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CD Projekt launches new on-demand games platform

Published on 11th July 2008 by Joe Martin

GOG.com is set to focus on selling older games such as the original Fallout from Interplay.

CD Projekt, the Polish developer behind The Witcher, has announced that it will be launching a new on-demand games platform all of it's very own.

Best of all though is the news that the platform, which will run from website GOG.com will be focusing on older, arguably better games than the usual casual faff that populates such services.

In fact, GOG.com has already signed agreements with Codemasters and Interplay to sign classics such as the original Fallout, Operation Flashpoint, Freespace 2 and TOCA Race Driver 3. The site is also only going to operate two price brackets by the look of things - either $5.99 or $9.99. How exactly those prices will convert though remains to be seen.

"Our main goal is to create a user-friendly site with the best classic PC games for a price that might be considered impossible to achieve," said Adam Oldakowski, managing director of GOG.com.

"The people behind GOG.com are gamers and we all know how difficult it is to find a lot of classic games. So we’ve started building a great games catalogue, gotten rid of the copy protection that gamers hate so much, optimised the games to work on modern operating systems, and made them cheap enough that piracy seems like a rip-off," he added.

The website is currently fully-operational, but is set to launch this September. A closed beta is also set to begin at the start of August. Interested? Let us know in the forums.

16 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

r4tch3t 11th July 2008, 11:14

Oh definitely, although I would prefer it if I could get these on Steam, what kind of system is it? Is it like Steam where you have to have Steam running to play the game or is it just a download service that lets you get the game and install it on your computer (with maybe a one time activation but re-downloadable from their system)

EDIT, went to the site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by www.gog.com

3. You buy it, you keep it.

Don't let your DRMs turn into nightmares (clever, eh?). You won't find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do, so at GOG.com you don't just buy the game, you actually own it. Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and even re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.

4. All games are Vista and XP compatible.

Thanks to our handsome programming team, the classics are now Windows Vista and Windows XP compatible. Now you can use your lightning-fast PC to unleash the full potential of those games you just couldn’t play properly on that busted old 386.

EDIT 2: Vista compatible old games, that is a BIG selling point for me.

Woodstock 11th July 2008, 11:30

seems like a great place to find stuff that traditional stores wont stock any more

Paradigm Shifter 11th July 2008, 11:53

Vista compatibility is good, yes.

I thought FreeSpace 2 could be had for free, though - legally.

Also, I'd rather they got the Witcher Enhanced Edition released. ;)

Yemerich 11th July 2008, 12:23

Vista and XP compatible?...

Interesting, but i don't think they will change the core of the game itself. I think they will develop some third party program to make them run on newer compies.

Dos box perhaps?

Anyway i would love to see Incubation (battle isle 4) added to that list! OOOOO And ALL the Ultimas too!

Xir 11th July 2008, 12:54

An interseting concept.

Do they sell worldwide?

DXR_13KE 11th July 2008, 13:04

i would love it if they could make packs of games at a lower price and, in several occasions, an all you can eat buffet.

Veles 11th July 2008, 13:13

It's a great idea, but I would have preferred it on Steam/Impulse. I know I like how those two programs work.

Krikkit 11th July 2008, 13:45

Sounds like they've got it bang-on to me. Even without them being on Steam, it doesn't matter to me tbh.
No DRM.
Good pricing.
Full Vista ability.

Win++.

Timmy_the_tortoise 11th July 2008, 13:48

It sounds like a great idea.. but I agree with Veles.. incorporating it into Steam might have been a better idea.

Mentai 11th July 2008, 16:37

Why does it need to be incorporated into steam? If they're making game prices as low as they say, then there would be no profit by the time valve had their cut. I would agree with you if it was a case of another DRM ridden hub for games (like steam), but it's essentially just a downloader you only have to run once. You can then install it and put a shortcut into your steam games box if it bothers you that much, i'll take it DRM free thanks.

alexandros1313 11th July 2008, 19:38

I wonder if they'll be able to up the resolution on some of the older classics. That would be great!

Bladestorm 11th July 2008, 20:27

Cool. Though wether I actually use it will depend on what they get on there I guess, hopefully some of those I never got around to but always wanted to :).

Goty 12th July 2008, 01:23

Freespace? SOLD!

r4tch3t 12th July 2008, 09:00

The reason for me prefering it on Steam is that we know Steam has been and will be around for quite awhile and with this if the service doesn't take off (I think it will) then all our games would be lost. Like the Plays for Sure thing with MS, they ditched it and now any music you bought is essentially useless.

banshee256 12th July 2008, 09:02

Freespace 2 is already available as freeware and some blokes running Linux (I assume) have already upped the graphics, made it XP and Vista compatible and added new campaigns to it.

But if they seriously make all the good old games run on XP and Vista, without the need for DOSBox or something like that, I'm game. And at those prices I would be able to buy 5 old games at the price of one new game, lasting 10 times as long and having 20 times more fun.

EDIT: And please don't require me to run some kind of client on my computer, to able to download it, like Steam. I don't like being forced to have something running in the background.

Max Spain 12th July 2008, 17:38

This really is the perfect game distribution method. You get the quality of a pir8ted copy with the warm fuzzy feeling you get with a legit version :P My only suggestion is that, since they already have the games' code, they should release them for Linux/Mac users as well. Aaahh, gaming utopia ;)