Good Old Games, better known as GOG.com is a digital download service specialized in classical PC games; released without DRM and made compatible with modern operating systems GOG.com brings old games to a new audience (or an old audience missing old experiences) and even adds goodies such as sound tracks, manuals and concept art pieces. Another signature of the site is that all games are either 5.99$ or 9.99$ no matter the geographical region of the buyer.
Mister Lukasz Kukawski was kind enough to offer us this interview.
Andrew C.: Hello and thank you for giving us this interview.
Lukasz Kukawski: Hi and thank you for the opportunity to talk about GOG.com.
A.C.: How hard was it for Good Old Games to start considering the way publishers view piracy now-a-days?
L.K.: Of course it wasn’t piece of cake and even now it’s still sometimes hard to convince some publishers to join the DRM-free revolution, as we like to call our everyday job. But at the beginning, when we signed the first deals with Interplay and Codemasters, we knew that convincing other publishers to our DRM-free approach is possible. Now, with 30 publishers on board, we know only the sky is the limit.
A.C.: What would you say was the biggest hurdle you had to face?
L.K.: Definitely finding the rights owners of these old games was and still is the hardest thing. Sometimes the ownership of an IP is spread over couple companies and sometimes it was sold couple of times through the years and no one really knows who own them. Our Business Development guys have sometimes a real headache with this, but the growing catalogue and more publishers joining GOG proves they’re doing their job well. And with all the upcoming announcements, which will definitely make gamers go crazy, we’re making a statement we’re just getting started.
A.C.: What made you decide to go the DRM free way and just 2 possible prices?
L.K.: We are all gamers here at GOG.com and we just hate all sorts of DRMs. It’s like treating honest people like criminals. People downloading games from torrent sites don’t care if the original game has DRM or not, they download already cracked software! But if you buy a game legally you’re obliged to register the game online, you’re limited to a fix number of installations and sometimes you can’t play the game without internet connection. I understand that publishers and developers want to secure their product which cost them months of hard work and loads of money, but implementing DRM isn’t the best solution. We believe that offering good games, in reasonable prices, with cool additional content is the best way to convince people it’s worth buying games.
As for the two price points, they seem to be the best compromise between what gamers are willing to pay for these older games and what publishers and us need to earn from the sales, so it can be profitable. We might add other price points in the future, but it’s nothing we’re actually discussing at the moment — it’s possible, but not obvious.
A.C.: How do you see the future of DRM-free gaming?
L.K.: It’s definitely changing right now. With our platform providing DRM-free games, Ubisoft releasing some games without any copy protection and gamers more often showing their dissatisfaction with DRMs implemented in games, we’re going in the right direction. Finding new ways to fight piracy can change the PC gaming market. Of course I’m not saying we’ll get rid of copy protection software at all, but making it a little more user-friendly and less restrictive might actually work in favor of game publishers and developers.
A.C.: What are your views on the impact old games make? Recently old BioWare titles have been reedited to work on current generation systems.
L.K.: Let’s look at the music and movie industries. Both cherish the great classics and bring them back for new generations, while gaming industry seems to forget about all those great achievements from the past years. Of course new games look better, but does the next-gen graphics make the games more interesting, more playable and more fun to play? For some yes, but most gamers will definitely enjoy the engaging story, profound and complex characters and that nostalgic feel that classics have. It’s definitely good to show such gems like original Fallout, Duke Nukem 3D, Heroes of Might and Magic to the new generation of gamers so they can understand where the games they’re playing today came from and how it all started.
A.C.: How hard is it to provide compatibility with current operating systems?
L.K.: It depends on the game, some need only little tweaks to run smoothly and some require mad programming skills to make them work properly. I must say our programming team really does their job well and I suspect they’re using some sort of black magic ;). Also, for DOS based games we’re using DOSBox software that makes it a lot easier to make old titles compatible with modern OSs, plus the guys from DOSBox are really helpful if we have any problems with their software. It’s really great to have their support.
A.C.: The bonus content such as art-work and soundtracks are great; how did you come up with the idea?
L.K.: Like I said before, good games, reasonable prices and cool bonus stuff can convince gamers it’s worth paying for a game rather than pirating it. Adding soundtracks, wallpapers, artworks, etc. is an incentive for gamers to spend those couple dollars on the legal copy of the game. It’s also a proof of respecting our customers as we believe if we show them respect, they will repay with the same to us.
A.C.: How do you view the community (forum, IRC channel)? It is nice that members of the staff are active there.
L.K.: Community is a very important part of GOG.com. We didn’t want to make just another digital distribution outlet, but we wanted GOG to become an ultimate place for all fans of classic games. The service is a place where gamers from all over the world can meet, talk about their favourite classics, help solve some issues concerning the games and just share the same passion for old games.
As for our presence on forum and IRC, we’re trying our best to chat with our users and we’d love to do it more often. Unfortunately if we’re on the forums all the time, there would be no new releases and I don’t think that would make our users very happy ;). Either way, we’re doing the service for our users, so we want to stay in touch with them.
A.C.: It was interesting to see that you allow negative comments about GOG and not just about other services. Do you think this has had any effect on the way publishers have viewed your company?
L.K.: I don’t exactly understand what “negative comments about GOG” refer to, but we’re just people and we do make mistakes. Our goal is to have the best digital distribution service which is user friendly, works without any flaws and has the best offer there can be. But it all takes time, and even if we think that we’re doing everything right, there are definitely things we can improve and we’re working on them all the time. I’m sure such approach gives both users and publishers an image of GOG as a brand that is making everything to get better and care about customers.
A.C.: Will digital download totally replace physical media?
L.K.: No, I don’t think so, not in the next 8-10 years. People are still used to buying physical copies of games and holding in their hands a box with the disc and manual. Lots of gamers collect their games, put them on shelves just like people who collect books or movies. We understand that, that’s why on GOG.com you get your own virtual game shelf, which shows every game you buy at GOG.com. And also thanks to the lack of DRMs in our games, everyone can burn their games on CDs/DVDs and put them on their own game shelves.
A.C.: How do you view the competition, Steam in particular?
L.K.: Steam does nice job bringing new games for PC gamers, even if there are sometime problems using the platform and unfortunately you have to use the Steam client. But they have started the digital distribution in a big scale and they really proved they worth being the biggest DD service. GOG.com is a specific platform as we’re focused on older games and even Steam has added recently some classic titles to their catalogue, still their main target are new releases. And of course we don’t have any DRMs and don’t force people to use any client which gives us some advantage in our opinion :).
A.C.: What are your plans for the future?
L.K.: Actually right now we’re finalizing stuff for a huge announcement* which should go up in the coming weeks. It’s really a huge thing for us as it’s going to be comparable to announcing the service itself. We have really great games in the pipeline for fans of all genres. First hints about the deal should hit our Twitter and Facebook profiles in the upcoming days, so stay tuned.
*The announcement consisted of a partnership between Good Old Games and Activision which will release a wide range of its classic games on the service.
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