Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

GOG.com

GOG sp. z o.o.
GOG.com homepage on 14 November 2024
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Digital distribution
Available inEnglish, German, French, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese
Founded2008; 16 years ago (2008)
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerCD Projekt
Managing directorMaciej Gołębiewski
URLwww.gog.com
AdvertisingNo
RegistrationRequired
Launched2008; 16 years ago (2008)
Current statusActive
Native client(s) onMicrosoft Windows, macOS
Written inPHP, C++
Logo from 2008 to 2014

GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland.[1][2] GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through its digital platform for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.[3][4]

History

Launch of Good Old Games

During communist government rule of Poland (the Polish People's Republic), copyright laws went largely unenforced, and copyright infringement was rampant across electronic media. Following the change of government, consumer perception of copyright in Poland remained largely the same, making it difficult for legitimate sellers of electronic media; pirated and bootlegged versions were often sold in open markets right next to boxed copies of legitimate items, but for a fraction of the cost.[5]

CD Projekt was founded by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński in 1994 for the purpose of trying to bring legitimate sales of foreign game titles into Poland, knowing they would have no easy way to compete against pirated copies. They would obtain import rights from foreign publishers, and where possible, provide in-game localization for text and voice lines, typically through reverse engineering to decompile the game's code. They would then package the game with localized instruction manuals and other physical goodies, hoping that the added features would draw buyers away from pirated copies.[6][7] Their first major success was with Baldur's Gate (1998) with which they had 18,000 units sold on its first day of release in Poland.[7] Due to this success, Interplay, the publisher of Baldur's Gate, asked CD Projekt if they could do a similar treatment to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a console title released in 2001. As their past work had been strictly on personal computers, the company accepted to try to port it, but the project fell through before it was completed. However, as a result, CD Projekt realized they had the ability to make their own games, and moved into games development. This eventually proved fruitful, as it ultimately granted the company the rights to The Witcher video game series. The company's interest in game distribution has declined since then.[7]

Digital distribution grew in the 2000s, along with the use of DRM to control access to games, which raised some resentment with players. CD Projekt saw potential to look back at their distribution days to offer DRM-free versions of classic games through digital distribution, using their past experience in reverse engineering to make the games work on modern platforms and provide a wide array of localization options. In this manner, they would have a reason to draw players to buy their product instead of simply downloading it for free from pirate game websites and services.[6] They founded a new subsidiary, Good Old Games, to serve this purpose in early 2008.[7][8] Their first challenge was to find a publisher that would be willing to work with them; they spoke to several who were generally unaware of CD Projekt; their first big break was from Interplay, who knew of the company's past work, and allowed them to offer their games on the service.[6] After some time, Good Old Games was approached by Ubisoft, who were interested in selling their older titles through the service as well.[6] Once Ubisoft was signed, it became easier for Good Old Games to convince other publishers to allow them to offer older titles on the service.[6]

Marketing stunt and relaunch

From 19 to 22 September 2010, the GOG.com website was disabled, leaving behind messages on the web site and their Twitter accounts that the site had been closed.[9] A spokesman for Good Old Games reiterated that the site was not being shut down, and confirmed news would be forthcoming about changes to the service.[10] A clarification posted on the site on 20 September 2010 said they had to shut down the site temporarily "due to business and technical reasons", with industry journalists believing the shutdown may be related to the nature of DRM-free strategy, based on Twitter messages from the company.[11] On 22 September 2010, GOG.com revealed that this shutdown was a marketing hoax as part of the site coming out of beta.[12][13] The site's management, aware of the reactions to the fake closure, stated: "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 is 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 and even more important, bringing back Baldur's Gate to life!"[12]

The site returned on 23 September 2010, with an improved storefront and additional benefits, as outlined during a webcast presentation.[14] During the presentation, GOG.com's co-founder Marcin Iwiński and managing director Guillaume Rambourg had dressed as monks to atone for their sins.[15] The relaunch of the site was considered by Rambourg to have been successful, having brought new customers that were previously unaware of GOG.com.[16] As promised after its relaunch, GOG.com was able to offer several Black Isle Studios games such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale which have previously been unreleased through any download service due to legal issues about the ownership of Dungeons & Dragons-related games between Atari, Hasbro, and other companies.[17][18]

