A dreadful idea. You would need the approval of the owners of the IP franchise and of the creator. This means that you have to approach two parties as opposed to one. The latter you are unlikely to get because he will most likely get fuck all out of the deal, if you can even find him.

I would like to point out that Shannara would be really great, as would several other of the Legend Entertainment games. Death Gate, etc. but that's besides the point, because as you stated there is a cost-benefit consideration. It does become impractical to spend the time and money on more and more niche games or obscure games that won't necessarily bring in broad sales. Conversely, spending the effort on emulating an entire platform (for instance) would open up a large pool of games which based on the initial level of effort required could have the potential for a positive cost-benefit factor. I get the logistical and financial argument for or against any idea. I just want to hear the ideas.

As one of the (lesser) researchers in this thread, I can attest to how hard it is to trace the chain of ownership on old games. To date I have only brought two owners to GOG who want to bring back their old works. Even in cases where they are willing and able, GOG may decide that the games are not a good fit, or that the market for the title doesn't justify the work involved to getting the game to run smoothly on modern systems.

So you have to be aware that there is a multi-stage winnowing process. There may thousands of good old games, but then filter the ones you find the owner on, then filter the ones were the owner is actually interested in selling on GOG, and then filter again on the ones GOG is willing to sell. Given all those factors, I think they're doing a pretty good job of bringing old games to us.

1. Complain about GOG not releasing any more classic games
2. ???
3. Profit

So it seems to me, at least.

Actually, I'd love to play or at least try out some of the most praised games from platforms I have hardly any experience, like Dreamcast (I know there are PC ports of DC games, in fact I own Typing of the Dead PC), GameCube, N64, even a couple of games from Atari Jaguar etc. I'm open to them even if they don't have nostalgic value to me personally.

With e.g. Amiga games (with which I have a history, from the A500 times), it is a bit different. Frankly, I think most Amiga games were overrated. There were true gems there too, but thinking how much praise IMHO stupid games like Shadow of the Beast, Magic Pockets and GODS got tells me too much. So even though Amiga has nostalgic value to me, I don't wish to see most of them anymore. I already know why I left Amiga, and afterwards felt like PC gaming was a breath of fresh air.

There's also the question, how much money people are ready to pay for such old quasi-classics. We already see the complaints, how can some old DOS game cost $6 on GOG. Will GOG make enough money by selling some very old Amiga or Sega Genesis games for $0.50 a piece?

Never denied that. Just stated that we are at somewhat of a ceiling.

Never denied that. Just stated that we are at somewhat of a ceiling.

If by specific sub-set you mean every genre then yeah I guess my interests are limited... LOL. In all seriousness I love all types of games. I certainly could craft a 100 must play list as well (or more) based on the current GOG catalog.

Well that is certainly a personal preference on your part and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. I for one, think that it would be a great idea and the potential triple or quadruple pool of available games that become opened up would make for a very happy dance.

That's valid. I can't deny that the cost effectiveness is a very likely losing scenario. Just an idea.

It's not really a matter of like or dislike. I was simply pointing out that a lot of the AAA classic games are either A) already on GOG or B) likely never will be (IE Blizzard Games). So... Aside from indie games, and/or new games, and/or the A or AA older game releases, what are other avenues for GOG to explore?

Not really since the majority of them aren't really good...there are a few notable exceptions though but it seems that they didn't only loose the O (old) but also the G. They should start to consider naming the site G(ames).com


Edit: doesn't really matter to me really as long as they occasionaly release a classic that i can't get anywhere else: I 'm happy (even though it seems to happens less and less, but that's to be expected. What does matter a bit more is their love for indies and they seem to think all of them are amazing and a lot of them are overrated crap...

Couldn't agree more. The chances aren't even slim to none, they are literally zero of GOG going this route. That wasn't the point. Although I would love to hear someone voice a way that it could happen if at all possible. That is the point of the thread. And the point for any idea that gets pitched on here.

A Blue pinned thread where GOG answers the most common questions would cutdown on these posts a lot I think. It would be open for everyone to post in and a Blue would only have to post the first "FAQ" post and then only answer questions in the thread if they felt it was needed. So I'm not talking about a "Ask a Blue a question thread". :P

They absolutely are doing a great job, and I for one appreciate any efforts that you and others have contributed to that cause. Having identified how arduous that process can be, what are other potential revenue streams for GOG? Cost-effective or not can be debated later.
I didn't complain about them not releasing older games because I understand the profit arguments. Hence why I asked what other ideas there might be.

It is possible, it is just not feasible. The fact of the matter is that not even the owners of the underlying game can sell mods created by someone else and it is just not GOG's job to work as an intermediary to sort out the position between those two parties.

While GOG cannot actually sell these mods, it agree that it could do more mod spotlights, such as these ones:
http://www.gog.com/news/enhance_the_gameplay_in_your_edition_of_baldurs_gate_from_gogcom
http://www.gog.com/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide

Sadly it seems that it has also inspired publishers to take care of it themselves and release the stuff on Steam (not to mention the cases where a Steam release would follow the GOG release making it almost appear as if the publishers first paid GOG to do the dirty work and would then use it for a Steam release). I get it that Steam is more profitable but heck, they could at least *also* provide GOG versions at all times, especially considering that some classic releases on Steam (like Quake 1 & 2 and especially the LucasArts games) are completely sub par and GOG would have done a much much better job at their digital releases than whoever did it for those publishers.

The issue with console emulation is that in the vast majority of cases you would need a third party to approve the use of the console code and they aren't going to do that. It's kind of a pointless conversation. Also I think the fact Sega have sold emulated games on PC for years and GOG isn't one of the stores doing so says a lot. They likely don't want to alter their PC paradigm, or see it as not worth the effort to restructure their pricing.

I'm not sure why it's a doom and gloom story for them to keep getting classics as they can and fill in the gaps with other DRM free games. They can't force EA and the rest to sign for more games, they can only try.

In the end I really care about is getting to post that clip from "The Warriors". :P

Well we are arguing the logistic now of that particular subject, BUT yes and no. The benefit to emulating an entire platform or console is that you essentially do the work once. You create the base emulator (IE. Dosbox) or license the emulator (IE. Dosbox) and then you have a rather large pool of games that can benefit from that initial effort.

Now I'm no programmer so maybe its never that simple and of course you'll have to reach out to all of the respective copyright owners if you can find them, but in theory I don't see why it can't be a very profitable revenue stream. I'm not sure if $0.50 a piece would be viable, but I'm sure there is a reasonable price point somewhere that can be found.

I do believe that GOG may be at the point where emulating SEGA or NES or Commodore or Whatever could be more profitable than the majority of the remaining A or AA or not very good old DOS/Windows games still floating out there. They've tapped the AAA classic PC game market pretty hard, so maybe porting AAA games is worth the effort.