Slashdot Mirror
DRM-Free Games Site GOG.com Gone
An anonymous reader writes "Just a day after adding a new game and a handful of promotions, GOG.com, a seller of classic games in a DRM-free format, has closed shop, leaving only a sparse placeholder page and a mention on Twitter that 'sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy.' The site mentions that games purchased in the past will become accessible for downloading within the week, but there is no word on how long this will continue to be possible."
The announcement on the site's front page says, in part, "This doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await."
Publishers don't get it. I purchased more games from GoG in a year than I have in the last 10 through any other channel. Specifically BECAUSE they were DRM-free. ;-/
Not because of the no DRM thing, but because all they sold was old games. Those are going to have to be budget priced, of course, and are just not as popular. They probably had trouble making much money since they didn't make a whole lot each sale (at least half, maybe more, of the price goes to the publisher) and there just weren't the numbers. this is particularity true since Impulse and Steam, the big download services, do old games too. You can find a lot of old title on them, and they add more all the time. More people will shop from them, since they already have an account.
in the age of internet and digital downloads, the middleman, publisher, is the problem. not needed anymore, yet they still introduce problems into the production to consumer sequence, right in the middle. actually, in some sectors, they totally control entire sequence.
they need to be removed.
Read radical news here
My thoughts exactly. They announce a sale on the 16th and on the 17th close down stating "they've thought long and hard about it".
Curious to see what happens next. Had quite a few more purchases planned with them, but in light of the circumstances...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
I bought the Fallout games from them, real sad that they're gone now (or at least, appear to be gone).
The value they added wasn't just removing DRM, but in also making the old games compatible with new operating systems. It's a pain in the ass for me to get some of my older games to work, and I'm more than willing to pay $5 to let someone else do it for me.
Posted 3 hours ago:
The official statement from GOG.com's management about the whole situation will be announced soon. We'll have more details about this tomorrow.
Sigh. Sure hope this isn't just a gimmick. Like many here, I still have or had quite a number of planned purchases.
This reddit thread contains more links that indicate GOG is not actually dead: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dfzhe/rip_gogcom/c0zxgih
Personally I think they are going to change their service in some way, perhaps add a devoted client (like Steam) and perhaps introduce DRM.
If you're right GOG is gone. Adding DRM negates the advantage of buying from them. They'll become just another crappy publisher of old nostalgia games. At best that'd make it Zombie GOG.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
There's no "stunt" to this. It says right in their notice that the site is ending in its "current form" and that it will eventually return. Which contrasts with Joystiq's sensationalist headline that GOG "shuts down" (also Slashdot's).
What CD Projekt actually said in the forum was that posting the notice on the current site (which IS closed and isn't just going to be reactivated) was part of a process to raise awareness of the new site that will take its place, which is pretty plain from the notice that they posted, had anyone bothered to actually read it.
Marketing yes, stunt no. This isn't Death (and Return) of Superman. They said right up front what was going to happen. Just because people glossed over the text and rushed to print a headline, well, that kind of makes the editors at Joystiq (and Slashdot) out to look like tools. Don't try to shift blame to CD Projekt for this.
Having purchased games from both GOG and Steam, I'd pick GOG over Steam any day. I'd argue that Steam made it more complicated, if only because they force you to install and use a client. And then it forces me to download the game again if I choose to uninstall it from my HD. GOG was a simple download and install, always. I never had to download the game again after uninstalling it, I could just burn it to DVD as is, or move it to another HD.
That's a blatant lie.
They offered old games that worked on modern systems without tinkering. Can't get that on Piratebay. You sure can get dubious "cracks" and viruses though!
Have never used Steam, and never will.
Know a lot of people who avoid Steam, too. DRM, product activation, and Internet-access requirement render Steam a non-starter.
It's a shame. There's many good games I would have liked to have purchased (starting with Half Life 2). Guess I'll never know what it would have been like to play that game.
Oh well, Half Life 1 is still fun. Still playing it offline regularly, and it's never seen an Internet-connected computer.
If you're right GOG is gone. Adding DRM negates the advantage of buying from them.
Indeed: adding DRM would just make them another Steam competitor... in which case, why not just buy from Steam? OK, they could have better prices, but I usually only buy Steam games when they're on sale anyway.
If it had been Steam that closed down like this, you'd be royally F'd in the A for all the games you bought. However, the GoG games still run for people that bought them (assuming you had already downloaded them.)
yeah this smells fishy. I have been buying from them for nearly a year, and have bought more games from them than I've bought in the past 3 years because they were cheap, easy to use, and DRM free. Well it looks like I'll be keeping all my GOG installers on a portable drive just in case one of my backup discs gets scratched. man this fucking sucks!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I agree, but a lot of people will choose Steam over other platforms because they've already got steam. But I'll look for whatever option has the least DRM.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Perhaps they got hit with a massive lawsuit or someone is considering buying them out?
Perhaps they will get hit by a massive lawsuit when all those people who paid for games and relied on their representations that the games would be re-downloadable in the future sue them.
I never backed mine up locally as I relied on their (seemingly outstanding) service to give me access whenever I wanted it.
Very, very poor.
Read Pynchon.
But the cool thing is, this doesn't affect their customers' ability to play games in any way.
If Steam shut down, though...