On 27 March 2012, Good Old Games announced that it was branching out to feature "AAA" and independent titles in addition to older games. The site was rebranded to GOG.com.[19]

OS X and Linux support

In October 2012, GOG.com was announced to be bringing DRM-free games to OS X. This included the previously Steam exclusive (OS X version) The Witcher and The Witcher 2, both made by CD Projekt Red. GOG.com gathered user feedback in a community wishlist, and one of the most demanded feature requests was support for native Linux games, which gathered close to 15,000 votes before it was marked as "in progress".[20] Originally GOG.com representatives said, that there are technical and operational issues which make it harder than it seems,[21] however it's something they would love to do, and they have been considering.[22] On 18 March 2014, GOG.com officially announced that they would be adding support for Linux, initially targeting Ubuntu and Linux Mint in the fall of 2014.[23] On 25 July 2014, Linux support was released early, and 50 games were released compatible with the operating system.[24] Several of the launch titles included games that were newly compatible with Linux, while most of the games already supported downloads made for the operating system on other distribution platforms.[citation needed]

Expansion to DRM-free video

On 27 August 2014 GOG.com announced the launch of the new addition to their service – distribution of DRM-free films.[25] GOG.com offers DRM-free downloading in mp4 format and streaming of video in standard and DRM-free HTML fashion which doesn't bind users to any specific platforms or devices. Movies are made available in Full HD 1080p, 720p and 576p for limited bandwidth or download quotas; however, a few titles do not have the Full HD 1080p format available. GOG.com started by adding 21 documentaries about Internet culture and gaming. They also have plans for adding fiction films and series; according to GOG.com's managing director Guillaume Rambourg, they were in talks with many major studios. While studios' representatives liked the idea, they also were reluctant to let go of their current DRM approach until some other major studio would make the first step. Still GOG.com plan to work on overcoming the initial reluctance and moving DRM-free video forward.[26]

Policies

On 9 December 2013, GOG.com introduced a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days if customers face unresolvable technical problems with a bought game.[27][28] On 26 February 2020, GOG extended this policy to offer a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if it was downloaded, launched, and played.[29]

Beginning 2 April 2015, GOG.com began to offer DRM-free downloads to holders of game keys from boxed copies of select games whose DRM validation systems no longer operate;[30] examples are the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and the Master of Orion series.[31] Over $1,700,000 of retail game purchases had been redeemed through this system by November 2017.[32]

FCK DRM Initiative

In August 2018, GOG created an anti-digital rights management program called "FCK DRM".[33] The homepage of the initiative offers links to the websites of Defective by Design, the EFF, Bandcamp, itch.io, Wikisource, Project Gutenberg and other projects that promote free culture.[34]

Layoffs and end of the Fair Price Package

In February 2019, GOG announced layoffs and the end of its Fair Price Package program.[35][36] When a game was purchased in a region with higher prices than most others, this program would provide the purchaser with store credit equal to the difference in price.[37]

Some insider sources in GOG told Kotaku that GOG was "dangerously close to being in the red" and that the market's move toward higher developer revenue shares would affect the company's profitability.[38]

Partnerships with cloud streaming services

On 19 November 2020, Nvidia and GOG announced a collaboration that allows GOG.com users to launch Cyberpunk 2077 through the cloud gaming service GeForce Now. Both companies announced they also expect to support The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the future and that they "have more news coming soon".[39]

On 18 March 2024, GOG announced a partnership with Amazon to integrate their large library of games directly into the cloud gaming service, Amazon Luna.[40] Then on June 19th, the first wave of GOG games were integrated into the streaming platform, including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Stardew Valley, and Hollow Knight, with more games to come later on. According to GOG, users will need an active Prime or Luna+ subscription to access their library through the service, but will not need to repurchase their games through Luna to play them. Additionally, supported games purchased through Luna will be automatically added to the user's GOG library.[41]

