GOG Shuts Down

Posted By: smulan

GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:06 PM

Quote:

Dear GOG users,

We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is. We've debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form.

We're very grateful for all support we've received from all of you in the past two years. Working on GOG.com was a great adventure for all of us and an unforgettable journey to the past, through the long and wonderful history of PC gaming.

This doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.

On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

All the best,
GOG.com Team
.

http://www.gog.com/

Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:34 PM

Wow! I did not see that coming!

Ana

Posted By: InlandAZ

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:36 PM

Neither did I - that's horrible news

Posted By: Dunn Tawkin

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:44 PM

Sorry to hear this.Not happy news when a business has to fold.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Dunn

Posted By: Mad

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:48 PM

What a very sad announcement and a great loss to gaming !!

Posted By: Becky

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 04:58 PM

Oh no!

Posted By: venus

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 05:39 PM

This is terrible news!

Posted By: Gnabgib

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 05:41 PM

This is horrible. And I was just going to download a game too.

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 07:17 PM

That's awful I really liked GOG. I've downloaded a lot of games from them. I wish them the best of luck.
Richard

Posted By: Josee

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 07:18 PM

I'm So disappointed!! I was just about to download the all the Tex Murphy and Gabriel Knight series. I wish I had been quicker. Hope GoG will be back.

In the meantime, does anyone know another site that had the old classics for download that were remastered to play on todays PCs?

Posted By: Jarkeld

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 08:04 PM

There are speculations of it being a marketing stunt type of incident: (Machine translation from Polish)

Posted By: connie

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 08:04 PM

This is terrible news and makes me very sad.

Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 08:09 PM

Originally Posted By: Jarkeld

There are speculations of it being a marketing stunt type of incident: (Machine translation from Polish)

If that's their idea of a marketing ploy, they need to re-evaluate their head of marketing.

ANA

Posted By: oldman

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 09:08 PM

Dang, I was going to order the complete Kings Quest series. This is bad news for gamers as the old games were easy to order and play on the newer machines.

there were so many games that I had told myself I'll get in the future from GOG and now that is a distant dream. (sigh)

Posted By: mj2c

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 09:09 PM

Yes if it's meant to be a stunt and "humerous" then it seems to be a sort of humour that doesnt travel well:-)

We'll soon see in the next few days. Only just started using GOG the last few weeks as well..

Posted By: traveler

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/19/10 11:24 PM

Just great. Talk about mixed messages, I can't tell if they're shutting down for good or changing the way they do business or what!

On the one hand, I'm happy that I've got copies of every game I bought from them that I liked, which is all but one. On the other, if they truly are going to stop refurbishing old games so they run on modern computers, I'm not happy at all. I guess my feelings are as mixed as their message.

Here's hoping they explain themselves.

Gil.

Posted By: Josee

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 12:04 AM

I'm so kicking myself right now for snoozing on buying those games. GK and Tex were by far the best games I ever played and actually the first games I played. They are what turned me on to my love of gaming. I'm saddened to know that I won't be able to own them again.

Posted By: plumgas

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 01:08 AM

so glad I have all my downloads copied to dvd disk.

Posted By: GBC

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 10:21 AM

Sorry to hear this news.

Posted By: anne2

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 11:33 AM

Posted By: lexxy

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 03:02 PM

Can one assume that the games one has already bought and downloaded to ones hard drive can still be played but w/o tech support from GOG?

Posted By: Winfrey

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 03:03 PM

Hope I can get my internet service and connect my computer so I can put my games on a disc. This is way to bad... I have games on Stream too.. this is one of my concerns with not owning the dvd or cd

Posted By: Magwitch

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 03:13 PM

I'm actually really annoyed about this. I've spent a lot of my hard-earned money at GOG and did not save the games to disc.

Posted By: Karsten

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 03:54 PM

All hope my not be lost.

According to this over at Gamebanshee, GOG.com is being bought by - valve, Steam, to be more precise.

However, at present, this is an unconfirmed rumour, so please take this with not only a grain of salt, but with at least to spoons of salt. (or more).

Ausir who lives in Poland (also should be well known to Fallout fans) managed to dig this up from Polish website Gram.pl

Quote:

As we already know, GOG.com will continue to operate. It means that it's current users should not worry about their games. This whole mess is just a marketing stunt aimed to create buzz in the media before press conference scheduled for Wednesday.

That being said, we managed to contact our anonymous source close to the GOG staff. What we learned is that service is going to be bought by one of it's rivals - Steam, to be precise. Please keep in mind that it's not an official announcement and we advise you to take this information with a grain of salt.

That being said, we must take note, that for some time Steam tried to get into the market of retro games, but it's prices weren't too approachable. Especially for European users who are forced to make their purchases using euro. Secondly - what will happen to "DRM-free" policy after the supposed merger? GOG says on it's website, that the idea behind service will remain unchanged. Does it mean that despite purchase, both services will remain separated?

