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."
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 so, I will be angry at the lack of transparency; the whole thing smells like a publicity stunt. If this is the case, the game I bought from them last week will be the last.
He's not the only one buying those games.
Big fan of GOG, I love the fact that I can run Masters of Magic, Moo 1 and 2, and redneck rampage now.
That said, I dislike your post as it's obviously typed by a brat.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Howdy cow.. you do not enter slashdot a lot uh?
GoodOldGames has been *the posterchild* of "good example" for gaming distribution each time a story of DRM-something apears in slashdot!
Maybe what happened is just that they were not profitable... because you know... people copied the games instead of buying them .. hmmm how could they avoid that ;-)
yeah yeah i know, mod down -1 sad reality and all that..
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Like others have already said, this is most likely a marketing stunt for getting out of beta. Yes, they have been in beta for the last 2 years and like the message in the site says, "we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form". 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. They also had a promo running and this "announcement" happened on Sunday, which would be highly unlikely if this was a real site closing situation. A real closing announcement wouldn't come suddenly out of the blue without any previous indications of internal or external problems that caused it, nor would they do it on Sunday when most of the workers (and boss staff) are not working.