GOG Preservation Program

On 13 November 2024, GOG launched the GOG Preservation Program, an initiative aimed at ensuring the continued availability and compatibility of classic video games on modern and future systems. The program, introduced to coincide with GOG's 16th anniversary, initially launched with over 100 titles.[42][43] The GOG Preservation Program formalizes GOG's past efforts to restore and update classic games. In previous years, the company had already worked on several titles (such as Alpha Protocol, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and the original Resident Evil trilogy), porting them to PC and addressing various technical issues.[44][45] Soon after the launch of the Preservation Program Blizzard requested the removal of Warcraft 1+2, two games listed under the preservation program. This decision resulted in user backlash targeted at Blizzard from GOG customers, generally believing the decision went against the goals of the Preservation Program.[46]

Approach

GOG.com works to offer older games as well as new releases to users, with the product lacking any type of digital rights management to give consumers the ability to install the game anywhere and as many times as they want.

Prior to any development work to bring an older game for use on modern computers, legal experts within GOG.com need to track down all ownership rights to games and make sure that all necessary parties agree to their redistribution. This can be difficult for many games of the late 1990s and early 2000s, where very few publishers and developers kept digital records of their legal documentation, and there were large numbers of acquisitions and dissolutions that make tracking down rights difficult and take years to complete. One difficult case was acquiring the rights for the Strategic Simulations "Gold Box" series games, due to the number of acquisitions that Strategic Simulations went through since the 1990s.[6] GOG.com offers users a means to request back-catalog games they would like to see, and the company uses this list to identify games that may require more extensive licensing research. Some of this work has been done in coordination with Nightdive Studios, who were able to find and acquire the rights to System Shock 2, one of the most requested games at GOG.com for years, and have since found and relicensed other older games thought lost to licensing issues.[47]

In order to ensure compatibility with newer versions of operating systems and current PC hardware, games are pre-patched and restored by GOG.com. Whenever possible, GOG.com attempts to acquire the game's original source code, which can prove as difficult as determining the legal rights to games.[6] From this, they can work to make the game compatible with modern and future hardware, directly apply compatibility fixes, and sometimes incorporate well-established community-made patches from a game's fan-community.[48] They also seek external help with some of the code issues, approaching developers that may have previously worked on the title. They may also need to reverse engineer the game's code if it is not available.[6] In cases where it is impossible to recode the game, they will instead package the game with open-source emulation or compatibility software, such as ScummVM and DOSBox.[49]

For newer titles, particularly for indie games, GOG.com offers the ability to publish their games on the site starting 2013. GOG.com offers indie developers a typical 70/30 split on revenue (meaning GOG.com takes 30% of the sale), as well as an option for an upfront payment to the developer, with GOG.com then taking 40% of the sales until the upfront payment has been covered, reverting the cost back to 30%. Such games are still distributed DRM-free.[50]

Publishing agreements

On 26 March 2009, GOG.com announced it had signed a deal with Ubisoft to publish games from their back catalogue;[51] this was the first deal with a major publisher to offer DRM-free downloads. The deal to publish through GOG.com also included games that were not available through any other online distribution channel.

On 5 September 2014, GOG.com started to sell Amiga games from Cinemaware's catalogue, starting with Defender of the Crown.[52] This was technically made possible through Cinemaware's own written emulator called "Rocklobster".[53]

On 28 October 2014, GOG.com was able to secure another major publisher as a DRM-free partner, Disney Interactive / LucasArts. With this new partnership, GOG.com began to re-release several often-requested game titles from LucasArts,[54][55] starting with six titles (Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic).[56] On 5 May 2015, GOG.com released Pacific General and Fantasy General and named itself, GOG Ltd, as the publisher.[57] The company revealed that it had acquired the copyright to these titles and that it intends to acquire more in the future.[58]

On 26 August 2015, Bethesda Softworks joined GOG.com with classic titles as id Software's Doom and Quake, Fallout (which had been sold on GOG by Interplay before the rights changed hands), and also some classic Elder Scrolls titles.[59]

