GOG.com Not Really Gone

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."

Comments

Unintended consequences

[lgftsa]

The stunt worked, they got two front page /. articles about them. Of course, the downside is that they're now on my blacklist.

Re:Unintended consequences

[h4rr4r]

Really? What boxed games say on the outside "warning includes securerom and may screw your machine"?

Let's be honest here

[Pojut]

GOG has been gaining popularity and consumer visibility, ESPECIALLY in the past few months. Unless they were hit with a huge lawsuit or financial disaster, there would be no reason for them to close permanently.

Sincerely,

A not surprised (yet very relieved!) gamer

Unprofessional

[joshuaf]

I only have 2 games from them, but this kind of weird drama does make me less likely to purchase anymore in the future. It just seemed super unprofessional compared to steam and impulse.

Re:Unprofessional

[hedwards]

Perhaps it's because I used to be in security, but that was probably the most transparent act of deceit I can recall. The page they put up implied very, very strongly that they'd be back to something analogous if not the same in short order.

Re:Unprofessional

[joshuaf]

Except I hadn't actually downloaded them yet. I mostly bought them as a show of support for a DRM free company that was bringing back old games. It was MOO 1 and 2. I just liked knowing I had them out there when I wanted them. I've also since bought the same games on steam, when they later came there. Guess where I can download them from RIGHT NOW if I wanted. This is what makes me less likely to buy from them in the future.

Re:Unprofessional

[hedwards]

As opposed to the companies that DRM the hell out of their products, refuse to give refunds if the aforementioned DRM prevents you from using it and fails to disclose the degree to which the DRM impacts the security of your computer?

Perhaps I'm missing something, but is this PR stunt really worse behavior than the competition or are you talking about not buying games from anybody?

As a loyal customer

[thetagger]

... this stunt was horrible and silly and an annoyance. I recently reinstalled my computer, and when I went to Gog.com to redownload Gabriel Knight I got that stupid "zomg we're closing down" message. It feels like something straight out the 1990s, when nobody expected any degree of seriousness from Internet companies - thanks for reminding us how WE SHOUDLN'T TRUST YOU in the future, that's great marketing.

Re:The important part

[doti]

they did not lie.

they just said they couldn't keep the site the way it was.

it was the news (including /.) that said that they were closing.

Re:The important part

[GravityStar]

Well, a download client that supports resume, hash checking and block based re-download of corrupted blocks _would_ be nice though. Especially because we are likely talking about multi-gig downloads.

It could still use plain http, and allow people to download the games using the web-browser. The extra download client would just add a bit of robustness.

Re:The important part

[TheRaven64]

They've been running for two years and this was the first you'd heard of them, in spite of the fact that they are mentioned in pretty much every Slashdot story that mentions DRM or Steam. What have they lost? Someone who had never heard of them has not heard of them. Of course, you say you're not going to buy anything from them, but at least you've heard of them so you might change your mind. Before, you definitely weren't going to buy anything from them, because you weren't even aware of their existence. Oh, and from their site, the first paragraph reads:

First of all we would like to apologize everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts!

Sounds like they realise that they upset some people. When was the last time you got an apology like that from a company that made a mistake that didn't actually harm anyone?

The funniest part...

[Quiet_Desperation]

...is the negative reactions now.

"Huff! Puff! Well, *I* won't be buying form them again after *this* treatment! Harumph!" Seriously, people, do you have any idea how you sound? Like a curmudgeonly old fool. Oh, you are SO offended! And you know *someone* out there is thinking of suing because their fragile little selves were damaged.

My reaction was "Oh, shoot, I was going to go and get Syberia next week." and then "Oh, cool, I can still get Syberia." Any reaction more serious that that is a complete failure of your perspective matrix.

As for Syberia, hey, I played the updated Monkey Island and now have an urge to go play some of the point and click puzzlers I missed. Weclome back, GOG. :-)

Re:The important part

[teh moges]

I had never heard of the site until this hoax. Now I at least know about it. I would say it would be a positive outcome (more people coming than going).

Re:Still won't use it

[shovas]

They do more than that. They verify the games work without problems, using dosbox, under XP/Vista/7. They code and do actual porting on other titles because they have more than just dos games. They remove DRM where it exists. And they've gotten some great exclusives. They're honest (obvious by their amateurish behaviour), they have integrity, they're open and willing to communicate. Give them another shot. Their claim about porting applies to the X% of games they sell that can't run under DosBox and even some that too to fix bugs.

Re:I never used GOG before...

[Anonymous Coward]

and I certainly won't start now. I'll stick with Steam, Valve doesn't have to stoop to such underhanded practices to gain popularity or even commercial viability. Never mind the fact that Steam will be around long after GOG is nothing but a footnote in gamer history.

This has got to be the most ignorant thing I've read in this thread. You do realize I'll be playing my games from GOG long after they're a "footnote in gamer history" whereas your Steam games will quit working soon after Valve goes tits-up, don't you? Playing offline will only work for so long before the Steam client demands a connection and there won't be any universal unlock forthcoming (I don't know why this myth even persists, it's ignorant in the extreme), they won't own their own assets when it happens and not a single person who could do it, supposing it's even possible, will be willing to go to prison to come through for you. GOG already came through for me, the games can be downloaded, backed up, and installed at will and only the downloading part even requires an internet connection.

Of course Valve/Steam doesn't even have to go down and out, you can lose your account and all your games on their whim. They've been nice so far but that doesn't mean it'll last forever. They're have certainly been wrongfully banned accounts in the past and the only "oops, our bad" I've heard from them involved 1000s of accounts. What happens when 5 accounts get wrongfully banned? They won't investigate and no one will care.

Enjoy Steam if you want, it may be a gilded cage but it's still a cage.