This seems like a possibly good move to help make GOG concentrate on being even more G. Hard to see any likely downsides. Seems like a natural step in the maturity of both GOG and CDPR. Hopefully other investors see this the same way.
So your issue is drm free games that are… still currently popular? Oh, the horror. We must shield this child from the passage of time, for they believe ‘things were better when’ and ‘I already took my pills!’
The name of the site is Good Old Games. I have no problem with a separate marketplace for Non-DRM current games. I don't see a reason to give a large company money - especially in a world where eXoDOS and eXoWin9x exist.
I have no interest in A/AA/AAA games in the last decade or so. I also truly don't give a single crap about "legal". Copywrong should be fought and all information should be made free at all times. I mean, technically I play games that are current, like Luanti, OpenTTD, Battle for Wesnoth, Mindustry, and Endless Sky. So I'm not in the same sphere.
Hell, as I said above, in a world where eXo exists, GOG needs to do a lot more to justify financial investment.
dividing resources and confusing people just for what? so you can feel good having a store with the 3 retro pc games that haven’t been gobbled up by microsoft, ea or atari?
if you only want to see retro games, do i have the button for you!
I fail to see the problem with having modern games on there? It’s still the same DRM free platform regardless.
Plus, for a large part those older games where also made by mega corps of the day, some still around others faded away, but hardly a collection of indi devs across the board.
This is… a thing? I really can’t tell whether this is a step towards stability or volatility for GOG. I love the mission, I love having an alternative to stream, but it needs to last. It’s GOG financially viable? Good question, no one really knows.
It’s GOG financially viable? Good question, no one really knows.
All CDPR earnings reports put GOG revenue/profits in its own separate section, so it’s actually very knowable: It hasn’t been losing money in the last few years but its profits are basically negligible compared to the rest of CDPR studio’s profits.
I’m having mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it could be better for gog to break away from a stock listed company that has proved on occasion it still behaves like a stock listed company and likely still do in the future. Also it seems like they’re keeping their values.
On the other, gog has been fairly volatile and hasn’t always returned a profit. Without a big company behind, it may be just a few years of unprofitability away from from going under. More worryingly though, it doesn’t have the same staying power as steam or its infinite funds, so it might get harder to uphold those “no drm, independence” etc policies. Also, given their buyer profiles and how finicky gamers are in general, any single large controversy would also have immense impact.
I think Gog is more popular then ever, because people start recognizing that buying from GOG is like buying organic produce and has it’s worth - they are in a pretty good market position with this image, and i fully believe them when they write that “[they] have seen more enthusiasm from gamers towards [their] mission than ever before”.
I do too, but imagine the drop in donations/subscriptions if they were to pull a stunt like the one with steam/mastercard and porn games. Or if they were to not want to remove a game that features, say, the gaza genocide but on israel’s side, or some other extremely divisive issue.
Well Heroic Launcher works fine for my GOG Library, so that’s not so much of an issue for me. What i miss much more is Playnite, which integrated pretty much everything from steam to GOG, Epic, Amazon and Emulators for pretty much everything.
So the co-founder of GOG and a co-founder of CDPR saw how GOG was being treated, and acquired it to make it better in theory. I’d love to see how this will go.
As for Linux, I wonder if he already knows about the Linux market. If he does, that’s great, as this is an opportunity for us Linux users.
If I’m not being Pollyanna, my guess would be to guarantee being privately owned so it’s not even questioned to get public, like Valve. Since the owners don’t exactly change here. Sadly, can’t say the same for CDPR.
This is an interesting development, for sure - and not one we will be able to accurately gauge the net impact of for a while.
It does feel like CD Project want to move it off their financial documents (P&L, cashflow, balance sheets etc.), while Michael wants to double-down and focus on building out the historical catalog.
Success will really depend on if GOG can remain profitable through lean years without having to ultimately rely on compromising their morals; and whether they will continue to receive support from modern publishers to help fund the more niche projects.
GoG was the first game platform to release a fully functional, clean, and well rounded experience, enough to get me to send them an unprompted, positive feedback to their devs. I really digged their user-centric approach and feature set. I am hopefully optimistic that their services remain at or better than current. However, it is 2025 (almost 2026) so I’m expecting another shoe to fall, even if all parties have a history of being solid players.
so if i’m reading right, prior to transaction CDPR owned shares of GOG. MK owned shares of CDPR. post to transaction, MK will own shares of CDPR and GOG. My question for GOG, CDPR and MK as i know y’all are on this thread: I want to know the nitty gritty financial and structural details of the transaction if you are comfortable sharing please i am a wonk for that sort of thing
The majority of Polish kids in my old school are unbelievably good with computers. My friend’s dad is also a self-taught electronic and IT specialist.
Now, I am really curious as to why so many Poles are tech wiz. I know GOG’s DRM-free philosophy is influenced by communism, but I can’t see how communism influenced many Poles to be good with IT as well.
A weak theory, but Poland being one of a handful of countries with a reasonable claim to “inventing” the computer probably helps, mostly indirectly. When deciding to invest in tech education things like that can make a big difference by stoking some national pride. The UK has absolutely benefited from Turing’s legacy keeping us involved in tech (despite everything).
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