The stunt is in shutting down suddenly, without warning, and, apparently, in the middle of a sale. If this was planned, it's a stunt. They could have announced ahead of time, even just a day or a week ahead of time, that they'd be shutting down for a period before reopening. Hell, they could have announced ahead of time that they were shutting down permanently, and probably gotten some kind of fire-sale/goodbye-sale revenue.
Doing this suddenly produces shock and probably some panic from long-time customers, and that's why, if it was planned, it's a stunt.
It's wrong to do this kind of poor bloody marketing stunts. Very angry at GOG now, probably having a stroke soon.
I would expect a "big announcement" like GOG Beta Closed / GOG Release 1 Opened. Anticipated by the fact that their sale closed down at 11:59 AM on Sunday (from memory). I was a bit surprised because usually sales close down on Monday.
It wasn't racism, but it is prejudice.
He admits to never having used steam and yet declares he will never use it.
Used, dude, not seen.
We could equally ask why most have a prejudice against dying, never having "tried it?" Of course, people generally come to that conclusion because they've witnessed it and/or heard anecdotes about it. Fact is, direct experience and/or experimentation is often a bad way to form an opinion.
Or we could try heroin together, just to be sure, right? ;^)
What the GP expressed is called a "preference," as in, "I will never try sushi because I am afraid of the potential bacteria/contamination issues." A sushi fan can reassure the person of the hygienic nature of the food to no end, but the person has a reasoned aversion based on fact (uncooked food can carry food-borne illness) which is, in the view of a sushi fan, unreasonable.
Such a fan has a prejudice against facts, however, because he's conflating facts with opinion. In the GP's Steam case, "I don't like the idea of needing a network connection to acquire games," is enough. It is factual, as Steam requires it. "My catalog could be cut off arbitrarily with no remedy" passes muster, too, as it is a part of the user agreement.
These are facts.
It is your opinion that it is unreasonable to believe that these facts will come to any great losses, and you are likely to be correct, but that is not a fact, it is merely presumption.
Prejudice happens when it is a known fact that what the person believes is utterly untrue or distorted, and they don't realize it because they are unwilling to find out, or even believe accounts refuting their prejudice. I really doubt, after all these years of Steam being around, that anyone is stalking the net badmouthing Steam having never seen or understood it.
Give me a break. The GP has a preference for an alternate means of game purchase. Those options exist and he's willing to pay more for it, and that's the end of it. It isn't remotely prejudice, just because you disagree.
--
Toro
I'm not sure anyone has advocated advertising and marketing to be completely senseless and illegitimate means of promotion. Generally, people have a negative backlash for FALSE advertising, violations of user privacy and general badness. I'm fine with commercials and marketing campaigns as long as its clean good fun.
For your second point we are going back full circle here on the musicians and writers concept. I don't have an issue with someone making a good or great living at what they are doing nor using a publishing service. However, if said publishing service were to do things like fix prices or shit on everyone in the name of making a dollar I might be upset.
Oh crap, third point, games and we are back to the same theme. I don't have a problem purchasing games and I have already made a few this month. (Though mostly used because I like bargains) However, the complaint is not around game publishers, but reallly crappy drm. This one is basically a trade off and I don't really believe drm brings any benefit to the table. Name any major title or major protection mechanism and I can show you where to download a mostly functional copy. In some cases it is a fully functional title because the release is a near perfect copy. (mostly functional generally refers to the cut scenes being removed to save space). The standard argument here is that DRM brings nothing to the but woe to the honest gamer. For smaller titles I think DRM could actually bring some benefit if they are experiencing rampant piracy, but again this is a trade off with risks to the current customer base. Just keep in mind that once a title reaches a certain popularity threshold a cracked copy will be available.
These are all complex issues with various beliefs from all sides. In fact the side we haven't addressed is from those who don't really care to purchase things and yes those people do exist. I would probably be in that camp if I were not horribly lazy. In my old age I don't care to scavenge forums or troubleshoot some crappy release. It's just so much easier to pay up and enjoy my purchase.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Sure, one day in the hypothetical future Valve's servers could disappear, leaving you unable to play your games any more. This is no different from non-DRM-encumbered games you own on physical media, which could stop working at any time due to loss of or damage to the CDs.
Wrong. there is one big difference.
It['s a thing that is becoming more and more fashionable to ignore and pretend doesn't exist. It's called responsibility.
Looking after my copies of my games bought from GOG is my responsibility. I have all the tools at hand to protect against any loss of data. If one copy is lost or damaged, I have a backup copy (which I can then use to make another copy just in case I have another accident). If something happens to that data, it's my fault and my problem.
If Steam (or whatever other service) goes away or is taken away, it's someone else's fault but my problem.
couldnt agree more. The slashdot crowd whine like children about DRM but when a DRM-free site appears, they ignroe it and all get their games from torrents anyway.
Typical fucking hypocrites. No wonder we have DRM and no wonder it is here to stay.
The moral of the story there would appear to be that the cloud has its flaws, that you're reliant on a provider not going under/shutting down a service, and that if a simple "downloads always available" service can't be kept open then an "authenticate your game" service for DRM is even less likely to survive.
hmmm how could they avoid that ;-)
Experience shows: not with DRM.
At no point do they really say that GoG is gone. They mention change and that you will be able to re-download the games you have bought
You forgot this little part: "We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await."
How exactly do you misinterpret "we're closing down the service"? Does a landlord serve you an immediate eviction notice, and tell you that "sometimes next week you can stop by and get your things.", when he just wants to remodel the kitchen?