In March 2019, Blizzard Entertainment joined GOG.com with classic titles Diablo,[60] Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition,[61] with Diablo: Hellfire joining later on 5 June 2019.[62]

On 25 September 2020, GOG.com announced the comeback of three Metal Gear titles (Metal Gear, Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance) as well as the Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra from Konami.[63]

On 8 September 2021, GOG brought 6 classic Star Trek titles back and updated them to work on modern operating systems.[64]

According to the Management Board report on the activities of the CD Projekt Group in 1H 2021, the GOG.com catalog of products as of 1 September 2021 numbers over 5200 items.[65] However, the business expansion didn't bring enough revenues to cover the rising costs - between January 2021 and September 2021, GOG lost $1.14 million.[66] Due to poor financial performance GOG.com management announced the plan to scale down, focusing on "a handpicked selection of games" and moving staff to other projects within CD Projekt.[67]

Features

The offered digital goods (video games and movies) can be purchased and downloaded online and they are distributed without digital rights management.[68] The prices of products typically range from about $5 to $10 for older games, along with special offers in sales held several times a week. Some newer titles have a higher price. GOG.com's digital products can also be given to other persons via redeemable gift certificates.[69]

The user does not have to install special client software to download or run the games,[70] although a download manager, which is due to be phased out,[71] and the GOG Galaxy client, which is currently in beta, are available. After downloading, the customer is free to use the software for any personal use like installing on multiple devices,[72] archiving on any personal storage media for unlimited time, modding and patching; with the restriction that reselling and sharing is not permitted.[73] The software installers are technically independent of the customer's GOG.com account, although still subject to GOG.com's EULA, where a "licensed, not sold" formulation is used.[73] The "licensed, not sold" model frequently raises questions of ownership of digital goods.[74] In the European Union, the European Court of Justice held that a copyright holder cannot oppose the resale of a digitally sold software, in accordance with the rule of copyright exhaustion on first sale as ownership is transferred, and questions therefore the "licensed, not sold" EULA.[75][76][77][78][79][80]

Along with the games, customers are also able to download numerous extra materials relating to the game they purchased. Often these extras include the game's soundtrack (partly as FLAC[81]), wallpapers, avatars, and manuals. GOG.com also offers full customer support for all purchases and a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days.[27]

Promotions are organized regularly. The style of these promotions varies from a discount for products that are bought in bundles, to thematic competitions like riddles, "guess a game from a picture" contests or "best time on a specific level". Also, GOG.com gives away promotion codes for a game with review contests.

GOG Galaxy

In the CD Projekt Red company update in June 2014, GOG.com announced that it would be bringing a Steam-like client, GOG Galaxy, to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. The client is designed as a storefront, software delivery, and social network client, allowing players to buy and play games from GOG.com and share them with friends. GOG Galaxy also includes an original multiplayer API, allowing developers to include the same kind of multiplayer functionality in GOG.com versions of games as on Steam. The client is optional and retains the DRM-free objective of the GOG.com website.[82] On 15 October 2014 the open multiplayer beta of the GOG Galaxy client was started, accompanied by the giveaway of Alien vs Predator.[83] In July 2015 the GOG Galaxy beta client was reviewed favorably by the PC Gamer magazine, especially noting the focus on user respect in comparison to Steam.[84] On 22 March 2017, the client added in cloud saves for 29 games from its catalog.[85] GOG Galaxy is currently available for Microsoft Windows and macOS, with a Linux version formerly marked as planned on the Galaxy subpage[86] but stated to not be a priority.[87] As of the Galaxy 2.0 revamp of the subpage, any mention of future Linux support has been removed from the FAQ.[88]

In May 2019, GOG announced plans for GOG Galaxy 2.0, which it aims to be a unified game launcher not only for GOG titles, but from other services such as Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic Games Store, and including console systems through Xbox and PlayStation networks. It has an open API, so users can also create additional plug-ins for it. At E3 2019, GOG affirmed that Microsoft was an official partner, which will allow GOG Galaxy 2.0 to have strong incorporation with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass titles. The new client entered a closed beta period in June 2019,[89][90] and open beta in December 2019.[91]

