Good Old Games is dead

**frogbeastegg** · 09-19-2010, 17:32

And very abruptly too. One day it was business as usual complete with upcoming games, the next this appears:

Originally Posted by Good Old Games site

Dear GOG users,

We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is. We've debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form.

We're very grateful for all support we've received from all of you in the past two years. Working on GOG.com was a great adventure for all of us and an unforgettable journey to the past, through the long and wonderful history of PC gaming.

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.

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.

All the best,
GOG.com Team

If there was anything you wanted to buy from there, tough luck. There's no closing down sale or anything, the store's already disabled. I can't even get on the site to download the games I own but don't currently have installed; will have to wait for that solution, whatever it turns out to be.

When they said on their forums that they had a big surprise coming for their second anniversary no one expected this.

Damn it!

**Furunculus** · 09-19-2010, 17:49

:( this is a sad moment.

**drone** · 09-19-2010, 17:52

Interesting comment on the Twitter page:

Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy :(
1:25 PM Sep 17th via web

Sounds like legal problems.

**frogbeastegg** · 09-19-2010, 18:07

Or it could be taken to read that someone wanted them to start using DRM and they refused, and because of that someone big didn't want anything to do with the site any more. I do wish they;d say something more, it's all so vague that we're left with no real idea to what to expect.

Gah! It's dawned on me that this is the second time I've narrowly missed out on I-War 2. When it first came out I wanted to play it very badly but it was only on shop shelves for a tiny window, so when I came to get it the game was impossible to find anywhere. No internet shopping back then. It went up on GoG; I was planning to pick it up soon, along with Freespace 2 which I also missed out on back in ye day, and boom, site dead.

**Meneldil** · 09-19-2010, 19:00

That really blows. I went onto their forum yesterday and saw they were still trying to find a way to make their games Windows Seven-compatible.

What's worse, I bought a few games there that I never downloaded and was planning to get some more (Sanitarium, HoMM2, etc.)

Whatever has happened, I think closing down the website without giving a prior notice to customers is a poor move.
Edit: After thinking about it, this is nothing else than a complete **** move. They added new games to their catalogue two days ago, said they'd add more. A member of the team said something about windows 7 compatibility a few days ago, and they just shut down like this? It either have to be a joke, or a haxxorz. Anything else would be really, really disappointing.

**drone** · 09-19-2010, 19:52

... or, they were threatened out of the blue with legal action by a publisher and had no choice but to shut down abruptly. If they do open it up so you can download already-purchased games, this is the more likely case. I'm pretty curious to find out what prompted the closure.

**Martok** · 09-19-2010, 20:46

A Neoseeker report includes an interesting comment:

Update: GOG's PR man Tom Ohle has responded, saying, "As the message on the site says, this doesn't mean GOG is gone. We'll have more to share in the coming days. No need to jump to conclusions :)"

Rumors are floating about this is actually a cleverly worded (and cruel) PR stunt for announcing the site going out of beta, which was due anytime now.

**Meneldil** · 09-19-2010, 23:22

Originally Posted by drone

... or, they were threatened out of the blue with legal action by a publisher and had no choice but to shut down abruptly. If they do open it up so you can download already-purchased games, this is the more likely case. I'm pretty curious to find out what prompted the closure.

Yeah, exactly like you know, when some company suddenly decides to close down and the workers arrive in the morning only to find the gates closed and their working tools missing? It usually causes some rightful outrage. Same situation here in my opinion.

Whether it is true or a PR stunt (which seems more and more likely as new comments from people-in-the-know appear), it was a stupid move. There's no excuse really. I'm not mad, because I only have like two games from them, but still I liked what they did and thought it was a cool company. Until now that is.