We believe the games that shaped us deserve to stay alive: easy to find, buy, download, and play forever. But time is annoyingly good at erasing them. Rights get tangled, compatibility breaks, builds disappear, and a nostalgic evening often turns into a troubleshooting session. That’s the difference between “I’m playing today” (the game lives on) and “I’ll play someday” (the game dies).
As Michał put it: “GOG stands for freedom, independence, and genuine control.”
the vision was simple: bring classic games back to players, and make sure that once you buy a game, it truly belongs to you, forever. In a market increasingly defined by mandatory clients and closed ecosystems, that philosophy feels more relevant than ever.
This new chapter is about doubling down on that vision. We want to do more to preserve the classics of the past, celebrate standout games of today, and help shape the classics of tomorrow, including new games with real retro spirit.
fuck yeah \o/
There has been a slow loosening of the “DRM Free” ideal. Off the top of my head, a few years ago there was the Hitman controversy, where a game was released that the community saw as having DRM. There are other games that may have DRM also, depending on your tolerance. Oh, and I think a Witcher game required a separate CDPR account for some extra skins.
GOG has also been pushing their Galaxy client hard for a few years. It’s still optional, but offline installers are relegated to second class status, and they want you to download them with Galaxy also.
Honestly though, you’ll have better luck finding info if you browse the GOG Forum. The users are a miserable and whiny bunch, but that’s also because they see GOG trying to become Steam and are afraid to lose the one good store left. (Well, Zoom Platform may be ok also.) And let’s be clear, I think GOG is still the go to shop for DRM Free games, and they haven’t completely abandoned that - yet. This change in ownership may actually be a boon that protects it from caving to shareholder delusions of competing with Steam while abandoning their main selling point.
GOG is still good, but we must remain vigilant.