On 20 July 2020, GOG announced official integration with the Epic Games Store for GOG Galaxy 2.0.[92]

GOG Connect

Revealed in June 2016, GOG Connect enables users with both GOG.com and Steam accounts to claim certain games they already own on Steam as part of their GOG.com library, allowing them to download the DRM-free version and other bonus items for that game offered by GOG.com. Not all such games are part of this offer, as it requires GOG.com to work with the game publishers to enable this. Further, the time to claim such games will be limited, though once a user has claimed their game on GOG.com, it otherwise remains in their library indefinitely.[93] GOG discontinued GOG Connect in January 2023 as the service had been effectively inactive for several years with no new titles offered for connection.[94]

Market share

As GOG.com does not typically release absolute game selling numbers, market share considerations of GOG.com among the digital distributors are a challenge. But, sometimes an individual game developer releases their internal statistics about the selling performance on different game distribution channels for their specific game.

In an article dated 11 November 2011, PC Gamer reported statistics for online sales of The Witcher 2.[95] According to PC Gamer: Direct2Drive, Impulse and GamersGate's combined sales were a total of 10,000 (4%),[95] GOG.com sold 40,000 copies (16%),[95] while Steam sold in the same time period 200,000 copies (80%).[95]

On 20 February 2013, Defender's Quest developer Lars Doucet revealed the first three months of revenue following his game's release across 6 different digital distribution platforms, including 4 major digital game distributors and 2 methods of purchasing and downloading the game directly from the developer. The results showed that GOG.com generated 8.5% of the revenue – second only to Steam's 58.6% among the digital distribution platforms used. Doucet noted that "for the major [digital game distributors], GOG's star is clearly rising. Even under direct competition, GOG generated 14.5 percent as much revenue as Steam. [...] Steam enjoys a captive market of ardent loyalists, but GOG is swiftly becoming an attractive alternative and gaining loyalists of its own, especially in the anti-DRM crowd."[96]

At the beginning of 2021, it was announced, that GOG.com was responsible for around 10% of the total PC sales of Cyberpunk 2077. In terms of pre-orders GOG.com accounted for one-third of early PC pre-orders.[97]

Controversy

Issues over release of Devotion

Devotion from the Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games had previously been removed from digital storefronts in early 2019 after it was found the game included content critical of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and faced numerous complaints from Chinese gamers. Red Candle Games apologized and stated they would remove the content, but had not been able to bring the game back.[98] In December, Red Candle and GOG had announced that GOG would offer Devotion later that month, but within a few hours of the announcement, GOG reversed its decision, stating that they reconsidered this "after receiving many messages from gamers". The move was met with criticism and accusations of censorship.[99][100][101]

Hitman (2016) release

On 17 September 2021, Game of the Year edition of Hitman was released on the storefront, which was met with a big backlash from store's users, as the game, while could be played offline, still required an online connection to have most of its content, e.g. rankings, unlocked, even though the game's page stated that no activation or online connection was required. GOG later issued a statement saying that they "will not tolerate review-bombing and will be removing posts that do not follow our review-guidelines", which was also met with a negative feedback.[102] As a result, the game had a rating of 1.4 stars out of 5 possible, making it the lowest rated game in GOG and the lowest rated entry in the series. On 8 October, the game was removed, followed by the announcement from staff team, saying that they "shouldn't have released it in its current form".[103][104]

