Oh, COME ON.

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Scott Jennings| 30 Comments

GOG.com, the download service that specializes in ancient games old people like me like, admits that they are a bunch of liars.

First of all we’d like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by the closedown of GOG.com. 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

I’m sure all the people who were unable to download the purchases they paid for are fine with that being because Gregor in Web Design wanted to show off his new Ajax library.

The game industry is widely viewed as lacking in professionalism, ethics, and simple maturity. Events such as this don’t help.

Plus, it’s just really *dumb*. When your entire business model is getting people to send you money for virtual things, you don’t hold a big event to point out “Hey, we can cut off access to your purchases with no notice, and for really profoundly stupid reasons!”

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  • http://Website Melissa

    … you are fucking kidding me, that was a PRANK? I couldn’t download my games because they wanted to get me interested in their amazing new website, and I told all my friends “nevermind, they closed”…

    Yeah, that’s just fucking BRILLIANT.

  • http://Website Soulflame

    It’s the reason I held off on using Steam for years, the fear that someday it’d all go away.

    GoG is brilliant for underlining that. No really.

  • http://Website ethereal.wolf

    steam is pretty good about staying transparent and has earned my trust.

    gog has lost my trust.

  • http://Website pharniel

    Another example of why we can’t have nice things…

  • http://Website Mesar

    I like Steam and use it. But I’m fully aware that expecting Steam to be still around in 50 years is a rather big ask.

  • http://trollshaman.blogspot.com Klepsacovic

    There seems to be a buzz, the buzz of a swarm of hornets that do not like rocks being thrown at their nest.

  • http://Website hitnrun

    More specifically, when your business model revolves around the perception of bedrock stability and cultivating soundness and trust among customers, you don’t pull wild publicity stunts with your accessibility as the punchline.

    That’s pretty dumb. It would be like a bank doing…well, exactly what they just did.

  • http://www.twitter.com/vexingvision VexingVision

    To be fair, they stated from the very beginning that the games would remain available for everyone (with a few days interruption of service, which is honestly forgiveable).

    That said, whoever came up with this as a marketing idea deserves to be shot. And the worst thing is that they’re going to get a promotion, because it’ll work. Before, GOG was unknown but beloved. Now everyone was talking about them. Guess what happens – who needs respect if you can have more customers the other way around?

    Very disappointed by them.

  • http://Website Melissa

    One advantage of GOG over Stream: I could just file-transfer the installers for all my old purchases. With Stream’s DRM, no server means no more gaming. Even after this, I trust GOG more than Stream. Which is really more a burn on Stream than anything positive about GOG at this point…

  • http://Website ToeJob

    It won’t be around forever but I’ve used Steam since launch and have never had trouble from it.

  • Radnor

    Hasn’t Valve stated many times that, in the event they ever shut down they’ll un-DRM their games? And isn’t there already an option to play offline?

  • http://Website Wanderer

    Well, now I know about GOG.

    Unfortunately for them, I know to go elsewhere.

    I don’t think that’s what they were trying for.

  • http://www.gawaintheblind.com GTB

    EvAv ragequit gog when they found out.

  • http://Website SomeLady

    At first I was mad, but now I’m relieved. I really did like their service and used it often. Steam isn’t as comprehensive and doesn’t get the games to work for me like GoG did. If there was elsewhere to go for many of these titles, I’m not so sure I would be as understanding.

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/ramsay Morgan Ramsay

    There are more sophisticated and professional ways of revealing a new website. In 2007, Borders maintained its current website while allowing customers to preview its new website at a beta link. Doing so actually got people talking about the new website, what they liked, and what they wanted to see. GOG could have solicited some great feedback and had people spreading the word about the new website in a very organic and positive way; instead, they spoiled an opportunity to learn more about their customers, frustrated them, played a prank on the press, and damaged their credibility.

  • http://Website Ironwood

    Clowns.

  • http://Website yunk

    made no sense to announce it in a typical plain corporate way

    that about says it all right there. “those darn corporations! We’re not a corporation!” actually yes you are.

  • http://Website Fred Bloggs


    Melissa:

    One advantage of GOG over Stream: I could just file-transfer the installers for all my old purchases. With Stream’s DRM, no server means no more gaming. Even after this, I trust GOG more than Stream. Which is really more a burn on Stream than anything positive about GOG at this point…

    Errr, no. I had no internet last week after moving house but I was still able to play my Steam games offline albeit with an initial coupe of minute wait while the Steam client tried it’s damndest to communicate with home. However once it finally gave up a nice shiny “Play offline” button was there for me to escape from the hells of going through far FAR too many boxes of “junk” collected over the last 15 years.

  • http://Website Fred Bloggs


    Fred Bloggs:


    Melissa:

    One advantage of GOG over Stream: I could just file-transfer the installers for all my old purchases. With Stream’s DRM, no server means no more gaming. Even after this, I trust GOG more than Stream. Which is really more a burn on Stream than anything positive about GOG at this point…

    Errr, no. I had no internet last week after moving house but I was still able to play my Steam games offline albeit with an initial couple of minute wait while the Steam client tried it’s damndest to communicate with home. However once it finally gave up a nice shiny “Play offline” button was there for me to escape from the hells of going through far FAR too many boxes of “junk” collected over the last 15 years.

  • http://Website -p-

    This is the reason I never buy from businesses like that. Imagine the company closes down one day, *poof* there go all your games.

    Not to mention the folks with those online versions are usually the ones crying the loudest because of patch issues.

  • http://Website Aufero

    I’m not sure actively driving away customers can be described as “marketing.”

  • http://www.whysohostile.com Cymbaline


    Radnor:

    Hasn’t Valve stated many times that, in the event they ever shut down they’ll un-DRM their games? And isn’t there already an option to play offline?

    They have, but it’s a meaningless statement whose only purpose is publicity. There may be legal blocks to un-DRMing there games, depending on the situation, and there are plenty of technical blocks to un-DRMing (you still have a bunch of encrypted files on that CD, you know).

  • http://wowpanda.blogspot.com/ wowpanda

    why are you guys so mad? The games you bought from them do not require their website to be functional.

    And now I know GOG.com, and thanks for that nice kitty.

  • http://Website Radnor


    wowpanda:

    why are you guys so mad? The games you bought from them do not require their website to be functional.

    It does if you hadn’t yet downloaded the game you purchased.

  • http://Website Fnord

    I wonder. Yeah, it’s unprofessional, and a dick move. I’m not sure burning their goodwill like that was a wise move.

    But as for lack of trust? One of the selling points of GOG is the lack of content control after purchase. As long as you have the game on your hard drive, it doesn’t matter if GOG goes belly-up, etc. The same is not exactly true for Steam. Highlighting the temporary nature of these services may be a plus for them, since they don’t rely on trust as much as their competitors.

    On the other hand, goodwill is probably their best weapon against piracy, and pirates may be more significant competition than Steam.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com/ geldonyetich

    Sometimes, it’s really not necessary to tell people to vote with their wallets: just try and stop them. That’s about what’s going to happen to GOG.com here, but they’ll survive.

  • http://Website Joe

    Are there any other sites with similar offerings, DRM-free?

  • http://Website Saben

    Gamers Gate have a pretty big offering, and it is DRM free. Biggest drawback is that it don’t have a normal executable, but you can back it all up after download (it asks if it should remove install files, as for actual guides on how to save to disk, google). GG is owned by Paradox, makers of Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron series, aswell as dabling in licenses (such as Conan). Anyway, they don’t look like they are going anywhere and keep getting new deals with more companies.

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  • http://Website jm

    GG is definitively NOT DRM free. Most of their games use Securom with an online activation.