GOG IS GONE

[MangoMercury]

When did GOG.com get shut down??!

I'm not one to use emoticons, but...  

[wilco64256]

That's extremely odd and most unfortunate.  I bought a number of titles from them and it seems like quite a few other people did as well.  I wonder what happened there?

[MangoMercury]

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/14926-digital-pc-classics-service-good-old-games-closes/

By the looks of it, it was the whole DRM issue (I'm not too familiar on the phrase, but I believe it's something to do with multiple machine downloads or something?  Please correct me because I know I'm wrong!)...  It sucks because although I got from it what I ultimately wanted (KQI - VII...and MoE), there were still a few games I wanted to purchase down the line.

[wilco64256]

You're actually - DRM is what keeps people from being able to install a game on multiple machines.  GOG didn't use it deliberately, but it can't have hurt their profits that much - people were going there to buy things constantly at incredible prices, and their compatibility work couldn't be beat.  I'll be interested to see where things go in the next few days as it doesn't say they're totally dead and gone, so maybe they're just updating the way they do things or something.

[MangoMercury]

So, wait..  If I got a new laptop, or this one had to be reformatted...  Would I have to purchase the games again?  DRM confuses me.

I really hope they come back; it seemed like such a good little site that I only recently discovered.

[TheReturnofDMD]

That's extremely odd and most unfortunate.  I bought a number of titles from them and it seems like quite a few other people did as well.  I wonder what happened there?

Yeah, I wonder.

[kindofdoon]

Did you get hard copies of the games or just downloads?

[wilco64256]

Just downloads, there's no way they'd be able to sell hard copies at the prices they offered, and certainly not with the modifications they made to make them compatible with modern machines.

[kindofdoon]

When you bought a game on GOG, what files did you receive?

[wilco64256]

A full installation package for the entire game (or games if it was a multi-game package).  You could theoretically copy that installer to any number of computers to install the game.

[kindofdoon]

I don't know much about GOG...So you're saying they never used DRM?

[KatieHal]

Oh no! That is terrible news. Man...all the games I hadn't bought yet but wanted to! It sounds like the site may come back in some form, though, from the link Mango provided.

[wilco64256]

No they never implemented any type of DRM, which may seem like a bad thing but was actually highly praised in the gaming community in general.  The more I think about this the more I think they're just updating their site.

[kindofdoon]

It sounds like the site may come back in some form, though, from the link Mango provided.

From Wikipedia: "However, Internet forums discovered that this "shut down" came after a news item that [the owner] CD Projekt would have an announcement about the service on September 22, 2010."

Let's wait until then before pronouncing GOG dead.

[Baggins]

I bought a handful of games from them in last few months, that I havne't had time to download yet...

[kindofdoon]

In case you missed it:

"On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates."

from http://gog.com

[MangoMercury]

That's just as well, although I definitely had a few more things to pick up.

Hopefully this Kotaku article sheds some light, too?

http://kotaku.com/5642141/what-happened-to-good-old-games

[kindofdoon]

I hope it does come back, because I'm starting to get interested in classic video games.

[MusicallyInspired]

You watch. They're just finally going out of beta and are using a bad marketing ploy to garner attention.

[kindofdoon]

That would be the best possible outcome. Let's hope it happens.