References

  1. ^ "Company-reorganization". GOG.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Shape your career with GOG.com". GOG.com. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  3. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (24 March 2012). "GoG.com to become "bigger, fresher, newer" on March 27". VG24/7. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  4. ^ Vilches, Jose (19 October 2012). "Good Old Games brings all-time classics to the Mac". TechSpot. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  5. ^ Kidwell, Emma (23 July 2018). "How piracy led to GOG encouraging DRM free releases". Gamasutra. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future. Noclip. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ a b c d Purchese, Robert (17 May 2015). "Seeing Red: The story of CD Projekt". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  8. ^ Makuch, Eddie (8 September 2014). "GOG Celebrates Six Years of Advancing the "DRM-Free Movement"". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  9. ^ Good, Owen (19 September 2010). "What's Happening With Good Old Games?". Kotaku. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  10. ^ Pereira, Chris (20 September 2010). "Good Old Games Undergoing Changes But Not Shutting Down". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  11. ^ Graft, Kris (20 September 2010). "Reboot For DRM-Free PC Game Download Service GOG.com?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  12. ^ a b Smith, Graham (22 September 2010). "GOG hoax: "we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz"". PC Gamer. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  13. ^ Martin, Joe (22 September 2010). "GOG relaunches, admits closure was a hoax". bitgamer.net.
  14. ^ Walker, John (22 September 2010). "Good Old Games Gets New, Relaunches". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  15. ^ Graft, Kris (22 September 2010). "'Monks' Confirm Good Old Games PR Stunt, Site Relaunch". Gamasutra. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  16. ^ Graft, Kris (24 September 2010). "In-Depth: GOG's Monk Fiasco And The Fight For Publicity". Gamasutra. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  17. ^ Graft, Kris (19 December 2009). "Hasbro Files Suit Against Atari Over Dungeons & Dragons Deal". Gamasutra. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  18. ^ Purchase, Robert (28 September 2010). "Planescape: Torment re-released at last". Eurogamer. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  19. ^ "Bigger. Fresher. Newer. See what's new on GOG.com". GOG.com. 27 March 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Add Linux versions of games". March 2012.
  21. ^ "GOG.com (Good Old Games): No Linux For You!". 16 October 2012.
  22. ^ Wilde, Tyler (24 October 2012). "GOG.com on Windows 8, Mac gaming, and Linux support". PC Gamer.
  23. ^ "GOG.com Soon On More Platforms". 18 March 2014.
  24. ^ "GOG.com Now Supports Linux!". 25 July 2014.
  25. ^ "Introducing GOG.com DRM-Free Movies". 27 August 2014.
  26. ^ "GOG.com forum: Cause there's no business like show-business!". 1 September 2014.
  27. ^ a b Griffiths, Daniel Nye (9 December 2013). "Good Guy GOG? Online Games Merchant Offers Money-Back Guarantee". Forbes. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  28. ^ GOG's new money-back guarantee is more about trust than refunds on gamasutra.com (December 2013)
  29. ^ "GOG'S updated Refund Policy has your back (even more)". Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  30. ^ Smith, Clint (3 April 2015). "GOG Announces New DRM-Free Reclamation Service". techraptor.net. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  31. ^ Master of Orion updated + Reclaim your Master of Orion 1, 2, and 3 retail copies on gog.com (23 April 2016)
  32. ^ "Reclaim Your Games". GOG.com. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  33. ^ "The FCK DRM initiative".
  34. ^ "FCK DRM".
  35. ^ "What is the Fair Price Package?". GOG.com. Retrieved 2 March 2019. The Fair Price Package will conclude on 31st of March 2019. Please see our official statement for more details. Fair Price Package is a form of store credit, which we give back when you buy a regionally priced game that is more expensive in your region, compared to most other regions.
  36. ^ Schreier, Jason (25 February 2019). "Facing Financial Pressures, GOG Quietly Lays Off At Least A Dozen Staff". Kotaku. Retrieved 2 March 2019. Amid a month full of mass layoffs across the video game industry, the digital store GOG quietly let go of what it says was a dozen staff last week. GOG, which is owned by The Witcher 3 publisher CD Projekt, did not say why the layoffs happened, but one laid-off staffer tells Kotaku that the store has been in financial trouble
