good-old-games posts

One of GoG.com's biggest selling points as a PC game download service is that all of its games are supposed to be DRM free. Now the service has announced that it has pulled one of the games it recently added to GoG.com, Motor Racer 2, because of issues related to the game's previous copy protection set up.

As GoG.com states, "The problem is simple: in motocross races, players can't shift into a gear that's higher than 3rd gear, and in Superbike mode they can't shift above 4th. This makes many tracks extraordinarily difficult to win." This issue is due to the remains of the copy protection code which GoG.com tries to get rid of. GoG.com said it did not detect this issue during its pre-release testing process. GoG.com has removed the game from its site while it fixes this issue and is offering a credit for a $5.99 game for people who have already bought Moto Racer 2.

GoG.com is up to its old tricks again. Last year the DRM-free PC game download site make it look like it was shutting down forever for a few days before revealing it's new redesign and the addition of Baldur's Gate to its library. Now the site, as you can see, has been made to look like someone has hacked it and that "the police" have arrived.

Thankfully you can still purchase games on the site (just go to the Game Catalogue web page) but its clear that something major is up. The GoG.com Twitter site states, "Something's happening on GOG.com. Very official. Anyone caught violating the police line will be shot on sight." Ok.

Update: The web site is now back to normal with word now that whatever the big announcement is will be revealed on January 18.

The GoG.com DRM-free PC gaming web site is celebrating the end of 2010 a tad early as it starts its holiday sale that will extend for the next three weeks and end on January 3. The site has almost 300 of its games on sale for between 30 percent to 50 percent off its already low prices.

Not every game is on sale for that much; for example pre-orders for the upcoming RPG The Witcher 2 are not part of the holiday sale. However if you want to grab some truly classic PC games that are made to run on modern PC operating systems at rock bottom prices this GoG.com sale is hard to beat.

In 2008, game developer CD Projekt did something completely unexpected. The company launched GoG.com (Good Old Games), a PC game download service that did two things differently compared to other services. First it only provided older PC games that were made to work on modern PC operating systems. The other difference is that all of the game were provided to users without any DRM set-ups.

The service seemed to be doing well but last Sunday GoG.com seemed to be shutting down with a message on the site stating, "GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form." As most of you know by now the "shut down" was actually just a tease for a long planned relaunch of the site which happened on Thursday with the addition of Baldur's Gate to its library along with a site redesign and a number of new features.

While many users and indeed many media outlets (us included) were not happy with the way GoG.com management handled the publicity of the relaunch we still wanted to get more info about GoG.com's new look and its plans for the future. Big Download got CD Projekt's co-founder Marcin Iwinski to answer some questions on the service and its goal of becoming the number one PC game download service alternate to Steam.

As promised on Wednesday, the DRM-free PC game download service GoG.com has now relaunched after four days. As we have reported extensively, the site has not allowed gamers to download and purchase games while GoG.com participated in a ruse that made many (but not all) of GoG.com's customers believe the site was close to a total shut down.

In addition to a new web site layout and new features such as Facebook features, a way to create custom game lists and more, GoG.com has added Baldur's Gate and its expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast. The classic fantasy RPG from developer BioWare is now available for purchase for $9.99 and includes free downloadable manuals, two maps, a free soundtrack and more.

GoG.com's "shut down" stunt is over and while we and many others are not happy with the way the DRM-free PC gaming web site handled the marketing of this relaunch we are pleased that the site is still going to be around. Now GoG.com has released a set of four videos on YouTube that show off some of the new features and announcements.

As we reported earlier today the site will go live again at 8 am Eastern time on Thursday with a new game, BioWare's classic RPG Baldur's Gate (along with its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast) costing $9.99. More games from publishers Atari and Hasbro (the current owners of the Dungeons and Dragons game license) will be added in the coming weeks. The site itself will officially be coming out of its beta stage two years after it launched on Thursday with features like Facebook integration, recommendations to other gamers and even a way to create lists of games based on a theme such as Best RPGs or Best Graphics. You can check out the three other YouTube videos describing the new GoG.com after the jump:

While many believed that GoG.com's "shut down" was just a marketing stunt all along, it's clear that many of the DRM-free PC game web sites' users were upset at the possible prospect of the service closing its virtual doors. In a statement to PC Gamer, GoG.com's management state, " ... we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by the closedown of GOG.com."

However it's also clear that if given the same circumstances GoG.com would do the exact same thing again. GoG.com's statement continued with, "As a small company we don't have a huge marketing budget and this why we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz around an event as big as launching a brand new version of our website... ". It added, " Our aim at GOG is to promote the greatest DRM-free PC classics ever in a creative way and allow people to escape from the usual boring mainstream marketing. We are also gamers and this is why we played a bit with this announcement."

While we can appreciate GoG.com doing something different than the "usual boring mainstream marketing" we still feel that deceiving both the media and your customers is not the correct way to do it.

As widely predicted by the internet speculators, CD Projekt has just confirmed that the whole "shut down" of its DRM-free web site GoG.com (Good Old Games) was just a marketing stunt. In fact the service is relaunching. The web site became inaccessible last Sunday with the site saying the service was closing "due to business and technical reasons." According to an online press conference today with GoG.com reps, 98 percent of the site's code has been rewritten for the relaunch that will allow six times the amount of users and traffic compared to the old version. The game will still offer DRM-free downloads of PC games and will still not use a download client.

While we are happy that GoG.com is coming back we are not happy at all that CD Projekt made the call to deliberately deceive the media and its customers about its status. While the company certainly generated a ton of press it did so in the wrong way, in our opinion. We will update this post with any new info that comes from the online conference.

Update: The relaunch will happen on Thursday at 8 am Eastern time and will add the original Baldur's Gate and its expansion pack to the service on Thursday as well for $9.99. GoG.com execs also said during the online press conference that the ultimate goal is for GoG.com to be the "number one alternative" to the Steam download service.

It's looking more and more like this "shut down" of the DRM-free PC game web site GoG.com is simply a stunt for a relaunch of the service. Today the site posted up yet another update stating that the "official statement from GOG.com's management concerning the ongoing events" will happen on Wednesday at noon Eastern time.

There's even a short YouTube video that looks more like a teaser for a relaunch than a "farewell" message. As we mentioned earlier we emailed members of GoG.com's team at CD Projekt to ask flat out if this was in fact a marketing stunt. We still have yet to receive a response.

Sunday's surprise shut down of the GoG.com site has caused many customers of the DRM-free game download site to worry if they will be able to re-download the games they have purchased. Today the site posted up a brief update assuring its previous customers that "every user who bought any game on GOG.com will be able to download all their games with bonus materials, DRM-free and as many times as they need starting this Thursday."

The site also states that the management of GoG.com wants to "apologize (to) everyone for the whole situation and closing GOG.com." They claim that the decision was based on "business and technical reasons." The new statement added, "The official statement from GOG.com's management concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday."

However, as we mentioned in our update in our original post on GoG.com's shut down on Sunday many people on the internet are speculating that this shut down is a mere marketing stunt rather than a true issue with GoG.com's business. Big Download has emailed several members of GoG.com's parent company CD Projekt and have asked them flat out if this whole situation is a marketing stunt. Those particular inquires have not been responded to as of the writing of this post.