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GOG.com Not Really Gone

Posted by samzenpus on from the stepped-out-for-a-minute dept.

gspr writes "On Sunday, Slashdot and many others reported that DRM-free games site GOG.com was shutting down. Now the site is back, revealing that it was all a hoax. According to the site: 'Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It's true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was so we won't. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.' So it was all an advertising stunt."

6 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. The important part by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Informative

    They still won't have DRM and they still won't have a download client.

    Love it or hate it, this is one of the more successful marketing stunts of late.

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
    1. Re:The important part by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually they DO have a client, you simply don't have to use it if you don't want to. During the last sale I used it, which is an Adobe AIR based downloader app, and it is really quite nice. I was able to queue all my purchases, including manuals and extras, and have it download everything and put it where I wanted it while I worked on a customer's PC. It was averaging about 1.2Mb per second, which on my 2Mbit cable connection is damned good, and it didn't try to set itself to run at startup or any other crap.

      As for TFA and their "stunt"...are the games still x64 compatible? Are they still cheap? Are they still DRM free? if so I really don't care, as next week when I get paid from these clients whose machines I'm staring at I'll be having me a little purchase fest from GoG just in case they DO go OOB in the future. so I guess at least in my case it worked, as those titles I've been sitting on a fence about WILL be on my portadrive by this time next week. Go GoG!

      Oh, and for those just tuning in who have never bought from GoG? NO DRM, NO problems with any of their games and x64, even the old ones like Redneck Rampage, NO limits on downloads, or number of machines you own which you can install on, and NO game over $10. trust the feet, which has a nice and quickly filling virtual gameshelf there, their support, service, and most importantly games, are all great and cheap. Oh and from talking to others they run sweet in Wine and DOSBox on Linux, so what could be better? You other guys can keep your Steam, with its always wanting online crud, I'll be stopping by GoG baby, yeah!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    2. Re:The important part by Killjoy_NL · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes!

      --
      This is the sig that says NI (again)
  2. Re:Lovely. by KillaGouge · · Score: 3, Informative

    As long as you kept the files you downloaded, you can ways play the games. I think you might need to take a little time and think next time. Unlike Steam's DRM model GOG has no DRM and doesn't have to every phone home to a server.

    Why are you so angry?

    --
    GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
  3. Re:Lovely. by hedwards · · Score: 3, Informative

    The big issue there was that some people had just purchased and as a result hadn't had the chance to download and secondly, they'd promised the customers that they'd always be able to download the games. I'm not sure anybody really believed always, but I do think that most of us assumed that when or if they shut down that there'd be arrangements in place or some sort of warning to download your stuff.

    I mean even 3d Realms when they went out of business made arrangements to handle recent orders.

  4. The web page did say something was happening today by tlhIngan · · Score: 2, Informative

    All the people who said they had failed was either reading a bad summary or didn't check it out for themselves.

    Their temporary page had two things.

    First, was, they "could not continue operating like this". Now, that can mean they're going out of business, or it can mean something else. The literal translation is, "change is happening". That change could be "this site is dead", or it could be "please wait for the new and improved GoG 2.0".

    Secondly, they said "you will be able to download all your games on Wednesday". So something was happening today. If they were shutting down, it's a last-gasp download mania.

    Fact is, they didn't say "GoG.com is now closed for business, we thank all our customers for the past 2 years". It's also sort of unprofessional, because it screws everyone who bought a game just before they shut down, but haven't downloaded it yet (which is a dick move).