GOG fakes out gamers, is back and fully revamped

Ryan Wilsey 22 Sep, 2010 at 1:21pm ET Article published in Gaming

GOG returns feature image

After recently announcing that they may be closing, today GOG (Good Old Games), the online digital distributor of legacy PC games, officially announced via a web conference that they were indeed pulling a stunt the entire time, and are re-launching GOG.com with a wealth of new features and a bold new look.

The new GOG will be launching at 8:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow (Thursday). What gamers will get is a fresh, re-designed look to the website, with a stronger push for community involvement. Games can now be easily searched for, browsed by categories such as genre, and more. Suggestions are also offered, based on what customers commonly purchase together and games that are similar to each other.

Along with access to classic PC games on modern platforms such as Windows 7, GOG is also throwing in dozens of exclusive “goodies” that are bundled with each game. Some examples include digital copies to the game manuals, but can even range to brand new exclusive content such as a “Fallout Bible” to go along with the Fallout Tactics game. GOG also pledges to be a leader in focusing on strong compatibility with various platforms — if it says it is compatible with Windows 7, it should play flawlessly.

GOG is also trying to push and promote community interaction with the new GOG update. User reviews are allowed for every game, forums for each game are featured prominently, and there is a new feature they are dubbing “GOGmixes”. GOGmixes is intended to help newer generation gamers find what kinds of games they should start with, and to help grizzled veterans try new genres they may have never given a chance back in the day, such as classic adventure games such as Space Quest.

It would seem that GOG is already being rather mischievous and ambitious enough. While feinting death only to come back like the phoenix seemed gutsy enough, GOG couldn’t just stop there. With its growing library, compatibility support, community engagement platform, and ease of finding new games to play, the heads of GOG boldly stated, “we want to be THE #1 alternative to Steam.” These are big shoes to fill, indeed. Time will tell if GOG really has what it takes to back it up.

Comments

22 Sep 2010 ~ 1:37pm Thrax I could've done without the stunt.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 1:39pm Annes Lying for publicity is not the way to my heart or my money.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 1:39pm primesuspect Let's be honest though: How many of you forgot about GOG? I did. I have an account with them, and have bought games, and I totally forgot they existed. This certainly cemented them into my psyche, and hey: for a tiny company with just a couple of employees, this was a brilliant stroke. Sure, a lot of people are pissed, sure it was tacky; but it worked.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 1:53pm pigflipper

Thrax wrote:

I could've done without the stunt.

I second this.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 1:55pm Tushon It apparently didn't help their google search results much, though it did get them mentioned in the news (sounds like Fox)
22 Sep 2010 ~ 2:11pm Winfrey Announcing that they were "closing" kind of freaked a lot of people out. PR stunt may have done more harm than good, but I am willing to forgive if they ever get System Shock 2.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 2:29pm Bandrik Hey, I've never had the chance to play around with GOG before. If they can get me my classic PC games without having to mess around with DosBox or the like, then I'm all for it. They had my beloved Descent series, so I'm all for their "rebirth". I sincerely look forward to giving them a go tomorrow when they launch.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 3:00pm Cliff_Forster Lame.
22 Sep 2010 ~ 3:06pm Tim They tricked us to get more attention? Well I'll show them!!! I WON'T sign up on their site and give them money for anything!!!!!
22 Sep 2010 ~ 3:29pm MAGIC

Tim wrote:

They tricked us to get more attention? Well I'll show them!!! I WON'T sign up on their site and give them money for anything!!!!!

Damn, all we had to do in the first place was trick you and you wouldn't have signed up for the site and given us money for anything?
23 Sep 2010 ~ 12:03am Bandrik