How GoG.com is growing beyond a back catalog

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/21/5913763/gog-com-back-catalog-new-releases

by danso • 12 years ago

165 98 12 years ago

SixSigma• 12 years ago

It's not just nostalgia that makes me a happy Gog customer. Many of the titles I didn't completely finish, some have expansion packs I never bought, some I only have for non-existent 5.25" / 3.5" floppy drives and some have re-texturing and mods for modern systems to improve graphical resolution.

Plus many titles I never had the pocket money to buy and now they are pocket change. With the Gog digital download system I can relax about keeping backups and the like.

tempodox2• 12 years ago

I love GoG. They have one of the best online shopping experiences I have seen yet. And they are the antithesis to Steam: No nagging ads every time I start a game, no pointless “updates” to the client (just so it can nag with even more ads), no DRM. GoG knows how to win customers with goodies instead of forcing crap on them, like Steam does. Seriously, I only ever buy games on Steam if I cannot get them anywhere else. Even Apple's AppStore sucks less than Steam (and it's not easy to suck more than the AppStore).

stickmangallows• 12 years ago

Do you mean the pop-up ads when you start Steam? You can turn those off under Settings->Interface->Notify me.

tempodox2• 12 years ago

Thanks, I hadn't found that yet. Then again, I didn't look that hard, either...

Natsu2• 12 years ago

I never expected there to be a setting to turn those off so I never looked for one. Thanks!

partomniscient• 12 years ago

Except it's a setting with what one might consider 'shitty bundling tactics':

i.e. "Notify me about additions or changes to my games, new releases, and upcoming releases."

I only want the setting to apply up to the first comma.

jaredmcateer2• 12 years ago

I find it a bit disingenuous to say that they have pointless updates, every update has a change log right there on the updater to see what's changed. While the vast majority aren't features you rarely see a change go out that doesn't warrant going out.

bduerst2• 12 years ago

I think it is the frequency and method by which steam updates that is the annoying part.

Google Chrome can do silent updates, which install themselves after you reopen the application. Why can't steam do this for all their non-security updates?

pjc50• 12 years ago

The extraordinary thing about Steam UI is how it's clearly just a browser .. but a very slow one. It's as if they've embedded a copy of IE6.

wlesieutre• 12 years ago

Steam did used to be based on IE's rendering engine (Trident) [1]. It moved to WebKit with the big UI redo a few years ago, but it certainly doesn't feel like a recent version.

This seems like a problem with Valve's "No management, work on what you want to" [2] strategy. Maintaining (not to mention continually improving) a piece of software like the Steam client takes a lot of work, and it doesn't look like there aren't enough people at Valve doing it. There are new features like family sharing, big picture, and home streaming, but there's next to no progress on the slow bloated client that's constantly getting in my way.

I've bought a couple of things from GoG and I'll buy more as the catalog grows. I hope they eat Steam's lunch.

[1] http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86186...

[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24205497

pduszak• 12 years ago

And yet, it works.

samspot2• 12 years ago

Steam effortless downloads, installs, and updates my games in the background. The Gog downloader doesn't even work on my computer. I guess it depends on what is important to you.

I love both sites though :)

shmerl26• 12 years ago

The Gog downloader doesn't even work on my computer.

If you are using Linux, you can try this one: https://github.com/Sude-/lgogdownloader

shmerl26• 12 years ago

GOG doesn't focus solely on old games anymore. They sell new games as well but they still focus on good games though. And obviously they remain DRM-free and work with publishers to convince them to release their games without any DRM junk attached, which is praiseworthy.

It's good that they are attempting to compete with Steam more - we need that. But in order to differentiate, it's not enough to make the client optional - they can also open source it to improve trust. That would set them apart from Steam even more.

You can vote for it on GOG's wishlist board:

https://secure.gog.com/wishlist/site/release_the_future_gog_...

At the very least they can document the protocol / API of the client to enable community alternatives. Vote for it as well:

https://secure.gog.com/wishlist/site/document_the_protocol_a...

bryanlarsen• 12 years ago

"The author didn't mention that GOG doesn't focus solely on old games anymore."

That was the point of the article, although it took them a while to get to it. It was called out in the title of the article.

(commented instead of down-voting because I don't want to bury your other comments).

shmerl26• 12 years ago

Yes, sorry about that - I missed that part where he says that they augment GOG with new titles. That kind of took a back seat in the story. I think it's quite a major change and the one which allows them to actually compete with Steam.

I corrected the comment to reflect it.

mreiland11• 12 years ago

GoG was never a back catalog, does anyone else find it annoying how these "authors" decide they want to write about something and choose something as stupid as talking about how GoG is no longer something it never was?

seanflyon7• 12 years ago

I thought that Good Old Games primarily focused on good old games.

Jtsummers3• 12 years ago

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/10/time-to-buy-fallout-2-...

One of the earliest articles on it I could find. Updating old, out-of-print games to run under modern Windows versions and selling them was their initial goal. At some later point they began selling more and more recent games (as I recall, some months lag between them and other sources for a while) until they got to their current state of selling both classic and modern games.

shmerl26• 12 years ago

For a while, old games were their main focus. Then they changed their strategy. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com#Rebrand_to_GOG.com

mreiland11• 12 years ago

They are not, nor have they ever been, a backlog of games.

They started out as a company who charged for making older games work on newer versions of windows.

A company, not a backlog of games.

reiichiroh• 12 years ago

Sorry if this is a tangent, but for those of you that use Steam, try using this: www.enhancedsteam.com

auxbuss• 12 years ago

It's GoG's ethics that I love. They walk the talk.

I'm no gamer, but I bought The Witcher on Steam with the aim of playing it in a language I'm learning. Seemed like a solid and fun challenge. But Steam's version of The Witcher wouldn't even load on OSX, despite it being sold as such.

GoG, rather kindly, offered a download for folk experiencing this problem, providing you provided a valid key for the game. My complaint to Steam has never been answered.

See, to me, GoG add value to the customer -- even though I wasn't one at that point. They are focussing on things from a customer's POV. That's the kind of business I want to do business with.

GoG is the current wearer of the "Don't be evil" crown.

shmerl26• 12 years ago

By the way, GOG offers downloads of Witcher 1 and 2 for anyone who purchased the game elsewhere (retail, Steam, etc.) not just for those with that problem: https://secure.gog.com/witcher/backup

The company which develops the Witcher series (CD Project Red) actually owns GOG.

timje1• 12 years ago

This insight makes the line about not being a customer yet false - all purchasers of the Witcher are CD Project Red, and thus GoG, customers.

Still not evil.

cridenour• 12 years ago

Does anyone remember their "scare tactics" when they rebranded? Told everyone that they were shutting down - but launched the "new GoG.com" the next day.

NickWarner775• 12 years ago

Great idea. I have never heard of this company before but I would love to start playing my old favorite games again.

oneeyedpigeon• 12 years ago

Generally, GoG is great, they have a great user experience, sell most of the best games from my formative years, and represent brilliant value. My one complaint is the odd compatibility hole - I've been waiting for Settlers 2 to become available on the Mac for what seems like forever.

shmerl26• 12 years ago

Since it's a DosBox game, why can't you take the GOG installer for Windows, unpack it and run the game in your DosBox on OS X? Some minor .conf modifications which are needed aren't hard to figure out.

adorton• 12 years ago

Gog may not have been able to negotiate a license to distribute the game for OSX.

How GoG.com is growing beyond a back catalog

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