  37. ^ "What is the Fair Price Package?". GOG.com Support Center. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  38. ^ Fogel, Stefanie (27 February 2019). "GOG Ending Its Fair Price Package Program Due To Increased Dev Share". Variety. Retrieved 2 March 2019. GOG's revenue couldn't keep up with growth, the fact that we're dangerously close to being in the red has come up in the past few months, and the market's move toward higher [developer] revenue shares has, or will, affect the bottom line as well
  39. ^ "The GOG.com version of Cyberpunk 2077 will be playable via GeForce NOW on December 10th". 7 December 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  40. ^ "More Ways To Play Your GOG Games". 18 March 2024. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  41. ^ "Play your way – enjoy your GOG games with Luna cloud streaming service!". 19 June 2024. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  42. ^ "Welcome to the GOG Preservation Program – Making Games Live Forever!" (Press release). GOG.com. 13 November 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  43. ^ Parrish, Ash (13 November 2024). "GOG's new preservation program intends to keep classic games playable 'forever'". The Verge. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  44. ^ Gardner, Matt (13 November 2024). "GOG Launches Game Preservation Program To Keep Classic Titles Alive". Forbes. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  45. ^ Hachman, Mark (13 November 2024). "GOG commits to 'preserving' 100 classic PC games, forever". PCWorld. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  46. ^ "Warcraft 1+2 will be delisted from GOG—what does this mean in regard to the GOG Preservation Program?". GOG.com. 2 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  47. ^ Smith, Adam (13 February 2013). "Many Questions: System Shock 2 Comes To GOG". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  48. ^ Hall, Charlie (14 July 2014). "Nostalgia is a powerful drug: How GoG.com is growing beyond a back catalog". Polygon. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  49. ^ Bennet, Tom (16 September 2015). "How GOG.com Save And Restore Classic Videogames". rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  50. ^ Wehner, Mike (20 August 2013). "GOG.com launches indie game portal that could compete with the Mac App Store". Engadget. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  51. ^ "GOG.com: Ubisoft's PC back catalogue arrives on DRM-free download site". GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network. 26 March 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  52. ^ Games Press (5 September 2014). "Cinemaware announces one-of-a-kind Amiga & PC distribution agreement with GOG.com". mcvuk.com. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  53. ^ "Defender of the Crown – One of Cinemaware's greatest games is now on GOG!". indieretronews.com. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  54. ^ O'Connor, Alice (28 October 2014). "Sam & Max & X-Wing & TIE Fighter: GOG Get LucasArts". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  55. ^ Kuchera, Ben (28 October 2014). "Disney and GoG re-release classic Lucasfilm games, X-Wing was just the beginning". polygon.com. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  56. ^ "New Publisher: Disney Interactive / Lucasfilm". GOG.com. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  57. ^ "Release: Pacific General + Fantasy General". GOG.com. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  58. ^ "GOG.com staff posts regarding the acquisition of copyright". GOG.com. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  59. ^ Orland, Kyle (26 August 2015). "PSA: Classic Bethesda titles available DRM-free on GOG – Older Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls bundled with discounts this week". Ars Technica. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  60. ^ Frank, Allegra (7 March 2019). "Original Diablo now sold online, with more Blizzard classics to come to GOG.com". Polygon.
  61. ^ McWhertor, Michael (28 March 2019). "Warcraft and Warcraft 2 now available through GOG". Polygon.
  62. ^ Lee, Julia (5 June 2019). "Diablo on GOG now includes the Hellfire expansion". Polygon.
  63. ^ "Classic KONAMI games return to modern computers on GOG.com". GOG.com. 25 September 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  64. ^ "Six classic Star Trek games now available on the GOG.com store". GOG.com. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  65. ^ "Management Board report on the activities of the CD PROJEKT Group in 1H 2021" (PDF). Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  66. ^ Coberly, Cohen (30 November 2021). "CD Projekt Red sales remain strong, but GOG revenue wavers". Techspot. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  67. ^ Robertson, Adi (29 November 2021). "GOG is losing money and refocusing on 'handpicked selection of games'". The Verge. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  68. ^ Caron, Frank (25 September 2008). "Good Old Games and the 'idiocy' of DRM". Ars Technica. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  69. ^ Website Help Gift certificates on GOG.com
