Years ago I used to be an avid member of Gametap. That is, before it seemed to get a serious facelift and got rid of a lot of games I treasured. That was subscription based though and it was always online when you accessed the games and cycled through them. They had so many classic titles. But this isn't a matter of preference. I prefer GOG and to actually OWN my games, DRM free. Gametap, however, had episodes come out of certain series, such as Sam & Max between '06 and '07.

Would GOG ever release episodes or exclusive games and/or content for games?

I know that DLC has a level of controversy here on GOG. I also know that one of the few games with the newly released DLC, Omerta City of Gangsters, hasn't met peoples expectations.

What I'm considering is GOG publishing certain games, or chapters of games/series, from other developers. Whether they buy the rights or just somehow in the future (near or far) have their own studio or team under the GOG title, it would be neat to see and might bring even more diversity to an already great site.

What's great about GOG as it is:

1.) It's DRM-free, enough said there!
2.) You own your games forever and can play with your friends
3.) Many games here are nowhere else, legally, on the net.
4.) They have a great community with incentives through giveaways and gift giving, as we as suggestions
5.) Many games have further incentives from soundtracks to guides and more
6.) Games are updated to fit the most up to date plaltforms of windows and some on mac

I listed those to express my gratitude for GOG. I've been a bit GOG crazed the past few months and plan to continue that for a while to come.

The idea of GOG publishing, or even producing, some sort of game, is an idea that's just been on my mind and felt I should share it. If anyone has suggestions of how this could work, feel free to post your ideas here.

It's not something that is necessarily needed, just something that might bring a bit more to a site that works so hard to establish licenses on games (and does a good job). I haven't bought PC games anywhere else for a while now. I don't buy on any large digital platform other than GOG, which still has a relatively small collection compared to the other powerhouses. I'm always tempted to buy there since they have thousands of games to choose from, but I resist because I solely want to support GOG, even with a much more limited catalog. That's not going to change. If GOG had more games, though, that were exclusive and nowhere else, DRM-free, I can only think that people who find those exclusive games interesting would get into GOG more than they would've before. I don't regret or feel bad for limiting myself from other digital retailers. If anything it controls my spending to be in line with this site and no one else, for the time being. It also let's me relish in a large personal collection in one place :D

Great idea. :)

Well, they sort of did that with The Witcher 2. That's what brought me here in the first place.

It is nice to see games like this as new as they are, and good for the DRM free movement in general. The Witcher 3 is also going to be DRM free, according to the devs. They don't agree with DRM...if only everyone else was like that!

That said, The Witcher 2 is downloadable on multiple platforms and on Xbox 360 in digital and physical form. Games that are only on GOG are what I'm thinking of,.

I thought people here was pretty much against exclusivity...

If that's so, I might have overlooked that. I suppose open sourcing is a good thing.

How my suggestion would work then, to be in line with this, is that GOG does in fact makes games available on GOG first for a limited time, but they then let it go out, drm free, to other stores. Though that's then funding competitors, even though they still make some degree of turnaround profit.

This has already happened plenty of times, last example was System Shock 2.

yes.

i just want games to not be available on steam (because i'm a horrible person like that), but apart from that, i prefer them to be available in the most places possible.

Just because it's happened doesn't mean it can't happen more.

Feel free to elaborate on what games this could be done with, old or new.

I think it's a great thing and it's a major reason why I made this post.

My guess is Grim Fandango might eventually get this treatment, seeing it's one of the next most popular games on the wishlist. My suggestions are only wanting to strengthen GOG through the future, not to only relish what's already happened.

But that's also only regarding older titles, such as System Shock 2. My suggestion is also regarding possibly new, never released games seeing their debut on GOG, as well as old ones.

I would definitely love that too. And I think it would make a great step for GOG towards a strong role on the games market. However I fear that the prices for existing IP are just too high. EA, Activision, Sony, Steam, Microsoft... could outbid CD Projekt and GOG any day. To create new IP might be more profitable but even then GOG and CDP is too small.

