.".

ATM the front page is broken.

They are already doing this.

// I should've refreshed the page before posting, duh.