We will keep an eye on this and will keep you posted as soon as we learn more. Also in English.

More news to follow on Wednesday - apparently.

And I concur, agree and everything else about this being just the silliest marketing ploy or trick in the book - it worked, though, didn't it?

Posted By: Mad

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 04:42 PM

If all this hoo haa was a marketing ploy, I am totally disgusted !!

And if a take over IS in progress, my question, also, is what about the DRM issue ??

That's what "made" GOG as far as I'm concerned.

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 06:34 PM

I see that everybody that has games at GOG will be able to download them on Thursday DRM free plus bonus materials.
Richard

Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 07:29 PM

THanks kjos!

Ana

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 07:34 PM

Your welcome Ana. I have quite a few games there, could I make a folder for each game and download each to a folder and transfer them to a memory stick.
Richard

Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 07:58 PM

I would ask that in Glitches Richard. They would know best how to save them.

Ana

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 08:18 PM

Ok Ana.
Richard

Posted By: traveler

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 10:32 PM

"And I concur, agree and everything else about this being just the silliest marketing ploy or trick in the book - it worked, though, didn't it?"

Maybe not the way they think. If they stop selling games DRM free, I'll never buy another one from them.

Gil.

Posted By: traveler

Re: GOG Shuts Down: Update - 09/20/10 10:50 PM

This was on GOG's site just now.

UPDATE 20.09.2010
"First of all, we apologize everyone for the whole situation and closing GOG.com. We do understand the timing for taking down the site caused confusion and many users didn't manage to download all their games. Unfortunately we had to close the service due to business and technical reasons.

"At the same time we guarantee that every user who bought any game on GOG.com will be able to download all their games with bonus materials, DRM-free and as many times as they need starting this Thursday.

"The official statement from GOG.com's management concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday. If you want to receive further information about GOG.com, please send an email to update_media@gog.com if you're a media representative or to update_users@gog.com
if you're a user without a GOG account."

Gil.

Posted By: Jenny100

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 10:52 PM

Originally Posted By: Karsten

And I concur, agree and everything else about this being just the silliest marketing ploy or trick in the book - it worked, though, didn't it?

Not in my case.

I know what Steam is. If I wanted to use Steam, I wouldn't have bought from GOG.

I'd been planning to buy Still Life from GOG.
After GOG apparently closed, I immediately went over to dotemu.com and found they had Still Life. I bought Still Life and several other games from dotemu that I'd been planning to get from GOG -- just in case dotemu went belly up too. Dotemu doesn't have the range of games that GOG did, but they are DRM-free and they do have a couple of games that GOG did not. And hopefully they won't be bought by Valve or anyone else -- and can continue operating.

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/20/10 11:17 PM

I just went over and downloaded some free games from dotemu. Not many games but about the same price as GOG. Thanks Jenny.
Richard

Posted By: Josee

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/21/10 01:37 AM

Is it in US dollars?

Posted By: kjos

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/21/10 01:43 AM

No it's in Euro. Just convert it to USD.
Richard

Posted By: Mad

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/21/10 01:25 PM

I hope provisions have been made for an onslaught of downloaders and that the site [GOG] doesn't cave in under the pressure - once the facility is up and running again

Posted By: Jenny100

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/21/10 05:09 PM

It's starting to look like it IS just a stupid PR stunt, and they just took down their site for a few days in order to update it. Check the latest message on their website http://www.gog.com/
and the youtube video they linked to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDRvuKjissQ

On the other hand, the rumors of them moving to a Steam-like service may be true. All they say is that you'll be able to download your games again soon, not that there won't be new restrictions imposed on how and where you play them. Note their Twitter comment:

Quote:

Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy

So their solution may be to close and then reopen as something not quite the same, and to try to put a positive spin on the new restrictions by saying they have more games.

Posted By: smulan

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/21/10 06:12 PM

If it is indeed a stunt and GOG comes back even bigger and even more adventurous - well, I wouldn't mind a bit.

Posted By: Mad

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/22/10 10:44 AM

Well I'm definitely NOT impressed by such a way of going about things.

What would have been wrong with a straightforward and honest announcement ??

Posted By: smulan

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/22/10 01:44 PM

Originally Posted By: Mad

What would have been wrong with a straightforward and honest announcement ??

The lesser publicity I guess...

Although I understand your objections.

Posted By: Winfrey

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/22/10 01:48 PM

I just hope that since I am not in my home yet and don't have internet there or my computers up and running I will not loose out on being able to download what I have there when I do get up and running.....

Posted By: BrownEyedTigre

Re: GOG Shuts Down - 09/22/10 02:27 PM

I will be watching the press conference shortly and will post the details.

EDIT - Please see this thread for new info: this thread.

Ana