But buying rights of old games would mean that they get all the profits for themselves and that these games probably never can be pulled from GOG (if they really buy all the rights). So I would guess they would love to buy but there is nobody willing to sell.

One alternative might be to set fully on Indie/Kickstarter games which are currently very popular and seem to possess a lot of creative content and are quite cheap (compared to full titles). So maybe they could invest in successful Kickstarter projects, by offering money to successful teams or by contacting teams and campaigning together with teams on Kickstarter and collect money.

EA and the other big ones will probably not get money on KS but GOG might.

If gog would be willing to pledge their willingness to sell KS projects in the funding phase maybe a lot more people will pledge and the game in question will have an easier time to meet their funding goals.
I am for sure willing to pledge more easily if I know I will get the game on gog.
Of course some projects like Project Eternity and Tides of Numenera were already known to be on gog, maybe that also played a part in their succes.

If a KS project is Steam only it is a nogo for me.

I agree with you regarding steam Kickstarters...a no go

I'd much rather support GOG

What irritates me is when a game doesn't come out and say what platform they plan to release on, some not even clear on their DRM.

Planetary Annihilation doesn't really have DRM, persay, but according to the FAQ, it does do some sort of online check when you first get the game. I was confused by this because it went against what I was hearing. Or perhaps I mis-interpreted it.

Games just need to be straight about where they go, and what their stance is on DRM. It's being honest and it shows that they know what their doing.

Project Eternity and Torment: ToN outright said where they'd be and pledged DRM free status. That's probably part of their success. And go figure, their two of the highest funded individual games on kickstarter, next to the other DRM free ones; Shadowrun Returns and Wasteland 2, as well as Shroud of the Avatar. All DRM free!

A few corrections.
1) Shadowrun Returns is a Steam title. Backers (and only backers) will have access to a DRM-Free version, downloaded from the developer's site only.
2) Shroud of the Avatar is a weird one. It's what you can call a single player MMO. You do need a server to connect and play, but your computer can be that server. Unsure if you count that as DRM or not.
3) I think Project Eternity said it would be DRM-Free on one of its updates, not really sure though. Will have to look at it to refresh my memory.

On the topic at hand, GOG's version of Unepic does have exclusive content, 2 ingame items. Also, a new game can't release exclusively on GOG, since no matter what we say, GOG doesn't have the needed popularity. Sure, a new name may bring quite a lot of people here, but indie developers have said before that Steam numbers are 80% or more of their sales, often in quite a shorter period of time. Would love to get the System Shock 2 sale numbers from Night Dive studio though.
And lastly, GOG does have quite a few exclusive games, for example most of EA's back catalogue. I don't think you can grab Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander, Ultima or Theme Hospital anywhere else.

Project Eternity is in fact DRM free. I know, I backed it. it was stated many times and it was even a stretch goal, which was was in it's early stages on Kickstarter.

I believe Shroud of the Avatar stated DRM free status as well and even quoted GOG, but I won't promise that. It's just what I think I remember reading.

I hope GOG continues to add classics that people miss.

I never said PE wouldn't be DRM-Free. I said it wasn't initially stated if it would or if it wouldn't. Update 4 proudly announced they would be offering a DRM-Free option for Windows, and that they were looking at how they could make a DRM-Free Mac option available. That was 5 days in the campaign. If you really care, I can tell you what the funding level of it was at that time.


Took a look at SotA again, mostly because I wasn't reall interested in it. This is from the FAQ on the KS page. Emphasis mine.

Biggest problem with quite a few of the KS developers is what they consider DRM. I think at least one of them was planning on using the App Store as a DRM-Free option for Mac, because he honestly thought App Store as a DRM-Free site, similar to how quite a few developers think Steam as DRM Free (and may be right at times). But when the backers ask for a DRM-Free option, Steam and the App Store are not considered DRM-Free.

I start to rant a bit, so I'll stop the post here. I too wish to see more games on GOG, but I don't want any GOG exclusive content, for the same reason I don't want XBOX exclusive content or Steam exclusive content. It prevents some people from playing said content.