GOG gone? DRM'd? WTF?

[Ivo]

A recent poll on UG asked users to vote on whether GOG stuff should be included there. I wonder if that actually contributed to what apparently is a decision by GOG to have DRM going forward (but maybe I'm overestimating UG's influence).

Ivo.

[J T]

They now have a youtube video posted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDRvuKjissQ

If you pay attention to the quick cut montage, you first see a bunch of screen shots of the gog website, but one of the final things you see is an image of Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga. This would suggest that they are coming back and they are bringing some of their top requested games with them.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, it was a poorly thought-out marketing stunt.

First of all we would like to apologize everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts!

Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It’s true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was… so we won’t. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.

The new GOG.com will launch at 8.00 a.m. EDT (2 p.m. CET). Later today we'll provide you here 4 videos where you'll find all needed information on current events, as well as news on the new GOG.com, the upcoming big releases and the summary of the last two years.

[Hatta]

Anyone care to summarize the videos for those of us who aren't able to watch them?

[J T]

The video is kind of silly. It's two of the guys from gog.com dressed as monks. They have their hands put together in prayer and they are swaying backwards and forwards repeating that they have sinned and they are sorry to all of the gog.com users for playing a trick on them. They thought they provided enough hints and are sorry. They just remember the old days when game companies used to do wild and crazy things and decided to try a stunt of their own. They also reassure everyone that they will still be able to download all of their games once they launch the new and improved gog.com and that GOG will remain DRM free.

[ZeroAX]

Poles have a strange sense of humour. Leave more hints!!!

Anyway, I hope they do some awesome deals for their launch. got to go and deposit money to my debit card.

[irixith]

Baldur's Gate .. damn you GOG I'm still angry.

This stunt wasn't particularly funny, and has eroded my faith in the service.

Lesson learned for the future -- always download everything you purchase digitally straight away, don't depend on it being there tomorrow.

[Niode]

Baldur's Gate .. damn you GOG I'm still angry.

This stunt wasn't particularly funny, and has eroded my faith in the service.

Lesson learned for the future -- always download everything you purchase digitally straight away, don't depend on it being there tomorrow.

Yes I agree. I think this has harmed them more than anything. It's made it all too painfully obvious that digital download services can go in an instant and take all your purchases with it. Rather than getting them more custom I think it will scare a lot of people off.

[Octopod]

I think if they were actually going out of business or whatever they would have given a warning and given people time to DL all of their purchases. Not a great stunt though. So is there Baldur's Gate or no? I have big box versions of the BG and Icewind Dale games but I might be tempted to buy them again anyhow.

[GSZX1337]

This stunt wasn't particularly funny, and has eroded my faith in the service.

Same here, this whole stunt did nothing but make me ask questions:

Why did GoG think having their stunt be obvious would work to their advantage?
If GoG were to shut down for real, would they do it abruptly like this PR stunt?
If GoG were to really shut down, would anyone believe them?
What the hell were they thinking? Wild and crazy stunt my ass.

Lesson learned for the future -- always download everything you purchase digitally straight away, don't depend on it being there tomorrow.

GoG was supposed to give customers a way to DL their games before "fading away". The hell happened to that?