GOG is back! Closure was a lame PR stunt.

[Mr.Petey]

No. DRM free and good prices, that's what you want with digital distribution. Convenient, no hassles. That part of the industry needs to be supported since that's where we want it going. We want good devs who respect their customers to be rewarded, and the bad ones who don't to be punished. If it has DRM and crap copy protection, don't pay them. If everything is made to be as convenient and hassle free for you as possible, and all at a good price, definitely pay them if you can.

Right on! I don't mind paying a small (yes it is a small fee at most $10 and usually far less) to purchase a fully working DRM free game that works right out of the setup file. I really don't trust ripped torrents anymore for PC games and the possibility of a virus is only one aspect of the cons of that.
I don't ever mind chucking in a few English pounds to a game I know is going to work well as opposed to crossing my fingers and everything else from some suspect download site, regardless if it looks "legit"

It's good to see them back regardless and I won't complain at the fact they fooled a lot of people me included. I'm just glad they're back to offer us the same quality service they've provided over the couple of years they've been in the beta stage

 

[DaOysterboy]

Am I the only one who saw the "closure notice" Monday morning and thought, "Awww, that sucks! Well, at least I was SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP BACK UPS."? Seriously, I want to hear your personal stories about how GOG ruined your life this week.

 

[CD-R]

Oh thank God.

 

[petercrab]

if I had bought games from there, I would be very mad about this stunt.

But as I have not I am kind of ok with it so long as they get more games.

 

[reg42]

Am I the only one who saw the "closure notice" Monday morning and thought, "Awww, that sucks! Well, at least I was SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP BACK UPS."? Seriously, I want to hear your personal stories about how GOG ruined your life this week.

What this publicity stunt did was make some people a little insecure about DD altogether. Sure, GoG games had no DRM so a backup is fine but what about other DD services. Will a backup be just fine for those if they go down?

This stunt was a stupid idea.

You realise that they had said that there would be a way for the people who bought games to continue downloading them right?
I don't see the big deal anyway; they aren't closing down, so what's the problem?

 

[Zerbye]

My reaction to the initial news of GOG closing was regret. Regret that (1) I didn't bother to download all the extras for my purchased games, (2) I didn't buy all the games I was interested in, and (3) I wouldn't have access to DRM-free good old games that are coming down the pipe. Now, I just feel relief. That, and a desperate need to buy Outcast.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

What an absolutely moronic strategy. Why on Earth would any buisness willingly do something that likely made a fair percentage of its patrons go and look for alternatives. All its doing is giving Steam more buisness.

 

[Mr.Petey]

Am I the only one who saw the "closure notice" Monday morning and thought, "Awww, that sucks! Well, at least I was SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP BACK UPS."? Seriously, I want to hear your personal stories about how GOG ruined your life this week.

Not really, I'm in the same mindset as it's just common sense to keep the original setup files really. The only bile I personally could regurgitate was wishing I'da gone for some other games that were on there at the time.

The only real hate towards the site is how people blatantly accused it of scamming, to which I don't see a foundation for said argument. You bought your games and downloaded them. If you had some to download that you'd just purchased and were unable to because of the site's closure, they delegated a date to where people could finish off doing that.

I don't see the point of getting worked up about it either. It was disappointing to see it go but we were all had by a corporate joke which I laugh about now and look forward to the new site

 

[DaOysterboy]

Am I the only one who saw the "closure notice" Monday morning and thought, "Awww, that sucks! Well, at least I was SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP BACK UPS."? Seriously, I want to hear your personal stories about how GOG ruined your life this week.

What this publicity stunt did was make some people a little insecure about DD altogether. Sure, GoG games had no DRM so a backup is fine but what about other DD services. Will a backup be just fine for those if they go down?

This stunt was a stupid idea.

If you hadn't speculated on the prospect of DD unavailability, before purchasing something via DD then you had no business doing it. Seriously, who throws their money out the door without asking "what are the potential problems that may arise"? Before I EVER bought anything from Steam, Impulse, or GoG I figured out what their DRM policy was and asked around about "what happens if they go out of business"? That's a question you need to ask yourself before you buy anything anywhere. Valve is in good shape financially so closing down never seemed likely, plus the games work in offline mode, and I don't buy anything very expensive via DD anyways.

Besides, for GOG, questioning the ability of service providers to offer redownloads is great. Steam goes down = oh crap, I'm SOL. GOG goes down = DRM-free makes it all good. Conclusion: DRM-free makes GOG better than Steam if it comes to companies closing down. Personally, I think this stunt generated lots of buzz for them and will make them more competitive in the DD market. But if you're still mad, I guess you can keep sulking.

 

[DaOysterboy]

My reaction to the initial news of GOG closing was regret. Regret that (1) I didn't bother to download all the extras for my purchased games, (2) I didn't buy all the games I was interested in, and (3) I wouldn't have access to DRM-free good old games that are coming down the pipe. Now, I just feel relief. That, and a desperate need to buy Outcast.

I had a bit of this too, which wouldn't surprise me if that was part of their plan. The regret for not buying a particular title that was only on GOG may spur a lot of people to go ahead and get it tomorrow when they re-open. Even with all the people saying that they'll never, ever, ever forgive GOG, I'm betting tomorrow through this weekend will be HUGE for them financially.

What an absolutely moronic strategy. Why on Earth would any buisness willingly do something that likely made a fair percentage of its patrons go and look for alternatives. All its doing is giving Steam more buisness.

True, but turning people over to Steam for 4 fairly slow days, is worth it if you can work up enough hype to double your business for the weekend. I'd be curious to see if Steam responds to this in any way. Competing sale? That could be fun.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"The worst kind of press is no press at all."

Really. I'm not all that surprised that they pulled this.
Still, it reeks of desperation. And if not desperation, than certainly a poor sense of humor.

 

[migo]

Fair enough but one should never have to torrent what they already bought. That's all I am saying.

It happens anyway though, discs get scratched and lost, and companies go out of business. It'd be nice if it didn't happen, and as long as GOG gets supported, they'll stay in business and torrenting won't be necessary.

It's good to see them back regardless and I won't complain at the fact they fooled a lot of people me included. I'm just glad they're back to offer us the same quality service they've provided over the couple of years they've been in the beta stage

Honestly, if a minor 3 day publicity stunt gets them the business they need to be around for the next 10 years or longer and compete with Steam, I'm extatic. It's marketing that doesn't cost money which means they can pass those savings on to users. GOG is the only distributor I feel confident supporting (as long as they stay with what they've been doing before), Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive don't inspire the same confidence in me.

 

[John Horn]

It was blatantly obvious from the moment I read it. It was the writing. There were too many subtleties for it to be coincidental.

But.. it was stupid, yes.

 

[Zerbye]

I'd be curious to see if Steam responds to this in any way. Competing sale? That could be fun.

I think you're right that this weekend could get very interesting for Steam. On the first day that GOG revealed that they had secured a deal with Ubisoft, Steam had a Ubisoft sale that week. You could buy Ubisoft games from Steam for cheaper than the DRM-free versions on GOG. Let's see what they counter with this time.