  70. ^ Caron, Frank (9 September 2008). "First look: GOG revives classic PC games for download age". Ars Technica. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
  71. ^ "GOG Galaxy FAQ". Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  72. ^ "GOG.com FAQ". GOG.com. 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  73. ^ a b Academia.edu
  74. ^ Walker, John (1 February 2012). "Thought: Do We Own Our Steam Games?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  75. ^ Purewal, Jas. "The legality of second hand software sales in the EU". gamerlaw.co.uk.(mirror on gamasutra.com)
  76. ^ hg/mz (AFP, dpa) (3 July 2012). "Oracle loses court fight over software resale rules". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  77. ^ Voakes, Greg (3 July 2012). "European Courts rule in Favor of Consumers reselling downloaded Games". Forbes. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  78. ^ "Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber)". InfoCuria – Case-law of the Court of Justice. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  79. ^ Timothy B. Lee (3 July 2012). "Top EU court upholds right to resell downloaded software". Ars Technica.
  80. ^ "EU Court OKs Resale of Software Licenses". ABC News. Associated Press.
  81. ^ Devore, Jordan (31 January 2014). "How nice: GOG.com adds 31 FLAC soundtracks". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  82. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (5 June 2014). "GOG Galaxy promises no online activation needed for gaming". Polygon. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  83. ^ Prescott, Shaun (15 October 2014). "Alien versus Predator Classic is free on GOG this week". PC Games. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  84. ^ Davenport, James (14 July 2015). "GOG Galaxy is a necessary break from Steam's feature creep". PC Gamer. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  85. ^ "This game supports GOG Galaxy cloud saves! Check out the full list here". 22 March 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  86. ^ "GOG Galaxy 1.2". Archived from the original on 30 November 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  87. ^ "GOG Galaxy not coming to Linux anytime soon". 24 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  88. ^ "GOG Galaxy 2.0". Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  89. ^ Davenport, James (14 June 2019). "GOG's quest to unite all game launchers just might work, and Microsoft is already on board". PC Gamer. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  90. ^ Davenport, James (24 June 2019). "GOG's new app is the best way to merge Steam, Epic, Battle.net and everything else". PC Gamer. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  91. ^ Bailey, Dustin (9 December 2019). "GOG Galaxy 2.0 is now in open beta". PCGamesN. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  92. ^ "GOG Galaxy 2.0 is now enhanced with Epic Games Store official integration, page 5 - Forum". gog.com. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  93. ^ Craddock, David (1 June 2016). "GOG Connect lets you add Steam games to your GOG library for free". Shacknews. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  94. ^ Wales, Matt (12 January 2023). "GOG officially ends its Steam-import Connect service after years of inactivity". Eurogamer. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  95. ^ a b c d Hill, Owen (30 November 2011). "GOG release The Witcher 2 sales stats. Steam dominates all competitors combined". PC Gamer. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  96. ^ Doucet, Lars (20 February 2013). "Defender's Quest: By the Numbers, Part 2". Gamasutra.
  97. ^ Bailey, Dustin (13 October 2021). "MCyberpunk 2077 sold 13.7 million copies in 2020, over half on PC". PCGamesN. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  98. ^ Liao, Shannon (25 February 2019). "Taiwanese horror game Devotion vanishes from Steam after angry Chinese gamers find Winnie the Pooh meme". The Verge. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  99. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (16 December 2020). "GOG nixes re-release of censored horror game Devotion". Polygon. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  100. ^ Morton, Lauren (16 December 2020). "GOG back down from re-releasing Devotion". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  101. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (16 December 2020). "CD Projekt under fire for dramatic U-turn on Devotion GOG release". Eurogamer. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  102. ^ "Release: HITMAN - Game of the Year Edition, page 49 - Forum". gog.com. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  103. ^ "Release: HITMAN - Game of The Year Edition, page 129 - Forum". gog.com. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  104. ^ "Hitman GOTY Edition Removed From GOG Over Online DRM". Kotaku. 9 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog.com